Alex Guest

Thursday, 5 November 2009

Tweetdeck v Seesmic: ten deciding features

Mashable is running a series of weekly face-offs between various web apps: Firefox v Chrome, Wordpress v Typepad and now Tweetdeck v Seesmic Desktop.

I've been using Tweetdeck now for a while, after switching from Seesmic's older client Twhirl. Relatively satisfied, I haven't checked out too many alternatives. Yes, that appears to be an atypical lack of curiosity.

Now there's very little to decide between Tweetdeck and Seesmic. They both have very similar user flows. Both have Twitter and Facebook integration.

So where are the differences?

When I make Seesmic full-screen, the left edge of the window is cut off. This appears deliberate but I like to have a just a tiny margin of space between the edge of the screen and the text on it. It's a small design point only.
Changing the size of the window in Seesmic is a pain. You have to click on the bottom right corner. I usually keep my Twitter client open on the right side of my screen. So to get the right width I have to narrow from the right then drag it across to edge of the screen. Once done, however, this ceases to be a problem.
Worse than this, Seesmic has a limit to how narrow you can have your window, which means that I don't have full control over how I set up my screen.
Tweetdeck has buttons across the top of it for your different accounts. To post to Facebook or Tweet a message, you select which accounts you want to use by clicking the button. Seesmic's solution reduces the space used by putting a drop down menu next to the update window.
One of my gripes with Tweetdeck is that the menu of options largely disappears when you reduce the window because the options are along the top. Seesmic has cleverly put them along the side and also allows you to minimise the menu so just icons are showing. Very tidy.
The HOME Timeline in Seesmic is one of the best features. You can include replies, direct/private messages and search results in the same column. And at the bottom of the column is a cunning menu, enabling you to quickly move through, @ replies/mentions, DMs, messages you send, favourites and user search. This functionality existed in Twhirl and I missed it on switching to Tweetdeck.
The other timelines in Seesmic allow you to mix and match different accounts or keep them separate. This is not possible in Tweetdeck.
One of the clear differences between the two clients is in the image upload. With Seesmic, I can take a picture with my built-in webcam and upload it directly to Twitpic or similar service. Since I'm taking daily pictures of my facial hair growth for Movember during this month, this is a feature that is for the win!
Closing Seesmic does not mimise it to the system tray, as Tweetdeck does since the last upgrade. However, it irritates me that I can't close Tweetdeck without going to the system tray.
Other handy buttons on Seesmic include the toggle sound on/off for notifications, for one-click ease of use.

I haven't looked into CPU usage. For many people, this could be the deciding factor. For me that's not an issue: my current laptop has enough processing power and memory that I have not yet found myself grinding to a halt, as I did with the 2006 machine.

I'm going to give Seesmic Desktop a few days' use and then decide but I have feeling it might stick.

Thursday, 22 October 2009

Updated: Orange launches startup competition with NESTA #OSCR

How does one of the world's biggest mobile telecoms companies, with 180,000 employees worldwide, remain innovative in a market that risks becoming commoditised?

This is the challenge that Orange is facing and why today they launch the OSCR ("Oscar") Project at NESTA's headquarters in central London.

Back in the 90s, Orange was the quirky mobile phone company that launched with the inspiring tag line "The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange".

Then, about ten years ago, they were acquired by Mannesmann of Germany, which in turn was bought by Vodafone. The EU Commission then forced it to divest Orange and France Telecom ended up the eventual owner.

Orange has a multitude of venturing programs. The OSCR project is a way for Orange to tap into the creativity of the UK tech scene, to develop services for great customer experience in order to deliver significant revenue back to Orange, all the while protecting the IP of the companies taking part.

Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Product Marketing at Orange, gave the example of Orange Wednesdays as one of the ways in which customer relationships are strengthened. Orange is looking for other similar cross-platform (mobile/web/TV) services that develop communities, enhance messaging or offer personalisation, amongst other opportunities.

How it works

In a nutshell, companies have until ~~next Friday~~ 12:00 AM on 6th November to submit an application in response to the brief. The applications are then reviewed, not by Orange, but by a third party 'Trusted Agent Team' consisting of NESTA, live | work and Wireless Innovation.

Ten days later, five to ten companies will be selected to share in £100,000 to prepare to pitch to Orange. The companies will then work with Orange over the next 90 days to determine whether a commercial partnership can be agreed.

After that, well, the future's bright.

Full details of the programme, including slides and videos from today's launch event will be available on the OSCR project website as of tomorrow.

Monday, 19 October 2009

Kevin Rose: How to go from 1 to 1,000,000 users

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, gave a talk at FOWA on getting users to adopt your web app. Here it is in full:

Taking your Site from One to One Million Users by Kevin Rose from Carsonified on Vimeo.

Monday, 12 October 2009

Deezer gets funding to stay ahead of Spotify

Ten days ago, I mentioned Spotify amongst the hottest European start-ups in the TechCrunch Europe Top 100.

With its recent round of funding, Spotify has been making a lot of noise and moving fast up the league. Deezer, its older, French competitor, was still just ahead in the rankings.

Today, TechCrunch reports that it's Deezer's turn to bring in the cash. AGF Private Equity and CM-CIC Capital Privé are investing €12.2m. This is considerably less than the $50m raised by Spotify recently.

The French player has been around far longer but its userbase is still mostly in France. The new cash, I imagine, will be used to develop new offerings and market itself more aggressively both at home and, especially, overseas.

The news today that BSkyB is launching Sky Songs a streaming rival to iTunes as early as next week, with all the major labels on board, means the music online distribution market is going to get nice and spicy.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

It's the little things

As though there were some force out there trying to guide me, two links from Twitter in quick succession today urge me to keep an eye out for the trees, while planting the wood.

Nic Brisbourne's blog frequently gets me thinking. He's a partner at VC fund DFJ Esprit, which has investments in companies like LoveFilm, so you'd expect him to have wise words to say. Today, he was writing about the need to be fast, good, cheap and something more. He concludes with a reminder "to absolutely sweat the small stuff".

Someone Once Told Me is a cool website set up by Mario Cacciottolo, a BBC journalist. The concept is simple: each day there is a photograph of someone holding a sheet of paper with some words of wisdom someone once told them. Today's SOTM is "It's the little things in life... they are the BIG things".

On the other hand, it would be equally good advice to say, keep hold of the vision - don't get hung up on the details. How often do I hear the encouragement to launch a product before it's ready?

There is a tension here and it's important to sustain it, I believe.