Russell is bang on, microblogging should be based on a queuing system and not whatever it is now. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, no one thought Twitter or microblogging would take off like this.
The lesson from Twitter is that microblogs aren’t Content Management Systems at all, but are instead Messaging systems, and have to be architected as such. SMTP or EDI are our models here, not publishing or blogs.
Here’s how a microblog system has to work to scale: All the messages created by users have to go into a Queue when they’re created, and an external process then has to …read more

The day after Canada Day and we have a new, and potentially exciting, microblogging service to play around with.  Identi.ca might seem like “just another Twitter clone”, but I think they are really onto something here.
Corvida, Sarah Perez, and Marshall Kirkpatrick all have it right on target.  Sure, it’s early days and Identi.ca doesn’t have all the features that we’re used to, but they have one thing that Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku all missed: the are offering the sever software as open source that can we can install ourselves.
Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, even FriendFeed, all rely on increasing their own capacity …read more

As we complain about Twitter and other services not working, it’s great when a service just keeps getting better.  Toluu wins the “let’s just make it better over time” award:
We have just launched a re-aligned ‘Match’ page with a cleaner UI and greater functionality. We have also made updates to ‘Contacts’ and feed ‘Subscribers’.
We recently made major changes to the architecture of matching to make it load dramatically faster. Today we have made design and functionality improvements. The new design is simpler and cleaner which should make it easier to hone in on the people and feeds that matter to …read more

Ah Twitter.  The blogerati are raising their glasses to you in homage of your passing.  FriendFeed is standing in the corner being polite, warm, and charming.  At the bar, people are shaking their heads, talking about going to FriendFeed’s place after the wake…
Hold on a second here.  I’m not seeing a huge decline in Tweets, course it’s a little hard to tell since I can only pull 20 reqs/hr through Twhirl.
The discussion and debate about Twitter’s untimely (maybe ironic since they just got a whack o’ cash) demise seems to focus on the Replies tab being toast since Tuesday (yeah …read more

Great news for Twitter, they’ve secured more funding:
Project: Runway Twitter will become a sustainable business supported by a revenue model. However, our biggest opportunities will be worth pursuing only when we achieve our vision of Twitter as a global communication utility. To reach our goal, Twitter must be reliable and robust. Private funding gives us the runway we need to stay focused on the infrastructure that will help our business take flight. We will continue hiring systems engineers, operators, and architects, as well as consultants, scientists, and other professionals to help us realize our …read more

I admit it, I’m a data junkie.  I will pour over the stats for my blogs for, well, let’s say I can do it for a long time.  Oh and not just one source of data either. Oh that would be just too easy, too simple.  No, I have redundant webstats tools.  It seems like I can’t get enough data.  I always want to know more about visitors, page views, popularity, etc.
I tried Google Trends for website when it hit the scene this week and, like Corvida notes on RWW, it sucks for “normal” blogs.  Which is a pity because …read more

This week we’ve seen both the release of a new version of Skype—Skype 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows initial release – Skype Garage—and a preview version of Twhirl that includes Seesmic playback—Seesmic Blog: Play Seesmic videos in Twhirl client—while they haven’t been connected previously, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Looking at the new Skype, it draws and centralizes your attention to the task at hand, communication with others.  Twhirl is doing the same for microblogging.  We’ve seen this before and when it’s happened great things have always followed.
When?
First the web browser.  Remember gopher and newsreaders and the other required …read more

Next week, a hair less than a week from today, Redwerks, Colleen Coplick will be hosting a summer social media BBQ with Freshbooks:
Summertime BBQ: The true Canadian social media Wednesday, June 25, 2008 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM Redwerks Rooftop Patio 321 Railway Street, Suite/Buzzer 106 Vancouver, British Columbia V6A 1A4–Summertime BBQ: The true Canadian social media at Redwerks Rooftop Patio (Wednesday, June 25, 2008) – Upcoming

Will you be there?  Looks like it will be a great kick off to a social media summer.

I don’t think Yahoo can catch a break lately.  Man you have the over publicized battle with Microsoft (I doubt we’ve seen the last act of this saga), execs, managers, and just regular folks leaving in droves.  This just isn’t something that I’d like to wake up to everyday (headlines like this don’t help either: Time To Stem The Yahoo Bleed, Jerry – Silicon Alley Insider).  To add insult to injury couple of the folks brought into Yahoo are leaving, which wouldn’t be too interesting except those people are Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, the minds behind Flickr:
Photo sharing site …read more

I got word from Caleb last night that toluu was getting a wee update today.  Yeah you could say that–Toluu Blog » Blog Archive » New feed page views: Popular and Subscribers—now not only does it run faster (I could tell the moment he turned it on, that’s how much it improved), but you can check out how many people subscribe to a feed, when the last item was published, and see what the popular posts are.
Sarah Perez, among others, has a great review of the updates, so I’m going to look at how I use toluu, and how I …read more