Jenn’s Super Awesome Site

Reading his screed carefully, I get the sense this is really about Scoble getting back at vendors that he's covered favorably in the past for not keeping him in the lap of tech luxury to which he's become accustomed.

For instance, Scoble complains that he can't search for older Tweets, and he wants to, darn it.

Twitter search only shows the last few weeks and I’ve asked developers if they can get them but they can only get to the last few thousand Tweets.

The last few thousand Tweets! Twitter never promised to hold onto our Tweets for all eternity, or allow us to retrieve them at will. In fact, tweets are the very definition of ephemera -- some with more lasting value than others. You want to keep track of all your Tweets? Copy/paste, dude.

And come to think of it, tweet archival could be a business for someone else. But blame Twitter for not providing this? Ridiculous and narcissistic.

The InformationWeek post is worth a full read...

Oh and you should use the Archivist if you want to save your tweets (you can export to .xls). That's the beauty of Twitter, they've enabled a thriving developer community to build what they can't. Archiving tweets is possible.

On the URL shortener situation (which lead to the piece by Scoble, and the follow up by IW)...how can we possibly blame Twitter for Tr.im's demise?

As Hickins points out, Twitter doesn't owe us anything. It's a free service that we use for own purposes (some of us even use it to make money or build our personal brands). Twitter never made us a promise that a third-party app, which they aren't affiliated with, would stick around forever to save our URLs. That's not their responsibility, just like it's not their responsibility to ensure that desktop clients and other third-party Twitter apps find business models.

Realistically, it's in Twitter's best interest to align with the industry leaders in all app categories, URL shorteners being just one example. Remember when Twitter bought Summize? That deal was so important to defining Twitter's usefulness today (search is everything), but it hasn't stopped the innovation around other Twitter search apps or real-time social search. Tweetmeme, OneRiot, Collecta...etc...search is still thriving, even though Twitter gave its official blessing to Summize.

Twitter and link sharing go hand in hand, and as such, URL shorteners are key to maximizing shared content within the 140 character space parameters, but that doesn't mean Twitter is to blame when one of them shuts down. How many URL shorteners do we really need? If after all the dust settled, and there was just bit.ly, would the world be any worse off? If bit.ly managed to be able to support your shortened URL redirects, you'd survive just fine. But if that doesn't happen, who's to blame if your Tr.im links end up broken? Unfortunately, that burden falls on your shoulders, because you made the decision to shorten your URLs without any guarantees. I do it too...I use cli.gs and bit.ly...and there's no guarantees, but that's not Twitter's fault.

2. Build a Social Media Foundation for the Long Term

Since you can't expect quick wins, stop treating social media as a way to win favor and gain immediate exposure. Instead set yourself up for ongoing success and a continually rewarding experience by creating a solid foundation that is actively maintained.

Your social media marketing strategy should be forward thinking, and as such, needs to be structured in a way that you have an online presence that works for you. If you want long-term success, your foundation needs to be strong, which means you need to be using social media tools day in and day out, sharing and connecting with other users, being selfless at times, and staying consistent.

If you have a blog, update it several times a week with new content that really serves your audience. If you tweet, make sure to actively seek out people you can connect with by using Mr. Tweet, Twitter directories like WeFollow, or Twitter searches for industry keywords. Also, start following the bloggers and press people who cover your sector. They may not follow you back, but if you pay attention to their tweets (and reply from time to time), you can learn about what interests them and fine tune your blogger pitch strategy.

The same holds true for any of the other social media properties. The way to build a foundation is to stay consistent, genuinely work at building new relationships every day, and starting to share new or helpful tidbits and resources with followers and friends.

Many of us Mashable writers are also contributing content to the American Express OPEN Forum as experts. I wrote this piece (this is just tip #2) to help businesses just getting started with social media keep their expectations in check.

I've experienced first hand how good people with good intentions can go awry with their social media marketing efforts, so these tips are based on real-life scenarios and best practices learned over time.

FOR the female half of the population, it may bring a satisfied smile. Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors.

One thing we’re starting to see more and more is the use of Facebook Connect for clever, and in the case of the Disovery Channel’s Frenzied Waters, exceptionally unsettling marketing campaigns. A couple of weeks ago, the Discovery Channel sent out packets to a handful of bloggers containing some gnawed swim trunks, a key with a floating keychain, a warning sign advising against swimming at the beach, and a copy of an obituary customized with personal details about the blogger the package was sent to.

One final item in the package was a shark tooth attached to a piece of brass with the web address “FrenziedWaters.com” stamped on it. It was clearly an invitation to visit the web site, where of course, the ghoulishness continued. Frenzied Waters is an interactive flash movie designed to make watchers feel like they’re in the water being attacked by a shark. If you click on the floating jar all the way to the right (on the splash screen), the application will ask you to connect with Facebook, where it will pull photos and information from your account to create a montage about your death by shark attack.

Our best guess is that Frenzied Waters is a promotional campaign for the Discovery Channel’s upcoming Shark Week (which runs on the network annually in August). If that’s the case, it is definitely brilliant — very, very creepy, but brilliant nonetheless.

Hey that's me on NBC. Yep, I'm talking about my client Trapster, and you can watch the full segment here: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/traffic_autos/transit/Speed_Trap__There_s_an_App_S...

This latest piece of iPhone news just goes to show you that you don’t need any logical reasoning skills to be Washington DC’s Police Chief. Cathy Lanier, the US capitol’s Top Cop, apparently doesn’t like the fact that speed-trap and red-light camera tracking iPhone applications, such as Trapster (iTunes link), are helping DC motorists avoid being caught by the fuzz. Ms Lanier told The Examiner that she thinks that these types of iPhone applications are “designed to circumvent law enforcement — law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives.” She even goes so far as to call the iPhone applications a “cowardly tactic.”

The final paragraph explains it all, "So, why is Lanier upset? Doesn’t a drop in revenue from camera-generated tickets mean that DC drivers are actually driving slower and more safely? Does it matter why these drivers are driving slower? We’re not sure why she’s pissed, but seeing annual revenue drop down to 3% of the previous years’ bottom line would bunch up anyone’s panties."

Reality, we're not cowards, we're just eating into city profits earned by drivers who don't know any better.

Disclosure: Trapster is a client