Twitter is fully dead, rebranded as X

In a long line of stupid decisions, this may the worst one yet: Twitter is being rebranded as X

There’s so many obvious reasons this is dumb that it’s hard to believe even Elon would make this blunder. Think of all the places you see the iconic Twitter bird and how easily and quickly recognizable it is to even the least online person. News/sports lower thirds. Restaurant menus. Business cards.

What a disaster.

Alternatives to Google alternative DuckDuckGo?

I’ve been using DuckDuckGo on Mac and iOS for years at this point (primarily just to NOT use Google and give them literally all my life’s data) and generally for 90% searches it’s been fine and it’s easy to hop to Google when it’s not.

But… I accidentally searched for “tv” just now and the first result was TV Guide. Compare DDG to the Google results in my screenshots:

In what decade does a person searching for TV mean they want TV listings from TV Guide?

Maybe it’s time to relent and go back to Google or find a alternative to my Google alternative.

Google Chrome “privacy” enhancements

“We have enhanced your privacy by sharing your browsing history and behavior with random websites. You’re welcome.”

(via @rmondello@hachyderm.io)

RIP Dooce

In incredibly sad news Dooce, aka Heather Armstrong, passed away yesterday at only the age of 47.

I’ve been reading her blog, marveling at her writing and photography, and following along with her life and family and struggles off and on since at least 2004. I had just started reading her site again and resubscribed to her RSS in the last couple of weeks. I was so happy to read recently that she had found sobriety but unfortunately it seems like that didn’t mean the end of all the things she struggling with.

My thoughts are with her girls and other loved ones. Please hug your own loved ones extra tonight and if you or someone you love is struggling please don’t hesitate to reach out and find the support you need.

The state of the podcast advertising market

I’m not sure if it’s a indication on the state of the podcast ad market as a whole or just of iHeart’s always awful ads, but it sure is annoying to hear the same 2 minute ad for a dumbass “smart” oven 3 times during a 12 minute episode of a podcast.

And even worse when listening to the The Ticket Top 10, to hear it back to back because the next episode is another episode of the same 8-12 minute podcast.

I mean I guess it’s less annoying than hearing all their ads for other iHeart shows that always sound SO AWFUL. I won’t name names that aren’t huge evil media conglomerates, but pretty much every podcast ad I’ve ever heard on any podcast network (other than RelayFM) always sounds like the absolute dumbest thing ever. Is that what ads for podcasts I like sound like to normal humans?

Apple issues refunds for Tweetbot subscriptions with Apple Newsstand era email copy

My Tweetbot subscription ended so I “received fewer issues than anticipated”? Issues?

Did Apple copy & paste this email from the old Newsstand days?

I actually thought my sub was already expired otherwise I would have opted against the refund, but I’m looking forward to giving the Tapbots team a lot more than $.36 for the fantastic Ivory over the next few years.

Your Tweebot Yearly subscription email screenshot
I received fewer “issues” of Tweetbot?

Give the “gift of gif” with Gifpop!

Gifpop! takes animated gifs (up to 10 frames) and turns them into fun cards thanks to lenticular printing.

They’ve got a lot of examples from popular Internet gif-related memes if you want to see how they work. I already bought a couple to give to my wife as Christmas stocking stuffers. Excited to see how they turn out.

Also a big fan of the fact that they clearly pronounce “gif” correctly since they rhymed it with “gift” and didn’t say “jive the jift of gif” as their tagline.

dvdp_8x8_442

Do Blogs Still Need Comments?

There’s been a lot of conversation lately about the value of comments and whether having comments turned on is still a necessity for blogs. Matt Gemmell has done a fantastic job of aggregating the conversation on his blog post Comments Commentary (ha!). Head over there to read more good discussion from both sides of the argument.

Comments and the two-way conversation they facilitate are one of the things that separates a blog but from just another webpage, but they can also be a giant headache. Keeping out all the spam and other filth while fostering a great community can be be very difficult and the necessary moderation is time consuming.

The right comment strategy will depend on the site and business goals. Depending on the site audience, there could be a more active (and civil) conversation about an article happening on Twitter or Facebook than on the site itself. All of these factors should be considered when making decisions on the tools you implement and on your site’s commenting policies.