I came across a report tonight from ChannelWeb.com, based on Nielson Web analysis, that 60 percent of Twitter users quit the site after one month. After the recent hype from Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey, it remains to be seen if Twitter will have the long-term benefit from the recent surge of new users.

In the next few months, it will be interesting to see if the site retention for Twitter improves.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have come across a number of articles suggesting that YouTube and Facebook are not making as much money as people would expect.

First, Credit Suisse reported that YouTube will lose an estimated $470 million in 2009. Half of YouTube’s expenses ($711 million) are towards the high bandwidth costs. Google is hoping that online advertising will eventually turn the site into a profit, but one has to wonder if they will ever reach that goal.

On a similar topic, last month Business Week reported that Facebook was looking for an estimated $100 million in credit financing to help pay for the rising server costs. Currently, Facebook has an estimated 275 million users and is registering close to 1 million users per day. Last year, Facebook was estimated to be worth $15 billion, but with the company looking for credit financing, the estimate is probably slightly inflated.

It appears that some of the popular web 2.0 sites are having some issues with the high IT operations costs. In the late 90’s, the popular business model for upstart websites was online advertising, but after 10 years, is it still an effective business model as the main source of revenue? Evidence seems to suggest no.

Today, I came across an article from TechCrunch reporting that 94% of
Facebook users do not like the Twitter-like interface. Personally, I
find that the new interface is too focused on status messages, which
sometimes can be very interesting and insightful but other times can be
annoying.

I will occasionally come across status messages such as “I’m sick this
morning. I must have eaten the wrong burrito! ” They are funny the first
time around but become stale very quickly.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook keeps the new layout or gives
users the option to use the previous layout if preferred (best option).

Apple Insider reported on today’s announcement from Apple Computer Inc. on the upcoming iPhone 3.0 update that is scheduled to be released later this summer. The iPhone update includes the long awaited MMS and copy & paste features. The update will be free for iPhone users, while iPod Touch users will have to pay a $9.95 fee to download.

Apple has posted the complete presentation online in Quicktime format.

Soon to be iPhone competitor, Sprint Palm Pre is scheduled to be released this spring.

Over the past month, I have been using Mint.com, a personal financial management service, and I have been very pleased thus far.  Read more »

I am really hoping that this isn’t a rumor but Digitimes has posted an article stating that the new Apple touch screen netbook computers could be released as soon as the 3rd quarter of this year. If this is indeed true all I have to say is, about time!

Last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a homepage redesign and rollout of a new feature where celebrities and organizations can send real-time updates via a “public” profile to an unlimited number of “friends” all across the world. Also, Facebook is giving users more control over their home page and is giving the ability to share information in real-time with their friends. The “real-time web” concept is similar to the micro blogging site Twitter, which allows users to send updates to “followers”. Read more »

I first saw this video (version 2.0) last summer during a Social Media for Government Conference in Washington, DC. “Did You Know?” describes the globalization of information technology with facts. Check it out!

The FOSE Technology EXPO is right around the corner. During March 10 - March 12, hundreds of exhibiting technology companies will be attempting to amaze Government agency employees with their products and services. FOSE was founded over 30 years ago, it stands for “Federal Office Supply Expo”. This name no longer applies. Today FOSE is said the be the largest exhibition of cutting age technology in the world. Many high profile military and government technology heads will be in attendance giving these companies chances to land huge contracts. I am particularly interested in the educational opportunities that will be provided by Adobe during the expo.


On March 10th from 10:00am -12:00pm Adobe rep Lynn Grillo will be giving a presentation on the strategic advantages of Adobe CS4 Design Premium and I intend to be there. Another top attraction to FOSE 2009 is the 2nd CloudCamp, an “unconference” where early adopters of cloud computing trade notes and share ideas. I am hoping to learn a lot from this year’s FOSE the anticipation is thick enough to fog my monitor.