StarkSilverCreek discusses three great Twitter client applications for Android. Seesmic, TwitterRide and Twidroid.

Just when we think we’re out of free BlackBerry Twitter apps to review, we get one more*. Late last week Seesmic, a popular Web-based Twitter client, introduced a mobile application for BlackBerry. Behind Tweet Deck, Seesmic seems like the most popular Twitter client, so I was obviously excited to see it released for the BlackBerry. Users could access it via the BlackBerry browser since December of last year, but that’s not the same as a dedicated app. Now that we have the app in hand, it’s time to check out what it brings to the Twittering table.

*Sorry, we still can’t review SocialScope.

Getting started

The Seesmic mobile website detects your device, so just head there, seesmic.com, and you’ll see a link to download for BlackBerry. They have two versions, one for QWERTY models running OS 4.6 and up, and an alpha version for BlackBerry Storm users, both the original and the Storm 2. Just click on the appropriate link and you’ll see the download screen.

The download on my Tour was as quick as any other BlackBerry Twitter client, maybe even faster. The setup process is just one step, entering in your username and password. That brings you to your friends’ timeline, which is the perfect start screen. You’re basically ready to go from there, as Seesmic has only a few customization options. So let’s walk through the basics.

Sending a tweet and pictures

The basic functionality of Seesmic is so easy that I kind of feel bad for doing a whole walk-through of it. To send a new tweet, press the Menu button and select New Tweet. That brings you to the basic tweet screen. Here you can type your normal 140-character question. Seesmic also gives you some controls from this screen, including the ability to add your location, shorten a URL, or add a photo. This is the kind of control that other BlackBerry Twitter clients don’t offer.

Because the photo option is right on the main tweet page, sending them is incredibly easy. Just select Photo, and then select whether you’d like to choose a file or take a new photo. The latter brings you to the camera screen, and the former lets you explore your SD card and device memory. Select the file from here, and you can upload it to a photo service.

Seesmic allows you to choose either yFrog or TwitPic to host the pictures. I did find that it took a while to upload photos — and the ones I uploaded weren’t that large — but that could just be an isolated thing. To change which photo hosting service you use, hit the Menu button, select Settings, and then choose either yFrog or TwitPic under Media Provider.

Replies, direct messages, retweets

This is where I think Seesmic separates itself from other BlackBerry Twitter apps: it makes the basic Twitter functionalities incredibly easy. To reply to a tweet, retweet, or send a direct message, highlight the appropriate tweet, hit the Menu button, and select the corresponding option. It’s so damn easy that, again, I feel bad about doing a walk-through. There are no ambiguities to trip you up here.

There are some additional option in the individual tweet screen. To select a tweet just highlight it and trick the trackball/trackpad. Click the menu button and you’ll see the option to reply, direct message, and retweet. Here you can also email a tweet and view the specific user’s timeline. If only every other Twitter client was this easy.

Location

Seesmic gives you the option to geotag your tweets. On the main timeline screen press the Menu key and select Settings. Here you can set another options, including the aforementioned media provider. There’s a check box, the second option up from the bottom, which allows you to add Geo Location. Click that to enable it.

Then, when you go to send a new tweet, you’ll see an option to Get Location. If your BlackBerry has open GPS access, you’ll be able to add your specific location to a tweet. If, like me, you have Verizon, or another carrier that restricts GPS usage, you might not have as much luck. It’ll just stay stuck on “getting location” until you exit out of the tweet screen or just send your tweet.

Following and unfollowing

This walk-through/review has been mostly glowing, but that isn’t to say that Seesmic is perfect. For instance, I’m not the biggest fan of the unfollow process. It’s simple to do: just click on a tweet from the user, hit the Menu button, and select Unfollow. My problem is that there is no confirmation process. Once you click that, you’ve unfollowed the user, even if you clicked it by accident.

The good news is that re-following is easy. Just click Menu again and click Follow. You can follow new users, too, by finding one of their tweets, pressing Menu, and selecting Follow. Again, it’s a simple system that makes intuitive sense. I just wish they allowed a confirmation for unfollowing. Some of us mess up sometimes.

Search

Seesmic allows basic search functionality, a feature not included in all BlackBerry Twitter clients, but which obviously should be. Just click the Menu button on any timeline screen and select Search Twitter. That brings up an input box, where you can enter in any search term.

Because the nature of Twitter is changing, you might want to make the same search multiple times. Seesmic makes that easy. You can save any search by selecting Yes from the save search field. Down below that area there is a list of your saved searches for easy access. You can also delete any of your saved searches.

Shortcuts

There are no shortcuts, not even T for top and B for bottom. That is incredibly disappointing. It seems like those two shortcuts are near necessities for BlackBerry Twitter clients.

Random Thoughts

• Seesmic runs incredibly fast. Maybe that’s because it’s the first Twitter client I’m running on the Tour. Maybe it’s because it’s a really efficient program. I’m in love with the speed.
• As I’ve said throughout this review, the menu setup is intuitive. Everything makes sense, at least with the way I use Twitter.
• As of this moment, Seesmic beats out UberTwitter for my favorite.
• The notification of replies and direct messages is cool. I wish it integrated with the inbox, though.
• I’ve suggested all this to Seesmic. I suggest you do the same.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Walking through the Seesmic BlackBerry Twitter app

This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Walking through the Seesmic BlackBerry Twitter app

Walking through the Seesmic BlackBerry Twitter app
Joe
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:48:26 GMT

Seesmic Desktop has the distinction of being the first third-party Twitter client to support the new Lists feature, and now web-based social reader Brizzly claims the second slot.

Currently in closed beta, Brizzly() is a Twitter() and Facebook() client built by many of the same folks who built Google Reader(). Its maker, Thing Labs, is headed up by Jason Shellen — a former veteran of Blogger(), the startup Twitter’s Evan Williams sold to Google() in 2003.

One of the cool features of Brizzly since it went into private beta this summer was Groups, which worked essentially like a precursor to Twitter’s own Lists. You could sort followers into groups in much the same way, and the way Brizzly chose to handle the transition from Groups to Lists is spot on.

Brizzly will display the lists you’ve already created on Twitter and give you all the tools you need to create, display, sync and navigate them. The Groups you’ve already created in Brizzly will be migrated back in the other direction to Twitter as well — but as private lists by default, in case you’ve made Groups you might not want to share publicly (you can of course change the setting to public if you wish).

The Lists support should be rolled out to all users by sometime Friday night. Have you used Brizzly yet? If so, what’s your take on the client, and on its new Lists support? If you haven’t used Brizzly yet and are looking for an invite, try asking a friend who’s in the beta as they might have a stack in stock.

found @ www.mashable.com

Recently, Seesmic announced the impending release of it’s Seesmic for Windows twitter client. While this Twitter client is already available for your desktop as an Adobe AIR app, Seesmic for Windows looks to provide more value to PC-based users that make up 80% of Seesmic’s userbase.

This gorgeous application brings the best of Seesmic Desktop into play along with some nice Twitter feature integrations like lists.  Tabbed views making viewing all of your streams from various accounts and lists a breeze. It also helps to keepthe client free from clutter. The visual experience alone is vastly different from my personal experience with Seesmic Desktop and a welcomed refresh to the Seesmic brand.

For all of you people who like seesmic on the desktop and wanted it on your blackberry well now you have it. Seesmic has realeased an app for android and blackberry and it has lots of features here are ust some of them.

Features:
• All your timelines
Seesmic for BlackBerry groups all your Twitter timelines into one simple application. Whether you want to scroll through your friends timeline, check on a saved search, view a list or want to find a private conversation with a friend, everything is one click away from the main menu.
• Saved search and list supportSearches and lists saved on your Twitter account are automatically imported and made available inside the BlackBerry application – a first for a Twitter application the BlackBerry.
• URL Shortening
We integrated the same URL shortening capability than in our popular Desktop client. Just type a URL, press the shortening button and we’ll transform your long URL into a really small one so you have more space for your tweets.
• Background Notifications
While it is running in the background, Seesmic for BlackBerry will alert you to received Direct Messages and @Replies that require your attention. This is done using the familiar system-wide icon notification bar that alerts you to new mail, sms messages and voicemails.

According to the Seesmic download page there are two versions available. A beta v1.0 for BlackBerry devices running OS 4.6 and higher, and an alpha v1.0b for the Tour 9630 and Storm 9500/9530/9520/9550. Right now there is no support for devices running OS 4.5 and lower

Via:blackberryrocks

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

Seesmic, one the larger provides of desktop applications for Twitter has moved into the mobile market. As of now, heading on over to the Seesmic website from your BlackBerry will enable you to download the all new BlackBerry Twitter client.

Features:

• All your timelines-Seesmic for BlackBerry groups all your Twitter timelines into one simple application. Whether you want to scroll through your friends timeline, check on a saved search, view a list or want to find a private conversation with a friend, everything is one click away from the main menu.
• Saved search and list support- Searches and lists saved on your Twitter account are automatically imported and made available inside the BlackBerry application – a first for a Twitter application the BlackBerry.
• URL Shortening -We integrated the same URL shortening capability than in our popular Desktop client. Just type a URL, press the shortening button and we’ll transform your long URL into a really small one so you have more space for your tweets.
• Background Notifications -While it is running in the background, Seesmic for BlackBerry will alert you to received Direct Messages and @Replies that require your attention. This is done using the familiar system-wide icon notification bar that alerts you to new mail, sms messages and voicemails.

Two versions are currently available while in beta and alpha stages v1.0 for BlackBerry devices running OS 4.6 and higher, and an alpha v1.0b for the Tour 9630 and Storm series devices. no support to be found for anything less then 4.5 but in all reality who would be running anything less then anyways? Give it a shot, let us know how it works in the comments.

• More Information And Downloads Available Via The Seesmic Website>>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Seesmic Releases Twitter Application For BlackBerry Smartphones!

Seesmic Releases Twitter Application For BlackBerry Smartphones!
Bla1ze
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:32:02 GMT

ha, not really. although what would you call that? like facebook-itus…that sounds like a nasty std…yuck…twittermania? i think i have that…anyway, i have spent a RIDICULOUS amount of time on twitter today…also google searching all the weird crap that ties into twitter like twittergrader, tweetstats etc. i’ve also joined 2 forums, mighty muggs forum & allspark, that I sincerely doubt i will check or post to on a regular basis.

i really think facebook is annoying and will probably delete my account soon and not reactivate ever again. i didn’t like pokemon, so why would i want to be a part of something that collects people like pokemon? besides it’s mostly a bunch of fake bullshit because if facebook is the absolute only way to reach a person, then you are most likely not actually good friends, despite what you may have been.

but as i sit here and complain about facebook, i am hopelessly addicted to twitter, and i <3 the seesmic desktop app, particularly because the little icon is of a cute yet creepy looking raccoon that looks suspiciously like it has rabies and will attempt to eat your soul…

and sadly, i am obsessed with my own blog. yes, narcissistic, i know but true. i’m frustrated with wordpress due to alot of its limitations like few available widgets, and a very boring selection of 70+ themes, most of which don’t have enough widget space for the widgets that i would put on there if they were compatible with wordpress.com which alot aren’t…but i do love wordpress for not being as much of a people-pokemon collecting blogging site, and its privacy options are pretty decent.

so yes, i am addicted to twitter & wordpress. which is causing my work productivity level to plummet. perhaps i should make a graph later to further illustrate how much time and thought i’m wasting at work on non-work related pursuits, and how i am falling further and further behind with my work to-do-list.

i need to go home. and guess what? when i go home, i’m probably going to continue what i’ve been doing all day, which is being a sad sad little slacker, being a master *ahem* mistress of time suckage a la reality bites, aimlessly wandering the internet on an endless search for meaning where there is none.

Twitter has just announced release of its API to enable geotagging. This means that you can allow people to see where your tweets were tweeted from—and to see where others are tweeting from. Twitter says

The added information provides valuable context when reading your friends tweets and allows you to better focus in on local conversations. Now you can find out what live music is playing right now in your neighborhood or what people visiting Checkpoint Charlie are saying today about the anniversary of the Berlin Wall.

In other words, it should make geographical dicing of the twitter torrent easier.

Geotagging is turned off by default. To turn it on, go to your settings page and look for the location section:

Check the enable geotagging box:

(To delete such data in the future, click on the button below it.)

To see it in action, check out one of the applications that has already built this functionality in. (Twitter lists Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro as among those which have.)

If someone has it enabled, you’ll see it on Seesmic web as a small beacon. Mouse over it and a map will pop up:

I’ve long been looking for a Windows-based Twitter client that can delight me as much as its native Mac counterparts. Too many clients for Windows (s msft) depend on Adobe AIR (s adbe), something which isn’t an ideal arrangement, in my opinion. TweetDeck and Seesmic are both powerful tools, but why can’t someone make a Windows-native app that works just as well?

Seesmic apparently saw the wisdom in that idea, because it recently revealed a new Windows-only Twitter client that doesn’t require AIR to run. I jumped at the chance to take the software, which is currently only available as a preview edition, for a test run.

Feature-rich

Seesmic for Windows has just about every bell and whistle I could ask for in a professional Twitter client, but without a lot of the unnecessary frills that I feel get thrown in with something like TweetDeck. It seems closer to Tweetie for Mac (s aapl), which is still my favorite client, independent of platform concerns.

You can use multiple accounts, and customize your columns in the main window however you like. By default, your Home feed will display tweets from all the accounts you have registered with Seesmic, which is a great thing for people who use different Twitter accounts to organize the people they follow, like groups. For those who don’t, Seesmic includes support for Twitter lists, so that you can organize those you follow that way instead.

My personal favorite feature of Seesmic is how the compose window uses your first-entered account by default. That means regardless of what post I reply to, and in what stream I find it, the reply originates from my main account. This is ideal for me because it’s my primary publishing identity, while the others are mostly for monitoring.

Searches can be initiated at any time using a field intuitively placed at the top right-hand corner of the Seesmic window, but I couldn’t find any way to find trending topics. While I don’t generally have cause to check the trends, not having the ability to do so does rankle a bit.

Good-looking and Functional

This is the best-looking Twitter app I’ve seen on Windows, and possibly one of the best-looking Windows apps I’ve seen, period. Especially using a dark-tinted Windows 7 glass visual theme, it just looks designed to fit its surroundings, which is more than I can say for any AIR application.

The tabbed sidebar and light-colored stream backgrounds make it a very usable interface, in addition to helping with aesthetic effect. I would appreciate an option to turn on color-coding for @ mentions or conversations between two people you follow, but with columns designed for the purpose, I guess the Seesmic team figures that isn’t necessary.

Advanced controls for each tweet can be brought up by hovering over a user’s portrait, or by right-clicking on any individual post, so you have options in terms of replying or retweeting. You can also create user lists on the fly from anyone in your stream, or add people to existing lists, which makes it very easy to create functional groups quickly. You can even drag a user’s profile pic to the group of your choice to add them to it.

If there was a feature I’m missing most with Seesmic, it’s the ability to follow/unfollow people from within the client. It’s something I use regularly with my iPhone Twitter clients, and something I enjoy being able to do at a moment’s notice without visiting the web-based interface for Twitter.com.

Client of Choice for Windows

I won’t mince words: Seesmic’s dedicated Windows app has become my go-to software for using Twitter on a PC, even though bugs are present in the preview version. It’s just that good, and it’s not Adobe AIR. In fact, it might be reason enough for me to spend a little less time in OS X, and a little more time working in Windows 7. I’ll stress the might in that last statement, though. If you want a copy, for now you have to sign up for the Seesmic newsletter at Seesmic.com, but turnaround time for a download link seems to be less than a day for most.

Have you tried Seesmic for Windows? Let us know what you think of it below.

Bit weird but it went alright , easy to use website , loads of video replies !
http://seesmic.tv/?list=public

If you find any broken Tweets or Links, please report them in the comment section.

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My Thoughts Enclosed…Rb

If you have ever tried using Flock, it has some cool features. I find myself wanting more though. I use Seesmic as my twitter/Facebook interface and it work beautifully and I was hoping that with Flock they would have improved on their interface within the browser and sadly I was wrong. For those who haven’t tried it, the best way I could describe it is an attempt to bring usability into a browser that plug-ins and apps are usually used for. From within the browser you can set up photo/video uploader, blogs, twitter Facebook, and al. The concept is brilliant but it lags in updates to the twitter client and the photo uploader bogs my old machine down. So I suggest using good old Firefox and installing the plugins (or not) to get what you need the way you want it.

Flock in concept is a great idea, for me it just slows me down. Good effort, but I will pass, again.

Love,

P

Since I began using it, Twitter has proven to be increasingly useful for me to get news on subjects I’m interested in (it isn’t necessary to follow the noise, you know), and the recently developed Twitter Lists feature has enabled me to topically organize and filter relevant sources. It’s just a matter of identifying a good source to follow (and study who they follow and who follows them to identify more good sources).

When Seesmic Desktop was announced recently, I thought it might be a useful tool for using Twitter and it is. Being able to open and display several lists at once is quite nice. No need to jump around as much. With Twitter alone, I also found I sometimes missed seeing a reply that got buried in my home page timeline, but that’s no problem with Seesmic because it can gather all replies together in a column just like any other list. Below is a Seesmic page with three lists showing, navigation bar on the left.

Seesmic has a user-oriented feedback system too, one that social services like Facebook and, um, Twitter, should take note of. As you type on their feedback page, your keywords are instantly matched with previous comments and displayed, so that you can see other comments on that topic. Then, instead of entering a duplicate comment, you can enter a vote on the previously submitted comment to show how many people support that idea. If you wish, you can continue and submit your own comment. Nice touch, and clearly one that benefits the Seesmic team as well. I think more services should use this technique. In the picture below, I was going to suggest that they make their columns scroll smoothly rather than incrementally by post, and this came up after I entered “smooth scrolling”:

I’m not suggesting that Seesmic is the best tool (TweetDeck would have to be a contender although it doesn’t support Twitter lists yet), there are plenty of other Twitter apps out there. I just happened to try it and it turns out I like it.

At Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles this morning, Seesmic announced that its Seesmic Desktop, a popular tool among Twitter power users, is coming to Windows. Finally!

Um, hasn’t Seemsic run on Windows all along? Well, yes, but that’s because it’ s written in Adobe AIR, an application platform that lets programmers write Flash applications that can run outside the browser. (That’s a dumbed-down explanation of AIR, but enough to get the gist across, I hope.) One of the principal selling points of AIR is that it lets developers write one app that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, as Seesmic Desktop does.

In theory, the existence of an AIR version of Seesmic should eliminate the need for the company to bother with a Windows one. To date, though, AIR hasn’t been a miracle cure for incompatible operating systems. Some good stuff has been built with the technology–including Seesmic, archrival TweetDeck, and Times Reader–but AIR is notorious for hogging memory and computing cycles. And AIR apps’ user interfaces tend to feel a little foreign, too–there’s still something to be said for Windows apps that feel like Windows apps, and Mac ones that feel Maclike.

The state of AIR feels uncannily similar to the situation with Sun’s Java back in the 1990s. Java was also supposed to let programmers stop worrying about incompatible operating systems. Companies built ambitious products such as entire office suites in Java. But while Java did have a major impact on the world–among many other things, it’s the basis of RIM’s BlackBerry OS–it did little to reduce the need for native applications for Windows, OS X, and Linux. That was in part because it had a reputation for…hogging memory and computing cycles, and for producing apps that felt a little foreign.

Bottom line: Inside the browser, platform-independent technologies have flourished, including open standards such as JavaScript and proprietary ones such as Adobe’s Flash. Outside the browser, not so much. Come to think of it, I like Seesmic’s entirely Web-based app a lot more than the AIR version.

Oddly enough, there’s major AIR news today: Adobe has unveiled a beta of AIR 2, which is supposed to be less piggish and to permit more native-feeling programs. (It may or may not be a coincidence that Adobe announced the new version during Microsoft’s big conference–you be the judge.) I still like the idea of platforms like AIR, and am glad Adobe is continuing to plug away at at it. Unlike some people, I’m not an AIR hater. But come to think of it, I’ve tried a whole bunch of AIR apps over the past year, and usually abandon them pretty darn quickly.

For now, I understand completely why Seesmic decided to go native in Windows. Wonder how long it’ll be until there’s absolutely no reason to write an app for a particular OS?

Loïc Le Meur is the founder and CEO of Seesmic, a software company and a blogger, too. He is one of the participants at “The World blogging forum 2009” – “Ideas for a better digital world” 9-12 novembre, in Bucharest, Romania.

“Loic also founded and hosts the #1 tech event in Europe, LeWeb.net. LeWeb gathers together 2000 entrepreneurs from 40 countries in December every year.

Prior to Seesmic and LeWeb, Loic started several other businesses such as Six Apart Europe, RapidSite, a web hosting service (acquired by France Telecom in 1999) as well as B2L, an interactive agency in 1999 (acquired by BBDO).

Recently, Business Week Magazine named Loic one of The 25 Most Influential People on the Web. Loic was also named “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum. He advises the World Economic Forum as well as covers the Annual Summit every year in Davos. Originally from the South of France, Loic lives in San Francisco, California.

Loïc Le Meur on WikipediaTop 10 French blogs- Technorati – Edelman Europe blog survey in 2006″

I like his 30 predictions about the future of twitter:

P. S.

I will write also a post in romanian about “The World blogging forum 2009″, but first I had to review my

notes.

Talking of predictions, I am not sure if you have seen what Loic Le Meur predicts for Twitter for next year, so here it is. Some very valuable points there! One I find most interesting is the increase of value in gaming – I never thought of it, but I agree – we will see more and more time spent on gaming (even I got dragged into silly FarmVille on FB!;)

It’s fun to compare it to 2009 marketing predictions, like this one for instance:

Internet-based communication is changing so quickly these days that there seems to be an endless stream of beta releases. Yesterday, Simon wrote about some of the latest browser betas; let’s look at a few products and services for interacting with social networks, Twitter and instant messaging.

I don’t generally like living on the bleeding edge, but some betas are very usable, and I’ve already incorporated them into my daily workflow. Others look promising, but are not stable or are lacking too many features right now. But all of the following are worth trying, and watching as they develop. We’ll review them more thoroughly as they mature.

Adium is my favorite IM client for the Mac OS (s aapl). Its latest beta supports all of the instant messaging protocols, and also has rudimentary support for Twitter and Facebook Chat. Unfortunately, the latter is not working as I write this, although a fix is expected shortly.

VoxOx is an ambitious program combining IM; social networks (Facebook, MySpace and Twitter); SMS texting; faxing; private email; file sharing; video conversations; and voice connections. As I wrote a few days ago, it is very rough around the edges now, and desperately needs improved tools for managing contacts.

Imo.im is a web-based multi-system instant messaging client with some intriguing features, like shared whiteboards. This service is listed as being in alpha, so we can assume that it has considerable development ahead of it.

Brizzly is a web-based service that looks a lot like Twitter’s own web interface, but with improvements. It supports multiple Twitter accounts and has recently added Facebook support. The multiple accounts aren’t as well integrated as I would like, but I assume that will come.

Tweetminer is another web-based service that includes support for multiple Twitter accounts, tweet scheduling, and RSS feeds. Its interface is attractive, but features are minimal at the moment. There are also Adobe AIR or Fluid-based desktop versions, for those who prefer standalone apps.

Socialite (formerly EventBox, which Imran wrote about here) has just released beta 2, which seemingly broke support for Facebook updates. When this issue is fixed, Socialite could become my favorite, as it combines support for Facebook, Facebook Pages, multiple Twitter accounts, RSS feeds and Google Reader in one attractive interface.

Seesmic Desktop is another Twitter and Facebook program which has worked well for me, but it shares with many Adobe AIR programs some ugly screen fonts and a propensity for using large amounts of memory. Seesmic also has a promising web version, but so far, it lacks support for multiple Twitter accounts, and for Facebook.

Nambu only does Twitter, but does it very well, in what I think is the most attractive interface of any program of its type. I can choose three different layouts, and switch between them easily. Nambu’s development is very rapid, with a new beta released every couple of days.

I find the popular Tweetdeck to be totally unreadable and unusable, due to its AIR interface. I wish Adobe (s adbe) would make AIR on the Mac look as good as the native OS X fonts and windows.

There are lots more betas out there, of course. What beta software and services do you use?

Image credit: Stock.xchng user OmirOnia

What does the future of Twitter look like? According to Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur, Twitter will be used more by devices than humans and replace chat applications for many people.
Le Meur said, “I recently gave a short talk at Jeff Pulver’s 140conf in Los Angeles and since I did not have enough time and some of you were interested I put together this video with the 30 predictions.”

What are your predictions?

You see it front and center in the new DROID commercials, Google knocking Apple for the iPhone’s lack of personalization as well as other inabilities. Yes, marketers have shifted the spotlight on consumer personalization over the past 2-3 years. We saw it in PCs and in consumer electronics. We saw it in web sites and recently in social networks with the explosion of social media tools built off of Twitter’s platform, like TweetDeck, People Brows’r, and Seesmic. You see it in netbooks now from big brands like HP and Sony that provide a range of colors and designs that may more closely reflect how you see yourself. And you see it in smart phones increasingly on the applications that run on them.

Mobile operators are sitting on mountains of customer information. Mobile analytics companies (many of them startups) are trying to aggregate and make sense out of reams of data that can be captured from various smart phone platforms, ad campaigns, and perhaps, carrier relationships. They want to serve it up to mobile advertisers and big consumer brands who increasingly see mobile as a critical extension of their TV and web efforts.

Millennial Media recently released their— The State of the Industry: Mobile Advertising A Survey of Over 100 Major Brands & Advertisers on Performance & Future Spend, and some interesting statistics bubbled up, so I encourage you to check it out. However, please keep in mind that the report is based on input from 100 leading media agencies, it is not based on feedback from consumer brands running mobile campaigns, nor on real consumers who view ads on mobile devices. So this is just one piece of a three part puzzle! You can find more insight around the report on Millenial Media’s blog here.

The good news, based on the report, is that agencies are increasingly getting involved in more mobile campaigns, with a third stating that mobile’s now an integrated part of their overall media mix. But, problems still exist, when nearly 90 percent of the agencies responding stated that deploying mobile as a part of a bigger campaign strategy still requires multiple partners to execute the strategy. I can tell you that’s because mobile still remains fragmented! That fragmentation means you must seek out partners on the technology side like mobile ad networks to run the campaign, on the data side such as analytics firms to analyze the metrics that you end up with, plus ad buying networks and of course application developer resources if you want to launch your campaign on more than one mobile platform (beyond the iPhone that is).

Top Targeting Methods

According to Millennial Media, the top targeting methods for mobile advertising campaigns are geography, age, and gender in that order. Behavior is tied with gender for third and location is a close 4th. [remember 100 agencies polled, small sample size here].  I would expect that behavior and location will increasingly rise in importance going forward, especially as more personalization is introduced into mobile devices and mobile services, along with more location-based capabilities. Brands will need to have more access to that information as well to better target ad campaigns at consumers who will be more relevant and more acceptable of the ad content itself. This will be the job of mobile analytics firms who will need to sift through raw mobile consumer usage data, and not just consumer survey data. Because the later, just doesn’t cut it any more. The demand for deep survey data on mobile consumers is over. The current economic environment has accelerated that shift! Brands want to know what people are doing today, or did last week, specific to certain applications they used, locations they were at, or ads that they viewed.

Barriers to Entry for Mobile Campaigns and Websites

Media agencies still lack the internal resources required to execute holistic mobile campaigns for their clients (the brands). I would also point out, based on my experience, that agencies focus too much internally on the mobile device itself, and not the mobile applications. So they are predisposed to do a somewhat decent job on advertising campaigns for mobile device vendors (Apple, Samsung, LG, Nokia), but depend heavily on device features and functionality still. When have you seen an agency do a great job of articulating the value proposition of mobile applications (beyond “there’s an app for that!”).

And the increasing degree of personalization sophistication coming to mobile platforms will require agencies and brands to better articulate new emerging mobile applications that will help shepherd new platforms to serve up targeted, personalized ads to the relevant eyeballs who will actually care. Otherwise they’ll click fast past it to go directly to other forms of content.

I’ll be previewing a few of the emerging firms in both the mobile analytics space as well as the brand pulse space (web and social networks, TV, and mobile) over the next month, as I’ve been spending more of my time in these areas recently.