Rev2.org

When Facebook announced that they were going to implement user names (vanity names) on the site, some buzz started amongst users. When Facebook started promoting the change by giving it a virtual “countdown” to the implementation, the buzz became a real roar.

Twitter was aflame with “OMG! Have you chosen your Facebook name yet?” and “Facebook announces vanity names. Y U need one for your social marketing.”

These were endlessly retweeted and nearly every Facebook profile started sporting status messages like “My new name’s gonna be CAPTAINX” or “I’d tell you my chosen Facebook name, but then I’d have to kill ya.”

The implementation was set to happen at 12:01am Facebook time and users were poised at Facebook.com, on their home page, waiting for the moment they could click the link at the top of the page and make the mad rush to ensure that they got their chosen profile name.

Even I was sucked into this. I sat on the page, hovering over the link and waiting. My friend even left the movie theater early to make sure she got home in time to claim her name, since I guess the other 2 people in the world who share it might rush to get it.  When the clock ticked, I clicked. Then I clicked a couple of more times because half the planet was apparently clicking too and it was SLOWWW.

When it finally came through, I quickly entered my choice: “pizza.”

Taken. Damn.

“pizzapizza”

Stupid Little Caesars got to it before me. Lamers. (Actually, it turns out some guy name Chris has this one)

“craiga”

Taken? Craig Anderson, you suck!

Panic! What to do! My list was only the first two, the third was just a panic response. When that was gone, I was sweating. Would I be “id=503310668” forever? AUGH! Must. Have. Facebook. Name.  Need. Facebook. Name.

In my wide-eyed panic, I typed “agranoff” and it was available. Eureka! I took it. At least it had something to do with who I am. Right?

Now that I had my killer new Facebook name that would make it easy for my friends to find me there, I was prepped. If anyone asked what my name on Facebook was, I’d be prepared. Ready for it. On the tip of my tongue, ready to go. Preparado=Agranoff.

So far, no one’s asked. Nobody. Not a soul.

Maybe this Facebook name thing was over hyped.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rev2 and @lapp and have fun!

With that 140 character limit, Twitter definitely became fertile ground for the URL shortening marketplace. When Twitter first released, it included TinyURL as its built-in short URL service, but recently changed it’s preference to bit.ly. That was a move that some saw as the precursor to a Twitter buyout of the little URL shrinking company. Of course, that hasn’t happened. Yet.

Until Twitter came along, most people had heard of TinyURL and that was about it. Used for “hiding” web addresses in posts, shrinking addresses so they’d fit on one line of a page, and so forth, there was little use for a good URL shortening service.

Now, there are dozens of them.

In terms of numbers of users (or uses), TinyURL is still on top. There are a lot of these service to choose from, though, so we’re going to look over the most popular and give you our Top 5 for Twitter use.

bit.ly
One of the more popular services now, bit.ly offers customizable URLs, tracking services, a 301 redirect service, and is Twitter’s current default shortening service. Tracking and other information can be imported into Google spreadsheets for analysis.

budurl.com
While many of this service’s functionality is available only by paying a fee, it is nonetheless popular amongst Web marketing professionals because of its abilities. Includes customizable URLs, tracking services, and 307 redirects.

cli.gs
Private, real-time statistics and geotargeted URLs are just some of what’s inside cli.gs. Customizable URLs, tracking services, 301 redirects, and more.

TinyURL
Still top dog in URL shortening, if TinyURL doesn’t make some changes soon, they may lose this ranking. The largest missing piece is tracking services, which all of the others on our list offer. Slightly shorter character counts due to smaller site addresses are also a factor.

zi.ma
No registration is required to view stats on a single URL, but an account gives a lot of extras like bulk URL shortening, csv downloads, and more. This is one of the most feature-rich of the shorteners on this list.

Up-and-Comers
Some newcomers to the URL shortening game are worth mentioning here. These are some of those that have made a little splash and got our attention.

is.gd
While you can’t customize URLs at is.gd (or track them), you can use it as a redirect (301) service. This one is simple and quick to use.

su.pr
Still in limited beta, this service is owned by Stumble Upon (hence the name) and promises to be one of the ones to keep an eye on. Beta keys can be had by subscribing to their Twitter account, naturally.

tr.im
This service uses your Twitter account as your login, making it a sure-fire hit if it keeps up the rest of its services too. Great one to try, it might surprise you.

u.nu
This one has a single huge (or short, as it were) advantage: size.  U.nu creates the smallest URLs of any shortener at about 8 characters each (not including the “http://”).  That’s tiny.  For this single reason, it may become quite popular, but I doubt it will ever get high on the list without the addition of tracking and other services as well.

Of course, we couldn’t leave out twurl.nl (TweetBurner), though this service has lost popularity due to the superior marketing built-ins of new competition.

All of these services are free and most require registration to get to the advanced statistics. Even if you’re just a part-timer, tracking your shortened URLs is important to your marketing if you plan to watch where your visitors really come from. Several WordPress plugins give automatic URL shortening and some Twitter plugins (for blasting or visitor-sending) also do this.

The field of battle in URL shortening services is ever-changing now, though, with Twitter as the main focus for most of them. Most Twitter apps have a built-in (or several built-ins) for shortening as well.

Picking a favorite is no easy task, but I think I would say bit.ly is at the top of my list with cli.gs close behind (when it isn’t getting hacked).  The services are similar, but bit.ly is built into Twitter and many Twitter apps, so it comes out on top.  Which one is your favorite?  Leave a comment and let us know.

The ever-popular VOIP and chat client, Skype, has released a new beta version for Windows that adds screen sharing. This was added to the last Mac beta in January, but the Windows version also includes integration with Gmail, Windows Live, AOL, Hotmail, LinkedIn and Yahoo for contact imports.

The new update allows both PC and Mac users to share screens (not just video) to make it something like GoToMeeting, though not as multi-user functional. With it, though, one-on-one tutorials and meetings can be done relatively easily.

Although some popular third-party plugins have better functionality in this regard, they’ve got to be feeling the heat as Skype is sure to make this feature much better before it’s official release. One downer to the screen sharing beta is that voice calls are required first, which might be a pain if you aren’t using a microphone.

Small price to pay, though, if you need a quick way to share a screen and show someone how something is done or give an update. Much easier than pointing a Web cam at it and hoping it looks right on the other end.

With the new addition, you can show all or a selected part of your screen to the other end. This is, as usual, a stable beta release from Skype and few have reported any problems with it.

The new screen sharing does not work with multiple contacts, however, so group chats with screen sharing are not yet possible. It can also slow down connections if you’re using voice at the same time, but usually only for those with shared or otherwise already-slow feeds.

Other small additions to the new Skype beta are birthday alerts, new functions for the visually-impaired, and a few bug and other fixes.

This is a nice first step for Skype, though I would have expected a little more from this addition. Maybe Skype is just seeing how much call there is for this kind of functionality to decide whether it’s worth developing. Still, it’s nice to see and might be useful for many of us.

Google’s YouTube has finally entered the social media stream with the addition of a new feature that allows users to share their videos on Facebook, Google Reader, and Twitter. This is for those who upload videos to YouTube and goes along with the already ubiquitous share button.

Most users are just saying “gee, it’s about time, YouTube.” The release of this new feature was added with little fanfare, but it immediately got some attention around the Web. I learned about it through a tweet from my own stream.

It’s obvious that YouTube probably has this sharing in the works for the “favorites” and may be working towards a FriendFeed-style feed to go with Google Reader. This could mean trouble for startups like TwitVid, which allow for video sharing directly to your Twitter stream.

TwitVid, however, still has the advantage of allowing commentary alongside the video built-in (so your tweet has comments plus the video link) and it publishes nearly immediately. YouTube still has a long lag before the tweet and Facebook updates actually take place—ten to fifteen minutes, generally.

In my opinion, this is a nice little addition to YouTube, but probably is a bit “too little, too late.” There are already so many easier ways to share YouTube videos that I doubt this will get a lot of play. It’s still just as easy to send a tweet with a shortened URL as it is to have it sent automatically in this way. Faster too, generally.

Most in the industry suspect that Google is about ready to quit neglecting YouTube and may have some things up their sleeve for release soon. Google doesn’t generally sit on their haunches and they wouldn’t acquire something as huge as YouTube, shut down their own Google Video service, and then just sit around and look at YouTube wondering what to do with it.

That’s Microsoft’s job. Haha

Launching a start-up in today’s dot-com graveyard requires two must-have conditions to even get funding: You need to align with one of the few industries able to thrive during a recession, and you need instant (Wall) Street cred.

Hara.com has both of these. First, it’s in the green space, focusing on carbon limits and other Mother Earth dieting tips espoused by President Obama. And second, one of Hara’s partners is…Former Vice President Al Gore. Who else, right? Odds are, one way or another, Hara employees will be rubbing shoulders with Secret Service agents.

So what exactly does Hara do? Its software promises potential clients everything from improving operational efficiency to elevating brand value, and of course, optimizing your resources consumption. Specifically, the company focuses on what it calls “organizational metabolism,” green parlance for making sure the company men’s room toilets don’t run.

Clients already include Coca-Cola and the City of Palo Alto, California, the latter of which aims to cut greenhouse gas consumption by 15 percent.

Fueled by $6 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Hara’s software is poised to save Corporate America – and the environment. That is, if only the company can convince prospects to spend its dwindling capital resources on unproven technology from a brand-spanking new company.

Maybe Hara should get Captain Planet to invest, too.

It used to be that geeks and jocks only used to hang out in the high school bathrooms for impromptu meetings capped by wedgies and swirlies.

But now techies and athletes are hooking up on Twitter, albeit with mixed results.

First the good: When Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong recently announced the birth of his son, Max, he did so with a Tweet: “Wassup, world? My name is Max Armstrong and I just arrived. My Mommy is healthy and so am I!”

Other big-name athletes who Twitter include the LPGA’s Natalie Gulbis (@natalie_gulbis), MLB’s Curt Schilling (@gehrig38), NASCAR’s Ryan Newman (@ryan12newman) and the NBA’s Dwight Howard (@dwight_howard).

And the bad: Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa just settled a lawsuit with Twitter after an imposter posed as the MLB manager and made some chillingly inappropriate comments. This latter example actually looks like it will change the face of Twitter, as individuals will soon be able to open “verified” accounts later this summer, at least in beta mode. Verified accounts would contain some official signature or seal confirming that the person Tweeting is who he/she claims to be. (It appears as if only A, B, and C-listers will get access to the verification technology at first. Sorry, Kathy Griffin).

What’s the point of all this? Well, where grade school recess, video arcades and dating have failed, Twitter has succeeded. For better or for worse, finally, there is a place where self-proclaimed dweebs and jocks can hang out without bruised bones or egos. Well, besides “The Breakfast Club.”