I’m posting this here because the events that transpired over the past two days have involved a company that does business in the social media arena. I will not be pointing this article back to any previous posts, but it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out who/what I’m talking about.

It all started with a little post. I was disappointed. I only noted that I was not the only person deleting the application. Take a look:

I got all set to download the new version only to be stopped dead in my tracks: I was going to have to pay $2.99 for a previously free service. I, with just about everyone else, then proceeded to remove the software from my phone.

I continued on:

If you want to charge for your service, add a Pro version. Don’t force all users to pay. Keep one “Lite” ad supported version available for free, and have the option to upgrade to the paid version. This was a bad move. There are several other apps that can do the same thing that are available out there, and that offer both free and paid versions. I’m sure they don’t just decide to charge you out of the blue.

So …

“Wonderful” news for all Android users (at least): Pixelpipe is no longer a free service.

Pixelpipe is an application that lets you upload your photos to various places around the web, including Twitpic, Facebook, Flickr, and Posterous, to name a few. This is a great service for the mobile shutterbugs of the world. Instead of having to log into each and every service and upload your pictures, you can do it all from one hub. You can upload in a number of ways, including via the web, email, MMS, and with software for your iPhone or Android handset.

This morning, I woke to find that I had a few software updates for my G1. Lo and behold, there was an update for Pixelpipe. I got all set to download the new version only to be stopped dead in my tracks: I was going to have to pay $2.99 for a previously free service. I, with just about everyone else, the proceeded to remove the software from my phone.

If you want to charge for your service, add a Pro version. Don’t …

A couple weeks ago, I talked about Babbler for Facebook, the best Facebook for Android app available. Last night, there was a huge update.

New Look

The first thing I noticed when opening Babbler was the new look to the tabs. See for yourself:

Doesn’t the shot on the right look better? I sure think so!

Speech To Text

Take a look again at the new UI, and you’ll see the mic button. That’s right, Babbler lets you update your status via speech. Just tap the button, and speak into your phone’s mic, just like when you do a Google Voice Search.

New Inbox

Babbler has updated the look of the inbox as well. They’ve separated messages from pokes. The only concern is that clicking on either link opens the browser. The dev says that he’s looking into a way to make the inbox accessible in the application.

Widget

For those of us who have paid for the full version, we now get a home page widget. It shows the …

The latest compete for numbers, for at least me, are scary. FriendFeed has been pushing out new features at a steady rate since the beginning and in the process, have innovated how to do real-time. Yet, for the past few months FriendFeed has experienced near stagnant growth and this month traffic actually lowered. That to me, is unacceptable, especially because of the new features being steadily pushed out. So what can FriendFeed do to succeed?

1. Go Mobile (Officially)

Twitter is a very mobile, and therefore versatile platform. You can update your Twitter status two ways via your mobile phone, SMS or the mobile web version of Twitter compatible across all browser enabled phones. FriendFeed officially supports an iPhone web application, but not a mobile specific interface that works on all fronts. As for updates via text, that is virtually non-existant. Sure you can update your FriendFeed status via text through Twitter but that creates a dependance on Twitter, not FriendFeed, which is needed for re-occurring users.

2. Developer Excitement

Let us get this out in the open, I am not a developer, but I speak to plenty of developers on a recurring basis. I asked them why no one seems to be developing …

Like most mobile platforms, Android has no shortage of Twitter related applications. There is one, however, that stands above the rest: I Tweet! from Multiple Facets.

I Tweet! has all of the basic functions you would expect from a Twitter app. You can view all your friends’ tweets, people who @reply you, your DM’s, and send tweets (at this time, when publishing a tweet, Twitter says it’s from the API, not from I Tweet!). You can also view information from users’ profiles (name website, location, etc), and choose to follow or unfollow them.

There are several other things that make this a great application. First, there’s the ability to search, and it will even search in a certain physical location nearby to you.

There are a multitude of settings to mess around with, as well. You can pick one of two themes (I prefer dark), how often I Tweet! checks for tweets, replies, and DM’s, and even what color your LED blinks when you receive notifications.

Have you ever read another post with the same title? Because I know I sure have. Several, in fact. And you know what one thing they all have in common?

They’re all full of horrible advice.

I have one simple do, and one simple don’t I’ll share with you.

Do

Do be yourself and have fun. Of course, be smart about what you’re doing. Always keep in mind that what you tweet is there forever. But otherwise, have fun and do what makes you happy. If you’re just there to keep in touch with friends, that’s great. If you’re trying to promote your blog or a product, or even a brand, that’s totally cool as well.

Don’t

Don’t let others tell you what you can and can’t do on Twitter. We’re all here for our own reasons (see above) and that’s great. None of these arbitrary rules that people make up are official. One article I read said not to tweet more than ten times per day. Seriously. They said that. I get how it could push all your followers’ friends’ tweets off screen, but if you’ve got something to …

Seesmic has been on a roll with steady updates and providing unique as well as intuitive ways to manage and update your Twitter and Facebook stream. There latest line-up now includes Seesmic Web, a browser client. The Seesmic browser client was officially released to the public (due to embargoes) at the TechCrunch real-time web event CrunchUp among other services. So is the Seesmic Web client as good as it claims to be? Let’s find out.

Performance

The Seesmic web client is blazingly fast. After the initial onslaught of visitors the Seesmic web client had after CrunchUp it has not faltered since. It has officially blown Tweetvisor and Peoplebrowsr out of the water in terms of performance. This includes load times as well as using specific functions such as search, replying and updating your Twitter status.

User Interface

Pros:

The user interface has a very Google like feel to it. All the functions are laid out quite clearly in a neat manner while remaining minimal and keeping the focus on what you are using the client for, tweets. Hovering over a Twitter user automatically brings up the reply option with an arrow with further options to RT and/or direct message.

Hovering …

Dan and I have decided that we need to change some things concerning SocialGeist. As we work the details out today will be pretty dead around here.

Feel free to check out our big sister site TechGeist for your fill of awesome tech news.

A bunch of companies are flocking over to the Twitterverse now that they are finally understanding it is a quick and viable way to reach out and keep connected with customers. Wal-mart has multiple Twitter accounts and has organized a little place of their own to organize all the tweets over at walmartstores.com/twitter. Come to find out that visiting walmart.com/twitter means you adhere to their rules and some of them are quite ridiculous.

The TOS goes over the basic legalities such as “whatever is expressed here is not our fault…” and what have you. The most interesting aspect of the TOS though was the licensing. It turns out you aren’t allowed to use the tweets on walmart.com/twitter unless they are for personal use. Here, I will copy and paste for your own convenience.

Your compliance with the Terms provides a limited, terminable license regarding access to and use of the Site Contents, for non- commercial purposes, in accordance with these Terms.

In addition to compliance with the other provisions of these Terms, you agree:

(a) Not to alter any Site Content without Wal-Mart’s express, written permission or use any Site Content in a manner specifically prohibited by, …

CoTweet, the Twitter client made for businesses just raised one million dollars in funding to further expand its operations as well as keep up with the influx of new users.

CoTweet has been praised by many blogs around the web, they allow direct forwarding of tweets for business employees who aren’t on Twitter as well as a host of other features specific to a business environment. Big businesses including Microsoft and Coca-Cola use CoTweet to manage their Twitter account.

What is most interesting though is with this round of funding CoTweet is opening its doors to anyone. While the product won’t see droves of users like Tweetdeck or even Seesmic Desktop, CoTweet doesn’t mess around. CoTweet is dead serious about being first and foremost about the business and helping them organize, react and reach out to the twitterverse.