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 …

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 …

I get a lot of events everyday, so obviously people are aware of the feature and are using it prolifically. Well, I am about to get an onslaught of events soon. Now via the “What’s On Your Mind” box you can simply click on the event icon and go publish out the event to all of your friends. It will auto-sync to the actual events application where you can control the event further.

This is an excellent move by Facebook since I see peopleveryday put out via status updates “Who wants to go with me to…” and then usually it turns into a thread about the details of the event. This eliminates the need for that, now all I have to do is glance and say yes or no, if I even bother to answer.

Currently the feature is not yet implemented across all accounts but I have talked to one of my friends who does have the feature. So rest assured, it will come out eventually to us all.

Via Mashable

Last month, it was reported that St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa was suing Twitter because someone had created an account under his name and was “hurtful to the 64-year-old manager,” says ESPN.

Today, however, news has come out that the suit has been dropped. Here’s what the official court documents say:

Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff Anthony La Russa hereby dismisses with prejudice all claims in this action against Twitter, Inc., with each party to bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees. No payment was made by Twitter to La Russa in exchange for this dismissal.

This is great news for Twitter. This was an idiotic lawsuit that would have been nothing but a waste of time and money for all parties involved. It’s one thing it La Russa and his lawyers had decided to go after the author of this fake account, but why would you go after Twitter itself? Because of how popular the service is right now?

On the bright side, however, at least we now have verified Twitter accounts.

One of the things that FriendFeed has implemented is the ability to change themes. While the themes are attractive and delicately made I fear one thing: Myspace.

One of the highlighting features of Myspace is the abiity to customize your page. This has been of the contributing factors to Myspace’s now steadily failing social platform. While people like the ability to customize, they also need direction whether they like it or not. That is one of the reasons why Facebook has been growing at such a rapid pace. There is uniform design but you can still your space your own.

I hope FriendFeed keeps these customizations in check and if they choose to expand them, do not make them public for people visiting FriendFeed profiles to see. This will degrade the overall community and uniform design that FriendFeed has created for themselves. Let’s hope that they learn from past failures of other companies and do not commit the same mistakes

Su.pr, created by StumbleUpon, is a powerful shortening service that adds a lot to the competitive shortening market. It just so happens some of these features that Su.pr offers are perfect for business that want to grow as well as keep track of their social media endeavors.

Two Birds, One Stone

Su.pr lets you update your Twitter account right within the admin panel, but one striking force that many people seem to ignore is that Facebook can be posted to as well. All you have to do is link both accounts, decide what you want to post, then check what social property you would like the web link to go too. No longer will have to worry about alienating either accounts because you simply forgot to log in.

Brand Awareness

StumbleUpon is probably one of the most well known and most popular Firefox plug-ins. It has garnered millions of users, many of whom are addicted to the great service. By using Su.pr you are automatically adding your site to a database that potentially thousand of users could “stumble” upon with little to no effort from you. This increases brand visibility and may …

Conveniently sending mass texts to your friends can be a little frustrating at times. Made by IMO.im, a multi-protocal IM servicem, are making it easier for us to send mass texts via CLiQ.

The service is pretty dead simple and there exists no need to make an account. All you have to do is text 77039 and CLiQ + group name and you have set up your own SMS texting group. To invite people to your CLiQ you text invite + number to 77039 and they are automatically pulled in. Joining a CLiQ SMS group is easier though, once again text the number 77039 then join + group name and you will be added to the group.

After doing a few test runs the product seemed to work great albeit once text was lost for some reason. CLiQ is free and is in current alpha build. Try it out yourself and leave your thoughts in the comments

Bing is actually a really good search engine… like… really good. I am actually using Bing on a semi-regular basis, something I thought I would never do with a Microsoft web property. The biggest news about Bing now is that they are including tweets within the results. There are limitations though, the first one being it is only important people and the second one being that it must include a reference to Twitter.

That sorta sucks.

It turns out though that while important people may need a reference to Twitter some web properties and businesses don’t. This morning I typed Boxee as a search query and I was surprised to find out that their official Twitter account was included, without any reference. After testing out a few other companies it was basically a crap shoot. Turns out Centernetworks has a Twitter account included and Dell Outlet does too, but it is interesting to note that Dell Outlet has the Twitter account as the second result not the first.

This is actually really cool in my book and shows that Bing is pretty serious about Twitter results and they are even ranking them. Albeit the results are a bit slow, @centernetworks has updated …

Whenever the Techgeist/Socialgeist team tries to set up meetings let me tell you, it is a crap shoot. We are either busy with family or like Alex, Dan and I maintaining pretty steady jobs. It honestly is very frustrating to figure out when everyone is available and since our schedules fluctuate a lot sending e-mails is just way too delayed.  When Is Good might solve our problem and potentially yours.