The power and beauty of Twitter

Here are Twitter’s key people (Jack Dorsey @jack, Biz Stone @biz, Evan Williams @ev, and Dick Costolo @dickc) capturing the essence of what makes Twitter so special, so different, so important.

Like a moth to a flame, social search brings us ever closer to SkyNet

So, Google+ is now showing up on Google search results. While this is big news, it may not even be the biggest development in social search, which is continuing to evolve into all kinds of interesting directions.

New York Times paywall heralds social media tethering

Readers who land at the NYT site via social media links will still be allowed to read the full article.

Thus, it will make sense for people to search, not for a link directly to a NYT article (which will continue to be metered/monitored/limited), but for commentary in a social media site that links back to the article.

If your work regularly consults the New York Times, you can become essentially an NYT tether - your readers can continue to access New York Times articles through your references.

Social Media, Celebrity Endorsements and the Phantom Referral

I always wondered why a battery company thought I'd buy their batteries because Michael Jordan said they were good. I mean, he played great basketball for sure, but how in the world did that make him an authority on batteries?

And, honestly, with all Tiger's money, did I really believe he actually drove a Buick? And that, if he says so, I oughta go ahead and buy one myself?

The concept of the celebrity endorsement depends on a socio-psychological reaction to a perceived person of power or authority. Note that "power" and "authority" are not the same: in the cases above, there's no logical connection between the athletes and their knowledge or expertise in batteries or cars - it's not their authority that influences us, it's our perception of their power to which we're more willing to acquiesce.