Whodeani’s Official Blog

Some of you may have heard of a little social medial startup called Twitter.
 
I say little facetiously as Twitter is growing explosively... over 1000% during the last 12 months with no sign of slowing down.

SOURCE: Techcrunch 'Whoa Twitter Mania'.
 
Twitter is easily the hottest site/platform around and will likely disrupt the order of things within social media... maybe even within the broader internet (check out http://search.twitter.com to see what I mean.)
 
Over the past few months I have been using Twitter more and more to the point where (and I should say a lot of people are moving this way too) I am using Twitter more than LinkedIn and Facebook. My usage of those 2 sites has dropped to less than 20% of where it was as little as a few months ago.
 
Twitter has become an important way for me to communicate with friends, family and business colleagues. Over time, I'm predicting Twitter will be seen as a vital communications tool in its own right in much the same way as we now view the mobile phone, SMS and email.
 
Twitter has become so popular that like domain names before it, people are 'finding' Twitter profiles by typing in what they think they will be directly as a URL, as opposed to searching for them.
 
For example, if you were looking for Twitters page for me, Whodeani, you could simply type in http://www.twitter.com/whodeani. If you were looking for Yahoo, you could type in http://www.twitter.com/yahoo and so on.
 
Unfortunately, a lot like the domain name landrush of the late 90's, many people are 'already' seeing their brand names or actual names being taken up by the Twitter equivalent of Cybersquatting. There has in fact been a steady increase in disputes over whom has the rights over a Twitter URL. Is it Twitter, the official brand holder, name holder or someone else entirely speaking about the brand/person in question.
 
Unlike the domain name disputes so prevalent of the late 90's, early 00's, the disputes thus far with Twitter URL's have usually been settled amicably, privately and with Twitter having the final say. As Twitter continues to gain in popularity, the number of disputes will increase, they will become far more public and more than likely these disputes will spill over into the courts.
 
If history has taught us anything from the domain name disputes of the past it is that it is far easier to secure a name 'early' (that is legally and rightfully yours) than to have to fight to have it returned at some later date.
 
So whats the point...?
 
The point is this, even if you are unsure as to wether or not you will be using Twitter in the future, you should secure your personal name, business name and/or brand(s) as a Twitter URL 'now' to ensure that if you do decide to use the service, you have a Twitter URL that is easy to remember and clearly associated with you.
 
To see if your name is available simply type it in as follows... twitter.com/yourname
 
If its available... it will return 'This page doesn't exist' (as below).

Simply then click on Twitter's 'Home' link, join the service and secure your own unique Twitter URL.
 
Its free so why not...?

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Several weeks ago, I noticed a trend towards users using Real Time Search engines (ranging from Twitter Search to those embedded within the major Social Media sites) when looking for information that was more time sensitive. Things like a review of the new Watchmen movie to reviews of the latest Audi Q5 to what's going on with Andrew Bolt.
 
The sorts of things that are better suited to social media's vast, regularly updated repository of user generated information than traditional search where the information is days, if not weeks out of date in some cases and the content skews more towards those sites that are deemed more authoritative (read into that what you may.)
 
After playing around with some of the Real Time Search sites out there, I decided that I would build one focusing on Australian user generated content for an Australian audience. This project will be hosted at realtimesearch.com.au (domain not yet live.)

During the week I received a proposal (which I have accepted) for the outsourcing of the sites development, earlier today I uploaded a design brief for the logo element to 99Designs.

The brief for this job follows...

Over the past 3 - 6 months, there has been an explosion in interest in 'social search'... more specifically 'right now' search or 'real time' search.
 
In essence, Real Time Search is where the search engine provides search results from what people are saying 'now' about a particular topic as opposed to what was archived by a major search engine yesterday, last week or last month.
 
I wish to develop a simple (to start with) search engine providing real time search results for Australian users.
 
I require a simple design that will work a) alone, b) as the main feature of a search engine front page and c) a top a list of search results.
 
For context, this simple search engine is part of a broader search project (including the eventual development of a US based site.)
 
For now the site will be very basic and will feature real time search results using Twitter's API with a focus on results from Australian Tweeters.
 
Once that basic user experience has been nailed, we will then move to expanding search features and data sources.
 
Wants
 
* Preference for 'Real Time Search' logo to stand alone and not include the full URL (that is I want 'Real Time Search' as a logo... not 'realtimesearch.com.au' as a logo.
* Would like it to be colorful, warm and fun.
* Very fond of many of the logo's/brands that exist in the broader 'Twittersphere'.
* Visually needs to convey difference between 'real time' and (for want of a better term) 'regular' search.
 
Don't Wants
 
* Do not want the logo to look like any existing search or social media brand. As per 'What I Want'... I would like a logo that looks like its DNA is from the broad social media space... but not a copy or something that too closely resembles an existing logo.
 
Payment Methods
 
This contest has been pre-paid with 99designs. The winner will be paid directly by 99designs for the full prize amount, excluding any third party transfer fees.

You can view the design brief/contest in full here... http://99designs.com/contests/19525
 
Setting up the contest was a breeze including paying for it.

The competition has only been online a few hours and already I have had 5 entries. As you will see by my comments on the site, the initial batch of logo designs have not been what I am after, but I am confident that by providing timely feedback as designs are submitted, the quality and 'appropriateness' of the designs will improve.

The design contest runs for 7 days and is binding (that is I have pre-paid the prize and will need to award a winner when the competition closes.) I will update this post when the competition closes.
 
Having a logo or website designed in this way is not for everybody, nor suitable for any and every job.
 
I should point out that I have owned/managed several graphic design, web design and programming businesses. I appreciate more than most quality design and website development and until this particular job I have 'always' used professionals.
 
This job however is a bit of an experiment both in terms of dipping my toes into the Real Time Search space (ie I don't want to spend a lot of money this early in the project) and also in finding within my projects, one appropriate for testing these sorts of services.
 
I will be posting regular updates on Twitter for this and you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/whodeani if interested.
 
Wish me luck...

*** Update ***

Real Time Search competition now closed.

To view the winning submission go here.

Have also updated my blog with a post titled 'Real Time Search Log Competition - The Results'

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