Came across a new site today for a service called Buffer. And so far, I like it.
Buffer is a site that allows you to Tweet, and then add a timestamp to the Tweet so that it doesn’t necessarily have to post right when you create it.
Why would anyone care to do this?
Well because there are some people who might have several good ideas for Tweets at once, and if they string a bunch of random updates together simultaneously, it can just be white noise to your followers. With Buffer, you can create all of those brilliant Tweets now, but then use the service to space out when they actually post to Twitter.
That way, you’re not overwhelming your followers. Or, if you’re on death row, you can send Buffer tweets right before they strap you down to the lethal injection table and be like:
12:05am: “Wow, that was another great episode of Conan. lmao”
and then
12:35am: “jk, I was already dead by then, LoLz”
Part of the idea is that if you can space your Tweets out, ideally you can post at times where the Tweets will have a higher impact.
At 5pm, it automatically updates by posting to Twitter. Simple.
The service runs on a freemium model. For no cost, you can do two Tweets a day (or have 5 tweets in your buffer). There are monthly rates of $5 and $20, each giving different premium services.
Constructive criticisms:
1. No smartphone app. I realize that the entire point of Buffer is so you can produce Tweets at a computer and then set them to post later, but if that’s useful, I don’t see why the idea to post Tweets to an Android or iPhone app that will post to Twitter later is also useful. It’s not a deal breaker, but I hope an app is forthcoming (although I do expect basically any site that offers any service that has ever been created to have its own app).
2. This is a little bit more of an issue. Once you’ve logged in to Buffer, You type your Tweets in the “My buffer” section, however to change the time that the Tweet posts, you go to the “account”section. I don’t understand why you can’t just look at the Tweet in the “My buffer” section, where it SHOWS you the time, and change it through that page. #imjustsaying
3. Unless I missed something, I don’t see a place where you can set a date for a different Tweet to post. Everything is set to post within a 24 hour period. I feel like if you’re going to have advanced Tweet writing, then the functionality to do stuff, days, weeks, centuries in advance is necessary.
Buffer, I bestow you with probably the greatest offer I can give to a webstie: I am adding the Buffer blog to my rss reader.
for more information on Buffer, visit their website: http://bufferapp.com
I learned about this website from Hacker News. Thanks Hacker News.
Here’s their website: http://news.ycombinator.com/
What headlines are missing about new Google CEO
According to Google’s blog, it was announced earlier this afternoon that Eric Schmidt is stepping down from his role as CEO of Google. This is true, but Schmidt is not leaving Google. He is still going to be heavily involved with the company and is simply assuming a different role.
Larry Page who is the co founder of Google will become CEO on April 4 while Schmidt will become Executive Chairman. Page was the original CEO of Google until 2001 when Schmidt took the helm. Page has remained heavily involved with the company and serves as Google’s products president.
Google’s other founder (Sergey Brin) is currently the company’s president of technology. His role seems like it will be much the same, and he will focus much of his time to working on new products, according to Schmidt’s post this afternoon on the Official Google Blog.
So what will Schmidt do in his new role as Executive Director? In his own words:
“As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.”
To the average person, this will have a largely unnoticeable impact. I get the sense that a big part of the reason was to make shareholders happy. It’s not that they were unhappy with Schmidt, but the change will more clearly define who is responsible for what and the hope of Google is that this will lead to increased accountability.
jrb
Leave a Comment
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as Commentary, Google, news