TechnoBabble

The Blog Has Moved

I have moved my blog and then decided to write a post --> http://rovermanblog.wordpress.com/

Fair Warning

Think of this as a friendly reminder.

Do not put anything private into a Twitter Direct Message!

If the Weiner story didn't convince you, this story about a security vulnerability in the Twitter API might. 

The security leak in the Twitter API is unfortunate and hopefully corrected soon. Regardless, it isn't the biggest problem. User error is!

There have been a couple of articles and blog posts about how Weiner was victim of the dreaded "DM Fail". The method to create and deliver a Direct Message in Twitter is prone to people making mistakes. Instead of typing "D <username>", people accidentally type "@<username>". Instead of a Direct Message, they send a Reply. A Reply is visible to everyone in the world.

I've even seen this mistake made by a friend of mine when sending an account password to someone. This is a guy who all consider brilliant and "Practically Perfect". If he can make such a mistake, can't we all?

Here's your new mantra: "I will not send anything private using Twitter. I will not send my phone number to a friend. I will not send an account password to a co-worker. I will not, ever, take a picture of my junk, post it to a public photo sharing web site and send the link to someone with whom I think I could get busy."

Make a sign. Nail it to your wall.

At least make a Post-It.

Building the House of the Future

I apologize. I'm using "House" in this post's title as a metaphor for Software Platform.

I want to talk a little bit about open software architecture versus "Open Software Architecture". For the last three years I have been working with a team building a new MLS platform heavily focused on the latter while trying to protect against the former.

I think this needs some context and definition.

I need to tell a little story to set the stage so please stick with me.

Gabe Newell photo credit ComputerAndVideoGames.com

This is Gabe Newell. Gabe is the co-founder and Managing Director of Valve Software. Valve is one of the most successful and well respected video game development companies in the world. For a very long time, Mr. Newell openly and vehemently critisized the Sony Playstation 3 video game console for the difficulty of developing on it. Then, one day last year, something very unusual happened.

On June 15, 2010, at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo), Gabe Newell made a surprise appearence at Sony's press conference and announced that Valve's latest game, Portal 2, was going to run on the Playstation 3. He further indicated that the Playstation would be the best platform for playing the game.What made Mr. Newell have such a significant change of heart? Well, he cited the Playstation Network as the major factor.

It Didn't All Start with Apple

Many believe that Apple created digital distribution of software with iTunes and their App Store. Actually, online delivery of software had been around for years before Apple brought it to the masses. Some of the biggest successes before Apple were in the video game industry.

Gabe Newell's company, Valve, introduced Steam in 2002. It was an online service for purchasing and updating video games. Also in 2002, Microsoft introduced XBox Live. And in 2006, Sony introduced the Playstation Network.

So why did Gabe Newell specifically cite the Playstation Network at E3 last year? Because he felt that the less strict and more open organization of the Playstation Network was more condusive to his vision of fast and easy software provisioning.

Unlike the Playstation Network, Microsoft's XBox Live service requires significant review and testing by Microsoft. It requires all content be delivered through Microsoft servers rather than allowing a vendor's servers to connect directly through the service to deliver content. In many ways, Microsoft's XBox Live has many of the same restrictions that Apple enforces on iTunes and their App Store! Microsoft and Apple are tightly controlling the experience.

Gabe Newell believes in less restriction. More freedom for a developer to follow their own path. Many developers and publishers believe the same thing. But there is a trade-off that must be made for that freedom.

On April 20, 2011, the Sony Corporation shut down the Playstation Network as it had been the target of a successful cyber attack. Person or persons unknown had hacked the network and gained access to millions of users' account data. Shortly thereafter, Sony expanded details on the depth of the attack and included Qriocity and Sony Entertainment Online services in the shutdown. They also announced that archived credit card information for users from Europe may have been stolen.

The Sony online services remained offline for three weeks while Sony investigated the attack and improved security. The services were finally restarted Saturday, May 14.

Was the more open nature of the Sony platforms to blame for the success of the attack? It's too early to draw that conclusion but I believe that it played a role in the attack.

Lessons For Real Estate Software

By now you have probably drawn a conclusion about how I was differentiating between the open software architecture with quotes and the open software architecture without quotes.

Apple makes a big show about how anyone can create an app and submit it for sale on iTunes and their App Store. They make it sound like nothing could be easier and more profitable. This is an exaggeration and based on the developer, possibly a gross exaggeration.

You must use a very specific programming language to write your app. You must submit to Apple for review and approval of your app. You must share 30% of the money made selling your app with Apple. If you sell any content through your app, you must also share that revenue with Apple.

I've heard a great term to describe the more controlled scenario as implemented by Microsoft and Apple: Managed Open Architecture.Apple's approach may be a bit more financially advantageous to Apple than to developers but Apple has created a framework that also substantially improves the quality of service to users. The stability of applications is higher. Security is more strictly enforced. The User Interface (UI) is more consistent and therefore, easier to learn from application to application.

This is the software vision I share for the future. Sure, ten years ago I would have railed against a corporate machine telling me what I can and can't do. How I should be writing my applications. How I can distribute and charge for them. Honestly, I still complain and gnash my teeth a bit but it is tempered now.

I have found discipline. Discipline in software architecture that promotes strong design choices, robust security, the protection of user information and cooperation with the vendors and developers in real estate.

I think MLS software is about to grow up. I can't wait to show you how much.

And I Approved This Message

I'm getting this in just under the wire.

Campaign season is almost over and not a moment too soon. I don't get a chance to watch much network TV but my mom was visiting a couple weeks ago and she likes to turn on the evening news while making dinner. (No, I did not make my mom make dinner for us while she was visiting. Just the salad.) Anyway, I was reminded why I don't watch TV news anymore. Aside from the miserable stories about the current wave of Chicago corruption, I was bombarded with one political campaign ad after another. The half-truths, spin and pandering makes my skin crawl.

Unfortunately, I find myself in the unenviable position of presenting you with a campaign commercial right now. However, I am hopefully going to make this one a bit easier to swallow. Even if you don't buy my position.

I am running for the Board of Directors of RESO (Real Estate Standards Organization). I have written about RETS and RESO on a number of occasions. Like this time, the other time and that last time.

The election for the Board is a mere week away and I thought it would be prudent to say a few things for the record. What good is running for an elected position if you aren't going to make campaign promises?

So to set the stage, I've been programming computers since I was 13. I've been building real estate data systems for 12 years. I love making things.

I love it when a customer comes up to me at a meeting, conference or convention and thanks me for some new feature in their MLS platform. I graciously thank them on behalf of the whole team that worked so hard to make it happen. It's nice getting the chance to be the face of the dozens of people who build our products. I get an awful lot of credit for things with which I only had minimal involvement. Such is the software business.

So, thank you Ms. Reed, Mr. Gellerstedt, Mr. Dean, Mr. Henry, Mr. Wolkey, Ms. Talley, Mr. Price, Mr. Popalisky and all of the people in the trenches.

My job these days is more like an ambassador. I put the right people together. I get the right information to the right people. I give the right people context. I get the hell out of the way of the people who are making things happen. I offer direction on what comes next.

And RETS? Well, I feel we are at a crossroads for RESO.

The COVE group did not create the crossroads. They are a really big sign on the side of the road telling us that a new traffic pattern is up ahead. You know, the ones with the flashing yellow lights? There have been smaller signs along the way but there was always something a bit more pressing so we ignored the signs or recognized them but left them for later.

Well, later has come. Now is the time to focus on the goals and beneficiaries of the RETS standard. All the beneficiaries. RETS has been a technical standard since the beginning and because of that, the community has been a very technical community. Since the beginning of RETS, however, the industry has changed.

It is now critical that RESO and the RETS community focus on meeting business needs for the community. The whole community.

I volunteered for the R&D work group Vice Chair position because I believe that we must turn our attention to how RETS can help the REALTOR®, MLS and software vendor be more successful. I'm seeing that mentality moving through the work groups and RESO leadership.

I do not believe in discarding the work that has been done. Hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals and millions of consumers rely on RETS 1.5 and 1.7.2 today. Turning everything upside down now seems counter-productive.

We need to implement new optional transport methods that can help particular business cases like mobile applications or database replication. We need to enforce the use of more standardized names. We need to continue to encourage the participation of MLS, Brokers and vendors in the process.

Get out and vote! You've got a voice. Use it!

Or don't. You know, apathy is kind of, you know, whatever.

 

The Secret Standard?

I've been very fortunate over the last year to have had the opportunity to speak at various events and talk about some of the things I am passionate about.

Recently, the topic has usually been about data standards and RETS.

I've built both client and server  applications that use RETS. The aggregation of property data has been part of my job for over ten years. The company I work for relies on property data exchange to stay in business and be competitive.

There is one thing that would really help me build better applications for real estate professionals. Standardized data feeds.

I'm not alone. Recently Greg Robertson blogged about this need stating:

"I want to be able to write a killer real estate app and release it everywhere at once."

Bob Bemis stood up at the data standards panel at Inman Connect in San Francisco and questioned the panel about why a set of standard field names had been submitted by COVE to the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) and as yet, no additional work had been done. (Disclosure: I was one of the members of the panel and am an active member of RESO)

Numerous third-party developers come to RESO meetings to gain an understanding of RETS and how they can build the next great app. They often don’t come back. They are looking for something RESO alone has been unable to give them.

I am not on the RESO Board of Directors. I am not speaking on their behalf. I'm just a member of the community and have a passion for this.

With that disclosure out of the way, let me now say this: Most of the fingers are pointing in the wrong direction.

Let me blow your mind.

RETS includes, as part of the standard, a comprehensive list of standard field names and data types. This list is the definition of the standard data feed that is being demanded by vendors, developers and MLS's.

It already exists. Right here.

Wait a minute. If it already exists, how come everyone doesn't know about it?

You need to lay some blame at the feet of RESO and the RETS community. We haven't done a good job on communicating this particular fact. But you know what? There are an awful lot of vendor and MLS staff that participate in RETS that know this. It hasn't been a secret.

If a couple hundred technical people already know that a standard data schema exists, how come everyone isn’t using it?

Easy. ROI.

That's right, Return On Investment. How much is it going to cost and who's going to pay for it?

There are two possible ways I see the standard schema being implemented.

First: All of the MLS server vendors automagically transform the MLS data from its existing layout into the standardized layout when a client requests the data through RETS.

Second: All of the MLS's work with their vendors and convert their existing database into one that matches the standard.

Some assumptions:

• Across the country we are seeing an average of 5 or 6 property classes per MLS and then agent and office data.
• There are almost 800 MLS organizations in the country, right? Six MLS system vendors account for almost 95% of those 800.

The first option requires about 1,000 man hours from the vendor and maybe 100 from the MLS for assistance in data mapping and quality testing. For each MLS.

The MLS members don’t have to learn new input forms but you make compromises in the data mapping. Your current MLS data may not be a 100% match to the standard.

The second option is a whole new MLS conversion. New search layout, new input forms, new reports, new end-user training. This is far more expensive than the first option. And what about those special fields you need just in your market? They aren't in the standardized schema.

Neither option is particularly attractive, is it? Especially when you can't point to a quantifiable increase in revenue.

Pressure for standardized data exchange has continued to grow and is reaching a breaking point. Either we do this together or we'll start fracturing and go back in time to a point where everyone was requiring the use of their own proprietary data layouts and FTP.

We need to start taking those difficult steps towards implementing a standard schema. We need vendors, developers and MLS leadership to work together to make the compromises that will get us there.

In the meantime, maybe there is something we can do that would be less painful for everyone and still meet some of the pressing needs we all have.

IDX: a smaller list of standard fields that would be used for IDX sites could be implemented. This would be less likely to need any of the specialized local fields and would be easier to support. It is also a good step to a larger set of fields.

Mobile Apps: a simpler method for running searches or delivering listing data could be built. It could be designed to be small and fast to help mobile application developers.

Standard Names: we should all champion the use of standard names and help each other use them as much as possible.

Let's focus on our business cases and take some meaningful steps. We better do it fast.

The next RETS conference is September 27 - 29 in Chicago.

Risk vs Reward

An article by Brad Inman brought into focus something that has been rolling around in my head for a few months.

 

My job is to evaluate emerging technology, analyze its impact on our customers and the real estate industry and make products that use technology to better serve those customers.

 

In the course of my job I need to put together plans to actually deliver software to users. There are project plans, development plans, infrastructure plans and sales plans. As an employee of a large corporation, you better figure out how to get good at making plans. Corporations love plans.

 

This is where Brad's comments caused some crystallization in my mind.

 

In order to have the best chance that the product you are working on succeeds, you plan every detail, over-analyze every decision and plan for every contingency. While this sounds like prudent advice, it slows down development significantly.

 

The more you have to lose, the more you worry about losing it, the less risk you take.

 

One of my favorite terms is "Time To Market". This means how fast can we get a revenue generating product out the door and into customer hands. How fast until this thing starts making money.

 

Let's not fool ourselves. This is all about money. No customers, no money. No money, no employees. No employees, no product. No product, no customers.

 

How do we balance Innovation and Risk?

 

Believe me when I say that every software vendor in the real estate space hears the pundits demanding more innovation. Please also believe me when I say that the pundits really don't have to demand very hard. Leaders in every software company got to where they are because they see the value of innovation. They desperately want to innovate.

 

Innovation drives big revenue jumps.

 

Playing it safe does not.

 

Failed innovation kills companies.

 

There is the problem stated in its raw form.

 

Today's economy has driven MLS membership rates down to frighteningly low levels. I am not at liberty to give you hard numbers but I can tell you that our current customers never thought they would be as short on membership as they are now.

 

Less money is being spent on software.

 

What do the bean counters do when revenue drops? They hedge their bets and play it safe. To be fair, history has shown that to be the prudent path. Better to run away and live to fight another day.

 

I'm not buying it. Stagnation, mediocrity and eventual oblivion are all that lie down that path.

 

I often miss the guerilla mentality of a small company. The "damn the consequences" attitude from which true genius springs.

 

Our goals need to be more bold. We need to be willing to accept a little risk and push some envelopes. We need to make some bets on long odds.

 

I can't deny it may not be good business. But compared to the safe road, it is a hell of a lot more fun.

TwitterRETS

:::UPDATE:::

I'm updating the code and it will run at a 60 second interval instead of 30. Need to manage Twitter API calls more efficiently. Short downtime while I fix code. - Rob

:::END UPDATE:::

Last Friday a brief exchange on Twitter planted the seed of an idea. Kristen Carr exchanged a few posts with Mike Wurzer about the origin of the acronym DMQL.

 

DMQL is the query language used for RETS. It stands for Dan Musso Query Language. Dan was one of the founders of WyldFyre and early RETS contributors. Ultimately, Kristen posted:

 

"@mwurzer How about Direct Message Query Language? That's where #RETS and Twitter come together."

 

What a perfectly brilliant and useless idea.

 

So I made it reality.

 

I have created a Twitter account @LPSRETS. When this account receives a Direct Message (DM), the content of the message is broken down into an address. This address is then run against one of our RETS servers. Some basic data for the listing is parsed together in a message and sent directly back to the user who originally sent the DM.

 

You need to be a follower of someone to send them a DM. That means you must Follow @LPSRETS to test this. It also means that @LPSRETS must follow you to send you back the listing info. TwitterRETS checks its followers every 30 seconds and will follow anyone following @LPSRETS. You may then send a DM.

 

To get back any useful data, you need to send a real address. This is not hooked up to a nationwide data store. This is a demo site with a relatively small coverage area.

 

To help you try it out, I've found three addresses that will return data. I'm afraid you will need to trust me when I say this is actually searching against real listing data.

 

To try it out you should first follow @LPSRETS on Twitter. Within 30 seconds, @LPSRETS will begin following you.

 

Next, send a Direct Message to @LPSRETS with one of these addresses:

 

2700 Plumas Street Reno NV 89509

861 Nutmeg Place Reno 89502

2385 Tripp 89512

 

The message should look like this:

 

D @LPSRETS 2700 Plumas Street Reno NV 89509

 

TwitterRETS checks for new DM's every 30 seconds.

 

This is not a production service so I won't leave it running indefinitely. The depth of testing has only been my own limited efforts during development. This is not mission-critical code.

 

If you wish to have @LPSRETS stop following you, just send a Direct Message with "STOP". Like so:

 

"D @LPSRETS STOP"

 

Important! YOU MUST STOP FOLLOWING @LPSRETS OR IT WILL JUST START FOLLOWING YOU AGAIN.

I see no way that this will be a product offered by LPS Real Estate Group. It was a fun little exercise while I was watching a bit of TV over the weekend. LPS has better products for getting listing data when you are away from your desk.

 

By submitting a Direct Message to @LPSREG you are agreeing that this is a development exercise and not a production quality service. This service and the information it provides should not be used for commercial purposes. You furthermore agree to hold LPS and myself free from any financial obligation should you build a business plan around this service and it not live up to your expectations. Your expectations should be zero.

 

Thanks.

 

Let me know what you think. Is there fire under all this smoke? Can anyone think of an actual product that could be derived from this exercise?

Regain Perspective

I'm on a flight home. My laptop is open and thanks to the inflight wi-fi I am checking email, Facebook and Twitter. I got lucky this trip. First-class upgrade. I try to save my upgrade points for NAR. Once you've done a week at a conference like this you know why.

 

My lunch comes so I close my laptop and put it on the floor.

 

I turn on my iPhone and start my favorite playlist. I stare out the window at the high desert below.

 

I eat.

 

I feel a touch on the back of my right hand. The flight attendant has a warm oatmeal cookie on a cold plate. She's gently touched my hand with the plate to get my attention.

 

I feel.

 

For seven days I've had to push one of my lesser personality types to the front. I smile. I shake hands. I answer every question to the best of my abilities. I anticipate as many questions as possible and answer them before they are asked.

 

As we fly over the canyons and plains of central Arizona and New Mexico I see the arroyos, sage, a dusting of snow at higher elevations. I hear Beck in my ears: "Get crazy with the Cheez Whiz".

 

The world is an amazing place.

 

I'm not talking about the societal world but the purely physical. Do you ever think about the razor edge we live on as humans? The Earth is large. The atmosphere is a very thin sheet of gases in relation to our planet. We lose perspective. You need to see the curve of the Earth. It's Miraculous.

 

The past week has been hard work. Not just for me but for all of my friends, co-workers and acquaintances . You have a few minutes to say something important to each person you meet. It may mean no more than the chance for a meeting at some future date or it could mean a multi-million dollar deal.

 

White Stripes are now thumping through the headphones.

 

There were a few times over the last few days were the truer Rob showed up. Embarrassing Nate on his birthday in front of about 30 co-workers, my boss and his boss; meeting Ira over iced tea because it was too early for beer and still coming up with "the next great thing"; stepping between Kristen and The German; watching an older woman's bags at the airport so she could use the restroom; talking college football with Kevin G and Terry T.

 

Are we sometimes too busy "doing" instead of "being"? Have we filled up all our time so that we get lost? How do we find ourselves?

 

Violent Femmes are helping me find my starting point.

 

Damn the 40 degree temperatures in Chicago. I'm dropping the top, cranking the heat and driving home with an open sky over my head.

Connected from 6 Miles Up!

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Am I coming in clearly?"
 

At the moment I am zooming along at over 400 mph and at 30,000 ft above sea level.

 

I'm not being metaphorical here. I'm on a plane flying to San Diego for the NAR 2009 Conference and Expo.

 

I've been on flights before that offered onboard wi-fi but haven't used the service. Usually, the flights are so short that it hasn't made sense to spend the $12.95 for 1 hour and 20 minutes worth of internet.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a bit of a junkie. We've got nine computers at home all networked and connected to the Internet. I've got a wi-fi hub to connect my iPhone and Nintendo DSi (see previous post). My wife is a mistress of Facebook and my six-year old surfs all the best Flash game sites for the mini geek set.

 

The Internet was just not worth $0.11 per minute or more on a flight of less than two hours. I can keep the monkey off my back for that long.

 

But a four hour flight?

 

I get twitchy. My foot starts tap-tap-tapping the floor. My fingers start punching out "www." and ".com" on the little tray table. "Please, please, please, let airspace be clear and get us on the ground."

 

As I I mentioned in my last blog, I don't go running for Twitter to let everyone know I landed safely in Kansas City. But there may be an important email from a co-worker or customer.

 

Today was different, however.

 

I made a checklist of things I need to do before I shut my computer down and packed up for the flight this morning. Unfortunately, I'm not a big checklist builder. I don't do it frequently and so I don't do it well. I forgot a few things.

 

I forgot to set my Out-Of-Office Assistant for Outlook. That's the cool feature that sends an email back to everyone that emails me and lets them know I am away from the office and may not get back to them very quickly. I also forgot to reset the company phone system to forward my calls to my cell phone.

My two primary communication tools were incapable of communicating with me!

 

From 6:30 AM CST this morning until 9:45 AM CST this morning, no one could reach me. Without the wi-fi on the plane, it could have been until 2:00 PM CST. The HORROR!

 

Honestly, though. It really wasn't that big of a deal. There are days that I have meetings and conference calls scheduled back-to-back for the whole day. No one freaks out if it takes a couple hours to reply to an email or voice mail.

 

But I'm a junkie. I don't WANT to do without Internet.

 

I guess American Airlines is just an enabler.

 

Verdict

 

 

 

 

The service on this American Airlines McDonnel-Douglas Super80 was provided by Gogo Inflight Internet. Internet service for the day is $12.95. You create an account and can login using your account on multiple flights. I have a promotional card for a free day of service.

 

Connecting and sign-up are very easy. The small coverage area of the required of the wireless hub (80ft x 10ft of cabin space) means you get a very strong wireless signal. I use a VPN (virtual private network) to connect for work and this sometimes causes problems with wi-fi hotspots. Not so here.

 

Browsing has been very quick and responsive. It is better than my Sprint Mobile Broadband card but slower than my cable modem. This is all to be expected. As you might expect, video streaming is not the best activity.

 

Even so, It has been an enjoyable experience.

 

Have you tried inflight wi-fi yet? Post comments on the Who? Where? When? and How Was It?

Sharpen Your Social Skills

I wanted to call this one "Sharpen UR Social Skilz" but I get a lot of grief when I speak 1337.

 

For a guy who has a Twitter account, a Facebook account and a blog, I don’t spend a lot of time actually using them. I don't like spewing out the minutiae of my day. In addition, I work on a lot of stuff that I can't share with the public. I also don't have enough time to link and retweet good articles from all over the web. I follow people who are good at that.

 

I do try to keep up with the posts for those I follow. I'd hate for something important to zoom by without at least a quick look.

 

You know what I see?

 

Lots and lots and lots of posts.

 

We are again confronted with the Information Overload Monster from Planet Z! But just like Tokyo, we start to become desensitized after the city is flattened a few times. There is MORE information passing through your field of control now than ever before.

 

Old fashioned snail-mail was replaced by the telephone. Telephone was replaced by the fax. The fax was replaced by email. Email was replaced by web sites. Web sites were replaced by blogs, instant messaging, tweets and Facebook status updates.

 

I remember when instant messaging and blogs started taking off and it was said that email was dead. Long live the king. But you know what? I don't get fewer emails now than I did five years ago. It seems to me to be about the same. But now we have all the little spawn of email and web sites running around as well.

 

More and more of our communication with other people is occurring though social networks. It is a great way to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues. It has the immediacy of a phone call without the barking dog in the background or the awkward discussion about the weather. And the great thing about Facebook and Twitter is that if you want, you don't have to reply.

 

When someone sends you an email message, there is a reasonable expectation on the part of both parties that there should be some sort of reply. This is a targeted communication and as such requires confirmation that the information was received, understood and possibly acted upon.

 

This is not the case with the social networks. When you have hundreds of followers on Twitter or an equal number on Facebook, every post is not designed to generate a response from everyone. Instead it is an invitation. An invitation to engage, or not, as you see fit.

 

Managing this torrent of information is difficult.

 

Let me help.

 

Using the Twitter or Facebook website as your primary interface is fine if you only have only one of these networks, and not both. Even then, if you follow hundreds of accounts on Twitter, the web site is not that great. If you have hundreds of very active friends on Facebook ["active" means all of your friends spending their day playing Mafia Wars, FarmTown, Scramble, Roller Coaster Kingdom, Farmville, Vampire Wars, Castle Age, iHeart or the countless quizzes], so much is happening so fast that if you walk away for a few minutes you can miss dozens of posts.

 

"OMG!!! What did I miss?"

 

What you need is an application that helps track your Twitter and Facebook accounts and puts everything together for you in one place. Fortunately, there are a few you can choose from.

 

These all run on your computer. There are others for your smart phone. After all, not all of us have the good fortune to be tied to their computer all day. I'll post my thoughts on the mobile apps soon.

 

TweetDeck

 

I use TweetDeck. TweetDeck has a nice interface and is easy to use. It can display posts from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. It is more geared to Twitter so it supports searches on Twitter but not the others.

 

You can also write one status update and have it post to Twitter, Facebook or both. That saves time when you are maintaining more than one network. You can configure both Twitter and Facebook to automatically update the other when one is updated. However, using TweetDeck to select which network the update goes to when you write it seems the most flexible.

 

TweetDeck is configurable so you can organize the network feeds by your priority. It also has a nice notification pop-up on screen when a new post comes in. It even makes a little "tweet-tweet" sound. If you're into that sort of thing.

 

The TweeDeck beta is free for download here.

 

Sobees lite

 

I had seen some favorable posts about sobees and decided to give it a test drive.

 

All I can say is "meh".

 

It makes a great Twitter-only application although it was designed to do more. It is nice to look at and easy to use. It allows you to search Twitter.  It allows you to post updates to Twitter and/or Facebook much like TweetDeck.

 

From the moment I installed it, though, I've had a problem. It does not connect to Facebook correctly for me. I complete the account information and login and the Facebook column appears. It is completely empty. There are no posts, no friends list and no profile. I've tried connecting again and again and it always shows me an empty column.

 

Talk about a blow to your self-esteem.

 

Friendly Co-worker: "Hey, what are all your friends posting about?"

 

Me: "Oh, you know. Real estate technology."

 

FC: "There's no posts there."

 

Me: "There's some sort of Internet issue."

 

FC: "How sad. You don’t have any friends, do you?"

 

Sobees lite is in "alpha". That is supposed to mean that it is still in development and hasn't been through Quality Assurance testing. I think lazy development shops just call it "alpha" so users can’t really complain about bugs.

 

If you only use Twitter I'd recommend you give sobees lite a try. You can download the free version here.

 

Digsby

 

Digsby takes the integrated service model one step further and will also put together your email and instant messaging with your social networks.

 

It isn’t as great as it sounds. It is primarily an instant message client. It is small and isn’t the easiest to use to manage all of your posts on Twitter or Facebook.

 

 Google

We now come to the company with a finger in every pie.

Google is rolling out a social networking integrated search called Google Friend Connect. What they have done is combined a regular Google search with searches of your Twitter and Facebook feeds. This allows you to track your Twitter and Facebook contacts while organizing all of the information you may care about.

This is a very cool idea. It is only a precursor, however, to what they are really working on: Google Wave.

Google Wave has the lofty goal of being the realization of true personal interactivity on the web. (My marketing mumbo-jumbo, not theirs) 

Wave is in development and still a ways out before general release.

To get the most out of the social networks you participate in, you need to get organized. These are just a few of the applications that can help you do that. 

Share your thoughts on products that have worked with you.

 

And now for the bit that the FCC, FTC, NSA and CIA require from me…

 

Disclosure: I use a free beta copy of TweetDeck. I have tried sobees lite. I have not paid for either and have not been paid by either company to try these products. I will return the electrons to these companies as soon as my evaluation period is complete and I can get the damn tiny things back into my monitor. Digsby took 10 minutes of my time that I can never get back. I have a Gmail account and like it just fine.