Loïc Le Meur blog

0 Seesmic future team interview by Robert Scoble

Thanks for the cool interview, Robert, about the future of Seesmic

0 30 predictions for the future of Twitter

At the 140conf conference in LA, Jeff Pulver asked me to think about the future of Twitter and even though I obviously have no crystal ball, I took some risks and here you go, I gathered my predictions here, in the form of "tweet slides" so you might want to watch the video too. Some of those predictions were suggested to me by my friends on Twitter, let me know if I missed one credit as I prepared it... in realtime).

It will reach masses of people

They won’t use 
the same tools as we do

It will not be only about Twitter
 -status updates will be open across social software
 -all social software will have status updates
 -Facebook has 40+ million updates a day

Twitter will still be dominant
 in status updates
it's the motherboard on which we plug in

We will laugh thinking we were updating them all manually

The social graph 
will also open up

Twitter will be big to get an idea of a person or a brand reputation
not by number of followers but mostly influence with retweeting and lists
lets you think like that person thinks

Twitter will replace SMS for millions of people
-it is portable and archives across devices
-you don’t need to remember a phone number
-you are not tied to a mobile operator

Twitter might replace Chat for many people, too
-a DM exchange is very similar to a private chat
-Twitter lists are very similar to a public chat room

Location will be one of the most widespread status update

Private updates will be bigger than public updates
(my kids say...)

Public ecommerce 
status updates won’t work
buying things is very intimate

Live reviews of any place and product will deeply influence it though

Promos by brands and retailers will have big success 
for last minute deals

Talking to shops and restaurants via Twitter will become standard
and will get opt in coupons as we enter a shop, based on location

Web will be a fraction 
of mobile use

Dating over Status updates
won’t be big 

Twitter won’t display 
ads in your main feed

Users will get too angry at unsolicited ads

Other revenue opportunities such as pro accounts for businesses will be enough

There will be more devices publishing updates than humans
wifi scale, planes, trains, cars all posting updates

Corporations will have entire teams devoted to Twitter and status updates

Hyperlocal news sites with Twitter geotagging feature
(thanks, @stevefarnworth)

Google and Bing will be the dominant ways to search Twitter

Google will have its own Twitter and won’t acquire Twitter

There will be a few alternatives for niche search such as brand monitoring

Internal Enterprise Twitter like services will become standard

Vertical Twitter apps 
will start to appear

Stocktweets is the first one

Twitter will remain mostly used outside of Twitter.com

Language will evolve adapting to 140char, concise, ignore rules (thanks, @bernard_d)

@mentions spam will grow and become a tough to solve issue

There will be less and less bullshit 
in public events and in general

It will always be about you, 
not the tools

Oh and that makes 34 predictions, not 30, a few more came in last minute :-) add yours in comments!

0 My Mac OSX essential apps I could not live without

Since I had so many problems with Snow Leopard I finally completely backed up my mac and wiped it. Rather than getting it all back from a backup I just did a clean install of snow leopard (which now finally feels super fast) and I reinstalled the apps one by one, so I thought like sharing with you my must have.

-quicksilver to open super fast any app without using the mouse
-1password to only remember one password and that's all, for all the sites, with the 1password safari plugin
-delicious safari plugin to bookmark fast
-xmarks to sync my bookmarks from the cloud and find them on any computer I am
-seesmic for my social software life (you had no doubt about this one I am sure)
-mailplane to easily manage several gmail accounts
-skype  to stay in touch with my company (we use it continuously to work) and my friends
-spanning sync syncs my gmail contacts and calendar with the mac ical and contacts
-evernote to take notes and find them on all my computers and mobile
-fluid to make a web app behave like a normal app, works great with seesmic web 
-skitch to screencapture fast, add cool comments and post

oh and of course I forgot you need ilife to get imovie so I have to look for that dvd everywhere now.

I guess those I simply cannot live without those. Now my Mac feels real fast so I will enjoy that!

0 New features and languages on Seesmic web

We've added additional languages Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish in addition to English, German, Chinese and Romanian.
New also posting bar, reply to all feature and MrTweet partnership. More very soon!

0 Facebook Pages in Seesmic Desktop 0.6

Facebook Pages
We're excited to share with you a new feature that will allow Seesmic Desktop to access and manage your Facebook Pages. In version 0.6, you now can view and manage any Facebook Page you follow. Configure each Facebook Page to show up as a column, posts messages, and respond to comments and likes as you do in your personal Facebook feed. If you are the administrator, you can post messages as the administrator. With the Facebook Page feature, you have greater control on how you market your business, oversee your brand, listen to your fans and build your community.

View Facebook Pages in separate columns

Configure which Facebook Pages you want to show in the navigation bar (sidebar) in Seesmic Desktop

Manage Administered Pages that you’ve published

To learn more about creating Facebook Pages:
http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=905
To create a Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

If you don't have a Facebook Page, go and build one now!

Reply to All
Save time communicating with your friends and followers by replying to all of the usernames listed in a message. Instead of writing all the usernames when responding to a message, or "re-tweeting" and the editing a message, simply click on the gearwheel in an avatar and "Reply to All."

Favorites column
Along with an aggregated view of your full timeline (HOME, REPLIES, PRIVATE, and SENT), we have now added a FAVORITES column. Along with seeing a separate favorites view for each account, you now have a full view of all of your messages marked as favorite. We've also added the function to "Unfavor" a message, giving you full control to identify and manage your favorite messages.

Click on FAVORITES to see all the favorite messages in one column

Partnership with YFROG
We want to bring you the best for your shared pictures and we are proud to announce a new partnership with YFROG who becomes today our default picture posting service for all Seesmic applications. Click on the camera icon in either client and post your photos to Twitter via yfrog. It's just that simple. Yfrog is an easy way to share photos and videos from wherever you happen to be. Yfrog's infrastructure is powered by ImageShack, a safe and reliable hosting media since 2003.  

0 Flickr iPhone app video review

Flickr just released its native iPhone app, very clean and polished design, the flickr fans will love it. I have been disappointed that it does not let you share on Flickr and Facebook directly from the app.

0 I miss Paris

I just landed in Paris and the more I come back since I left two years ago the more I seem to miss it. Far from a point where I would consider coming back, but I miss it.

Trying to describe what I miss is not easy since now when I visit it is only for a few days and I feel like a tourist, kind of. Somehow. Like if I am from here and not anymore at the same time.

I miss my friends

That's obvious, I have many friends here that I have to see in a sprint mode when I visit and I can't see them all. This feeling is always balanced by the fact that I have an equal number of friends in Silicon Valley, if not more, now, that I would also miss.

I miss the way business is done believe it or not

In Paris I had always more than a month of lunch and breakfast meetings booked in advance. It would sound crazy to anyone in California but in Paris you meet people for the famous two hour or more lunches, generally one by one. It does not scale, like a grand chef cooking does not scale, but it does not matter, it is quality relationships you often build for life and I miss them. I am not even talking about the food yet here, but our capacity in a busy business day to not check email, shut down phones and just focus on catching up and getting to know each other better.

There are plenty of negatives associated to that habit, like for example the fact that most people are very hard to reach, meet and of course get to know deeply. Of course, they have months of meetings taken in advance during which they are busy catching up with each other. It was not rare that a lunch would be taken two or even three month in advance with someone important, your agenda fills fast this way. Of course you can think about how much time you gain by doing the San Francisco sandwich instead, but you lose the deep relationships that are very useful in this city.

I miss the food

I had to say it and it's loud and clear. My american friends often tell me San Francisco is one of the best places in the US for restaurants and finding good products. Indeed I love the Tartine bakery bread or the Ozumo sushis, even a good fat burger sometimes. But you have to leave Paris to realize how lucky you are when you live here, I have yet to find anywhere in the world as tasty oysters as our fines de claires or bretonnes, our bread and croissants which feel obvious here are unrivaled not to talk about the ambiance in Paris restaurants.

I sometimes even miss how badly the waiters treat you in hip places, it is part of the show. Sometimes I don't want to hear the fake "how are you doing today?" from that server in america who tells it without heart. Get your ass kicked in a branche restaurant in Paris because you can't find a table and have to wait, it will be heartfelt when the Costes hostess is so unpolite! Genuine and authentic.

Don't get me started about the fromager, I used to visit him once a week and spend an hour discussing and choosing cheese. Yes you can find very goodcheese and nice shops in San Francisco, but nothing as genuine and seasonal as here.

I miss the fashion and the style

My wife Geraldine and I often talk about it. Parisian girls dress up. Always. Even when they do not look like, they work their look a lot. Again, in San francisco many do too, but the jeans and baskets rule and frankly, I'd rather see my wife and the parisian girls wearing skirts more often and being sophisticated daily (Geraldine is very sophisticated daily though, anywhere she leaves). Better for your eyes even if it's less practical to wear. I am saying that as I myself got used to jeans and tshirt as standard business dress, but I could get easily back in the jacket white shirt jeans habit, no suit and tie thank you.

Don't get me wrong, I love San Francisco and the US and it is unlikely we come back before years, but I miss a lot of Paris "je ne sais quoi" as we say in the US. I can very well define what that "je ne sais quoi" is.

Anyway, I wrote this in the taxi from Charles de Gaulle to Paris, it is 23h00 and I need to leave you to enjoy oysters and fantastic steak tartare with a good bordeaux wine at one of my favorite place, with Rodrigo Sepulveda also known as @rodrigo that will enjoy them as much as I do.

0 Straight to the point

There are more cultural differences between Europe and the US than I thought, I get often reminded when I screw up on one!

This morning I was setting up an appointment in Paris with friends of friends to discuss a potential partnership, I would love to get to know them and their company better, but there is a clear agenda too, both can usually be accomplished: the get to know each other fun and the agenda. I will also be in Paris for only two days and many people to see, so time counts.

After two years in the US, I learned sometimes the hard way that you always have to go straight to the point to organize meetings, say clearly why you want to meet, what is the goal and the opportunity.

When I got introduced to these friends, they offered very kindly to setup a tour of their offices for me. While I would love to see them since they also have studios and meet the team, my new go straight to the point american way of business got me to reply with an email saying that tour would be fun but explaining clearly what would be my agenda for the meeting and our time.

I pressed "send" and immediately realized my mistake, in Paris you generally don't announce that first, you meet, have lunch, discuss without always a very clear agenda, then if we all get together well you go to the point. Certainly what you don't do is send an email like mine, while it is an absolute necessary preliminary in California.

I apologized and went back thinking about both ways of approaching business.

There isn't one better than another, just different styles that I enjoy. The French are very efficient when needed and the americans totally know how to take the time to get to know each other. I don't want to generalize too much of course, but I can feel this difference very often.

There is a deeper cultural difference than I thought though, do you agree?

0 Rediscovering my blackberry with the new Tour

After having been an iPhone fan and user for so long, I cheated Apple and made a Palm Pre my main phone for about a month. While I still enjoy and use daily my iPhone 3GS I have given up using the Palm Pre until the OS and the major apps such as the browser become faster.

I decided to give a try to the new Blackberry Tour which comes from Sprint with their unique and awesome all you can eat international unlimited data plan. If you travel, it is golden. I have yet to tether the Tour to my Mac and I will be in heaven, online anywhere in the world for a flat fee.

The Tour is between a curve and a bold in size. It is small enough while giving you a very good keyboard. I cannot praise more the blackberry keyboard, I type with two thumbs very fast on it without having to look at the keyboard and neither the Pre nor the iPhone give me that. I type reasonably fast on the iPhone in landscape mode now but not as fast as on the Tour.

I like the keyboard so much that I setup my Typepad post by email then tweet the post so that I start writing again longer posts from the Blackberry. We will see if that habit sticks again, I would love to get into some more serious blogging again and the Tour helps.

The browser isn't clearly as good as on the iPhone, far from it, but I was surprised in a good way by the progress made by RIM in that space, it's ok to surf the web, but not awesome.

Apps! I instantly downloaded gmail and it is amazing on the BB, especially the keyboard shortcuts and you do not miss much of the web experience.

Downloaded the blackberry appstore and the crackberry appstore, you can feel there is a growing activity in BB apps. Buying one isn't as smooth as in the appstore but both stores provide a good experience, I have not browsed enough yet to judge the quality of the apps. I installed Evernote which is useful but a bit disappointing since you cannot access your notes offline and edit them, but I am sure they will get there.

Multitasking has been a Blackberry plus for years, as well as push email. I also like the video and pic camera on the Tour but I still have to test its quality.

I really feel like having both the iphone for browsing and the apps, and the blackberry for typing fast and the worldwide data plan in my pockets, so much for traveling light!

0 Why we should all be Trust Agents

In a plane to Europe, I have just read Chris Brogan and Julien Smith new book, Trust Agents. I do not know Julien much (now I want to know him better) but Chris is a very good friend that I have been also enjoying amazing content from for years, so obviously I had high expectations for Trust Agents and I was not disappointed. 

I will from now on recommend people who ask me why they should use social software and build their online brand to read it. Most of you who are using social networks daily will think most of Chris and Julien expressed is common sense but it is still an entertaining read and opportunity to learn. Most of what we do daily is common sense as Chris himself tweeted recently, but it takes work to express it in an organized way. It does not focus on the tools, but on the human aspects on why you should build your community and how you should behave and approach it to become succesful online. 

Being "One Of Us". 

Chris and Julien describe a Trust Agent mostly as a state of mind. I feel that way, too. There are the ones who get it and the others. There are the ones we really want to hangout with or work with and the others. For example, there are people obsessed with sending you press releases and getting you to talk about their products or services as soon as possible and the ones who share and help you daily without asking for anything in return. Very different states of mind that Chris and Julien recognize are still not widespread in business, especially in this recession world where efficiency and speed come first. Building your community and becoming a Trust Agent takes much more time than buying a google adsense ad for sure, but is much more important long term both for your personal and business brand. There is huge value in Social capital, Chris and Julien explain, and I agree. "Capital is usually defined as "any for of wealth capable of being employed in the production of more wealth". The authors explain that while social capital is different from other forms of capital, it is a form of wealth. "Buying somebody a cup of coffee is a real exchange of value, and it can at some point be repaid". 

 Play your life like a game. 

I really enjoyed this section of the book where the authors suggest you see your own life like a video game. It helps you see things in a much more fun way (life isn't that fun most of the time, so it might require some imagination when things go really bad though!). Have goals like in a game, compete with others in a friendly way, get feedback and interact. Hacking your life like a game is getting popular too, follow Tim Ferriss to learn more about that! 

(CxRxI)/4 = T the formula of trust 

I loved the idea, here are the definitions read the book for more C=credibility R=reliability I=intimacy S=self-orientation It's not who you know, it's who knows you Chris and Julien insist on sharing as much as possible, be focused on helping others and long term it will pay back. If you get a question by email or a thought with a friend that you feel can be interesting for others, share it, tweet it, blog it, record a video, anything that makes it available to anyone online. Leaving regularly small pieces of help, as small as sharing an interesting link, will help others discover you, trust you and know you. One day they might help you in return, in fact it is likely they do. Never would have LeWeb, my conference in Paris, become a 2,000 people and 35 countries event should I have not been helped that much by my online friends. From finding a job to launching a new product there is no other choice in our low attention world than becoming visible by sharing and helping others. 

Congratulations to Chris and Julien, I know what it takes to write a book as I wrote two myself in French and will probably write another one when, I hope, Seesmic is a success and leaves me more time to write. In the meantime, I am trying to get back to traditional blogging with longer blog posts in the middle of the tweets river.