When you first here about it you think that this will kill foursquare and gowalla, but if you read twitter’s blog you will see that apart from letting people tag specific places they will also allow apps like gowalla’s and foursquare linked to twitter (the big bro) post also specific locations.

In addition to this twitter will allow external apps to access places information through an improved API.

Will this kill Gowalla and Foursquare?

Well they both have a niche: games, major, stuff you leave, photos, tips, so … I don’t think so. It will just make twitter better.Also don’t forget about Google Places:

Facebook

First it was Facebook. They changed a lot. Before they had this bar at the bottom of the page with the apps, chat and so, which is now back to the traditional menus in the top and left.

People complained at the beginning, but this is normal. Changes of this type should be done in consultation with users, but in a dictatorship way. What do I mean with this? People do not like change. When people is used to a way of seeing information and to interact, to change it will always mean to go for worse, at least at the beginning. Over time, users will recognize that the changes were for good.

Twitter

Twitter was the second to change. The strength of twitter is updated tweets, and trends.
I have talked about twitter many times. At the beginning they struggled to cope with growth and they were down very often. Now they struggle to catch up with things like brighkite (which I love) does: location and photo. Even they could have video, maps and so… but no, they keep it simple. It remind me the fight between video VHS and Betamax. Betamax was the best technical option but VHS won. Well, twitter is not the best, but they have the most important ingredient: success.
Now popular topics, tweets, and users are clear in the frontpage. A “Top Tweets” section that dynamically updates using a custom algorithm to decide what is popular or of general interest. I have always though that the trends are absolutely useless but top tweets could be good, unless we start seeing “good night” or “followfridays”… They also have added a dynamically scrolling list of trending topics that when hovered over explain their trending status.

Youtube

The last redesign was for YouTube. Again people complained. If you take a look at YouTube you will be surprised by the simplicity. It is basically no design. Nothing. Very interesting that such a successful website chooses this simplistic approach. Their secret is in the ajax-like movement of things, with a new commenting system that highlights top-rated comments,  a “like/dislikes” rating system that replaces the previous five star system and a new “next video to watch” sidebar that is “smarter”. It feels different but not a lot. Take a look at the menus, the footer menu, just plain text. No lines no nothing. Is this more user friendly? It is less cluttered, that is for sure. Maybe because it is a google product and googles is not… well particular at design?

For me trends as twitter shows them are spammy and useless. For what I see with this improvement, only a few cities in the world are included. Obviously not Barcelona, where I am now, or Geneva where I live.

In a nutshell what you can do with your lists is to cluster the people you follow (for instance) in topics.

In my cases at @tokao I see everybody, while @tokao/tech the twits about tech, and so on.

I think it is one of the best things twitter has done since the beginning.

Step 1: Follow the instructions at Twittercal.com to get set up
Step 2: Send a Direct Message to gcal to enter a new calendar appointment. Example: “D gcal meeting with John P at Twisted Root on Saturday July 10 at 1:00 PM”

Between ping.fm straight forward posting methods and advanced custom triggers, we make it easy for you to post your messages exactly where you want them to go.

Give it a try!

And more video tutorials here.

Mixero.