Seesmic acquires Ping.fm

One million posts a day you say? Very possible now that Seesmic has acquired Ping.fm. Personally it was a shock, I’m not privy to Silicon Valley chatter, but I think for most Seesmic Desktop users, this will offer a bevy of updating options. At last count there were over 50 sites that Ping.fm updated, and now Seesmic Desktop will harness this power. But this is just the top of iceberg. With some further API development and plug-in updates, this positions Seesmic closer to their goal of one million posts a day for 2010.

A huge congrats goes out to Loic Le Meur who not only acquired the application, but also the founding talent behind it, Adam Duffy and Sean McCollough who are now joining the Seesmic team full time. With talent like this in an already powerful application any other future goals seem like a no brainer when it comes to possibility of achieving. According to TechCrunch, Ping.fm boasts approximately 500,000 users with approximately 200,000 updates a day.

I’m interested to see how this plays out in the battle for social media supremacy. Currently Tweetdeck, which seemed to vie for the position of social media go-to app, will be left in the dust once Seesmic integrates the updating power of Ping.fm. Currently Tweetdeck updates, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn, a far cry from the 50 that Ping.fm reaches. Personally I’m a Tweetdeck user, but this acquisition could make me change my desktop app of choice.

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Seesmic’s Acquistion of Ping.fm Secures Future Goals originally appeared on: Crenk
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It’s a known fact that if you’re on a social network, there are those that are simply on to connect with a few people, co-workers, family, old friends; there are also those that connect professionally because they are considered industry leaders in their field and they attract a lot of attention when they say something or share something on their profile. I’m not touting to be one of those people, but we all know who they are. Whether you’re in media, finance, law, science, there are people that we follow that people listen to.

Still no matter what level we are in with regards on online status, many of us go through the same facets of life, experience the same problems at the home, at work, in conferences, etc. These topics blur the line of who we are when people do a search for us. Someone doing research or looking to find credible information on a topic might come across someones rant just as easily as they would someones concise opinion on a situation.

It’s this very premise that the idea of authority based searching be something all social networks consider, more specifically, Twitter.

The Low-Down

This most recent cage rattling has resurfaced thanks to Loic Le Meur, and his pleading with Twitter to build in this authority based search function to filter out, for lack of a better word, the rabble. I highly respect Loic and all of his efforts with Le Web ’08 this year, and despite the backlash it received regarding the finer details, I thought what was UStreamed was quality panel discussions and speakers. Someone of Loic’s capacity does a lot of Internet searching, finding hot trends, finding the right people, and ultimately wants to make every minute he spends doing work count. If you don’t like Loic, substitute anyone you’d rather hear about in his place, the outcome is still the same. He only wants to read what top users are saying because their voice as a wider broadcasting scope as opposed to someone who only has 100 followers.

The question becomes does it matter? Well, the topic of discussion might be the same; there is a reason why someone with 100 followers would have come up on a search of that topic, but in terms of people listening, they just don’t have it. Users with a large established follower base are those that people go to when they are looking for information, thus becoming portals or hubs that can connect the seeker with the information he needs from either the hub or someone in that network of followers. Transfer the idea to real life. Do you take your ideas to someone on a soap box with five people watching, or to someone in a conference room with thousands of people listening?

Is This Discriminating?

So you’re one of those people with 100 followers, you’re reading what Loic is saying, and perhaps have heard others clamour for the same thing, are you offended? Does this make you feel like what you have to say has little worth compared to someone with a larger number of followers saying the same thing? I think it’s silly to think that just because you happen to be discussing the same topic as someone noteworthy, that you rank on the same level as them. It’s like having two degreed people with the same piece of paper, except one has 20+ years of experience and one just got their degree, there is no way they stand on the same ground.

As stated earlier in this post, the idea of authority based searching is nothing new. Technorati does this with its blog search function, filtering in search of sites with merit in terms of page hits and readership. It’s nothing new, but to those that fall out of the category it sounds pompous and conceited.

I disagree, I think there is definitely something to be said about finding the authorities on different topics for the sake of saving time and also ensuring that more people here what you have to say. Personally, I don’t see this happening with Twitter, but perhaps Loic has the power to make things happen. Right now Twitter has seemingly tackled the stability issue, needs to focus on a monetizing method, and who knows what else is happening internally.

I’m curious to hear what the readers have to say. Is there merit to authority based searching, or is this just conceited demands made by those in the top tier of their profession looking only to associate with other top tier professionals?

Sound off!

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What’s the Deal With Authority Based Search? originally appeared on: Crenk
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Image via CrunchBase

• Seesmic’s Acquistion of Ping.fm Secures Future Goals – January 5, 2010
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• Mobile Web Usage Doubles in 2009 – January 8, 2010
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• What’s the Deal With Authority Based Search? – December 28, 2008

Economic Downtown Hits Social Networks originally appeared on: Crenk
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