Is Today the Internet’s Sweeps Week?

Today, or this week for that matter, has to have been one of the biggest news junket days in a long time.  There’s trending topics galore. Let me try to list a few off the top of my head.

  • XBOX Live got a new UI update to accomodate the surge of Kinect users, not to mention the addition of functional apps to make the unit more of a media center than a video game console.
  • Catching a replay of Rachel Crow being voted off of X-Factor caused a live uproar of everyone bugging out and panicking from the decision.  It makes for good TV so keep rolling but also disturbing at the same time.  Guess that’s what happens when you reduce the audition age to 12?  
  • The popular iPad app, Flipboard finally got added to the iPhone and with that, Google has also created their “magazine”-style news app called Google Currents.  It’s basically a way to make news more interesting to read and to catch trending topics amongst all the sites ou there.
  • NBA has been causing more of an uproar on gossip than TMZ amongst where players will be traded before the late season start comes upon us on Christmas Day, December 25.  Not to mention, I think it’s the first time that I’ve seen a legitimate veto by the commisioner on a trade to sent Chris Paul to LA in a 3-way trade (including the Houston Rockets).

    Atop of that in the MLB, you have Pujols leaving the World Series champion Cards to join the Angels.

  • Google+ has not given the fight up to compete with the resources that Facebook has retained their audience with and are still trying to appeal to the masses, especially considering how many people use Google.  They are going to lauch their own “Events” style page on the platform to hopefully entice users their way, just as they did businesses with their business pages.

    This leads to the big Twitter UI update across the board –  on the web, mobile device apps and even on Tweetdeck taking on the udpate simultaneously.

  • Twitter went through a huge facelift today and without any hiccups.  We are typically used to seeing them distribute their new layout in waves but somehow they were able to pull a surprise update, not just visually but conceptually with no lag.  Of course, you have people that have to say something about it or what use would Twitter be.  “Mentions” are called “Connects” now that actually includes your “Mentions” but also has a new tab of your interactions of activity with your account, such as new followers and RTs.  It also has a new “Discovery” tab which basically consists of the culturally adopted hashtag (#).   They’ve somehow found a way to make Twitter understandable to the masses instead of a cult following in order to follow news and create interactions for people.  

    It’s impressive in my opinion.  It looks very techie now though.  From what Twitter used to be, which was essentially a VERY simple idea and website of simple text and a reply button and an @ symbol to relay messages to one another.  People created their own jargon and twitter lingo which eventually went mainstream and is used across almost every social media outlet that’s out there.

  • The iPhone app store went a little crazy with updates. A couple minor bug updates but also a bunch of refreshing and new apps and app updates.  If you’ve witnessed my banter, I get a little excited over updates.  I don’t know why but I do.  It’s like finding the extra french fries in the bottom of your fast food bag.  It just makes the iPhone feel like a new phone again especially with all these news apps, which I include twitter in now as they showcase their trending topics and news stories.  It’s INSANE what the internet has become.

    I, for one, like that posterous is sticking to their guns and evolving their platform to those of the likes of tumblr, wordpress, blogspot and any other type of blog/microblogging platform.  They’ve improved leaps and bounds from what they started with and their application and their web platform is pretty solid right, especially their aesthetic but simple themes.  I’m glad it’s stuck around and I confidently jumped on to use them.  A job well done.

Yesterday, I was taken aback by how vast the music world has become in such a short amount of time.  Everyone has access to music from all over the world instantly.  It used to be taboo what kind of music existed on the other side of the earth unless you knew someone there and brought it back with them home.  You just didn’t know, but now, the internet is making normal people with extraordinary talent to live a dream and quicker than it could ever have been possible by being “discovered” or in an “audition” and finding an audience all at the same time.  You see the process happen in front of your eyes.

It’s funny because, WE, as a whole, created this.  This is man-made.  Technology, that is.  Wow. 

Anyway, it was a damn interesting day in the trending topic world.  Not to mention the surprising shooting at Viriginia Tech again.  Geez.