Code, Camera, Action

And like media, the most important measurement for software today is the number of engaged users. The more engaged users a piece of software has, the more impactful it can be.

Jeremy Toeman has a fantastic analysis of the Twitter experience for new users. Lots of lessons here for Twitter -- and for anyone putting together a new user experience.

Twitter needs to thoroughly overhaul the new user experience.  Forget “suggested users” and focus on “suggested uses.”

via livedigitally.com

Apple's 4-week approval for iPhone apps interferes with bug fixes. And that interferes with making the best software -- and inspiring the best people.

An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose the ability to win by doing better work. And it’s not fun for a smart person to work in a place where the best ideas aren’t the ones that win.

via paulgraham.com

There are roughly 20 times more people playing FarmVille these days than there are actual farms in the U.S.

via businessweek.com

Great recipes (zillions of them) -- and in-app advertising done right.

Back in the web 1.0 days, Conde Nast put all of the recipes from Gourmet and its other food magazines online at http://epicurious.com. The recipes were searchable and over time Epicurious added ratings and other community features.

It's been a fabulous resource for cooks. They are great recipes, and there are lots of them -- including the 1955 recipe for steak au poivre that keeps me from going vegetarian.

Epicurious has now come to the iPhone with the free "Epicurious recipies and shopping list" app http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=312101965&mt=8 .

That whole recipe database is now searchable from your iPhone. And, yes, it will make a grocery list from the recipes you pick.

• search the entire Epicurious recipe database -- from the phone 
• see how other Epicurious users have rated the recipes 
• save favorite recipes 
• generate a shopping list from the recipes you pick 
• check off items as you buy them 
• price: free 

But how do they pay for that? The app is ad-supported, but in the least-intrusive way I've seen in an app. Here's how it works --

A search tells you how many results were found (see the second screenshot below). If you click to see the results, the app then splashes an ad while it retrieves the recipes (third screenshot). The experience feels perfectly natural. "Oh," I thought, "I'm waiting anyway, may as well view an ad."

Woah! This is completely different than, say, the New York Times approach -- where the splash ad get between you and content you may not want anyway.

What's the difference? With Epicurious, I've seen enough to know I want to go on, so an ad is okay with me. Search confirms my intent.

The Times, though is a browsing operation. From a headline I don't often know if the story will be what I want -- or worth sitting through an ad.

For me, the result of the experience is annoyance or, for Epicurious, gratitiude.

Can you afford to annoy your users?

         

Seth Sternberg, Meebo CEO, on Getting A Product Out The Door. To a startup, product is all that matters. Everything else: users, partners, connections depends on speedy execution.

At the exact moment you had your idea, ten other people had the exact same idea. There was just something in the environment that made it the right time for folks to think that one up. The race has already begun! Who’s going to execute first? Who’s going to execute best? If you want to waste nine months trying to raise VC money for that idea, great. But six months in, you’re gonna cry when you see someone else put out that same product you’re pitching me right now. Like I said, forget everything else and just get your product out the door. Now.

via techcrunch.com