The Realtime Web Just Keeps Gettin’ More “Real”

A recent TechCrunch article analyzed the actual increase in Twitter usage over 2009. While use on Twitter.com itself remained relatively flat, usage of third-party sites and applications utilizing the Twitter API had grown significantly:

For example, the rate at which bit.ly links are being clicked on is growing at a steep ramp, with more than 500 million clicks (or bit.ly “decodes”) per week. [John Borthwick, betaworks/bit.ly CEO] writes that “last week was the largest week ever for clicks on bit.ly links. 564m were clicked on in total. On the Jan 6th there were a record of 98m decodes.” On January 8, 2009, TweetDeck surpassed 4 million updates in a single day. And Twitterfeed now supports more than 800,000 feeds from more than 400,000 publishers.

Throughout human history, technology has made living more convenient. But it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that the influx of innovation permeated every facet of everyday life. This phenomenon is as relevant now as it was then, with Twitter-related technologies tracking and describing our very movements.

For example, the recent announcement of the Yelp.com iPhone upgrade allowing for location check-ins was widely discussed over the past few days. While tech bloggers discussed its direct threat to Foursquare, another popular location check-in application for the iPhone, one couldn’t help but wonder how the market became so saturated with just this one type of service (we still have Loopt, Gowalla for Android users, and already bade farewell to Google’s Dodgeball earlier last year).

It’s valuable market data that consumers are more than willing to freely provide. And this is just a small segment of the vast network of Twitter-related technologies available. Businesses (and friends) are now more able to track a number of our explicit preferences in realtime. Hopefully this proliferation of personal information means they’re listening, and more willing to provide relevant products and services.

The Whole Yelp And Google Dealie

No one’s really sure why Yelp denied Google’s half billion dollar bid, but the rumor on the street is a bigger baller came into town and dropped more on Jeremy’s dining room table.

(UPDATE: San Francisco Examiner (12/22) – Apparently Google declined the deal because “Yelp wasn’t being transparent during discussions.”)

From TechCrunch:

The deal was, as we wrote late last week, in the later stages of negotiation. The two companies had agreed on a price – around $550 million plus earnouts – and were working through the final details of the acquisition.

Then something happened that made Yelp reconsider the deal. Over the weekend they notified Google that they were not going to sell, say multiple sources.

Many rightfully queried if the Google acquisition of Yelp would kill the Yelp Elite community. Does Google have as good a track record for stimulating the masses as it does in developing the platforms on which such stimulation could occur? Take a look at Blogger or Jaiku. While both offer robust technologies for content creation and sharing, neither offers the strong communal bonds that Yelp has encouraged. In other words, Google makes great toys but it won’t guide you in the game room.

From Gizmodo:

No word yet on exactly what drove Yelp to back down, but there are really just two main possibilities here:

• Yelp was uneasy with whatever Google’s plans for their company were. Given that Google already has a Yelp-like service in Google Places, there was a good chance that their plans would’ve involved cannibalizing Yelp for review data, or at least subordinating the brand for something more Googly.

• Yelp got a better offer, or at least the sense that they could get a better offer. Not that many tech companies could offer more than $550m for something as ephemeral and low-revenue as Yelp, but of the ones that could, nearly all—Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Aol—are locked in one war or another with Google. Even if their plans were never firm, there are a lot of powerful companies with a vested interest in Google’s local reviews staying somewhat lame.

So who else could it be? Hopefully not Microsoft. If Google got the collective Yelper long johns in a bunch, just imagine the fear generated in the village if Microsoft placed a secret bid. There’s still the possibility that Yelp is holding out, expanding to gain more value as it enters new cities and markets. Last Saturday, Honolulu had their first Yelp Hawaii Elite Event. That should add a few more dollars and cents to any future bids.

From Yelp Talk:

Does this mean http://Gelp.com will be worth money?

Now what kind of site would Gelp be?