The Best Tech People To Follow On Twitter

With so much tech news out there, it's tough to keep track of what's new, and what's important.

The best thing to do is turn to Twitter, where reporters and newsmakers share links and gab.

We've assembled 25 of the best tech people to follow on Twitter. Click the link below to check them out. 

David Pogue, New York Times columnist

David pogue is the god of the gadget world. He writes a column for the New York Times and makes several appearances on news programs.

Follow him at @pogue

Tim Bradshaw of the FT

Tim Bradshaw is the Financial Times' digital media correspondent. Great tech and media news and analysis from the world's finest financial newspaper, with an Euro angle you don't see elsewhere.

Plus his handle is @tim, which is pretty cool.

Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen is a Silicon Valley startup entrepreneur who writes a great metrics-focused blog on startup success tips. Full of insight and a great way to get your hand on the pulse of Silicon Valley.

Find him at @andrewchen

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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See Also:

• 10 Most Followed People On Twitter Who Aren't Celebrities
• Right Now, Twitter Shareholders Are Deciding Whether Or Not They Want To Be Super Rich – Or Just Plain Rich
• THE TRUTH ABOUT GROUPON: Yes, It Can Make Money—No, It Won't Be Easy

The Best Tech People To Follow On Twitter

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Meet The 18 People Behind Your Favorite Social Media Accounts (designfeeds.com.au)

... content curation? And what about geolocation? Are they on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Trumblr, Gowalla, Loopt, SoundCloud, Slideshare, vYou, Flickr or even GetGlue? What do they think of Google+? Which is their fastest growing media account? And do you ever sleep? We ask them here. Virgin America: Jill Okawa Fletcher and Nick Schwartz Virgin America is a great example of a brand...

Source : DesignFeeds.com.au

Explore : Geolocation, Gizmodo, NASA, Sciences, Social Network

Meet the 18 people behind your favorite social media accounts (DesignFeeds.com.au)

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The Firefox People Are Building A Mobile OS (GOOG, AAPL, MSFT)

Mozilla -- the organization behind the Firefox Web browser -- plans to build a "complete, stand-alone operating system for the Web" called Boot to Gecko, or B2G. It is being designed for mobile devices.

Why? Because the foundation wants to make sure that developers can build Web apps -- particularly HTML5 apps -- that are equal to native apps.

If this sounds familiar, that's because Google's ChromeOS has a similar goal -- to turn Web apps into desktop apps -- and a similar open-source pedigree.

But ChromeOS is subject to business conflicts with Google's other operating system, Android.

Android is not quite as "open" as Chrome, but Android is a huge commercial success, with more than 500,000 device activations every day. ChromeOS is not -- the first Chromebooks are getting panned by reviewers and are interesting mainly as an an academic exercise ("hey, what if we turned the Web into an operating system?")

So the Mozilla project is taking the basic ChromeOS idea and focusing it on the mobile market where Android plays -- for instance, B2G will have ways for developers to get at phone functions like placing calls and taking pictures. At a very low level, the kernel is based on Android.

It's an interesting idea, but to move beyond an academic exercise and into real-world shipping products, B2G will have to get some big commercial company to adopt it.

Maybe it could form the basis of that long-rumored Facebook phone. Or perhaps another big player with mobile ambitions, like Amazon, might take the fledgling OS under its wing.

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See Also:

• THE APPLE INVESTOR: Apple Now Has Over $75B In Cash, But Don't Expect A Dividend
• THE APPLE INVESTOR: Apple Boosting Staff At Retail Stores For Back-To-School, iPhone 5 And Holiday Season
• Here's Why The Bing-Yahoo Deal Isn't Working So Far

The Firefox People Are Building A Mobile OS (GOOG, AAPL, MSFT)

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The Color Of Your Website Has A Huge Impact On What People Buy

Most entrepreneurs think about the color of their site in terms of how colors look together and whether they’re generally appealing, but color actually has a lot more to do with what your visitors think about your site – and the actions they take – than you might realize.

There have been entire books written about the psychology of color in buying habits. It’s a topic that has been well studied, and most marketing degrees include at least some study of this topic. We don’t want to bore you with psychology talk though. So here are the basics of what various colors mean, who they appeal to, and who should use them.

First, a Few Stats

Some of these statistics have to do with the color of individual products, but they demonstrate very clearly the power color has in the minds of consumers. According to a recent KISSMetrics report:

• 93% of consumers place color and appearance above other factors when making a buying decision.

• 85% of shoppers state color as the primary factor in their decision to buy a product.

• Brand recognition, which links directly to consumer confidence, is increased by 80% when the right colors are used.

What Does it Mean?

It’s important to know what specific colors mean to people. It’s been shown that certain colors invoke specific feelings in most people, so let’s see what colors really mean.

Yellow: Youthful and optimistic. Use it to grab attention. Usually not good as a background or primary site color.

Red: Energy. Creates urgency and increases heart rate. Good for appealing to impulse shoppers.

Blue: Creates feelings of trust and security. This is why many banks use it in their logos or marketing. Navy or dark blue  is used to market to the budget-conscious.

Green: Gives the impression of wealth. Relaxing and easy-going. Teal can be used to appeal to people on a budget.

Orange: Aggressive and excitement. Good for calls to action and impulse buying.

Pink: Feminine and romantic. Used to market to women and girls and traditional buyers.

Black: Powerful and sleek. Use it to market luxury products and appeal to impulse buyers.\

Purple: Soothing and calming. Often used to market anti-aging products.

Part of the study mentioned above found that what your site visitors see when they come to your site, from overall design to the colors used, really does make an impact on whether they buy from you. In fact, 52% of people surveyed who said they would not return to a site stated the reason as ‘aesthetics.’ If there was ever any question, that should confirm that the look of your site is one of the most important parts of your business.

How did you choose the colors for your website? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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See Also:

• If You Break The Rules On Google+, You Can Lose All Google Services
• Jamie Dimon Explains Why No One On Wall Street Cares About The Debt Ceiling
• Google's Q2 Earnings Blow Past Expectations -- Stock Up 12%

The Color Of Your Website Has A Huge Impact On What People Buy

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Power To The People

As I type this, a UPS beeps furiously behind me, and the growl of half-a-dozen diesel generators is audible down the street. I'm in Leh, a city nestled in a Himalayan valley surrounded by 6,000-metre / 20,000-foot peaks, the fast-growing capital of India's northernmost territory Ladakh. It's clearly outgrown its electrical capacity; power cuts hit several times a day. Power generation is a deeply unsexy but profoundly important subject in the developing world. Technology is busily transforming lives all around the globe as you read this, but the dearth of reliable electricity is a massive obstacle even in major cities, much less faraway villages. People do find various imperfect and ingenious ways to cope.

Power To The People

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Zuckerberg Surprised That People Are Surprised He’s On Google+

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg joining Google+ was a major media event, with everyone from Forbes to The Daily Mail covering the fact that the founder established a Google+ profile, building Circles that include former Facebooker Dustin Moskovitz and current Facebook CTO Bret Taylor. While many were doubtful that the real Zuckerberg would join a competing social service, tech blogger Robert Scoble texted Zuckerberg himself to confirm, tweeting out "Name drop moment. Zuckerberg just texted me back. Says "Why are people so surprised that I'd have a Google account?"

Zuckerberg Surprised That People Are Surprised He’s On Google+

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"It's Like Facebook With No People" (GOOG)

Whoo boy! Did I ever get railed in the comments for comparing Google+ to Facebook in my tour of the new service.

But if you don't have an invite yet, take a look at these screenshots, and you'll see it's hard not to make the comparison.

I decided to take a moment and delve a little deeper into why I think Google+ won't work in the long run:

Recycled Features

Save for some minor improvements, Google+ offers nothing groundbreaking enough to drive the masses from Facebook. Almost every feature from "Circles" to "Streams" has a counterpart feature in Facebook.

The only notable exception is "Hangouts," the feature that lets you host group video chats with your friends. It's pretty cool, but again, I can't see someone ditching Facebook just so they can video chat.

Yes, it will help that Google+ is baked into Google services like Gmail, but that still doesn't mean all those users will suddenly stop using Facebook because there's now a "+You" button at the top of their inboxes.

Everyone's already on Facebook, and most don't use Gmail. A social network is no good unless your friends are on it too.

As my colleague Dan Frommer put it: "It's like Facebook with no people."

Google+ even looks like Facebook, except with a whiter background. Frankly, it's embarrassing for Google. If the way we share information on the web is as broken as Google says, it does no good to tweak a few of Facebook's annoyances and pitch it as a revolution.

What I Do Like

All these criticisms don't mean I think Google+ is a bad product. It's actually well-designed and easy to use.

Facebook has its problems, and Google+ addresses many of them. The design is user-friendly. Circles are a brilliant way to group friends and actually kind of fun to make. And the mobile app for Android is a great way to get your mobile photos online instantly. (The upcoming iPhone app will do the same.)

Plus, Google gets a huge win for making privacy settings very easy to manage. Facebook, on the other hand, has yet to figure out how to implement clear privacy settings. (Check out my old post on it to see for yourself.)

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Google+ is a solid product on its own. But it's not rich or new enough to get people to make the switch.

And there's nothing keeping Facebook from making changes on the features that Google+ does better. It already has a 700 million user head start.

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See Also:

• Here's Our Top To Bottom Tour Of Google's Answer To Facebook
• Everything You Need To Know About Google+ (Including What The Heck It Is)
• This Is What Google TV 2.0 Will Look Like

"It's Like Facebook With No People" (GOOG)

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