Do you send SMS to twitter?

I have developed a solution to post messages to twitter and identica using SMS. This service is provided to Norwegian twitters under the name RyghSMS. The user base isn’t big, but it is slowly growing. But there has been a shift in the use after the iPhone. More and more people use iPhone apps when posting messages to twitter when they are away from their computers.

As twitter is providing a UK number, the only gain by using RyghSMS is a lower cost because it has a domestic number in Norway. It has taken several hours to develop the solution – and as it is provided free of charge – it will never become a “big business”. But the solution can manage a higher level of traffic. So the plan is to move it from “invite-only” to an “open-beta”. The beta will be open to “everybody” early in November.

Dual accounts on twitter

I started earlier this year posting to twitter from two accounts (rygh and nicolairygh). I separated out all my Norwegian tweets to a new account. At first this new account got a lot of followers without the “main” account losing any followers. But I have reviewed my follower-list and I see a trend. Some Norwegians follow only my Norwegian account. And based on my “small” review, it is mainly those who tweet in Norwegian who remove English tweets.

I never tweet the same content in two languages, and I mainly use my English account for all my tweets. But sometimes I use my Norwegian account, because it makes sense to respond to a topic in the same language as the rest of the people discussing the topic. So I guess people will change who they follow also based on content or language. I like this trend (even if it makes me lose followers)! Content, and in this case language, is king!

You want to be in my Blogroll?

I have a small transition underway. My blog recently moved from nicolai.rygh.no to nicolai.no. I am going to keep “everything” on rygh.no except my blog. Where the trend is that people kill of their blog will I continue to have a “homepage”. Separating the two makes sense for me as the blog can be more me, more dynamic and just about what I think about everything and nothing. The Rygh.no site will be my business, my portfolio, my CV and my web projects. Some of them open to everybody and some of them only for friends or customers. As soon as the new Rygh.no site is updated will I post a blog post about it.

Time has come to move my “links” from my old page over to my blog. Moving them over to the blog also changes the content of the links. The list will be an updated list over the blogs I read. So do you think your blog should be listed there?

I’ll make it easy. I’ll add those blogs I really think should be there, and if you comment on this blog post – and your blog already is listed in my Google reader – then I’ll add you! Good luck!

Branding toys for children

04.10.2009
Originally uploaded by rygh

It is so easy, so extremely efficient – and it works. Disney/Pixar has just made the perfect movie in terms of merchandise. My 2 year old just loves them. He started a year ago being very into Thomas (the train), and some of the Disney movies has been popular – but nothing close to the Cars movie. I discussed this with my wife, and we think it is because our 2 year old like the cars because they have faces, just like Thomas the train.

So when Disney plans a new movie – how much time is dedicated to merchandising in the start? Is this a factor when they design the movie, or do they have the powers to merchandise almost anything? I think they plan everything into details before the movie is ready for the cinemas. A good carton movie is a movie that both children and their parents find interesting. The story needs to add value both in the direct story but also with references that the parents find interesting. Disney has a very good history in doing this.

I have seen the Cars movie a lot of times, not sure how many – but every time there is something new, a small part that I haven’t really reflected over. One-liners or something that happens in the background is what makes this movie great. And all these small items just the movie better – and making it easier for me to put THAT movie into the DVD player one more time. And every time we play that DVD we make the Cars brand stronger, making it easier for new merchandise to be charged to my MasterCard.

Earlier today I gave away my Google wave invites

I got the invite to Wave from Google, logged into wave and found the form to invite people. I decided to give them all away by writing a short blog post saying that the 7 first to comment would get them – and so I did. I posted a link to the blog post on twitter and had about 100 pageviews within 10 minutes. The lucky people have been put in the form on Google Wave – so hopefully Google will send out the invites soon.

Not sure if I get more invites, but if I do, I’ll do a new stunt like this!

I got 7 invites for Google Wave – want one?

Just got invited to Google Wave Preview, and I can invite 7 people. It says that the invites will not be sent immediately – or as Google says:

“Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.”

So I’ll do it easy – the first 7 comments on this blog post will get my invites!