It might seem like a bit of an overkill with all of these Twitter clones, but Yammer seems to fall into a bit more of a niche. Creating a network solely for you and your coworkers (based on your email addresses), Yammer lets you microblog what you're working on, and check in with your colleagues as well. You can also post updates directly through an IM service. Seems like it could be handy in a company where lots of people work offsite. Check it out here.

Twitter just launched a new architecture to help streamline some of their navigation, featuring a simplified top nav, and a tab-base right navigation for moving through tweets. Not sure how I feel about it yet, but check it out at Twitter!

Pink may or may not be the new black, but [I'm hoping that] Plurk may, in fact, be the new Twitter. Taking Tweeting up a few notches, Plurk displays your Plurks (140-character messages), as well as the Plurks from your friends and those you follow, in a really great visual timeline, taking status/Twitter stalking up to a whole new level. It also allows you to formulate your message with a variety of qualifiers (allowing others to see what you need, like, say, wonder, feel, etc.) at any given time (don't worry, there's also the option for the freestyle Plurk for you more free spirited folks out there). With an overall better design and layout, and a little bit more of a fun factor, I'm hoping Plurk will catch on over Twitter. I'm definitely a convert. Now if only I can figure out a way to integrate this with my Tumblr...hm...

It’s free and comes with a slew of touch interface bells and whistles built right in. The app is intended to allow for seamless navigation between tweets, photos, web pages, videos and other media and updates. It’s also usable even for those who don’t have Twitter accounts. Twitter for iPad [iTunes link] has a few new UI touches that you haven’t seen elsewhere.

I'll admit it - I'm a complete internet radio junkie. I love it, listen to it constantly, and rely on it to introduce me to new stuff. Up until now, I've been a solid last.fm girl, but I recently stumbled upon blip.fm. Blip is an odd combination of Twitter and internet radio, that allows you to become a "DJ," to "blip" what you're listening to, and to listen to other DJs who have similar tastes to you. I'm still trying to get a feel for how it all works, but it seems pretty great. Check it out here - and add me as a DJ - my DJ name is "isureamheather."

Twitter has just passed the One Billion Tweets mark, according to GigaTweet!

According to a new Nielsen Online report (and reported here by Wired), Twitter users have shot up 343% since September 2007 - making it the fastest growing social network in the United States. In growth rates, behind Twitter came Tagged.com and Ning. While Facebook has experienced a 116% growth since last year, MySpace still rules with themost members (59.4 million in September, compared to 39 million for Facebook), despite it's measly 1% jump from last year. See more on the Nielson Online report here.

Last month a social media analytics provider called Sysomos published a in-depth report on Twitter usage. Here are the 10 conclusions that might help a brand to  better understand the potential uses of Twitter:

• 72.5% of all users joining during the first five months of 2009.
• 85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update/day
• 21% of users have never posted a Tweet
• 93.6% of users have less than 100 followers, while 92.4% follow less than 100 people.
• 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity
• New York has the most Twitters users, followed by Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston; while Detroit was the fast-growing city over the first five months of 2009
• More than 50% of all updates are published using tools, mobile and Web-based, other than Twitter.com. TweetDeck is the most popular non-Twitter.com tool with 19.7% market share.
• There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)
• Of the people who identify themselves as marketers, 15% follow more than 2,000 people. This compares with 0.29% of overall Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people.

And now some great eye candy to go along with your daily stalking of Twitter: Visible Tweets. Just check out what it did to the 4C tweets: By the way, are you following the 4C team on Twitter? If not - you should! @4cornersdesign

A friend just turned me on to this delightfully simple work log, ididwork.com. The name pretty much says it all; log the work that you did, tag it if you like, and ididwork.com will create charts mapping your work, email your logs to your manager (if desired), and schedule work reviews. This is a handy little tool for jobs where you have to log hours on certain projects, or you may be working on site and have to report in your work to your manager. Just a great example on how simplicity wins over and a site without too many bells and whistles can be most useful.

Yesterday, Twitter launched a redesigned homepage, which shows a shift in focus towards search (rather than specific users, as the old homepage highlighted). It seems that this new homepage could be a recognition, on Twitter’s part, of how users have shaped the microblogging platform - it’s now the place where you can find up-to-the-minute information on what’s happening NOW (rather than depending on search engines that are increasingly appearing to post more dated content, dependant on the slower nature of crawling the web and indexing content). Just look at the trends to see what people are talking about right this second (um…M&Ms and William Shatner? Really?). So does this poise Twitter to take on the search behemoths of Google and bing? Only time will tell…

Rumor has it there are people out there in Internetland that subscribe to several social networks/microblogging platforms. As a confirmed and (varyingly) active member of (ready for it?) Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pownce, hi5, and Plaxo (phew!) myself, I've often been hit with the annoying inevitability of having to update my status up to 9 times over and simultaneously lead a life outside of the Internet! Sound familiar? Enter hellotxt. Super simple in concept, the site allows you to easily update your status (and check the status of your friends) on 24 different Social Networks and microblogging platforms. Being active and alive online just got that much easier. Check it out here.

Last Saturday ,  there was an opening of a group exhibition featuring commissioned works by 130 something artists at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea.

I didn't want to go because it was storming like crazy!!  However, the gallery was packed with so many people.

All the artists got a 7” x 5” wooden panel, and those artworks created a single continuous work. I liked some paintings a lot. But some were just crappy things and the price were like $600....?!  I don't know what Art is!

At least, I got free beer-.

http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/?method=Exhibit.ExhibitDescription&ExhibitID=FB86C9CC-19DB-5802-E0C4211518300C5B

This morning I came across a really fascinating article covering the debate over inexpensive online logo & "branding" companies by Doug Bartow (id29) via the Under Consideration design discussion blog Speak Up.

It highlights the ongoing debate of accessibility of design for all (income brackets) versus "...the devaluation of the design process altogether, particularly in brand development and identity design, which many consider the pinnacle of our field." – by cheapening the proverbial playing field.

In his field study of this issue, Doug commissions 4 different online companies to come up with logo options for a fictitious project and then analyzes and critiques the results. It is a good exploration of what you really get from these types of logo chop shops.

The Challenge: Hire four online logo design companies, give them the same visual identity problem to solve, then critique the results.

Take a look here.

A wise man once said, "Wherever you go, there you are," and now with Geode, announced today from Mozilla Labs, your web browser will know where you are as well. Geode will be available in the upcoming beta releases of Firefox 3.1, and will allow users to fire up their computers from any location, direct their browser to their favorite review site (like Yelp, Citysearch, etc.), and have customized location-specific information surfaced. But the potential expands beyond just fun - imagine an RSS reader that knows the difference between Home and Work, or a news website that is truly local. Read more at the Mozilla Labs blog.

OMG I love robots. Seriously. (About as much as I love David Bowie.)

That's why I have to go check out Wakamuru who is "interning" at the NYC Uniqlo flagship store. I found this all out through his blog. Man, even robots have blogs these days. Check it out here. Apparently he also has a Facebook page. And a twitter page is in the works. So social-networky those robots are. So cute!

Wakamaru is "The robot designed to live with humans." "(the) design concept was to create "an object that can approach its user." "Wakamaru" is designed in the shape of a human being so that it is not considered simply a "machine" or a "terminal," but rather an "independent personality." Its cute expression and form make it appear friendly to everyone from children to elderly people, and suggest a possibility of human growth and development. "

Among his technological accomplishments, he can recognize faces (up to 100 people), respond when spoken to, meet a person's gaze, and offer up subjects of conversation. As "wakamaru" freely moves about an area he can decide for himself when to recharge – requiring no human assistance. He can also check your email, read you the news (from various feeds), schedule things for you, and take pictures and video for you that you can check remotely.

Read more about Wakamuru here.

A little while back, AOL site Spinner.com, posted the top 25 band logos "of all time" (personally, which I think is still up for debate).

Which reminded me of another site, http://pictograms.blogspot.com/ which has been archiving a huge collection of band logos, fonts, and iconography as well.

Just in case you were wondering whether the Hadron Collider being tested right now at CERN has destroyed the world yet, you now have a handy website to go to check it out: http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Not sure what to do when you're feeling chill? Sophisticated? Energetic? I Feel NYC is one of the most clever (and funny/useful) Google Maps application that I've come across. Also available for London.

The designs for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing have been revealed, called "Fuwa" (below). It's being reported in the WSJ that even the mascots' designer doesn't want to take responsibility if these don't go down in history as iconic Olympic mascots.

Not that the Fuwa have been the only controversial mascots; since its inception at the Munich games in 1972, the Olympic mascot has always been a source of debate (more mascots below after the jump). The article goes on to state how the Fuwa may be the result of "Too Many Chefs" syndrome and a bureaucratic backlog, a challenge in trying to create an iconic image representing 1.3 billion people and their history - the five Fuwa were pared down from over 1,000 sketches submitted by the artist.

Not sure what I think about them...any thoughts?

Continue reading to see some other mascots from past Olympics...

The first Olympic mascot - Waldi (Munich 1972)

Cobi (Barcelona 1992)

Izzy (Atlanta 1996)

Syd, Ollie, and Millie (Sydney 2000)

Athena and Phevos (Athens 2004)