Flock me, Baby.

Everywhere I look, I feel like I see the tech press dissing physical keyboards on smartphones.  TechCrunch, specifically, seems to use a phone with a physical keyboard for 3 days, declare the keyboard stupid, and then go back to misspelling things on their iPhone soft keyboards.

[The G2 Android Phone] is much more usable as a device. And we can thank one thing for that, as well as for much of its much improved design: The removal of the physical keyboard. - From HTC Killed the Physical Keyboard. Smart Move.

(I happen to love my G1, TechCrunch. As does everyone I know who has one.)

The argument against physical keyboards seems to be that they waste space, which strikes me as incredibly odd. From an interface perspective, a keyboard that slides under the screen doesn’t waste space. From a bulkiness perspective: really? Why do you need/want a phone with the thickness and weight of a granola bar? I like sleekness too, but you may want to have your doctor check you for osteoporosis if you really find the G1 too heavy to handle.

I want to make a very clear statement here to phone manufacturers: I heart physical keyboards.  In fact, I refuse to buy a phone without one.

I’m not saying they’re for everyone - I’m sure soft keyboards are just fine for some people.  But there are several reasons physical keyboards are a smart choice:

1) Some people, including myself, have big fingers.  It’s really hard to hit those tiny soft keyboard buttons, and I spend WAY too much time fixing spelling errors than actually writing. Wasting time = bad.

2) Physical feedback always wins. While the slight force feedback and click noises of a soft keyboard are a nice touch, they don’t help me feel find my way around.  I learned to type on a computer keyboard with actual keys, and that’s how I’m used to typing.  Not to mention, the snap of sliding the screen back to get to the keyboard is just straight-up enjoyable.

3) Fast writers. My brain is usually slightly ahead of my fingers even on a computer, and using a soft keyboard makes it impossible for me to communicate my thoughts in any form of real-time.

4) There’s a reason that soft keyboards come with automatic spelling correction and word completion - because they are hard to use. iPhone users may be used to taking 5 minutes to write “hey I’m drown at the zebra, do you witch to come buy?”, but I find those messages obnoxious to read and embarassing to send.

5) The two aren’t mutually exclusive! You can have a physical keyboard and still provide a soft keyboard.  If you’re a TechCrunch writer and you hate physical keyboards, you can simply NEVER OPEN IT.  Magic.  Everyone is happy.

So please, phone manufacturers: don’t stop making physical keyboards.  Please don’t.  Because if you do, I won’t buy your phone (or recommend them to my friends).  And you wouldn’t want that, right?

Photo 1 Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alwayshere/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo 2 Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsun/ / CC BY 2.0

Today Twitter rolled out a massively re-designed homepage.  For such an incredibly successful young service, this is a major change.  And their design shows where Twitter - and possibly the social web - are headed.

Let’s dive into the details:

1. Twitter’s new focus is on searching and discovering what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.  It’s about DISCOVERY, not publishing or chatting.

2. Search is first and foremost.  The search box almost has the same prominence as the signup button.  Twitter obviously feels this is the killer feature that will, in the end, drive more adoption.

3. Trending topics are now on the homepage.  Twitter knows they’re going to draw people in with relevant, current content, not quotes from the New York times about how nifty Twitter is.

4. Trending topics fall into three categories (minute, day, and week) but this is very downplayed.  To the first-time visitor, this is content, plain and simple…while they can pay attention and discover this granularity, it’s not shoved in their face - no need to overwhelm potential new users.

5. The very small text above the signup button says “Join the conversation”.  Conversation has been stressed and established - now they gently encourage you to join in.

6. I don’t know if this was a feature before, but Twitter is now surfacing this as a tip: you can do location-based searches. Your discovery can now be local.

I’ll resist further analysis than this for now:

I think this reinforces the thought that the killer new social app isn’t microblogging: it’s discovery, serendipity, and eventually participation.  And I’m excited.