Reality Bites
Windows: To get to the properties screen for Windows shell objects like files or folders you probably usually right-click and select “Properties.” A quicker and less well known way to get to that screen is to hold down the ALT key while double-clicking on the object. More »
The inspiration for this post came from Jason Huebel, having written about leaving FriendFeed behind for Google+ engagement.
Google+ is the new black.
So, is anybody else abandoning FriendFeed, Empire Avenue, Facebook, etc. for Google’s latest social effort? Do you see yourself decreasing the amount of time you spend on any other platform over the coming weeks? To me, I suppose, it’s a balancing act – and each silo has its merits. No doubt, I’m very happy with Google+ right now.
Twitter – “Everybody” is there, but every tweet is a flash in the pan. It’s always been next to impossible to establish a conversation there (and I’ve always resented people who called Twitter a conversation). It used to be a great way to drive attention, but that attention potential is watered down with every person who joins. You could have a million followers and less engagement than someone with a thousand.
Facebook – “Everybody” is there, but not all of your updates are seen by those who “Like” you. The privacy policy seems to change every other month. If you can look past the pokes and app invites, there’s nothing particularly agitating about Facebook (enough to drive millions away in droves). It’s also important to note that Facebook is like a data roach motel – you can get it in, but good luck getting it out.
FriendFeed – “Nobody” is there anymore, but those who are sticking to it are really active. Google+ reminds a lot of people (myself included) of the FriendFeed heyday, and it didn’t shock me to learn that Jason’s finally putting this network behind him. I took this screen shot of a Google+ Hangout with Jesse Stay this afternoon – another fan of FF:
Google Buzz – If you think about it, Google Buzz is / was really close to FriendFeed. People pumped-and-dumped their feeds into it and then abandoned the platform when “nobody” was actively using it. That said, Buzz isn’t dead yet – it’s still there as a Google+ sub-tab at the moment.
Empire Avenue – I really think Dups and his team really need to adapt their model very QUICKLY. It’s been great for discovery and engagement, but to increase awareness, they need to surface the social media engagement intelligence they’re collecting in a more cohesive fashion (allowing people to see their scores without necessarily putting themselves on the Market). It’s done a lot for my engagement and discovery acceleration, but the learning curve is still too high for the average user (who really would fall in love with the underlying statistics that EAv can bring).
MySpace – Well, let’s just see what Timberlake does with it. 😉
Which brings us to…
Google+ – “Everybody” will be here, guaranteed. With the right integration, your resonance-prone activity will be seen by more people. They need to address the noise, accommodate conversation threading, eliminate content duplicates, and a lot more – but they’re off to a damn good start.
Your thoughts on where Google+ sits in today’s social media landscape?
Microsoft’s Touch Mouse? Yeah, you’ve heard of that. But have you caught wind of its Explorer Touch Mouse? Nah, we didn’t think so. In fact, neither had Pocket-lint, but they stumbled across this critter at the outfit’s London Christmas in July event. It’s positioned between the Touch Mouse and the Arc Mouse, boasting a blue hue, BlueTrack technology (for mousing on a pant leg) and the same kind of haptic scrollpad that's used on the aforesaid Arc. There's a grand total of five customizable buttons, which can be configured for left or right-hand use, and naturally, those good vibrations can be disabled if you simply aren't kosher with 'em. Microsoft didn't spill too many other details, but it's slated to land later this month (at least in the UK) for £69.99.
Update: Our pals over at WinRumors managed to snag an official press shot, too.
Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse quietly revealed, touts BlueTrack and haptic feedback originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Global population is expected to hit seven billion this year. July 11 marks World Population Day.
Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd, the grand marshal of the Honda Indy Toronto, said he was pulled over for speeding on his way to the race.
How much is social worth to Google? Investors added $20 billion to Google’s market cap the first week after the launch of Google+ on June 28. A Morgan Stanley downgrade on Friday, brought the total down to $15.8 billion because of doubts whether Google will indeed be able to capitalize on new products such as Google+. But somewhere in between there, give or take a few billion, is how much more the market thinks Google is worth than before the launch of Google+.
On June 27 (the day before the announcement), the stock closed at $482.80. It rose to a high of $546.60 on July 7, for a $20.6 billion gain to its market cap (with 322.25 million shares outstanding). Then the stock dropped to $532 at Friday’s close.
Of course there are other factors at play here (the health of Google’s core search business, the overall market, etc.). In the past week, however, the most important new event for Google was it’s latest foray into social. And even though Google+ is still in a limited beta, the market is already rewarding the serious focus on social that it represents.
Bravo, Larry Page. If he can deliver on the promise of social, Morgan Stanley will be tripping over itself to upgrade the stock. Anyone want to guess what will happen to Google’s market cap between now and then?
The Samsung 16GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Wi-Fi is one of the thinnest tablets that will be available in Canada and is packed with power (1GHz dual core processor). All major outlets have stated this stated in one way or another that the launch date is “estimated” to be July 22nd: Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples, The Source… but now, a quick look at all of them shows the date has been shifted to August 19th. No reason was the August launch, but most likely we’ll see the 3G version released at the same time with Rogers, Bell and TELUS.
Source: Best Buy
(Thanks tipsters!)
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A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Japan Sunday, triggering a tsunami warning that was cancelled within two hours.
![Click here to read Quick Event Adds Google Calendar "Quick Add" to Your Android](http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/17/2011/07/small_quickeventv2_01.jpg "Click here to read Quick Event Adds Google Calendar "Quick Add" to Your Android")
Android: Adding events with the native Android calendar app is often an exercise in frustration as it takes multiple taps to add even a simple reminder. This can lead to using your Android device to only view appointments and increases the chance you’ll forget to add an event if it takes too much time to capture. The Quick Event app solves this by allowing you to create new events with a short message using plain text. More »
Yesterday was World UFO Disclosure Day… Did we learn anything new about extraterrestrials?
Derek Jeter homered for his 3,000th hit and raced right past the milestone in a scintillating performance Saturday, going 5 for 5 with a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning that gave the New York Yankees a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Google+ sure has had a groundswell of support since launching the project a few weeks ago. Everyone seems to want to try out the new service, and even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has an account on the social media site. Now we learn from Mashable that the Google +1 button…
Fetch.io, which we covered two months ago when it was in beta, has officially launched as a fast and efficient remote BitTorrent and web downloading tool. More »
People love aliens. It’s a fact. But it’s one thing for them to be beyond the farthest reaches of the galaxy and another for them to live next door. So GOOD and Column Five Media created this graphic to illustrate just how many people believe aliens walk among us. More »
Google+ is what could possibly be considered Google’s third attempt at Social networks. With the failure of Wave and Buzz, is Google+ going to make it this time? My first knee-jerk reaction to it was that it’s a Facebook AND Twitter killer, and after the short amount of time I’ve used it, and not knowing any better than to write about something you’ve not used long enough, I’ll give my opinion. If I’m right and this thing takes off, I’ll be a Social Expert. If I’m wrong, I’m not a Social Expert. And?
One of the main reasons I use Twitter (having passed the phase of “Wheels Down/Up in AGP”) is for “professional” reasons. And I put professional reasons in quotes, in the sense that I mostly use it to interact with people regarding software development which is my field, as well as things related to my job (JetBrains and our products). These include discussions on specific topics, providing help, the occasional opinion on technologies and once in a blue moon a political or religious statement. I interact with all sorts of people on Twitter, people I follow and those I don’t.
Why do I use Facebook? Primarily to interact with friends. I try and keep a low number of people on Facebook, mostly those people that I have at some point met personally. I also use Facebook when I want to say something a little longer than 140 characters, as well as topics that are not directly related to my field.
With Google+ you have the concept of Circles. You place your family, friends, acquaintances and followers in different circles. When you send a status update, you can make it public, or send it to a specific group. When you post a picture or a video, you can target specific circles or people. You can create your own circles, even a list of blocked people. What this means for me is that G+ now allows me to interact with both groups: those I talk to on Twitter and those I communicate with on Facebook.
It also opens up other benefits as I’ll mention later on.
Yes it does. Did you know about them? I didn’t. The problem with Facebook lists was that it wasn’t staring me in the face. Now some argue that the reason for this is that Facebook aims at making it extremely easy for people to use. I think that’s nonsense. There’s a difference between creating systems that are easy to use and treating users in a condescending way. The argument that my mother won’t understand Circles doesn’t hold. My mother is over 70 years old and she has a blog, uses Windows Live Writer and a whole bunch of other applications. If she knows how to paste an image with WLW and set tags, I’m sure she’ll understand what a Circle is.
The reason for lists not being in your face in Facebook is most likely because Facebook’s policy is for you to share as much as you can, publicly. If it’s about making a simple user interface, explain to me why they make it so extremely hard to change privacy settings? In our field, we have a saying “Security through Obscurity”. It’s not about making things simple.
With G+, circles are there from day one, in your face. G+ is giving you the option to choose. It also prompts you to who you want to post a status update, including defaulting to last used:
Finally, people have circles of friends, not lists of friend. Psychologically, the term circle resonates.
Why is Twitter successful? Well if we define successful as a business generating profit, then Twitter really isn’t successful. If we talk about success in that millions of users are using it, then yes, it is. One of the the prime thing that pushes Twitter to success however is the concept of followers. We are all humans and we have egos and we like to be noticed. The concept of having thousands of followers seems to attract many. That is an advantage Twitter has over Facebook. With Facebook, if you want to be loved, you either set up a Fan Page (which very rarely people do), or accept everyone has a friend, which becomes a bit too busy.
G+ however allows you to have the best of both worlds. When someone adds you to their circle, you don’t need to add them back, thus allowing you to drive up your ego, while keeping the noise to a minimum. You can also follow people without being acquainted to them, by placing them in the Follower circle.
Please, have we stooped so low as a society that we need to express ourselves with 140 characters? Worse yet, have we become so completely and utterly mindless that we actually need that enforced by a software system. If you don’t want to type more than 140 characters, don’t! If you don’t want to read more than a 140 characters don’t. Personally however, I’m getting tired of “Sorry 140 chars is really hard to express myself”. It’s become the perfect excuse to run from a debate.
If you’re using Tweetdeck exclusively to post to Facebook and Twitter, why are you posting to both? Won’t G+ solve that problem with Circle? If you’re using Tweetdeck like I do for instance to handle multiple accounts, yes then there’s a problem.
However, G+ has no concept of Company account or Fan page as of yet, so we can cross that bridge when we get to it.
The argument that G+ will not be successful because it is limited to invites and nerds is quite ludicrous, yet seems to be repeated time and time again. Whatever the reason that G+ is closed currently to those with an invite (which recently also includes those with a Gmail account), is temporary.
In fact, it actually even works to Google’s favor, just like it has with many other services. Everyone wants to be part of an “exclusive” club. Gmail itself for quite sometime was a closed group. As G+ grows, it will open up.
Regarding the nerds, let’s not forget that many of the current social networks were initially limited to nerds and geeks.
The limited group is temporary, and as more people join, it will just become bigger. Will it reach the (what 700 Million now?) users Facebook has in a year? Probably not. But I think it will grow faster than many expect it to.
Another criticism I’ve read about G+ is that there’s no API. Facebook is a platform for building applications on. Twitter is also a platform for…..getting screwed. Yes, this is true, G+ does not have an API story but it’s still early days. I’m sure it will come.
Personally I’m tired of not being able to follow a conversation on Twitter. With G+, much like Facebook, I can now do that. I can read an entire thread. I can participate. Some have mentioned that this also allows others to participate in a conversation and that it’s not really “social”, that somehow Google doesn’t get it. Let’s not forget that Twitter initially allowed you to view all conversations, not only when you were following all people involved in the conversation (as it is now). When Twitter made this change, the Internet was in uproar. People threatened to leave Twitter. They said Twitter had lost all the social aspect and that you couldn’t now discover new followers or be discovered. Yet now they defend it?
Apart from G+ benefit of combining Twitter and Facebook, it also has some other ones. It’s integrated with other Google services. If you use Gmail or Google as a search engine, you instantly get a notification icon in the top bar indicating status updates.
This allows you to turn off notifications via email. It also allows you to not be sent an email on EVERY single post someone else makes to a post or comment you’ve made, which can be quite annoying. The number of times I’ve not made a comment on a post so as to not be bombarded with notifications. G+ lets you fine-tune all that:
The number of times I’ve not posted a photo on Facebook because of this:
Note how it says you allow Facebook to use things as it pleases. It also says “subject to your privacy and applications settings”. However, to date I’ve not found a setting that allows me to tell Facebook that it does not have any rights over my content. Is it another case of Security thru Obscurity?
Compare this to G+, which uses Picassa, which in itself is another benefit, making it even easier to share and manage contents:
Simple and to the point.
This is again inline with circles. How many times have we heard on the news how people have posted about going on Holiday’s or going out for the night, only to come home to find their house being burgled. If you have the desire to let your friends know when you’re leaving and coming back, you can do so by limiting it to those that you really trust by using the correct circle.
G+ has the concept of Hangout area, where it uses a webcam (which pretty much everyone has these days) and your microphone to allow you to speak to other people in the hangout area (think of it as a room). You can start a hangout area or join an existing one. Forgetting the social aspect of this, multi-cast video conferencing for meetings is a big win in and of itself.
Recently Google’s agreement with Twitter to offer real-time content in searches expired. Was this due to G+ or not, no one will know. With G+, Google doesn’t have that problem. It’s Google. It controls the searches. It will be able to provide real-time info if the case arises. In addition it can also provide other G+ features:
not to mention “sponsored” ads.
As I mentioned previously, many of the posts reviewing G+ recently are judging it based on the fact that it’s closed, beta and also it’s too complicated for the average user. G+ is as complicated as one wants to make it, which is sometimes influenced by conflicting interests.
The only potentially “complicated” or “nerdy” thing about G+ right now is Circles. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that when it comes to settings, both concerning privacy as well as general ones, G+ is far simpler and less obscure than Facebook.
If our mothers and fathers learnt how to use Gmail, Twitter or even their phones, they’ll “get” G+. Let’s not be too condescending. Users are not stupid.
* Much of the comments I’ve made in this post in reference to reviews of G+ are posts I’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. As and when I find them, I’ll add references to them. Unfortunately I didn’t keep the links, but it’s all there…just Google it!
Chrome/Firefox/Internet Explorer: If you’re loving Google+ but finding it to be virtual ghost town while your friends slowly trickle in, the Google+Facebook browser extension incorporates your Facebook feed to your Google+ stream. You can also post status updates and replies directly within Google+. More »
It has happened. The final space shuttle launch took place several hours ago. Space shuttle Atlantis went on the final ever journey in the NASA space shuttle program. It is anybody’s guess as to when the next launch of a space vehicle from NASA will be, so we’d better treasure the memories.
