Geek Stuff Archives - Page 11 of 28

Coffee Talk #403: Google+ vs. Facebook is About Search

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Yankees jobbing to Tampa Bay to stick it to the Red Sox, Facebook and Spotify sitting in a tree, or remembering your favorite indie-pop bands from 2001, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

It’s frustrating talking about Google+ with my friends in the videogame business. Most of them are missing the big picture. Most of them can’t think of it in terms other than Google+ vs. Facebook. Certainly Google+ competes with social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It even competes with messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger and the upcoming iMessenger. While it’s fun for writers, analysts, and consumers to talk about these “wars”, that’s really not what Google+ is about. Ultimately, it all comes down to search.

Remember way back in 2007 when Microsoft invested $240-million in Facebook? At the time, Google was concerned about two of its biggest rivals teaming up. Remember earlier this year when Microsoft’s Bing search engine got a huge social boost powered by Facebook “likes”? That’s when Google’s biggest fears about the partnership were realized.

Although it has its fingers in many pies, at the end of the day, Google is a search company that makes the vast majority of its money serving ads. Google was not pleased that the most popular social network in the world was helping Bing serve up more relevant results and serve more relevant ads. This is what Google+ is really about — the socialization of Google search.

As someone with nerd friends in Silicon Valley and the videogame industry, I have a lot of friends and acquaintances that actively use Google+. More importantly, they actively use the “+1” buttons found on numerous articles. When I search for something on Google that’s tech or game related, I usually see articles that my friends have recommended. This is enormously powerful! I’m more likely to click on a link that my friends recommend than one without that seal of approval.

While some people at Google would love to see the Google+ installed base surpass that of Facebook’s, I’m sure that most don’t see it as a realistic possibility. I’m also sure that a lot of them don’t care. This is not a head-to-head race. Google+ is growing at a rapid rate, as is the use of “+1” buttons. Google executives are just fine with collecting more user data, making search results more socially relevant, serving up more relevant advertising, and swimming in ad dollars. That’s way more important than getting into a numbers contest with Facebook. I’m just surprised that my gaming friends don’t get that.

I’d love to hear what you think of the Google+ vs. Facebook “war”. How do you feel about the socialization of search? Do you want the search algorithm to do all the work? Or do you like having your friends influence your search results?

[Also, don’t forget to ~~drink your Ovaltine~~ click on the +1 button for any RPad.tv articles you enjoy. It really helps!]

Playing Around with the New Facebook Timeline

I’ve been playing around with Facebook’s new “Timeline” feature for the last few days. It’s definitely bold and different, but I’m not yet sold on it. Although it’s arguably Facebook’s biggest initiative since the social network launched, I have a feeling that it’s going to pan out similarly to other new feature introductions — some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it, but few people will leave Facebook because of it. Here are some random thoughts from my three days with Timeline.

– I hated Timeline for the first few hours. This was hardly surprising. Hundreds of X-Men comics have taught me that people fear and hate what they don’t understand. I definitely didn’t understand Timeline at first. Using it was jarring and overwhelming. Hell, just looking at it was confusing. I didn’t know where anything was and in many cases I wasn’t sure where to look for it.

– As I got more familiar with Timeline, I became fascinated by it. It’s definitely a new and different way to look at and organize personal information. I found myself thinking, “You know, if I used Facebook for purely personal reasons, this would be totally neat!” Unfortunately, I don’t. I decided long ago ~~never to walk in anyone’s shadow~~ that I was only going to have one Facebook account. Several of my friends have personal and work Facebook accounts. That’s definitely the more practical thing to do, but I also think it’s slightly pretentious. Because I mostly use Facebook for interacting with readers, promoting articles, and keeping tabs on videogame industry peeps, I limit the personal info I put on the service. As an atypical Facebook user, I won’t get as much out of Timeline as someone that uses Facebook primarily for personal enjoyment.

– Sorting through my birthday wishes was outstanding for getting used to Timeline. At this point, I was accustomed to where everything was. Getting a steady stream of birthday wishes got me used to how information flowed. This made Timeline click for me. I can see myself having a sad February day in 2012 and clicking on September 2011 to cheer myself up with my birthday wishes. I can also see myself randomly clicking on a month and year just to remember what happened. It’s like the “pensieve” from the Harry Potter movies…but with tech instead of magic.

– Today I tried to upload old photos to see how they would behave in Timeline. After uploading a batch of pictures from the Spike TV 2003 VGAs, I was disappointed to see that they didn’t pop up in the 2003 section of my Timeline. This is absolutely stupid. The meta data is right there in the files. The pics should automatically be placed in 2003. I didn’t see a way to manually do this either. There’s a chance I’m missing the menu for this option. There’s also a chance that this feature will be implemented later. Either way, it’s moronic that this isn’t done automatically.

– Three days later, I’m not sure if I like Timeline. I’m having fun playing around with it because it’s new, but I’m still not sure it’s better for the way that I use Facebook. It’s certainly bold and interesting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. Obviously I’m stuck on Facebook and can’t leave. It’s too powerful for networking, marketing, and outreach purposes. That’s where you come in! If you’re already using Timeline, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. If not, let’s revisit this on September 29 when it starts rolling out to everyone.

Chocobo Feathers Discovered!!!

Alberta scientists have discovered what they claim to be ancient dinosaur feathers. I, however, know the truth. These are chocobo feathers! I’ve always known that chocobos existed (and will rise again). Now I have proof. Here’s more from The Globe and Mail:

The most diverse amber-preserved, fossilized feather collection ever found — unearthed in the Prairies of southeastern Alberta — is offering new insight into the evolution of dinosaur and bird feathers.

The fossils were recovered from pits once used to store tailings from coal mining near Grassy Lake, a hamlet about an hour’s drive east of Lethbridge.

This is completely awesome news. I can’t wait until the rise of the chocobos. It will start with the innocent yellows and then the all-powerful blacks take over. I, for one, welcome our new chocobo overlords!

Source via Peer

Nike Air Mags (Back to the Future Shoes) Revealed Today?

[Update: 4:39 PDT] The word on the street is that Nike will be unveiling the Air Mag, the awesome sneakers worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. A bunch of sneaker journalists (I love that there are sneaker journalists, btw) received late-night calls from Nike yesterday in order to make arrangements to attend an event today. All signs point to it being for the Nike Air Mag.

What do you think of the kicks? Are they a sweet reminder of when Michael J. Fox was the coolest guy in the world? Or are they ugly? Would you buy them?

[Updated 4:39 PDT with official video below.]

Source

Do You Still Use Yahoo! Products?

Last night at dinner, my friends and I were talking about Carol Bartz being ousted as Yahoo!’s CEO. A beautiful girl asked, “What does Yahoo! even do anymore?” What a great question! At its best, Yahoo! was known for search, email, chat, and a groundbreaking videogame show. After numerous identity crises, its most recent focus has been content creation and distribution. The thing is, in almost every area Yahoo! competes in, someone is doing it better (in most cases, a lot better).

Yahoo!’s former core competencies have been lapped by Google, AOL, Microsoft, Skype, etc. The company did a marvelous job at stagnating Flickr, formerly my favorite photo service. As a content creator, the company is terribly inconsistent and often pumps out weak products. I’ve gone from using several Yahoo! products on a daily basis to hopping on Yahoo! Messenger every now and then. The only reason I even do that is because a lot of my friends in Asia still prefer it over other chat programs.

How about you guys and gals? To paraphrase one of the company’s most popular slogans, “Do you still Yahoo!” Were you a heavy Yahoo! user in the past? What Yahoo! products do you still use today?

Is AOL Killing Great Web Sites (Engadget, TechCrunch)?

Yesterday I received five calls about the situation over at TechCrunch concerning the status of its founder, Michael Arrington. The calls caught me off guard. A couple of people wanted quotes from me and I’m not sure why. Others are longtime friends in the Silicon Valley world that just wanted to talk about it in a totally high-school way. One question that came up in all five calls was, “Do you think that AOL is killing great editorial?”

Let’s take a journey back to March, when Josh Topolsky announced he was leaving Engadget. For a lot of people (not me), Josh was Engadget. He connected with millions of readers. His opinions and articles were respected throughout the consumer electronics industry. Yet AOL had no problem changing Engadget into a site he no longer felt passionate about.

The situation at TechCrunch is murkier, but it ultimately comes down to the same thing. For a lot of people, Michael Arrington is TechCrunch. Like Josh, he has connected with millions of readers over the years. Yet AOL, Arianna Huffington in particular, has no problem with kicking him off the site he founded.

I understand what AOL is thinking. It’s true that the sites and brands it bought are bigger than any one person. It’s true that Engadget continued to be successful without Topolsky and TechCrunch will continue to be successful if Arrington is fired. However, I believe ~~the children are our future~~ that Engadget isn’t as good without Topolsky and TechCrunch won’t be as good without Arrington. That said, I don’t think any of that matters to number crunchers and shareholders. Traffic and readers can be replaced as easily as writers and editors.

(Oh wait, I suddenly realized why these people called me. They know I think that…certain web sites are worse without me. Ha! I should have caught onto that earlier. I’m a little slow sometimes.)

Anyway, let me know what you think about what’s going on in AOL editorial land. Is the big company sucking the soul out of the web sites it buys? Or are popular bloggers making the situation bigger than it ought to be?

What Do You Think of Mac OS X Lion So Far?

Apple has released Mac OS X Lion today, arguably the most drastic change to the operating system in years. A lot of the features point to Mac OS and iOS converging in the future, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Have any of you downloaded it yet? If so, I’d love to hear your initial thoughts. Please share!

Google+ App Available for iOS (iPhone)

The official iOS app for Google+ plus has been approved (finally) and is now available on Apple iTunes. According to the official description it’s, “Compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.” It’s strange that the the iPod Touch isn’t listed as a compatible device, though I’m sure it will work on it as well (bsukenyan, care to give it a try?). I’m going to try it on my iPad 2, but I’m sure the resolution will bother me.

This is a huge step for Google+. Previously iPhone users had to use a really basic web interface to use Google+. The mobile-web interface is bare bones and doesn’t really encourage use. The new app will surely make Google+ on iOS more popular.

If you’ve tried the app, I’d love to hear your initial thoughts on it (please!).

Update: Apparently this version of the app does not work with iPod Touch and iPad. People on those devices will have to stick to the web “optimized” site according to ThisIsMyNext.

Source via Big Daddy Vic

Coffee Talk #374: Totally Loving Google+

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Spotify’s American launch, waiting for HSPA+ 42 phones, or naughty dreams about Ann Coulter, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’ve been using Google+ for about two weeks and I’m totally enamored with the service. I love that it combines facets of Facebook, Twitter, and BlackBerry Messenger. I love the control offered by its Circles feature. I love the excellent Android app for Google+. Certainly there’s a whole “shiny and new” aspect to my fascination with Google+, but there’s no denying that Google launched a strong product and has several excellent features in the works.

The reason I’m most excited about Google+ is that it allows me to easily write personal blog posts again. After seven years of consistent blogging, I haven’t really touched my personal blog in three years. I love that I can easily share some intimate thoughts through Google+ Circles, whether it’s with five super-close friends or 50 people I really like. I’m definitely going to start using Circles for personal writing. Of course the big fear is a security issue exposing all my thoughts to the world…and also writing drunk blog posts.

I know that several of you are using Google+ too. Please let me know what you like and don’t like about the service. If you’re not using the service yet and would like to, just leave a comment here. Several RPadholics and I can send you an invite.

Google+ Android Client Interface

Here are a few sample images from the Google+ Android client. I’m really digging the interface so far — really clean and really simple. Check out the pics and let me know what you think (please)!