Bwana.org » web2.0

Google+ Revitalizes Online Discussions

Bwana — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:01:21 +0000

Ever since FriendFeed was consumed by Facebook, online discussions have been dominated by Quora, Twitter and Facebook. Without getting into my opinions about those three services, let me say, I wasn’t motivated to have discussions using them. I really enjoyed the time I had with FriendFeed and the ease of contributing to a topic.

Enter Google+.

Google has been dabbling in social networking for quite some time and in my opinion, has been a bit out of focus. We’ve seen orkut, social bars, and of course Google Buzz, but we really haven’t seen a robust, solid solution. With Google+, I can say that Google is serious about making online discussions easily accessible. Google has made engagement with existing and new contacts about as easy as one could ask. I find myself more willing to talk about technology on Google+ than I ever did on Quora, Twitter and Facebook. That’s enough for me to consider Google+ as a success.

Is it perfect? I don’t think so. There are still a lot of issues to work out with the Circles implementation of managing information streams. The hangouts feature is somewhat unstable and prone to crash, while sparks is sort of just out there without a real underlining purpose. Google+ definitely has room to grow.

I’m happy to have a place on the web to have discussions much like the days of FriendFeed. Click here to view my Google+ profile.

Empire Avenue – Just Plain Fun

Bwana — Sat, 07 May 2011 12:07:54 +0000

Recently, I was invited to a service that I heard about a while ago, but for some reason I dismissed it. The service is called Empire Avenue, and I think it’s quite a bit of fun.

Empire Avenue is the Social Media Exchange, where you can invest in any social media profile by buying their shares, meet new people, unlock Achievement badges, and earn boatloads of virtual cash by being active and social online! Buy shares in your friends, your followers, people with similar interests, brands you love, celebrities – anyone! All using a virtual currency and all for free!

A long, long time ago, in an internet far, far away, I participated in a very similar site called Blogshares, which did similar techniques to promote websites. Empire Avenue (EAv for short) takes it a step further by throwing in achievements, and encourages you to contribute to your connected social networking services. Our community has started playing around with EAv, and quite a few of us are taken by how fun it is. I’ve been criticized by you all that I don’t communicate to my audience enough unless something is broken. I can’t say I disagree with you there, but something like EAv gives me a bit more motivation to tweet to everyone that I’m doing a show soon, or to communicate the latest promotion – You know, that thing called “social media”?

At any rate, I doubt the game is for everyone and I think a lot of you out there will probably dismiss it as a gimmick or a waste of time. As for me, I’m going to be buying some shares of (e)PIRILLO as soon as I get the chance. Perhaps I can convince (e)OREO to lower their prices a bit. If you wish to join, please visit http://bwna.me/empavenue to give me and you 10,000 “Eaves”, which is their virtual currency.

I’m listed as (e)BWANA on EAv. Surprised?

P.S. If you do decide to sign up, I highly recommend getting a cup of coffee and a few cookies. After you smile a bit, read Chris Pirillo’s THOROUGH EAv guide here. You’ll be glad you did

Guest Host On TPN Weekly Episode 3

Why You Should Try Raptr (Again)

Bwana — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:53:47 +0000

A while ago, I tried Raptr during the beta and I liked it since it combined gaming with the social web. Here’s my initial review from 2008:

It kind of fell off my radar since I was primarily using Xfire to track my gaming. I also had a problem with Adobe Air at the time since it was a memory hog. Since then, Adobe Air has improved a great deal (still pretty heavy) and Raptr has improved by leaps and bounds.

Some of the improvements I noticed right off are:

1. The site has grown tremendously and supports a lot more. Steam (achievements/history), Xfire (history), Playstation Network trophies and deeper integration into popular Flash games like Farmville.
2. The in-game overlay rivals Xfire. The new browser is actually quite snazzy. All it needs now is custom overlays and webcam support and Xfire is dead.
3. Many more customization options are available to make your profile your own. These come in the form of themes, twitter like status updates, and a small mini-blurb thing to introduce yourself to the community.
4. More granular tracking and snazzy flash applets to show who’s playing what… right now.
5. Overall better site design and easy to navigate.
6. The new iPhone app is actually quite decent and gives you Raptr on the go.

So if you tried Raptr back in 2008 like I did and it didn’t quite fit your needs, I suggest giving it another try now that they’ve been hard at work for the past 2 years. If you wish to add me, I’m Bwana on there at http://raptr.com/bwana

No related posts.

Google Comes Out Swinging At IO ’10

Bwana — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:58:35 +0000

Wow.

We expected a lot of announcements related to Android (more coming today), but yesterday’s barrage of Google news was downright overwhelming. Google IO is a developer’s conference hosted by Google in California to … well this:

Google I/O features 80 sessions, more than 5,000 developers, and over 100 demonstrations from developers showcasing their technologies. Talk shop with engineers building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications.

Quick breakdown of highlights:

That’s just some of the news.

The most exciting ones for me were Google Buzz API and WebM. When Google Buzz came out, Google promised us an API in the future so that developers could write custom applications and consumers could mingle with Google Buzz’s data. That day has finally come and based on the partners that have launched Google Buzz support, the future looks great.

WebM, however, has me excited on a whole new level. Why? Because it could mean a Flash free browser for me.

[WebM is] an open web media format project and open-sourced VP8, a high-quality, web-optimized video codec, that we are contributing to the project under a royalty-free license.

Hear me out. Even though Adobe has already announced that they are going to implement this new WebM/VP8 codec into Flash, we really don’t need it. Based on what I’ve gleaned from this new open sourced video codec, it’s perfectly compatible with HTML5. (although not in the official specification…yet) Anything that gives me a way out of Flash is excellent news.

I’ll have many more thoughts as Google IO progresses, but for now, these are my two favorites. Look for more Google announcements today at approximately 10:30AM EST on their live stream.

Check Your Facebook Privacy With ReclaimPrivacy

Bwana — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:05:07 +0000

Today, Seshan of the ATB community pointed me to a great site which allows you to verify your Facebook privacy settings. Due to the recent changes, it’s nice to know if you got things right. Head over to ReclaimPrivacy.org and run the bookmarklet from Facebook’s site:

Very easy to run and quick. Check it out.

Twitter User Streams: Real-Time Is Back?

Bwana — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:24:20 +0000

At Twitter’s developer conference, Chirp, they announced a new (or old) feature that has caught my interest: User streams. This new API will allow developers to stream twitter activity to end-users in real-time. This was demonstrated at the conference using the web version of Twitter and TweetDeck. As activity occured in the web browser, TweetDeck updated automatically without polling or refreshing.

Seems cool right?

I thought so too since Twitter neutered real-time tracking a while ago and I thought it was back. Then they did a quick segment on the “firehose” and kind of glossed over it. This segment mentioned partners like Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo, but said nothing about how it could possibly tie to this User Stream API.

I got to wondering: Is the User Stream API using the firehose or some sub-set of it? Hmmmm.

At any rate, the technology does look good from the demo, but as with anything Twitter, I will wait and see the final implementation before making a judgement call. You can continue to watch Chirp live on http://justin.tv/twitterchirp.

Update: Added a video of the demonstration at Chirp for you all to enjoy!

Get The New Google Docs Now

Bwana — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:14:35 +0000

You may remember Google announcing a new version of Google Docs a few days ago. Now anyone can opt-in to these new features under the Google Docs Settings:

Let me know what you guys think about the new version!

Official Google Buzz Buttons Available

Bwana — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:49:07 +0000

It’s no secret that I’m on Google Buzz more than any other social network lately. So I was happy to see the announcement by Google:

We’ve seen lots of people using Google Buzz to share interesting links from around the web. To do so, you had to copy and paste the link from one browser window to another — there weren’t buttons that made it easy to post to Google Buzz without leaving the site you’re on. Savvy sites like Mashable and TechCrunch quickly got creative and implemented their own Buzz buttons, using Google Reader as the backend. But not every site owner should have to hack together their own version of these buttons (and not everyone who uses Buzz also uses Reader), so this morning we’re making copy-and-paste Buzz buttons available for anyone to use.

I’m updating my sites now to include this button and if you are a user of Google Buzz, I encourage you to share my posts to Buzz.

Get your Google Buzz buttons here.

Google Sidewiki Shakes Up The Web

Bwana — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:59:35 +0000

No one likes losing control.

Hence the backlash to Google’s new Sidewiki product. Sidewiki is described as follows:

Google Sidewiki is a browser sidebar that lets you contribute and read information alongside any web page.

Sounds familiar? Well there are several sites out there which allow you to “annotate the web” such as Diigo. You may recall 10 years ago the nasty backlash over ThirdVoice due to spamming problems with their service. This, and other concerns have the web’s experts up in arms.

Here are some choice reactions from folks on the web:

Dave Winer writes:

Anyway, the web is all an illusion created out of 1s and 0s traveling over wires and air waves. You can reduce it down to any level you like, and at some level anything will seem unobjectionable. Yet we do have rules that allow us to get along with each other.

Phil, how would you feel if my router, through which your words pass, changed your words to something I liked better? Or added a message for one of your competitors? Or pictures of horrible things being done to innocent people? It’s my router. Don’t tread on me.

You might say — well then I won’t pass my words through your router. And then you would understand how I feel about what Google is doing. I wouldn’t mind it at all if it were opt-in for the author.

Robert Scoble posts on Twitter:

@ChrisSaad you don’t get the problem with Google’s Sidewiki: it’s not that I can’t see the content. It’s that I don’t control it.

Leo Laporte seems bit more optimistic on FriendFeed:

At least there’s an API so services like Disqus and Echo can – in theory – fold the sidewiki back into the comments. I’ve been very happy with Echo’s ability to gather all the activity about a blog post back into the comments. The Third Voice is going to happen thanks to sites like this and Twitter whether we like it or not. We just need to be able to capture and save the content.

Jeremiah Owyang believes it’s time to rethink our mindsets. He believes corporate websites now belong to the customer and companies should adapt:

Shift your thinking: recognize that you don’t own your corporate website –your customers do. Accept the mindshift that your job is to not only serve up product and corporate content but to also be a platform and enabler for customers to discuss, share, and make suggestions to how you should improve what you offer.

All are interesting perspectives on this topic, and it shows how big of a deal this new product is. What does Bwana think?

Well, I believe there are two basic perspectives:

From a user perspective, it’s an easy way to leave feedback on any website.
From a content provider’s perspective, it’s yet another feedback loop that needs to be maintained.

As Robert Scoble stated, he wants more control over the comments left in Sidewiki. Google does provide a “Report abuse” link for every comment, but who knows how efficient it is? It’s a valid concern. Many of us are content providers and tend to see it from this angle first and foremost.

We think: SPAM.

If Google’s Gmail spam magic is ported to this somehow, then maybe we’ll be able to maintain our feedback loops effectively. If things get out of control, Google will likely be forced to shut the whole thing down. As Leo Laporte stated, the API provided may make things manageable and easy to utilize as developers create plugins and widgets. If companies like Backtype utilize the API and aggregate comments, then I think it’ll make content providers a little happier. Time will tell.

End users, however, have an effective way of leaving feedback globally. No need to worry about commenting engines, accounts and the like. If you’re a part of the Google universe (i.e. utilizing Google profiles) then it fits right in since your SideWiki comments are aggregated there complete with an RSS feed. (See mine here) I’ve played with it for a few hours and I can already see the convenience (other than the Google Toolbar requirement, but a workaround is here)

I’m going to keep using Google Sidewiki for a few more days and see how things go. As for the content on my site, maybe I’ll get a sense of how well Google’s abuse features work if someone were to abuse it. Leave your comments in Sidewiki for this post if you like, or go old school and comment below.

RSS Cloud Is Exciting News

Bwana — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:59:58 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of real-time information on the internet. Ever since the early days of IRC and Usenet, I would prefer IRC since the entire experience was live and real-time. Usenet and forums had the delay factor.

Yesterday, I read about the decision WordPress made to support RSS Cloud. What is RSS Cloud? It’s essentially modifications to the existing RSS specification to enable real-time publishing via RSS feeds. That’s my take on it anyways. That means if you use a supported RSS reader like Dave Winer’s River2 or Lazyfeed, you’ll receive a “instant” notification when a RSS cloud supported blog is updated.

This blog is supported by PubSubHubbub via Feedburner, but I’ve installed the WordPress RSS Cloud plugin anyways.

Why is all this exciting?

Those who claim RSS is dead don’t realize their newfound love for Twitter would be moot if it were not for RSS. Breaking news on Twitter comes from two main sources in my mind: websites and personal experience. For tech news, I doubt there is much personal experience for news unless there’s a conference or an event. Most juicy, 0-day news comes from websites. These websites often have a… wait for it… RSS feed. The race to post tech news first on Twitter usually stems from who can refresh their RSS reader the fastest.

This is exciting because RSS has been empowered to update us all in real-time and have less dependence on others reposting and retweeting stuff they found first. Tools like LazyFeed are leading the way in this charge and more will come thanks to open standards.

RSS is hardly dead, it’s becoming more useful.

Twitter Trending Topics: Are They Useful?

Bwana — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:46:55 +0000

The usefulness of Twitter trending topics has declined for me personally. All too often, I see people trying to “game” or “manipulate” the system to gain popularity. To me, the whole thing is null and void if it is contrived. Now that Twitter has brought these terms to the forefront, it seems the quest to make “the list” has a renewed purpose. I asked my Twitter followers if they utilized Twitter trends and here’s what they said:

Bwana: How many of you utilize Twitter trending topics? [I don't]

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:30:00 +0000 2009

wanyal: Not me.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:30:44 +0000 2009

mattbebich: I don't even look at them

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:31:03 +0000 2009

tchachra: They are useless since they provide no valuable information…its usually people just trying to get followers.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:32:22 +0000 2009

EricJD: I don't use them either. Usually when I do glance at them, I'm thinking to myself, “why in the world is that a trending topic?”

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:32:47 +0000 2009

Seshan: I don't. president #iranelection Bill Clinton Wal-Mart AT&T Google Voice White House Jay-Z

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:34:46 +0000 2009

shardayyy: I utilize the trending topics this way http://twitter.com/shardayyy/status/3129450085

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:34:48 +0000 2009

iPhoneMacUser: I do not

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:36:58 +0000 2009

muchobueno: i do.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:41:17 +0000 2009

applemacprofan: i dont.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:42:40 +0000 2009

cluteman: Trending topics aren't fun anymore with spam and “Why is ____ trending?” tweets.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:53:54 +0000 2009

D_Ames: “How many of you utilize Twitter trending topics? [I don't]” Me neither! For the same reason I don't follow Ashton Kutcher.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 19:55:52 +0000 2009

dcfemella: I don't, but I have been thinking more and more that maybe I should.

about 21 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 20:04:31 +0000 2009

jcdeuce: i have not used the trending topic search

about 20 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 20:50:19 +0000 2009

lhuxley: I never do, maybe sometimes if its a movie or something but normally its just crap.

about 20 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 21:00:08 +0000 2009

rfrontuto: I take a look at the trending topics every so often, but I don't use them on a regular basis.

about 18 hours ago

Tue Aug 04 23:22:16 +0000 2009

This begs the question: “How can we easily get value out of Twitter’s data?” It’s hard to say now that Twitter has officially become a spam platform. I’m looking for new and innovative ways to quickly find nuggets of info from Twitter. Each time, I’m led back to FriendFeed.

Yes, you knew it was coming.

It’s no secret that tweets supply a great deal of FriendFeed’s potent database. I’ve found that FriendFeed’s real-time search, plus the community, provide a great way to quickly get value out of Twitter’s data:

The above search considers all tweets in FriendFeed and only shows those which have the word “disagree” in the comments. It’s a juicy search I set the like and comment thresholds to 2, but that’s easily adjustable.

Now, you might be thinking “You have to be on FriendFeed in order for your tweets to be considered“. This is true, but I’d rather have a subset of Twitter’s database on FriendFeed, than Twitter’s full database with a lackluster search and spammy trending terms. The data is richer.

The downside of this? There is no date or language filtering. In some cases, you have to wade through languages you don’t know and sometimes older posts which you’ve already read. As you can see from the results, some of the results are older than desired. The point of Twitter trends (at least to me) is to get a snapshot of what’s happening now. So while I have a make-shift solution to get the valuable data from Twitter, it’s not a replacement for an effective trends search.

So what do you use? How do you get value out of Twitter’s data? Let me know. You can find me on Twitter as @Bwana.

BingTweets Mashes Up Twitter Trends And Search Results

Bwana — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:37:05 +0000

Microsoft and Federated Media have partnered to create an interesting mashup called BingTweets. This site is in beta and offers a hands free experience on the latest trending topics on the web. After seeing this, I have a bit more respect for the efforts Microsoft is putting behind Bing and can only wonder how and if Google will respond.

BingTweets pulls in trends from Twitter and filters into categories such as “Popular Now,” “People,” “Places” and “Products” enabling easier navigation of the ever changing trends on the Web. You can also fire off a search on any topic of your choosing to see the related search results from Bing and Twitter discussion.

I have the site open in a dedicated tab right now and am happy with the choice of trends, tweets and search results. It has a great animation option which moves between topics on its own and gives you a taste of everything.

I like this.

It’s not perfect, but it gives us a glimpse of how real-time can intertwine with traditional search. I commend Microsoft and Federated Media on a bold approach towards the real-time web.

FriendFeed Still Reigns As Conversation King

Bwana — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:12:09 +0000

Today, I found yet another reason why I prefer discussing tech topics on FriendFeed over another popular social site, Twitter.

FriendFeed’s search is a big reason why you should move your Twitter conversations there. The above example shows the value in retaining search data. Twitter search only goes back a few days (I don’t know how many exactly, but it’s not that much) while FriendFeed retains much more data.

If you find yourself in need of data retrieval, I hope your data resides on FriendFeed. So how do you take advantage of this? It’s actually quite simple. You simply post a new FriendFeed entry and “CC Twitter”.

This will broadcast your your new topic to all your Twitter followers, and invite them to join the conversation on FriendFeed with a link. Some people hate this because they have to click through and go to yet another web page. Part of me understands this frustration in this “right now, do it yesterday” atmosphere, but the payoff is tremendous. Not only do you get a rich, single threaded conversation out of the deal, but the contents will be searchable a year from now. You can’t say the same about Twitter.

Robert Scoble has championed this technique for quite some time and is getting a lot of ridicule from his massive Twitter follower list. I believe he has a valid point. Your data is lost on Twitter, it isn’t on FriendFeed. It’s that simple.

What do you think? Comment here or on FriendFeed and it’ll all show up

Why Are You Still Following Me?

Bwana — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:15:33 +0000

It boggles the mind.

I use social networks to share what I like. Sometimes people like what they see or hear and they decide to keep up with me. I post news links, blog posts, video posts, podcast posts, general thoughts, rambles, LOL cats, tech deals, and even the newest shiny social network tool. By doing all this, people follow me. They follow me on Twitter, they follow me on FriendFeed, they follow my blogs, and they follow my shows.

Periodically, I’ll increase my output on a topic I like such as sports, video games, and that newest shiny social network tool. This is what I get in return:

“Bwana, why are you posting so much?”
“Bwana, do you realize, you’ve posted 6 links in the last hour?”
“Bwana, are you going to go on and on about the nfl/nba/ncaa again?”
“Bwana, please stop tweeting so much”
“Bwana, would you stop talking about football so much”
“Bwana, please stop flooding my stream”
“Bwana, enough with the ________ links, we get it already!”

If I post something that annoys, bothers, or irks you, then why in the world are you still following me? Why do you put up with it? Think about it. If I were walking down the street with you following me and I decide to fart continuously for 3 hours, wouldn’t you get out of the way? Farts stink man! Move! If you don’t leave, you’re choosing to inhale the wondrous foul fumes of my farts. I say farts because apparently it’s something you don’t want to be around.

There’s the door ——–>

This is my thinking with the uproar about the Spymaster craze on Twitter. The almighty Leo Laporte decided to call me out on This Week In Tech, basically fingering me as “one of those Spymaster spammers”. I replied on the on the TWiT FriendFeed thread “Don’t worry Leo, I toned down my tweet settings quite a bit” But then, I got to thinking: I’m not tweeting that much and even if I was, why won’t he just unfollow me?

Spymaster is a game.
It’s fun.
People like it.

It utilizes the social reach of Twitter to encourage game play amongst friends and strangers. I did a review on EatWillGrow for iPhone which allows you to Tweet your high score, and it’s an effective mechanism to challenge someone. It’s the same principle here. Gamers like to talk trash. Gamers like to share their experiences with friends and strangers. Gamers are not afraid to tell you about a game they love.

I’m a gamer. I game. I play games. I play games with other people. I want to share some spymaster experiences with people on Twitter. If that annoys you, please, by all means, UNFOLLOW ME! Get from behind me! Stop reading what I do! Please! You can choose to unfollow the Bwana Spymaster spammer and be free from the “spam”.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Leo for calling me out in front of his listeners. I respect his opinion on the matter. I actually hope he unfollowed me on Twitter (and hid me on FriendFeed) as a result of my “spam”. If he didn’t, then I got to wonder why he puts up with it.

In case you’re wondering,I’ve posted a total of 11 spymaster tweets over the span of 2 days. Twitter search: “from:Bwana #spymaster”

I know, it’s brutal. I also post my video game activity using Raptr and GamerDNA. Spymaster shouldn’t be a huge change. Don’t blame me because Twitter’s filtering sucks. You got two choices: 1. Put up with it 2. Unfollow.

If you want the short version of this blog post: I don’t care what you think. It does annoy me when you complain [loudly] about what you don’t want to hear. It makes me want to unfollow you so I don’t have to put up with the complaining. Why won’t you just leave?

It’s your opinion for a reason, not mine. I’m not going to change what I do because you don’t like it. Get over it. Get over yourselves and take action. Unfollow, block, do whatever you feel is needed and you won’t hurt my feelings one bit. Yes, I said it.

Now, it’s time to assassinate some of these wanna-be spies.

*** Update: You can opt-out of Spymaster invites if your “friends” are blasting you with them. (Again, why are you following them again?)

No related posts.

The Challenge Of The Realistic Real-Time Web

Bwana — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:19:41 +0000

Robert Scoble shared his desktop screens to give us a glimpse of how he consumes much of the information out there. It’s kind of scary:

Do you think you could follow that? A lot of people see that and are intimidated. I believe this is going to be obstacle that the “real-time web” is going to have to surpass. I’m glad that tools like FriendFeed are enabling us to search this massive amount of information for the stuff we care about. Read my post on how to use FriendFeed filters (now called “Saved Searches”) for more information.

Let’s just hope the “real-time” web is not faster than “realistic” time. At some point, it becomes overwhelming and a waste of time if not implemented properly. It’s going to be interesting to watch this whole thing grow. What do you think? Is this real-time web feasible?