Bwana.org » social networking

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.

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!

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.

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.

Socialmedian Improves User Experience With Filters

Bwana — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:39:18 +0000

The folks over at Socialmedian have listened to their users and have improved their user experience by implementing news filters:

Users can now filter news by the following services: Twitter, Blogs, Google Reader, Youtube, Flickr, Digg, and FriendFeed. To filter a service, simply click the desired service icon, and it will toggle it grey. If you wish to filter out all the above services, simply click the “s|m” icon. Users can also filter news by popularity. Socialmedian’s popularity filters are very similar to FriendFeed‘s “Best of” feature which quickly shows you the best posts of the day or week.

These updates are a welcomed change especially for seasoned Socialmedian users who have established many networks and have grown their newsmaker database. New users will also be happy to see only the most popular stories for the week or the day. Combined with the new s|m Today page, these new filters propel Socialmedian into a fantastic way to see the best of the best, user filtered news from the web.

Are you new to Socialmedian? Check out my tutorial on the basics and how to get started and follow me on Socialmedian.

My Top 10 Websites of 2008

Bwana — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:07:30 +0000

It’s coming to the end of 2008, and along with the holidays, vacation, shopping, we also tend to find a lot of “best of 2008″ tv shows, specials, and even blog posts. I’d rather not go into why I’m doing this, I just find that it’s a fun activity. Last year, I did a video on my top 5 console games of 2007. It was met with a potpourri of comments that mostly disagreed with my choices. I didn’t care obviously, but I found that it’s something people like to be a part of. So, I’m going to do a few of these this year. The first, is my top websites of 2008. These sites will range all over the place, but I’ve found these (web) sites to be my best of the best for 2008. Let’s count it down.

Posterous – Blogs are commonplace now and there are so many platforms out there, that it’s hard to really decide on one. When one does decide, there is usually a fairly steep learning curve for new users. Posterous is one of those sites that I just like. I don’t know if it’s because of the ease of use (no sign-up blogging is very cool), or if it’s the look and feel, but I just like it. I’ve been using it as a ramble blog that I can post to from my iPhone (via email). Very handy for when something interesting pops in my head and I just want a quick post. There are lots of other features that make it awesome, but this is why I like it
Socialmedian – Socialmedian shocked me when I found news on it that I didn’t find anywhere else. Usually, there is a huge amount of overlap on the internet and if you find a news aggregation site, you’ll notice some stories you’ve seen elsewhere. This was not the case with Socialmedian as I found a new set of users and with it, a fresh set of news. I did a video about Socialmedian being a refreshing take on news aggregation.
Ustream.TV – Live streaming really boomed in 2008 and sites like Ustream.TV hit the mainstream during the 2008 elections. Barack Obama and John McCain both had live streams on ustream.tv that brought in thousands of simultaneous users. Ustream has always been my favorite live streaming site for their feature set and community. Ustream has not always been the most stable of platforms, but I’ve looked past this shortcoming and enjoyed the site nonetheless. I utilize Ustream.TV for my live streaming show, Bwana.TV Live, where I live stream the recording of my videos as well as my audio podcast.
Youtube – What can I say? Youtube is the biggest and baddest video sharing community on the web. If it’s a popular video on the internets, there’s a big chance that it’s on Youtube. There are tons of videos to explore and you can waste hours there if you’re not careful. I host my Bwana.TV videos on Youtube and through their partner service, I have generated enough adsense to pay for my hosting and other costs. Not only is it fun, but if you’re serious, you can make some serious cash through Youtube.
Twitter – Twitter is the most intriguing site of them all. To say I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter would be an understatement. Here’s a site that I’ve gotten so much value and information from that frustrates me to no end. There’s so much potential with Twitter that it’s impossible to put into words. Much of the web is starting to recognize the power and Twitter is definitely picking up steam. You may recall, I was one of the organizers of a Twitter boycott called the “Twit-Out” which was aimed at taking a day off from Twitter to discuss all the issues and concerns we had with it. We didn’t expect Twitter to make any noticeable changes due to this event, but we got some great discussions out of it, and it gave us time to reflect on why we love/hate Twitter so much. Once Twitter balked on the IM/Track feature, I left the service for a few months out of frustration, but decided to return once I accepted the fact that IM and Track were essentially dead. Since then, I’ve revamped the way I use Twitter and am finding TweetDeck to be an acceptable experience (but no where near what I had with IM/Track). Follow @Bwana at Twitter to see my rants.
FriendFeed – FriendFeed is where it’s at. If you’re not signed up for FriendFeed, then I urge you to join today. Most would call FriendFeed an aggregator with community discussion capability, but I would call it a community discussion platform that has aggregation capability. I find that the best discussions take place on FriendFeed, not only because of the people, but because of the technology. The way the site is built, it encourages you to comment. It doesn’t load a separate page, or load a popup window, but simply expands a nice little box for you to ramble your thoughts in. I love it. The other features add to this, but I believe this is why FriendFeed stuck with me. You can follow me at http://friendfeed.com/bwana
Gmail (Google Apps Mail) – Webmail has been popular since the 90s, but personally, I had been going back and forth between desktop clients (such as Apple’s Mail.app) and using the web interfaces. I signed up for Google Apps For Your Domain (GAFYD) and pointed my bwana.org domain to it to use for email. This gives me Gmail’s interface with my own domain for no cost at all. Since I’ve mastered (somewhat) Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts, I can tear through hundreds of emails in a matter of minutes. In 2008, Gmail was definitely a valuable site for me.
Hulu – I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. I didn’t believe Hulu would take off. I saw it as Universal’s tantrum against Apple and iTunes. Needless to say, I was very very wrong about Hulu. Hulu started small, but eventually grew to the one stop shop for premium online video. If there’s a TV show you like and you’ve missed an episode, your first reaction would be to check if Hulu has it. I’ve watched House, Terminator (the new series), and The Office solely on Hulu. These are shows I used to record on my DVR, but I’ve since moved to Hulu for that content. The experience is great, the commericals are tolerable, and the quality is consistent. If you’re not a part of Hulu, you need to become a part of it today.
Google (Search) – It’s now a verb. To Google something means you are searching the internet for something. It’s become part of our vocabulary. In 2008, Google solidified it’s dominance as the search engine of choice. All other search engines are a distant second to the almighty Google. It’s amazing that 10 years ago, this site was barely off the ground and today’s it #1. When someone asks me a question about tech, the first thought that comes to my mind is “Did you google it yet?”. There’s even a site called “Here, let me google that for you“. You can type in a simple question and it, *gasp*, searches Google for that question. It literally shows an animation of the question being typed in Google, and the search button clicked. It’s a little bit harsh, but it makes a valid point. If there’s something out on the internet that you’re searching for, Google is a great place to start looking.
Google Reader – My number 1 site for 2008 is definitely Google Reader. This is my information hub. This where everything comes in and I’m able to digest it and possibly share it. I use it on my mobile phone (iPhone) and on all my computers, no matter the operating system. Google added features to Reader that allow you to view your contacts shared items. When my friends share news from Google Reader, I can see them in my view. Google also added notes so that I can add my own commentary to shared items to help spark conversation. These notes can be imported into other sites that I love such as Socialmedian and FriendFeed. RSS is a wonderful thing and as I discover new sites on the web, I can syndicate them all in one place, and that one place is Google Reader. It is definitely my most valuable player in 2008.

Honorable mentions: Feedly, Remember the Milk, Toluu, Strands

What were your top sites this year?

Streamline Your FriendFeed Experience with FriendVenn

Bwana — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:39:21 +0000

Yesterday, I found a nifty tool for FriendFeed, which allows one to get a detailed view of their FriendFeed “universe”. It is called FriendVenn. Some would call it a social graph of sorts, but in essence, it details the relationships between you and your FriendFeed followers. To run the tool, you must input your FriendFeed username and password (NOT your remote access key), and let it do its thing. You must trust felix with this information in order to get into your account and present the data like so:

FriendVenn Results

The first column lists people you subscribe to, but have no subscribed back. The second column lists a reciprocated relationship, where you are subscribed to individuals and they have subscribed back. The third column shows people who have subscribed to you, but you have not subscribed back. So what does this all mean? That last column is the area of most concern. These are people who took the time out to subscribe to your feed and you have not subscribed back.

After using the tool, my first task was to subscribe to all those in that third column right away. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to stay subscribed to them, but I at least want to see what they share to see what we have in common. So far, I’ve had mixed results with this experiment, as some of my followers don’t even speak or share English! Since I can’t read Arabic, Chinese or Japanese, I’ve been forced to unsubscribe to these folks.

My next area of concern was the first column. Why didn’t these people reciprocate my request? Could it be the same reason that I didn’t reciprocate my followers? Laziness? At any rate, I took action and unsubscribed to most of the individuals in that regard. The tool seem to have a little glitch in this area, since I’ve visited some of these profiles and noticed they were actually subscribed to me. Before taking action, I verified this was actually true. With anything, there are exceptions. Some of these people, I’m willing to follow even if they don’t follow me back.

Why go through all this trouble? I believe this exercise will make FriendFeed a more potent source of information for me. I’d rather not have a one way fire hose of activity in my stream. I’d like to know that if I contribute to a shared item, that the person will #1, care, #2, be willing to contribute to the conversation. The side effects of doing this, especially if you have a lot of followers, is that there will be a great deal of hiding at first. I’ve been using this hiding activity as a mechanism to filter who I’m interested in the most. If I’m constantly hiding activity from an individual, and they haven’t been contributing to my activity, then I believe that’s grounds for an un-follow. It’s nothing personal, it just means that we’re not utilizing FriendFeed to it’s fullest potential.

If you can find the time, I highly recommend utilizing FriendVeen to comb through your follower list so that you can perform your own evaluation. FriendFeed is only as good as the people you follow.

You can follow me on FriendFeed here: http://www.friendfeed.com/bwana