Bwana.org » web2.0

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

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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.

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!

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

I Liked Twitter More When It Was Underground

Bwana — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:08:53 +0000

Credit: IconTextTo

Tongue in cheek

Twitter has really blown up this past month and has been talked about on just about every mainstream news front. I had a conversation with my brother the other day and he even said “I’ve been seeing people talk about it, but I’ve been wondering what it is”. This prompted me to post a message on Twitter and I got the following mixed responses:

Bwana: You don't realize how weird Twitter is until you try to explain it to your family. Now I”m questioning why I even use it

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:47:20 +0000 2009

nelsonmaud: cause im crazy lol

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:48:08 +0000 2009

DonMcAllister: I've so been there! Still using it though

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:48:54 +0000 2009

nocky100: Hmm do you have to defend why you go to the watercooler in the office and gossip with friends?

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:49:11 +0000 2009

davejohnston: That makes little sense to me. Just use it. No remorse.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:49:50 +0000 2009

Chris_Huff: For some reason, Alice Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare started playing in my head when you said that…lol

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:51:44 +0000 2009

ebonydad: If it the same family members who call for computer help, or help setting the time on their VCR, I wouldn't try to explain.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:56:00 +0000 2009

joedawson: My family don't understand the appeal of Twitter either, with my brother drawing comparisons with MySpace!

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:57:10 +0000 2009

datalore_tv: I have been trying to explain it to my brothers for months!

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:59:47 +0000 2009

itsaholliday: i agree, trying to explain it to friends and family is one of the toughest things

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 13:09:19 +0000 2009

zengiraffe: My feelings exactly. I tried explaining Twitter to a friend and he looked at me like I need to be locked up for my own protection.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 13:19:31 +0000 2009

KMPhotographer: You should do a video or blog post on how to explain Twitter to others. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the same boat.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 16:08:58 +0000 2009

I don’t know what it is, but when I explain Twitter to others, I get this weird feeling of “Why do *I* even like it?”. There’s so much about Twitter that can’t be explained (a la Matrix), but I feel Twitter is much more than what it seems on the surface. Sometimes it’s frustrating when people don’t get it, but I’m not too concerned about that. Either people like something or they don’t, you can’t change the way they think. (See: Myspace)

Still, it’s amazing to see the growth of Twitter, but the ride there was fun. In case you missed the tongue in cheek reference, I was kidding with the title, but I do believe Twitter is about to change now that it’s mainstream. Whether that change will be for the best or the worst, remains to be seen. You can follow me on Twitter, I’m @Bwana.

Youtube Comments: Necessary, But Add No Value

Bwana — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:02:25 +0000

Youtube comments have a bad reputation. It is a well deserved rep, that cause many to ignore or even install custom software to avoid. It’s a playground for trolls, racists, and people who are mean spirited and want to get a rise out of content providers. In the midst of the cesspool of comments, there are usually some nice people who have genuine feedback to offer. I’m starting to pay more attention to Youtube, and the more I do, the more I find that people there don’t want to read:

Youtube is a video site and people treat it as such. There’s no reading in video! Just like millions of Americans loathe subtitled movies, millions of Youtube viewers will not read the comments.

Why is this an issue anyway?

Well, most of my videos are howtos, tutorials and Q&A, so I get a lot of followup questions on certain topics. Most times, the Youtube community is generous enough to answer, and so do I, but as time passes, the comments get buried.

Buried comments are generally ignored on Youtube.

That is the issue. Here’s a prime example:

I have a very popular video (#1 on Google Search) on how to create free iPhone ringtones simply by changing a file extension.
A common question that people ask is how do you “chop up” an existing song to make a ringtone. I’ve made a video on this topic and I’ve also answered the question numerous times in the Youtube comments.
As soon as the answer gets buried to page 2, the question is repeated.
It’s very annoying.

Do I fault Youtube users for ignoring the hundreds of comments that address their concern? I’d like to, but in reality, users have a short attention span, especially those who are attracted to 5 minute tutorial videos.

Why even bother with Youtube comments?

Youtube has a metric called “Most Discussed” which displays videos with the most comments. Some users like to watch videos that have a lot of comments. They don’t actually care what the comments are, but they measure a certain buzz factor by this metric. In my opinion, it’s an invalid metric to measure, but I’m by no means a Youtube authority.

So this is the double-edged sword with a barb wired handle: Hardly anyone pays attention to anything prior to the last 10 comments, yet the videos with the most comments, get more views. A big part of me would like to disable Youtube comments due to the fact that people don’t read them. Ironically, they will take time to send an email or Youtube message, rather than finding the answer in the comments. At the same time, I have to recognize that Youtube comments provide “juice” to your video and promote viewership. Notice how a lot of bigtime Youtube providers are encouraging their users to comment? This is why.

It’s ironic that I’m complaining about text comments on a video site, but if you produce videos like I do, you’ll find community interaction is pretty important. It’s sad that I have to constantly repeat the same answers over and over again due to this glaring issue, but at least users are watching. How about you? Does your Youtube community pay attention to comments past the first page?

Let me know in the comments

Embed Your Real-time FriendFeed Activity On Your Blog

Bwana — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:13:30 +0000

The real-time web is the buzzword of 2009. As technology advances, we become more impatient. We want our information and we want it 5 minutes ago. If a story is reported 2 hours after it happens, it’s ancient history in the age of Twitter and FriendFeed. I’m a big user of FriendFeed not only for the information it brings, but the interesting discussions that occur surrounding them. It’s a great dashboard of the social web.

FriendFeed has a real-time feature that some are not aware of. This feature is available for FriendFeed lists, rooms, and your friend streams. It shows FriendFeed activity as it happens and can be addictive if you let it Today, I found (through FriendFeed of course) a little nugget that allows you to embed your friends real-time activity right on your blog. To do so:

Navigate to your page by clicking “Me” on the left sidebar. Then click “Yourname + Friends” on the top tab bar
Next, click the “Real time” link, and then click embed in web page
You can then configure the embed width, height, and title. Copy and paste the HTML to your blog and you’re set.

I was aware you could embed real-time FriendFeed through rooms, as I wrote about back in May, but I didn’t know you could also embed your friend stream. Here’s what mine looks like:

As of now, you cannot embed your main feed, or your discussion feed which consists of your comments and likes. That would be the next logical feature to add since the FriendFeed discussion feed is rich with content that you are interested in. Take a look at mine to get an idea. I’m glad FriendFeed is continuing to improve and if you want the world to know what you’re doing on FriendFeed at any given moment, go ahead and embed your FriendFeed activity. See you on FriendFeed.

Stickrz.info – From Tweet To Reality

Bwana — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:05:11 +0000

Earlier today, I tweeted the following:

I wanted to find a site that gives me information about cool and preferably free stickers on the internet. If you search for “free stickers” on Google, be prepared to wade through a sea of spam. Rather than wait for someone to do it, I decided to spend $0.99 at Godaddy.com and build it myself.

Behold: Stickrz.info

Stickrz.info is now a reality. I’ve used some of my social media snazzle, and setup a FriendFeed room and a Twitter account. I’ve also embedded a live version of the FriendFeed room on the frontpage. This site is primarily user driven. I’m looking to solicit user submissions of great sticker offers and use positive word of mouth as a quality filter. While this may decrease the number of submissions, it will definitely increase the quality which I believe is more important.

I love stickers and I’ve quickly created a basic site to aggregate information about them. Utilizing WordPress, Twitter, and FriendFeed, I believe this will be a fun project.

More stickers please!!

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?

FFHolic Provides The Best Of FriendFeed

Bwana — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:16:07 +0000

The popular online discussion/aggregation service FriendFeed has a great deal of fans who swear by the service. Most of these fans have found the secret sauce in the sea of updates, duplicates, and as some would say, “noise”. This is great and everything, but it’s not an easy process to learn how to utilize the tools FriendFeed provides to see the things you want. I’ve posted a couple of articles on how to best filter the massive fire hose of information, but it’s definitely not for everyone. What about those who just want to peruse FriendFeed to see what the most popular entries are? FriendFeed added a feature a few months ago which shows the “best of” FriendFeed by day, week and month. This is great if you want to be limited to your social circle, but what about the rest of FriendFeed?

This is where a great service called FFHolic comes in and saves the day. FFHolic groks all of FriendFeed and displays the most popular stories grouped in many ways. FFHolic shows you:

Most discussed entries
Most liked entries
Most commented entries
Most popular users and rooms
Most active users and rooms

These are just some of the ones to start with. You can also show some of these entries by type such as videos, photos, and music. It doesn’t stop there. FFHolic provides a rich set of tools to get the best from FriendFeed. There’s the FFHolic toolbar which puts all of the site right in your Firefox browser:

FFHolic also provides widgets to embed on your own website. These widgets give you the option of showing your “best of” information or all of FriendFeed.

Finally, FFHolic has RSS feeds for all of its data so you can subscribe to your favorite criteria. If you use tools like Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes, iGoogle, or My Yahoo, then this may be a good option for you.

For new users of FriendFeed, FFHolic provides a fantastic springboard to see the best that FriendFeed has to offer. It encourages those who are squeamish about filtering the massive amount of information FriendFeed provides, to continue to use FriendFeed to fit their needs. If you’re on FriendFeed and enjoy FFHolic, join the FFHolic FriendFeed room to discuss it and provide feedback.

See you on FriendFeed.

Doing The TWiT, Baby

Bwana — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:26:37 +0000

So Leo Laporte, internet superstar and ruler of podcasting, contacted me a couple of weeks ago to appear on This Week In Tech (TWiT) as a guest host. After I picked up my jaw and changed my underwear (in that order), I happily accepted and we completed the show last night (listen here). At first I was a bit intimidated with the guest panel most of which have had huge exposure though the likes of TechTV and most recently Revision3, but I did my best to hold my own with such a large panel. Leo thinks the show went well and extended the invitation for future shows, so that’s a good thing

For those of you who don’t know much about TWiT, it recently won the Podcast Award for Best Podcast in the Technology and Science category. Leo Laporte produces a multitude of shows under the TWiT branding that deal with all kinds of interesting topics. For more information, go to http://twit.tv.

Leo has done an excellent job of taking the home grown podcast/video cast hobby and made it professional. If you view his live stream on live.twit.tv, it’s hard to tell that the setup isn’t in a television studio. Leo uses a tricaster to perform many professional effects using an insane setup that I can only hope to dream about for Bwana.TV.

I’m glad to have experienced this colossal event with the new media juggernauts and am already seeing the benefits of such high exposure. My web server has been taking a pounding since it was plugged on the show and also my Twitter follower count has increased by almost 200 in less than 24 hours. Insane!

Thanks Leo and everyone at TWiT for such a wonderful experience and I look forward to future shows.

I also want to thank Chris Pirillo for helping me through his wide, wide network of listeners. I occasionally produce videos for his podcast, the Chris Pirillo Show. I don’t know if Chris contacted Leo, but if he did, I’m even more grateful. Now, I need to get off my lazy posterior and produce more episodes of Bwana.TV and Bwana.org Radio. Look for new videos tonight on Bwana.TV and a new Bwana.org Radio tomorrow (11/11) at 8:30PM EST. Both will be streamed live as I produce them at live.bwana.tv.

Doing the TWiT, baby.