Monday, April 21st, 2008
Do you want to know the truth? Only idiots bother with social networking. Before you get your knickers all bunched up I want you to hear me out for a moment. Go log into your Myspace or Facebook profile real quick and have a quick look around. Ok, done?
…
Great! Notice anything different? Of course not! And that’s the whole point. Nothing changes. Aside from adding a few more meaningless faces and names to your “friends” list what have you accomplished? The truth of the matter is a bitter pill, but it’s time to swallow it. So called “social networking” is neither social, nor is it networking. But wait, there’s more good news!
Social networking can actually be more detrimental to your long term online health than you might realize. The problem is that we start developing content as if our social networks are our primary audience all the while forgetting the other 1.3 trillion people out there who aren’t in our friends list. If they were just part of the audience that would be fine, but we have a tendency to start dancing like clowns for our networks.
Now excuse me while I log into Reptile Geeks. I’m expecting a couple of more friend requests!
Posted in Blogging | 6 Comments »
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
In recent days I’ve become a more
active member of Stumble Upon. Essentially what that seems to mean is that for some very strange reason people want to be “friends” with me and that I get a lot of stumbles “just because”. Mind you I’m in no way complaining about it I’m just a little surprised is all. Pleasantly surprised.
I wouldn’t say I’m a star stumbler, or even a 5th string farm league rookie stumbler by any means but I have learned a few tricks along the way. So before I go any further I’d like to acknowledge a few of the people who taught me so much about Stumble Upon via various articles.
No doubt I could continue on with several more articles but those are a few of the main ones that come to mind. I encourage everyone and anyone to read them at least once. Needless to say I read those and many other articles and began to slowly employ some of the principals taught in them. Which leads me up to my point. Why I stumble YOUR articles (or not).
- It interests me
- You’d think that this would go without saying, but I have a feeling it doesn’t. If your article doesn’t interest me at some level I’m not likely to stumble it just because I happen to read it. Something will need to compel me to stumble it.
- You’re one of my “friends”
- On a daily basis receive requests from my SU friends to stumble their content. Not everyone gets stumbled as I do actually read the article in question and I value my so-called reputation enough not just to whore it out anymore. Yes I used to participate in a lot of “stumble exchange” traffic scheme websites. That was before I knew that building a strong community of fans is really the only way to go.
- I learn something new from it
- For me this is a huge reason I stumble. Because it tells me about something I didn’t know about before. You’d think that I would do nothing but stumble my time away however if it doesn’t interest me while teaching me there’s no point in me stumbling it. Sadly this is the case with most articles I read. I learn something new, but it really wasn’t something I wanted to learn or enjoyed learning. It was boring.
- It’s in the “What’s New” section of Stumble Upon
- A few times a day I will stumble things in the “What’s new” section. Just the first 5 or 6, but these I don’t worry to much about if they interest me or not. I simply read the article, write a review and stumble it. No more, no less
There you have it. Four reasons I will stumble your articles. This isn’t an all inclusive list, but it is the four main reasons I stumble sites. Very quicly let’s break it down.
- Make it interesting
- Be my friend (please!)
- Teach me something
- Catch me at the “right time”
Why do YOU stumble articles?
Posted in Blogging | 18 Comments »
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
Yesterday I came across an article on CNN dot com about God Tube, and got to thinking about the various websites, television programs, video games and other mass “entertainment” venues which emulating one another.
We’ll just take a quick look at a few websites that emulate others. I doubt I’ll have to get into much detail about who and what is being emulated.
I can’t help but wonder:
- How are these sites able to operate without being sued?
- I can’t help but wonder how those sites manage to operate without getting sued? Don’t get me wrong I like a few of those sites, but from a legal standpoint how can a site like His Holy Space exist without raising a bunch of hackles in the legal department over at Myspace? The only conclusion I can reach is that these sites are left alone because they somehow help Myspace’s bottom line.
- How long will this social networking craze sustain itself?
- A few days ago I quickly addressed the fact that there are literally hundreds of social networking sites out there. How long can this possibly continue as a successful business model? Just today I joined three more for research purposes. I can’t count how many I’ve joined just long enough to use the interface and have never gone back (You’d be amazed by how many people call me to work on their computers which translates to - “Please help me sign up for (insert social networking flavor of the day here)”
A few months ago I wrote about reaching critical mass with Myspace friends, but I didn’t give much thought to reaching critical mass with social networks in general. I blame it on the fact that all I had, all I needed to have before starting this blog was a Facebook and a Myspace account. Either way the more I research this social networking phenomenon the more I realize it can’t possibly continue on as it has been. Or can it?
- How about the social bookmarking sites?
- Not to be outdone by social networking the social bookmarking sites are just as out of control. There are over 200 of these as well. From Stumbleupon to Sphinn to Reddit and hundreds of others. I could spend hours upon hours each day submitting my articles to social bookmarking sites. I don’t know who the original was and I don’t care who the original was, but I do wonder how many of these sites can the internet support?
A few questions for you reader:
- How many social networking/bookmarking sites do you use?
- How often do you make use of them?
- Do you continue to join new ones?
- How much of an impact have they had on your website/blog or life in general?
Posted in Blogging | 7 Comments »
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Google’s “OpenSocial” goes live
Google’s latest attempt at global internet domination has been launched. They have code named it OpenSocial for friendly public consumption, but we all know it’s true nature is anything but friendly.
- What is OpenSocial?
- Per the FAQs: OpenSocial is a set of common APIs for building social applications across many websites. OpenSocial consists of both JavaScript APIs and Google Data APIs.
Translated into plain english that simply says OpenSocial is another way for Google to monopolize on your websites and surfing habits.
- Is OpenSocial open source?
- Per the FAQs (again): Currently, the sample code is released under the Apache 2.0 license. Additionally, we have Creative Commons licensed all of the OpenSocial documentation, so you are welcome to reuse and remix as appropriate. In the future, we are planning to open-source the components that are required to run OpenSocial on your own website.
Translation: We’ll release just as much as is needed to get you to use it under open source licensing and nothing more.
- How do I get started?
- Go to the OpenSocial home page and start reading. Be sure to check out the documentation full listing of FAQs, the OpenSocial Blog, and as always make sure you read the terms of service before getting too wild with it.
- Are you recommending it or not?
- It looks to be a potentially very powerful asset for bloggers if used properly so in a word, yes. I might not be a big fan of Google’s strong arm tactics, but that certainly doesn’t preclude them from releasing some really good software.
Are you going to try out OpenSocial?
Posted in Technology and Computers | No Comments »
