Is that the latest from Google Labs?? Babies delivered by email? Great no more morning sickness, and mood swings! I'm sure it's still in beta...
- Daan
very interesting screenshots of some pre-release versions of our beloved Gmail.
- Jansen Lu
from email
pre-launch usability testing is key to any successful application. At the end of the day either it is the scarcity value of your application or user experience that will determine the fate of your application.
- Vic Podcaster
"We take the moon for granted, but Earth would be a very different place had our nearest neighbor only achieved half of its present mass when it formed some 4.5 billion years ago in a titanic collision. In fact, we might not even be here to appreciate it at all."
- Robert Seidman
from Bookmarklet
Dave, me neither. I had an account for less than a month and then cancelled it because I didn't find it that interesting compared to the hype I've heard from my friends.
- imabonehead
I can see maybe connecting with old school chums. But I don't really see its use in business, and I have an 18-year-old daughter who's made it clear it's HER TURF. Seems to me we've got plenty of other places to play -- here, and associated spaces, plus blogs, plus LinkedIn, which is big-ish in St. Louis. And in my field, I really like AdGabber.
- Mary B: #TeamMonique
I'm with you, most people I know are on it and active members, been trying to avoid it. Not 100% sure why, just never got into it.
- maxim shevertalov
from twhirl
i don't like any other sites,i got an account 2 an it's boring,lmao
- amy
I'm an FB user, but only minimally. I mostly use it to keep in touch with friends long since lost. But actually logging in... not much, I get my updates and such via an imaginary friend setup here at FF and also I get updates in SocialThing, consequently I almost never log straight in to it unless I need to reply to someone, so as long as they don't lock anything off from access, I could care less about it.
- nick carrasco
The rest of the planet doesn't seem to care much about facebook either. So you're definitely not alone.
- Luis Figueiredo
I stay for the Scrabble, pure and simple.
- Kevin C. Tofel
I like to have my FB pge automatically updated by other apps like Twitter, Last.fm etc. so I don't actually have to go to FB and do anything. That way it looks like I'm somewhat active to people who are interested and I don't have to bother.
- Todd Brunner
from twhirl
I do like the FB private video mail, especially to connect to friends who are on FB & noplace else.
- Brian Rendel
I don't, but I also don't give a flying fcuk that you don't give a flying fcuk - in the same way that you don't give a flying fcuk on my views on Bebo, Google, Seesmic et al, for sure
- Ivan Pope
from twhirl
i don't use it much but we're out of the demo - watch a gen y interacting w/ their tribe sometime on fb - they're it
- mike "glemak" dunn
I agree. I tried to use for marketing purposes, it failed miserably. Then I tried to use it for fun and it was worthless.
- J Allen
I think Facebook is a good tool. Maybe if you are Dave Winer you don't need it.
- Vic Podcaster
May be user error, but FaceBook didn't seem as useful as hoped. I thought it'd bring cool convos together. I still have to hunt.
- MiniMage
I've been a Facebook user till recently when they decided to disable my account. Here is the link to the whole saga http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Vic Podcaster
It was a great way to communicate with close friends and family while 5000 miles away
- Sally Church
Facebook started off with excitement, and ended up with apathy. FF started with curiosity, and has ended up with real social interaction. I know where i'm spending my time...
- Iain Baker
Oh is that what that FB stands for on my FF nav bar. Now that scrabulous is gone, not sure what the appeal is, unless you're trying to reach the younger crowd. YUK. I do like Knighthood though, let's you paWn your coFBers.
- John McElhenney
It may not be the popular opinion but I agree with Facebook here. It's their service to define and they want the real people not their alias (there is a difference). Make your Alias a fan page and be yourself, Facebook is a more structured environment and that's served it well - I don't think we can expect any change in that department
- David Knight
One of the many reasons why I have little use for Facebook. No other major site cares much about psuedonyms, and given Facebook's history of privacy problems, I'm don't trust them with much.
- Tinfoil 2.0
Kind of BS in my opinion that they disabled Vic Podcaster's account for this.
- Thomas Hawk
Terms of Service are only useful if they are reasonable and even-handed in applying them. If they can't explain why, they shouldn't.
- Andrew Feinberg
Why do they have to explain why? It's their ball and they'll take it home. If you don't like the rule don't use the site. It's that simple.
- Adrienne Van Houten
If you can't explain how you are applying your own terms of service, either you aren't following them or need new terms of service.
- Andrew Feinberg
I'm perceiving a shift in social networks and forums, more people using their names instead of fancy pseudonyms. Maybe I should say "names" without presuming that they are the person's real name.
- Jack&Cleo
Facebook is a joke for this reason, on your birthday you obviously get a few messages. I hadn't spoken with some of these people in a while so I got involved with them. I received two warnings about my conduct and I backed off from talking! Incidently Louis I see that we share the same birthday from your profile!
- Joe Dawson
@Ryo I still really enjoy what Facebook offers, I get benefits from other sites but the majority of my friends are active on Facebook!
- Joe Dawson
There's nothing wrong with pseudonyms and there are lots of reasons to use one, not just 'hiding'. Don't ask why people use Facebook, it's simple. People use Facebook because people use Facebook. Momentum, name recognition, user base, and it's a good product.
- David Knight
I've already cut back a lot from using it so I won't care if they eventually delete my alias. One more reason to move to A|N only
- Divided By Zer0
But hey, many have been calling it Fakebook for a long time.
- Daniel Schildt
Despite what they say about aliases, it does seem to be very hit and miss - I know of one person who is on as "Troubled Pink" and has been for a while, whilst others seem to get locked out pretty swiftly.
- Richard Peat
as they should, identity is really important
- Jeremiah Owyang
When I joined FB a year ago, it was as "Somerset Bob" - a pseudonym I wanted to use as I built a new online persona based around my revamped blog. After three weeks I was duly suspended until I changed it to my real name (Bob Kingsley). It rankled then, and still does to a certain extent - especially as I, too, see FB users who are using obvious pseudonyms. It's been the only social networking site that's made a fuss.
- Bob Kingsley
Agree with Jeremiah and David. Keep it real, Facebook :-p
- Jamie
Jeremiah: The policy should be applied evenly. Check this out http://tinyurl.com/6mz2zo now tell me what do you think? BTW Vic Podcaster is the real name I use in real life.
- Vic Podcaster
Besides retailers, product reviewers do not show why one product is better than another. "The demo" in their articles are speed, battery life, etc. and not why someone would want it in the first place.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I can't wait to check this out, haven't seen it yet today. However, I have to reboot before I can hear it... because Vista thinks it knows better than me which Sound card drivers works better. On SP1, and I still think Vista sucks. Again.. dying to see what is so great about this. Great article, spectacular demos are great to get someone interested in the product, but the full product still has to be great to continue using it (I assume why Macs are doing so well).
- Tim Hoeck
Look at computer games... I'll download tons of demos because they "look cool", but I only continue to play a handful.
- Tim Hoeck
Nailed it, microsoft has some amazing technology that the general public knows nothing about. They have some of the worst pr/advertising strategy I have seen in a long time, an incredible waste of money.
- adolfo foronda
Well, I'm glad Scoble didn't jump on the tech blogosphere bandwagon of giving the Mojave experiment zero credibility. I think the Mojave experiment works for regular ol' consumers but not so much for techies. Here are my thoughts in more detail: http://bobcaswell.com/2008...
- Bob Caswell
I disagree. It was absolutely the right call. If someone steals my intellectual property, I should just buy it back since the other version is cooler? Problem is that it went on way too long.
- Cyndy
Reports are that Hasbro offered $10 million but were turned down. So I think not a good business outcome for them but probably better than paying more than $10 million
- Brian Sullivan
Cyndy: The "way too long" is a big part of the bad call. Poor decisions.
- Mitchell Tsai
i wonder if there's any truth at all to the 10m figure cited at RWW. seems incredibly hard to believe that they would really turn that down.
- Deva Hazarika
Good point Cyndy, but would this really hurt Hasbro financially? I guess it's not about the money, just protecting the product.
- Dennis Jackson
@Dennis - They have all the time in the world to make it better. People will still play (and would probably pay to play). @Cyndy is exactly right - took too long, made them look bad.
- Jeremy Toeman
Hasbro's version is virtually unplayable. weak. fail. suck.
- Andy Sternberg
yeah, this sucks... that was the only app I really liked and used
- Shawn Duffy
from twhirl
another thing that makes hasbro look stupid is that their iPhone app crashed often, and now can't launch at all. Their's gonna be a helluva pissed post in the App Shop in a matter of minutes.
- Marko Bon
awesome... I lose more females because I refuse to play. ha ha ha
- NoahDavidSimon
@Cl Attr -- is there a price per month or per year that you think DOES make sense for a brand like Hasbro to charge the FB crowd for their self-made app? I think that number exists, and I think that's the whole point of watching this space for the last 12 months ...
- Marko Bon
... if not the "whole point," at least a particularly crucial one ;)
- Marko Bon
I wonder how Literati on Yahoo Games continues on unchallenged by Hasbro...
- C. K. Sample III
from twhirl
Re: "Literati" Not familiar with that game but I strongly suspect Hasbro came down hard on Scrabulous because of its name - SCRABulous (and possibly the board design, though I'm not sure what its legal status is)... Those folks have a trademark to defend, after all. (Crappy way to handle the whole affair, tho).
- Jules
Why is everyone assuming Hasbro didn't try and buy it just because it didn't happen?If the Scrabulous creators were asking for a billion dollars for a buyout and wouldn't budget, would it still be unreasonable for Hasbro to decline to buy it and instead sue?
- Kyle Johnson
I'll admit that I tend to use folks as filters - why I don't use a feed reader, actually. I get better passive advice on what to read thru FF and Twitter. Not everything that any one person writes is going to be spectacular - but when several people whose opinions I respect share something, it tends to be worth reading.
- Lucretia Pruitt
You are. You make it easy for me to understand the relevance and essence of Web 2.0 tech.
- Tokyo Dan
from twhirl
Who replies "me" is a bit arrogant, who says "you Robert" is too much deferent. Filtering is [or should be] a process, not a person. Isn't it?
- Markingegno - Donato
I think "filter" is the wrong term and it is leading to some "ick" responses. I'm with Harryman. Also, I see Robert as a connector (since he's analyzed in the piece), not a filter. Also, the degree to which Scoble points to things that I have an interest in changes as our respective interests and attention change over time. I find myself adding other connectors to my sphere of connection, although I still keep an eye on Robert. I think that is a social phenomenon.
- Dennis E. Hamilton
from twhirl
@William - I mean it's impossible for anyone to read anything is written in a day by millions of blogger. You can see only a small part of the tale. You have to adopt some kind of filters, being them human or not. From the other side, you can't rely on them, or on another person, neither he is called Scoble, :) you have to use your brain. My two cents.
- Markingegno - Donato
Experts in their respective fields. No-one can make sense of everything.
- Meryn Stol
Can't say that I have one. Depends on topic. Frankly with the incredible splintering of the content flood these days I'm learning to trust someone I hadn't listened to in a while ... myself. One's own gut instinct rarely proves wrong ... so if it sounds like bullshit, it probably is.
- Cathy Brooks
from twhirl
ugh -- I despise Camtasia -- what a horrible piece of software.
- Shey
my work uses camtasia but I rather use screenflow on the mac. What are software on windows that can do screen recording like camtasia?
- Wayne Sutton
OK - no offense but I ended up with a headache - from the sliding all over the place.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Yeah...motion sickness. He's got Camtasia zoomed in WAY too far. Camtasia is a decent piece of software, but its interface is a bit too rudimentary.
- Brad @ The Next Web
Not to mention, he's got the audio settings screwed. If you're doing a mono recording, there's NO reason to do a 48 encode versus a 44.1. All it's going to do is increase your size. 44.1, mono at 64k is perfectly fine for voice.
- Brad @ The Next Web
Wayne - Wink would be my recommendation but doesn't work on MAC (just Linux and Windows) .... would something like Flowgram do? http://beta.flowgram.com/
- Mlibrarianus
Seconded, Bwana. It's a flawless piece, in my opinion.
- Brad @ The Next Web
That reminds me...I have a new video to make. Now, if only I could convince the money guy behind the project that Captivate would make a better video than the already-owned Camtasia ;)
- Brad @ The Next Web
"Ballmer said Microsoft has found itself in a chicken-and-egg bind that’s hampering its ability to compete with Google. To get more search advertisers, Microsoft needs more search traffic. To get that traffic, it needs more advertisers." Wait, really? Does Microsoft really think that the reason more people don't use their search engine is that there aren't enough ads?!
- Amit Patel
from Bookmarklet
Haha, that's awesome. I wish I was as smart as Steve.
- Michael
snort! you made me spit my milk through my nose. No seriously, maybe they meant they need more revenue (from ads) in order to build features that would attract more traffic? Nah, they've got plenty of cash. They must just be complete idiots? or the reporter is? or both?
- Jason Wehmhoener
Admitting that they aren't good and that users don't like them would be difficult. It's much better to blame it on some kind of chicken egg problem.
- Paul Buchheit
How is this different than the Google strategy they announce every 18 months?
- Kevin Fox
What program do you use to build OPML files? Feel like I'm always setting up new accounts from scratch. I've used Bloglines, Attensa...any tricks?
- Aaron Uhrmacher (@aaronu)
"Seth asserted that by giving away your product early to your greatest fans who will do more work and put up with a less than optimal experience, you prime the pump for the mass market. That's because your early fans will spread the ideavirus and market the book for you."
- Hutch Carpenter
Hutch: here's one for you to ponder. If Seth is the smartest guy on the Internet (and I think he is), why isn't he on FriendFeed? : ) He also doesn't allow conversation on his blog posts!
- Robert Seidman
not a big fan of the game, can't dance and can't finger dance either, very interesting viral model however
- Lou Paglia
Robert - some people achieve guru status, at which point interactions aren't needed (but would be appreciated). I imagine if Warren Buffett started a blog, he'd dispense his wisdom and not bother with what people thought. Take it or leave it. And people would take it. Same with Seth.
- Hutch Carpenter
Hutch, Seth is great with interacting. But he doesn't seem to think FriendFeed adds to the ecommerce stream (that's your thing, right? FriendFeed as ecommerce?). I agree with you completely on Buffett, or Gates and lots of other people too.
- Robert Seidman
seth's aversion to comments and the most engaging forms of social media do surprise me, but he's a real family guy and probably is just trying to maintain some balance.
- Fred Wilson
Fred - I would think comments are a manageable form of interaction. Blogger can engage as needed. But it's cool. Really not needed for what Seth does.
- Hutch Carpenter
Fred, I agree but I see a lot of people write "rules for blogging" and really, there are no rules. I don't believe Seth gets away with lack of interactions because he has achieved "guru" status. I believe he achieved guru status because his ultimate focus was towards providing good content. Everything else is second.
- Robert Seidman
Robert Seidman (not Scoble) - interactions aren't really ever "needed". But that is one of the philosophies of blogging. If I turned off commenting and didn't show up on FriendFeed, I'd still have a (very) small readership. Just a matter of how big the audience would be.
- Hutch Carpenter
I think twinkle is just as viral, I can't wait for more improvement on the twinkle-front.
- karl dotter
Interactions aren't really ever needed when the content by itself is really valuable. But why do so many people make such a big deal about "the conversation" then? So on the one hand you want to say it is a big huge honking deal, but on the other hand not so much?
- Robert Seidman
Robert - you mean like this conversation here? Who is this "you" kemo sabe? Conversations do matter, but all in context. Most of us are trying to figure stuff out, and it's a lot easier to do so by bouncing thoughts off others. If you're a lifelong student, conversations matter. If you're a professor, valuable content matters. And we're all a bit of both.
- Hutch Carpenter
Hutch, conversations don't always (or even usually) matter in terms of ecommerce. We both may love these conversations, (and I surely do) but our love of them doesn't really mean much in terms of ecommerce.
- Robert Seidman
Hmm...Robert...I'm thinking this is a conversation better held over on the e-commerce thread?
- Hutch Carpenter
Back to the iPhone apps topic, analogy to FaceBook app first mover advantage falls short. FB has in-your-face viral features built-in (news feed, invites, shares, profile boxes, etc) which iPhone apps lack (as of now). iPhone app store has 3 things: #installs (doesn't translate to usefulness/quality/fun), user ratings (Apple does not allow sort by rating), and user comments which many people likely ignore. Seems like a smaller % of iPhone apps benefit from network effect, compared to FaceBook apps
- Amir Gharaat
Amir, true, but then again iPhone apps have been available for a whole week!
- Robert Seidman
But the game itself isn't that much fun. I have it, but I spend more time playing Aurora Feint when I'm in a line/waiting room/waiting for children at soccer/karate/gymnastics.
- Cyndy
Shazam vs. Midomi provides an insightful view into FMA... they were both available at launch, both were free, both landed in the top 20 list the first few days, and both provide essentially the same service. However, Shazam is now #5 vs. Midomi at #41. Shazam has over 1000 glowing reviews vs. 200 for Midomi. Many Shazam comments say "I'd pay $5 or $10 for this". The difference... Shazam is way more accurate and has a bigger DB. Expect the gap to widen. Shazam Pro for $10 would be a hit.
- Amir Gharaat
""What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future," said Thomas Jenkins, CFO of the Boston-area Jenkins Financial Group, a bubble-based investment firm. "We are in a crisis, and that crisis demands an unviable short-term solution.""
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
oil is the current bubble. I'd bet on euros, defense equipment, or alternative energy companies as the next one.
- Jonathan Tang
Nationwide Infrastructure development, they should green light nationwide light rail and solar and wind farms. Make solar and wind power mandatory on ALL new construction projects.
- Jason Lowe
Leo, you are the 3rd person I've seen with this. Thankfully, my personal blog updated just fine but I'm going to wait until that plug-in is identified before touching my work-related blog. I like my job, thankyouverymuch.
- Judi Sohn
Thanks Leo.. WOW.. was about to upgrade ours here.. Once again the "CHIEF TWIT" Helped out "Da-Chief" from Corpsman.com.. BZ!
- Da-Chief
Just make sure to de-activate plug-ins before upgrading then re-activating them one by one after the upgrade.
- Leo Laporte
Good luck! Mine did the same thing when I upgraded too.
- Margaret Kerr
from twhirl
I've been having a problem with a FF comments plugin working with my 2.6 install and openbook II theme. it makes my javascript story scroller go wonky.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
this is why I probably won't upgrade until I get home.
- Mike Hussein Cohen
Good tip once again LEO in my Guineapig....cheers
- John Spencer
There's a small bug that permalinks with index.php are broken, and that you have to use permalinks with index.php. You know, just a minor bug that no pages or posts work. Oh and there's no workaround for windows hosts
- Phill Price
used instantupgrade plugin to update, then couldn't log in. sigh. All fixed now, but still.
- John LeMasney
I was considering upgrading, but I think I am going to wait a little while and see if there are any additional issues.
- Pascal Sijen
I had no problems whatsoever... And btw if you read the general 3 steps upgrade documentation on wordpress.org u'll find they specifically say what Leo already mentioned - deactivate plugins, then post-upgrade reactivate one by one.
- Jan Cifra
@Jan: Many plugins require adding code to the template, so having that plugin deactivated might crash the site, too!
- James Joyner
Upgraded www.audiodesignlabs.com today and had no 'real' problems. I had a minor issue with the wp-print and wp-email plugins (clicking resulted in a 404), but those were fixed by updating my permalinks. So far so good...
- Pascal Sijen
I just upgraded pixil.info hoping this wouldn't happen. I had an error the first time i ran the upgrade but it was because i forgot to copy over some files, user error! Everything else worked after that.
- Noe Ruiz
Leo and all, in 2.6 they disabled XMLRPC by default. You can turn it back on. Might this be the issue?
- Jim Sewell
From the page: "Geeks and enthusiasts wearing Wordpress t-shirts, using laptops covered in Data Portability, Microformats and RSS stickers lined up enthusiastically on Friday to purchase a device that is completely proprietary, controlled and wrapped in DRM. The irony was lost on some as they ran home, docked their new devices into a proprietary media player and downloaded closed source applications wrapped in DRM."
- Zoli Erdos