LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has been quoted in the Business Insider, stating that users won't find time for Google+.
It would stop at that, I would call him a fool. But then, later in the article, he mentions that, for Google+ to work, another social platform will have to fall.  Let me tell you who will fall and what to get from it.

 

Let's start with the cool stuff: video, chat, mobile, and yeah... the circles.

The circles are one of the smartest dumb idea I have seen so far: A graphic version of Facebook lists. Nothing innovative, it's just easy to use.
You hear, Facebook? E.a.s.y.

Video and chats come next, while FB chat is heavy and erratic, Google serves us with their excellent implementation of the XMPP protocol we all know via gTalk. On the interface level, the chat is not intrusive and actually lets you CHOSE when you want to discuss. And it does it with video.

Where it surprises: 'sparks' and 'incoming', or the end of friending.

Sparks are a good way to get the information you need based on your interest, while 'incoming' will show you the streams of people who're following you but you're not yet following.
These features are already powerful when looked at individually, supported by the Google's long experience in feed reading and struggles with privacy and/or data relevance. When combined, they simply mean the end of Friending. Which is not a bad thing.

Where it bites: integration.

Google has everything: Search engine, e-mail, chat, apps, browser, calendar, maps and places, news reader, document viewers and more...
Now, that would be really stupid not to take advantage of all this pre-existing material, right?
What you can be sure of, is that Google+ intends to become a full fledged OS and Web integrated platform, stretching from enterprise integration to social gaming.
Just take a minute to look at their already killer notification system, accessible from their search engine or from gMail, you'll see what I mean.

Where it hurts: mobile

One circle to bring them all and into the darkness bind them.
One little mobile application, a framework to link G+ to android apps and there you go, you've got yourself an all in one solution.

Facebook and Twitter: punched in the face.

You don't need friending on Twitter, but the looking for relevant data is a brain torture. You like your good old Facebook, but not only it's getting more crowded with adds everyday, it also gets more complicated and, come on, it's so 2007.
The truth is, Google+ has the potential to do everything Twitter and Facebook do, but better, with a cleaner interface and all the additions listed above.

The coutdown: RIP, RIM.

Research In Motions has been launching betas of his social framework for BBM for a while now, and we're not seeing anything consitant yet.
This is too bad for them, since they don't have anything to offer save their 'exclusive' enterprise and messaging services.
Their primary mistake was trying to do it alone, sticking to their own closed systems and proprietary hardware. While they were trying to reinvent the wheel with the Playbook and their new not-so-innovative-anymore social feats, they jumped-in way too late, with too little to offer. Google just went around their strategy and did the exact opposite, offering a comprehensive app suite available for everyone.

I don't see them getting out of that situation unless they do something drastic, such as opening BBM or porting it to other platforms.

Collective Asses given a life lesson:

Trial and error. That's about it. We've been repeatedly laughing while pointing at Orkut, Wave and Buzz while big G was jubilating, watching the critics pile up in the shape of a nice how-to for there future product.
My skeptical self still believes (as, apparently, they do) in the 'wait and see' approach, but G+ is adding a million users a day and has a surprising level of maturity for a product so new. I see a huge success, cake for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered the Q&A web service Quora just yesterday and I'm late as a Santa in June.
I got immediately sucked in, thanks to its pretty clean interface and the relevance of the questions.

One of the first questions I answered was :
Will Quora become the next big thing here in Indonesia, or will it become just like another Formspring.me?

My answer is there,  and you can check it out. But here I wish to develop further on why Quora, if not the next big thing, could be right on time to get an established user base in Indonesia, and why this could be a win-win situation.

Why it can work

Indonesians are not afraid of asking.
You can say the opposite all you want, but I find Indonesians much more prone to asking things than, for instance, my fellow French.
Ranging from "Is time travel possible" to "What did you have for lunch" (oh dreaded question), I've seen all sort of questions flying my way, witnessed many debates, and it convinced me that knowledge thirst is real in Indonesia.

Indonesian culture is about sharing.
Well, probably not just sharing, that would be reductive, but for a huge part of it, it is.
On Quora, the sharing/networking features are spot on, not too much, not too little, with a link to Facebook and Twitter that really works.

Just a niche?

Quora is what it is, a Q&A service.
You won't share everything there, no photo album, no marketplace, no emotional status about your hamster's last failed relationship.
In other word: not much small talks, and it's precisely that small talk aspect that propelled Twitter and Facebook on the top of Indonesia's internet usage.

Quora's penetration in the Indonesian market will also be slowed down by its lack of mobile app.
Yes, mobile broadband is huge there, with a penetration rate of nearly 77% in march 2010 (latest number I'm aware of).

English is compulsory. Too bad.
Many local Facebook and Twitter users communicate in their native language. Indonesian is the second language in Twitter's trending topics (or was last time I checked). This is not, of course, exclusive to Indonesia and is also particularly true for China, Japan and Brazil.

These three facts make the service more restrictive than the more comprehensive Facebook or the faster Twitter, and more likely to attract a crew of active hobbyists and professionals rather than the average internet users.

Why a win-win?

A win for Quora if they manage to keep on attracting local users: The Indonesian user base will be active, dynamic and very versatile, and bring to the site a steady flow of interesting questions about many topics.

A win for Indonesia, as they have a very active entrepreneurial scene, especially in the new technologies and social media field. Quora could be just the right tool to let them show their real potential to the world while getting even more in touch with the tech trends.

Earlier in this blog I've told you about things that irritate me on Twitter.
And, surprise I'm getting back with more.

1. The tunnel vision self-advertiser

Still human but barely so, they have one thing in mid. ONE.
They have achieved a ghost written e-book about the marvels of the gag reflex, and now they are going to let the whole world know about it.
They have developed a near-godly ability to relate any topic to their product, and whatever the cost they will do it to advise their marvelous e-pamphlet on the virtues of dried crab neck whenever you feel happy, suicidal, or your car broke down.

Block, choke with recycled e-paper.

2. The bloggers

140 characters are not always enough to express what you mean.
14.000 characters are still not enough for them.

They are the TL;DR kings of the TMI land, and will, not once, sir, not twice mam, but systematically, flood your timeline with novelettes about every single frame of their morning floss ritual.

Block, report for spam, poke in the leg with a hot needle for ever extra character.

3. The jokers

I'm inappropriate and often offensive.
But when it comes to be downright infuriating, I'm a baby compared to them.

Everything is laughable, everything is funny. They probably spawn from places such as /b/ (don't go if you don't know), and are always happy tobring the fun back in your agonizing grandmother, the last natural disaster or your sexual orientation.

Block, invite them to a lawyer-only rally and watch them melt in lava-hot lawsuits.

4. The dirties

Here I quote

" @porkknuckle ;) RT: @killmenow #ouch #Iknewit RT: @vampireunicorn Totally #mommy #eyebleach RT:@killmenow http://too.short...(snip)"

You really want to have a part in that. You know you do.

Block, force them to pay for the eye surgery they just brought on you.

5. The liberated army of sexual innuendoistas

Men and women who think sexual liberation equals tweeting about their genitals every other minute.

They usually try being smart about it and lamentably fail while letting all of us know about their renewed excitement for all the alphabeticvariations of the F-word.
They are not exhibitionists either, which make them totally unworthy of any interest.

Block, compliment them about the quality of their content, quoting them aloud, in a public place, preferably a church or a kindergarten.

Anything I missed?
I could turn it into a comic if you had an idea ;)

So, have you ever had to deal with this frustrating experience: blocking a user on Twitter, and seeing that user back and again in your timeline through RTs an mentions?
If yes, this little script can help you.

It will replace any tweet containing that user's name with "Just another tweet", so your adrenalin never spikes again.

You will need Mozilla Firefox and Greasemmonkey to run it. I can't host .js files, so you will have to follow the tutorial below in order to install the script. It's currently designed for one username only, but I could enhance it later, if ever you asked and treated me for a pizza.

Here is the tutorial:

1) Install the GreaseMonkey add-on . After installation, you should see a monkey icon on the botton-right of your browser, that's where you can manage your scripts, deactivate and reactivate Greasemonkey.

2) After installing, go to Tools -> Greasemonkey -> New user script

3) Fill in the blanks:

4) Greasemonkey will ask you for your favorite text editor, notepad or textedit will do

5) Copy and paste the following, fill the blank space between the quotes with the username you want to block (keep the quote marks, no need for a @), save and close.

For Twitter:

// ==UserScript==
// @name           TwErazer
// @namespace      TwErazer
// @include        http://www.twitter.com/
// @include        http://twitter.com
// @include           http://*.twitter.com/*
// ==/UserScript==

erazeme = "     ";
setInterval(function()
{
    el = document.getElementsByTagName('span');
    for(i=0;i<el.length;i++)
    {
        if (el[i].className == "entry-content")
            {
                str = el[i].innerHTML;
                if (str.match(erazeme))
                {
                    el[i].innerHTML = "Just another tweet";
                }
             }
    }
    el = "";
}
, 5000);

For "New Twitter"

// ==UserScript==
// @name           TwErazer_new
// @namespace      TwErazer_new
// @include        http://www.twitter.com/
// @include        http://twitter.com
// @include        http://*.twitter.com/*
// ==/UserScript==

erazeme = "    ";
setInterval(function()
{
    el = document.getElementsByTagName('div');
    for(i=0;i<el.length;i++)
    {
    if (el[i].className == "stream-item")
        {
        subEl = el[i].children[1].children[2].children[1];
        str = subEl.innerHTML;
            if (str.match(erazeme))
            {
            subEl.innerHTML = "Just another tweet";
            }
        }

    }
    el = "";
    srt = "";
}
,5000);

 

6) Go to Twitter,  breathe.

7) You can test the script with any word or username you want.

Voila, hope it's helpful :)

I have already introduced the topic with that post. But I think that through all my perusing, musing and meditation, I have found some more factors to why the SNS trend can actually be seen as a bubble ready to burst. Here:

Wrong values and unqualified ROI

From the top of my skull, that's the very first thing coming in, and the topic about which I am the most vehement.

Wrong values because now everything seems to be quantified by either the amount of followers, likes, or facebook friends you get.
The numbers have to be huge, since the bet is  "if you are visible to many, some might buy"; unfortunately I barely believe in that approach, and I'm probably not the only one.
It was probably true a couple of years ago, but now so many have jumped in the bandwagon it derails at every turn, being visible to many means taking part in an infomercial flood invading too many time lines.

Now, I see a huge bunch of consultants and experts wanting to jump at my throat, screaming that the results are quantifiable if you know where to start.
Indeed they are. We hear from the revenue generated from online campaigns. Generated by the ads agencies.
The ROI of the actual advertisers though, is unknown.
I'm not talking about isolated cases, I'm talking about a global survey and real figures; what I want to read is " n% of of the companies advertising on Twitter experienced a ROI of n% during the last 6 month"

Too much snake oil

I'm not saying that every SNS consultant is a fake, but many are still pretty inexperienced, or plain useless.
As a result, many companies are lured into thinking that:

- They can sell online without previous authority (not everyone is called Starbucks)
- They can sell absolutely everything online ( PR is different from sales)
- Having lots of followers/likes/friends is a proof of success (you can buy followers in some forums)

Then, confusing talks about the results come into the game, and mess it up a little more. Take this article for instance.

What do they mean by "countless donations",  "increased their traffic by 300%" or "sales bump of 20%" ?
If I have 1 visitor, having 3 by the next day will be a 300% increase.  Be specific!

What kind of trust do you want to build with these stats? Seriously?
What is economy based on, by the way? Oh yeah, trust.

The balance is fragile

Platforms, users, advertisers and third parties are tied in a very tight way.
The platform depends on the users, drives its traffic through third parties, and exposes it to the advertisers.

If the platform fails, everything is muted
If the users get bored, everybody loses interest in the platform (no content generated)
It third parties are not competitive enough, users will get bored (but then again, what if the platform fails them?)
If the advertisers stop advertising, the platform can't maintain itself (and in the other hand if the "lesser" and noisy ads smother the users, they will get bored)

The not so funny fact being that Facebook and Twitter are in a position of quasi monopole. There is nowhere else to go right now.
Does it mean that investors and companies will keep on pumping in money and effort until someone panics? I hope not.

The topic is being discussed

As I said earlier, economy is based on trust.
You'll always find a base of skeptics being grumpy about mostly every topic you can imagine, that's given. But in the middle of the current SNS fever, articles about disappointments and doubt about the real value of the system (like this one) are becoming more common, and that's not really a good sign.

What can we do so it doesn't burst?

What I have in mind is pretty simple. Diversify, leave more space to the competition, stop advertising stuff no one care about, and start treating social media like, yes, media and not like some universal solution to all advertising problems.
The internet is not limited to Twitter and Facebook, it is a mine of innovation, it's time to remember it and get back to making stuff.

Burstingly yours.
Danny.

Your Twitter timeline is a bloody mess? You've created lists but it doesn't matter?
The probability is that you are both using Twitter to look for information to share and to keep in touch with some friends.
The probability is, now your timeline is gorged with non-sequitur quotes and repeated bad marketing attempts, that you failed.
Like I did.

So what now? It's time to unfollow everybody, yessir, and re-follow the Tweeps you really bear in your little heart.

I have some easy steps for you:

1. Tell everyone you are cleaning up and starting from zero. You don't hate them, you just need to get rid of all the bots, you were a victim of your own eagerness to make friends and followed too many accounts, people forced you at gunpoint, you're saving the trees...
2. Do that a day or two before you actually press the big red nuke button, some people don't tweet everyday and might be surprised if it happens too fast. Who wouldn't?
   
3. Make a new list with people you will re-follow. Unfollowing them will not delete them from the list. A good way to do so is to check your mentions and private messages, it will give you a good hint about who dialogs with you the most.
4. Once you're sure you really, really want to do it, go to http://www.unfollowall.com/
5. Enter your ID, Password, validate and check your account.
   
6. If your 'following' counter is not showing zero yet, go back to Unfollowall.com and repeat/refres.
7. Time to re-follow everybody in that new list you created.
8. As a couple of extra steps I'd recommend to create some special lists such as "Info only" and "real people" or "nice dialog"  and keep these strictly separated. If you are using a tool such as hootsuite or tweetdeck, it's pricelessly handy.

Notice that you will inevitably experience a drop in your followers, since all the accounts using automated mutual follow will also unfollow you. But then again, you're in there for a reason that doesn't include pleasing the bots. Be tough!

Wishing you a happy reboot!

A lot of news this week... it made me think: with all these new features announced from the three web giants, we might forget they are competing. What could happen next in the "I buy you" game? Google has all the reasons to buy Twitter.

Facebook is updating like crazy

Unlike Twitter, who's upsetting the developers and taking all the time it wants to air a new version of its web interface, Facebook forces the users to adapt to its new layouts and functions. The risk is minimum, try remembering what it was like two years ago...yeah, me neither.
Now, two major moves have been publicized, the security page and the Question feature.

The security FAQ shows a positive response to the user's worries. Not much to say about that but "kudos".

Now, the question feature appears to be a direct competitor to Aardvark.com. Who just bought Aardvark? Google.

Twitter has more ties to Google than you think

• Twitter is build with several components from Google: maps, analytic (statistics) and Ajax (key framework for web development).
• You can search tweets from Google.
• You can tweet from Buzz.
• Yesterday, Google launched a Twitter timeline feature.
• Today, Google launches a the Follow Finder feature.

Apparently they are really good at "filling holes" or they have something else in the back of their mind.

Google can't do social, is slow with mobile.

Orkut, Waves and Buzz are two examples of big G trying to get social, and failing.
Which is too bad since, if they had a good, well known framework to begin with they would be able to port it to the exec level, along with Google docs.
Which is too bad, since they could play a little bit more with their adds through real time web.

Facebook mobile VS Google search mobile? You bet, Facebook wins. And now Tweetie is the official Twitter app, who's left behind in mobile traffic ?

Twitter takes on the add market

Now Twitter launches sponsored tweets. Everybody is wondering what it's going to look like, but one thing is sure: advertising benefiting to Twitter may show in Google search.
I wonder if they are going to like it much.
Until now, real time search has been a good way to collect more data about our googling habits, and the new features are for sure a consistent addition to it.

Google can't buy Facebook.

No they can't. But they can invest in/buy Twitter, and it wouldn't surprise me it happens if the sponsored add campaign is successful.

Wait and see...

So, lots and lots of noises about Twitter buying theTweetie app.

The news has generated plenty of discussion elsewhere, and I won't discuss the developer VS twitter point of view here.
Instead I'm going to tell you why focusing on apps might me a huge mistake.

Twitter's traffic is actually stalling

They can brag as much as they want about their international growth, but the fact is: they are stalling. Just take a look at this graph, voila.

There is a lack of new tweeps: Web users.

I am going to repeat it, again and again, new users are still subscribing from their website.  From.Their.Website.
A newbie is going to visit their front page, and subscribe from there, because of the keyboard, because of the big screen of their desk/laptop and because users are not used to register from an app, even when the app gives them the possibility.
Users have been registering from the web since...the web, and they'll keep on doing it for a while.

Apps better than the web interface?

Maybe because Twitter's web interface hasn't evolved much, except for the a retweet function everyone hates and a hover card function nobody cares about.
Randomly, I pointed myself to a trending topic and counted.

• 60% of the tweets come from an app.
• 50% of apps users had more than 300 followers
• 40% of web users would also tweet from an app

• 100% of web/mobile web only users had less than 300 followers

Would it mean that the web interface is either disliked or not practical enough? I take it as a yes. Once again, that's where new users will register.

Justin B. Fanclub and ugly profiles, that's what the newbie sees

Another detail that's more a hunch than anything, but have you looked at the start page? Have you look at the trending topics?
While Chinatown's fires and the death of the Polish political elite may pop in to say hello, Twitter looks like either a Justin B. fan site or a list of what people listen to.
This aslo bad since JB's fan's pages can be real eye sores.
That might be repelling. That repelled me from using the service for a full year.

Why buying Tweetie is partly a mistake?

Well, dear Twitter, you have proven us to be pretty looking, but not the best at designing a great user interface.
Now you are alienating the same developer community that made your popularity possible, by letting you go lazy on your own interface.
Don't you think it's time to launch this massive overhaul everybody is talking about and raise your standards and/or listen to your users a little?

Why Apps are Twitter's Junk Food?

Just like apps, junk food is easier than home cooking and cheaper than high-end service.
And when you abuse it, you tend to get big (in size) , slow (your size prevents your reactivity) and lazy (to cook at home).

Ok, tell me what you think about all that, I'm going to grab a cheezburgerz.

'If You Have Something You Don't Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn't Be Doing It' - Eric Schmidt, Google CEO - December 3, 2009

You see the problem here, yes? Let me rephrase:

'If there is someone whom doesn't want you do do something, maybe you shouldn't be doing it"

I have been writing long and large in this post about how your private things should stay private, and how the Internet could, in a worst case scenario, turn into the global version of that small town in the mountain where everybody know you've been holding hands with Suzie's sister's best friend (who's got an uncle in England).
There are several solutions to this problem. Some are scarier than the current situation (online unique and certified identity, thus legal right to privacy), some are simply utopias (free open web where everybody is nice and caring), and giving the whole world the middle finger is just too childish.

So, what do you do to protect your real identity online?

1) Use a persona

2) Hide your face

3) Phone number, address? Forget!

4) Split your professional and private life

5) Several emails are good too

6) These privacy settings, use them!

 

7) Are you sure you want to reveal your location?

8) Chose your friends.

I don't exactly follow all these advices; I'm not a privacy freak and I actually let some information leak just to know how far they can go.
With a little bit of whit, you can find out where I work (good luck), you know how I look, now try finding me and tell me what you found out. I'll treat you for a drink.

Meanwhile I'll be lurking on /b/.

Wonder about Facebook and Twitter privacy settings?
I let you know here why you should be careful about them, and here is the guide :)

Facebook

First off, find the "Privacy Settings" link, hidden behind the account button.

 

 

Profile/Contacts

All the settings you will need to modify fill show like this:

At that point, you are free to chose what to set private. I am pretty touchy about my family and relationship info and who can see what was posted by my friends.
You can fine-tune the setting after clicking on the lock icon and choosing "customize".

A pop-up will appear, where you can chose to show/hide from specific people. The interesting part is: you can type in groups names.
Creating a friend group called "limited" and hiding some information from them is quick and easy.

Search

Search offers less granularity, here are the setting I find optimal for a good privacy (e.g. you won't be found on Google and only your friends will be able to search for you). Make good use of the "Preview My Profile" button. It's pretty useful and will save you time.

Application and Websites

This one is a trickster. I do not really understand why Facebook has taken the decision to hide "What You Share" and "What Your Friends Can Share About You" under that section, since it seems more logical for it to appear under "Profile". Design flow or obfuscation?
Be sure to visit these pages and chose carefully what you what to be shown.

Twitter

Much easier, you only have to worry about two things, the geo-tagging and the tweet protection. Protecting your tweets will prevent them from showing on the public timeline. and It will also prevent Google and other third party applications to harvest them without your consent (just google "@yournickname" to know what I mean).
Locating your tweets is a matter of choice, I do not really want people to know whether I tweet from home or from a cafe. Deleting previous location information is a useful feature, since the geo-tagging is enabled by default.

 

This is the end of the guide. Hoping to be useful. Don't hesitate to share your feedback and keep in touch!