ishouldreallybeinbed

Mentions in Google Plus

2011-10-16T14:09:00.001+02:00

A friend asked me how does one "plus mention" someone in Google+
Although it may seem obvious I've been asked before so here are a couple of screen shots which I hope help.

On the desktop version you can mention someone in a post or comment by simply typing the + sign (or the @ sign) and typing there name.

You'll get some suggestions based upon your circles as you type, but you can mention anyone on G+ and they will receive a notification that you have "mentioned them in a post".

Note: Google made some changes recently about who can send you notifications so a person may not receive a notification depending on how they have notification set up.

The set up is much the same on mobile, here's a screen shot from the iPhone App.

Mentioning someone in a comment seems to prioritize people in the thread which makes sense to me.

Here I'm mentioning Simon on the Android App.

As I mentioned above depending on how a person has their notifications set up they may have chosen not receive notifications from someone outside of their Extended Circles (default), their circles etc.

Personally I think the default setting should be "Everyone" much like the way an @ mention works on Twitter. If I am spammed by notifications it's quite easy to block someone (and report while doing so), but then again I haven't suffered the amount of spam that users with a larger following may have.

To check you have notifications set up the way that you want go here.

Instagram versus Picplz

2011-08-07T20:04:00.001+02:00

Photo sharing Apps are all the rage and there are lots of them.

I'm currently liking / using Instagram and Picplz: which one is best?

Picplz

Picplz.com from Mixed Media Labs (unlike Instagram) is available for iPhone and Android.

What I like

The "out of App" experience: an easy to find profile on the web.
Collections: being able to group other images into collections much like on Flickr but without the limit set by Flickr.
Locations: being able to view images by venue (Foursquare) or venue on the web. For example: London or Cologne
View Recent or Interesting images.

What I don't like

Lack of filters compared to instagram.
Image format: I'd like to be able to keep the original format or crop it down to a square format if I wanted to.
No hashtags :(
No block feature. Though have been pretty quick to deactivate objectionable accounts. Hope that a block feature is added soon.

my picplz images:

Instagram

Instagram is iPhone only.

What I like

Lot's of filters (though people tend to stick with one or two favorites).
Tilt / Shift.
Large user-base, though I haven't put the time in to build up any real following (I suspect that's inhibited by my photographic ability and subject matter too).
Save image to camera: this is an option on picplz but I've never got it to work and it saves the unfiltered image.
Hashtags.

What I don't like

The limited "out of App" experience (though there are some apps coming out which are starting to take advantage of the instagram API).
Limited "profile" you can now add a url and some short text. Tip: make sure the URL you add is mobile friendly as people will visit it for the most part via the iPhone.

my instagram images:

Conclusion:

Looking onward there are a number of other Apps set to enter the photo sharing space. I'm hoping for an invite to Photovine when the first wave of invites go out so i can check it out.

Also since Google Plus arrived on the scene that I've been using the instagram App more for image creation / editing and posting images there, rather than posting through the App itself.

So which of these two do I prefer?

Ask my head: Picplz. I prefer their wide reaching approach.
Ask my heart: instagram. Though you'll need an iPhone to use it.

Network Visibility - Did you see that?

2011-07-22T13:54:00.002+02:00

Circles, Lists, Groups, blah it's all got a bit wordy: confusing.

We mean Network Visibility don't we? - "Who sees what?".

When I share on-line I use circles* to control who can see it.

Lets talk about "network visibility" instead of circles. Can we?

*Circles, Lists, Groups, whatever etc

Comments

Nearby on Google Plus

2011-07-05T13:46:00.000+02:00

Those of you without the Android App or like me waiting for the iPhone App will be using Google Plus on mobile via the web app.

Taking a look at the Nearby stream (swipe left) I was interested to see one of my public images there.

How did it get there?

Well I like to geo-tag (some) of my images. It seems that geo-tagging a public image will show it to people nearby.

I think this is completely cool and in-line which the whole privacy features. If it's public you'd like the world to see it right!

To see if an image has been geo-tagged in photos on Google. Click: Actions > Photo Details: on the photo page.

Suggested Circles in Google Plus

2011-07-01T14:17:00.000+02:00

This is something that shows how well thought out Google+ is: Suggested Circles

In Circles click to make a new circle and start typing to see suggested names for your circle.

This feature is really cool, both for the user and for Google.

User:

Help with naming
Encourages "logical" structure
Encourages contact sorting / circle building which leads to a better understanding of the "Circles" concept
More logical ways of segmenting (looking at) your stream

For Google:

Provides data on how people think about their social circles
Provides a way (in the future?) to be able to rank circles
Will provide signals which can be used to tune social search

A few days in and although I have a few niggles, which I'll write about when I get the time, plus is still looking pretty solid.

Hello Google Plus

2011-06-29T11:17:00.000+02:00

Although I'm watching Google+ from the "outside" currently I've still seen a couple of things worth sharing.

I've always wanted "faces in Buzz", well now comments have faces!
This probably just implies the merging or absorption of Buzz in the future and is just a perk in the mean time.

Also spotted "comments" (Picasa comments) when viewing images from profile pages like here.
Older comments don't show, but the ability to comment directly in light-box view looks pretty good.

Private Buzz posts

2011-04-25T13:08:00.001+02:00

When I posted my reactions to the new Google Profiles a while back my biggest complaint was that it wasn't clear when a Buzz post was private.

Here's a screen shot of a private Buzz post from how things were.

Here was no indication at all that the post was private.

Now things have changed and the word "Private" indicates when a post is not public.

Clicking on the word "Private" reveals to the viewer who has access to see the post.

The inclusion of the word "Private" does help a user understand what is visible to the world on their Buzz stream, but I still personally feel, when scrolling through posts on my Buzz tab that it's still not obvious enough.

What would be better is if there was a stronger visual indication that a post is not shared with the world.

In the screenshot I've simply highlighted the word private in red.

Edit: as Noble Ackerson pointed out red is currently used to highlight when a Buzz post is muted, so maybe a different colour to highlight private posts (like Green) would be better.

That seems logical and visually strong enough.

Do you post privately on Buzz? Scrolling through your posts on Buzz would it help you pick out what was private from what was public if posts were highlighted in such a way?

Mobile Buzz - Better info view

2011-03-20T11:12:00.001+01:00

What's new in Buzz mobile?
Buzz on mobile used to have one major fail for me: the lack of information when visiting the "contact" tab.
When new people start following me I like to glean some idea as to who they are before deciding if I'll follow back etc.

Clicking through takes you to their Buzz stream on mobile, where you can see what they've been buzzing about.

This helps but often I'd want more meat and veg' so would click the contact tab.

Old Mobile Buzz view

Doing so was previously were Buzz had failed big time on mobile. It promised much but delivered very little.

The contact tab was always pretty good if you had people in contacts, where you could see chat availability and other info etc, but hopeless for new followers as you didn't have them in contacts.

So I was delighted when Mike Hatch saw a change which he mentioned in this post.

New in Mobile Buzz

In the screen shot to the right I've stitched together the same profile view of the contact tab for the same person featured above and you can see what a big difference the changes make. Click the image for a larger view.

Obviously there's only whatever information the person has made publicly available so it doesn't give anything away that the person hasn't chosen to share. If there's some info there it's much easier to make an assessment as to whether you'd like to follow that person back (or block them).

If you have any info on the person in contacts you get a combined view of the information.

The same is true if that person has chosen to share any private information with you via a contact group on their public profile, e.g. address or telephone number etc.

The new "profile view" in Buzz mobile is really helpful, I'm not sure why it wasn't publicized but left to a buzz user to spot. After the generally positive update to profiles from a couple of weeks ago it is nice to see the rate of improvement to Buzz, both tied to profiles and Buzz on mobile continue or even pick up.

I'm guessing that there wasn't any big publicity made about this as Google are saving some BIG news for Google IO - follow Google IO on Buzz.

Comment on Buzz

Google Profiles - my thoughts

2011-03-16T00:40:00.001+01:00

I wanted to give some feedback on the new Google profiles, here are my thoughts. The new look overall gets my thumbs up.

Old Profile

New Profile

Good stuff
More intuitive editing

Click edit, click the area you want to edit: simple.

Adding "Scrapbook images"

Images added are stored / managed in Picasa in the "scrapbook" album, if you're a Picasa user you'll have lots of choice of what you show here. It seems to work as a public album which is linked to Buzz, I noticed too that when I changed the images in the album it posted to Buzz automatically.

Gender / Looking for
Pretty self explanatory.

There's a relationship section which Gina Trapani wrote some interesting comments about which Chris Messina in turn responded to.

Profile URL / Information shown
Changing your profile URL is recommended if you use Buzz or are interested in the idea of people being able to @mention (ping) you regarding a conversation (a common practice in Buzz).

The "Information" edit area lets you choose what is shown in the profile sidebar.

Picasa tab
Google announced the Picasa tab the other day. It's nice to see another update released so quickly. Hope for more.

Like the way images preview and albums are displayed. I'll be using picasa more from now on.

Bad stuff
Latitude and Sidewiki

Latitude integration isn't as good as it was. I guess the number of people who had the feature active didn't warrant it being a priority. OR as Google seems to be paying attention to mobile / location maybe it'll get its own tab in the near future.
Sidewiki: no Sidewiki tab in currently? Boo bring it back. It should be an option that you can add.

Hovercards

Hovercards: hovercards used to work on Buzz URLs but don't feature now. I'd like them back please, though it doesn't look good, I tried tracking down the post on the Social Web Blog and it seems to have gone. Would still like to see faces on comments.

Private Buzz
Buzzing privately is one of the key features I like. On twitter I can tweet publicly or DM one person. On Buzz I can speak privately to groups.

Above is a screenshot of a private Buzz post with the new profile look. How would you know it is not public?
Below is the old Buzz URL version.

With old posts there was the word "Private" and a padlock icon. There used to be your profile image when commenting too, nice for people with more than one account.

Now there is no initial indication that the post is not public. if you click to comment (as who?) there is a link to view who can see the post, but that requires another user action: bad design.

Show the viewer it's private!

- Private Buzz post image mockup -

Give it a different look, say it's private, include an icon: do something but private posts need to be obvious or people won't trust or use them.

Conclusion

So what (do I want) next?

1. Who are your friends, who are you following? I'd like to be able to show (or choose not to):

Friends
People I engage with most often

Friends would be people I choose, or a special group in contacts?
People I engage with could be auto generated with "fine tune" control.

2. More tab options.
Apps!

I'd like options to add tabs for all the Google properties: hotpot, books, music, calendar, etc.
Be able to set the "default" landing tab (currently About, used to be Buzz).
Be able to add application tabs.

Comment on Buzz

Google Places: Page Updates and Review Replies

2011-02-12T09:16:00.000+01:00

The quick mention about creating offers, posting live updates and responding to customer reviews in this video struck me as something that could become a big deal if done right. Although I probably spend more time looking at place pages than most I had never yet seen an update or a review response.

So while I was on a course at GFU Cyrus AG, who have claimed their page, I asked if I could take a peek at the process.

The whole admin area is more geared to providing the user with tracking data and the "share an update" box is easy to miss. There's a 160 character limit and it wasn't exactly clear where the update would appear on the place page. Only one update will show, if you write another it'll replace the previous one, if you don't the update will disappear in 30 days.

The update took an age to come through, compared to what the average user would expect and felt clunky.

In this screen-shot you can see both a page status update (top arrow) and a reply to a review by the "page owner".

Both are in my view not highlighted well enough, which is why I have tried to highlight them better in the screen-shot.
As mentioned the status update took some time to show up, the review response did somewhat better and was visible right away.

It would be useful if there was some notification delivered to the person who left the review, or an option to have one, after all as these are reviews from Google users that should be easily doable: but that isn't the case currently.

Help
Post an update to you place page.
How to respond to reviews.

Conclusion
I think replies to reviews and page updates are a interesting addition to place pages, but need some work before most place page owners would bother to use them. Google should do better.

Changes to Facebook pages - for Administrators

2011-02-11T14:31:00.002+01:00

Lot's of you will have received the email letting you know that there are some changes to Facebook pages coming.

I thought I'd check them out and give some quick feedback.

Some of the changes are great, some will be useful depending on the number of pages you administer, and there is one major red flag that went up when I read and walked through the changes which I hope I'm wrong about.

Notifications
You can finally have notifications for your page, which will be great for those with a small number of fans but will generate allot of noise for the average inbox, or if you have allot of fans on your page (Gmail filters and Labels to the rescue).

Gripes:

You can't yet change what email address notifications are sent to.
I'd love these email notifications to work like notifications for groups. i.e. reply to the comment from mail (post as page).

Different Facebook views - Admin & Self
You now have different "views" of Facebook (one for each Page you admin + YOUR view). Click Account then "View as Page" to choose which page view to use.

Here I am in the Admin view "English Cologne" posting on the English Cologne page.
Note when posting as the page in page view you can only tag pages you have added as favorite pages (now Liked Pages).
So you can no longer tag your friends when posting as a page.

Here I'm on My "self" Facebook view (view as "Robert Wallis") and when I post to the page that I administer it is posted by "Me", something that wasn't possible to do before: but when you post as you and not the page the page update will not show in the streams of the page Fans as it does when posting as the page.

The update (made in "self" view) posts to the page as any update a Fan would make to the pages would do.
Shows in the "Just Others" or "Page plus Others" view of the page stream.

So page admins need to be careful that they are in the "page view" and more importantly the CORRECT page view when posting an update to their page(s).

This is what the admin view of a page looks like when viewing your page.

There is a section showing page admins, which is very welcome. Ideally I would like to see who had posted what to the page. something that is not currently available.

Issues?
Well all seems good generally with the new updates to pages for admins. There's allot to keep in mind, especially if you admin quite allot of pages and the "noise" from updates (all to your default email address will certainly be a problem for some.
The main concern I have is with the ability to Post As Page to Other pages.

Expect the spam count to rocket as page owners arrive at your (popular) page and post links to their page (as their page). You should be able to mark as spam of block the person behind the page, but I'd expect to see allot of people being tempted to promote their own current, or new page in this way.
Brand endangerment: with big brands there are often a large number of admins, or stale admins with access to a page. Imagine the scenario of a "rouge admin" wandering over to a competitors page and bad mouthing them (as your brand). This is a nightmare scenario for a brand.

Conclusion

Some good some bad changes to Facebook pages.
Lots for page admins to deal with (especially those who admin many, or pages with large fan numbers).

Update
There also appears to be some login issues with this update. If you are logged into Facebook and on "page view" the links in notification emails log you out of Facebook you will need to login again. This doesn't happen if you are viewing Facebook in "self" view.

There's a couple of useful articles which page admins should also read that Dennis brought to my attention on Buzz here and here.

Hotpot - Social Review

2011-01-21T11:55:00.002+01:00

After a few days playing with the Google Places iPhone App I thought I'd write a few notes.

The App it's self is pretty clean and easy to use. It comes with some logical icons to get you started including of course one for Google's obsesion with Pizza.

All the icons run the same way, e.g. a search term, and adding your own search term as an icon is simple and straightforward. I couldn't see anyway to use a custom icon at this point. Hope the ability to do that will in a later update.

The intergration of places is set to be play major roll in Google's social strategy. Once businesses start to realise the benifits of claiming their place page (see video below).

Of the few reviews I've made so far the process seems to work pretty well.
I was going to gripe about how the review I made for the DIoA landed up on page three of the Google user reviews, which was rather odd, as I'd expect them to be listed chronologically. But it's since jumped to the top of the list, so maybe there's a short delay before reviews are re-listed.

Improvments?
There are a coupld of things I feel are missing at this point.

1. I'd like to see a feed for reviews I've made show on my maps profile page.
This would allow me to publish reviews in my Buzz stream, which would expose them to people I'm connected with, but not connected on HotPot.

2. I'd like to be able to sort reviews for a place on place pages, much like you can on Map Profile pages ("Sort by date - Sort by rating").

3. I'd like to see the option of of adding a link to my Google profile on my Maps profile page.
People who are connected with me can view a link to my main Google profile when they visit my Maps profile page, but what's the point in that? If we're connected then they already know that information!

That you can't might hint that you will soon be able to limit the visibility of your entire profile (or parts of it) to your friends (or groups), much like you can with your contact data, which would make it possible to run your Google social exposure much like Facebook.

You can see the latest reviews from your HotPot Friends on Google Maps (when logged in of course).
This is a neat feature, which I'd also like to see this in the native App itself. Currently you will see rattings and comments from friends below an entry in the results: if one of the results has been rated. I'd like a tab that just shows activity from my friends.

So that's it: a few quick thoughts.
What do you think?

Last thought: Google offers would be an obvious tie-in to Places.

Update: Google offers does tie into place pages.

View this post on Google Buzz

Focus Global Test Drive

2010-12-05T12:04:00.001+01:00

I'm currently involved in the Focus Global Test Drive, a project to bring 100 people from all over the globe to a test track in Spain to test the all-new Ford Focus before it's released, and in the process earn the participants nominated charity the market equivilant of $10,000 USD.

These videos show some info on the project and some peronal invites which have gone out to people invited to come.

There has been a very enthusiastic positive responce from invitees: but less so from the general audience.

Is the hurdle for entry is too high, is the concept too ethical?
It would be great to here your thoughts.

Comment on Buzz

Engagement - Google Buzz

2010-11-21T13:34:00.001+01:00

Often heralded as dead, Buzz continues to be my preferred network for "conversation".

The conversation can be more interesting than the post.

Conversation builds trust.
Trust builds relationships.
Relationships lead places.

The conversation which happened around one Buzz post lead to:

An introduction.
A request for contact.
Opportunities (for supplier and consumer).

I've quoted a relevant block of the conversation below, with links to the profiles at the end of the post.
The entire original thread is here (note: it could differ from what is quoted if participants have since edited their comments).

"John Gotts - It's dead. I use it to follow five or six people that write great content, including you, Scoble, Arrington, anything from TechCrunch... The point is that I now only use it as a side tool to keep up on the thoughts of a few tech luminaries, where I can then also engage in some light conversation or comment on what's being said.
There are so few people here now that the comment threads typically are readable, which they weren't when it first appeared.
I think they f'd up so bad when they first started that they spoiled their chances. It may come back over time but to me it's now more like a personal chat between a few friends. That said, it's still more of a community feel than Twitter. That said, Twitter is now more of a news blast and spam space and Facebook is where real conversations between friends occurs.
Buzz is dead or dying or alive and dying. That's what the the survey says and that's how it feels when you're here at the site.

Thomas Tenkely - @John Gotts To you maybe, if your purpose is to follow big industry names. I have more activity here with my friends and family than I do on Facebook and Twitter combined.

John Gotts - If you remember when Buzz first came out it was being heralded as a potential Twitter killer.
They had tens of millions of people to aim at their startup but by attaching it to people's private email contacts it was sued and frightened many away.
Then the spam in the blog posts started and now I'm not really sure what's left.
If it's for you to contact your family and friends I just think Facebook has a better platform and keeps out the spammers by forcing a friend request.
They have different models but I'm not sure that what you're using it for is what Buzz hoped for.
Perhaps if it'd been a stand-alone product hyped on the front of Google they would have done better. It just seems like it went from 120 MPH to about 20 MPH and isn't speeding up.
IMHO and just my observation.

Robert Wallis - @John Gotts the launch was a balls up, sure.
I don't find spam a problem. I unfollow and block where needed.
Buzz isn't feature complete by a long way. Really needs some filtering: http://bit.ly/bTKlI8

Tracy Crawford - @John Gotts You need to follow more people. There are so many tech people here that actually post from different feeds that I limit them and look for other sources of information.

John Gotts - On Twitter I follow over a thousand people I respect and look forward to trolling through the short posts.
On Facebook I have about a thousand "friends" in Idaho, where I'm going to be running for state senate in 2011/12. I also connect with family on Facebook from immediate to cousins and distant relatives, old school chums, etc.
On Google Buzz I come to read posts from a VERY small group of brilliant people, I just added Jolie O'Dell, and TechCrunch, which I believe keeps me well-informed. The best part is that I can participate in conversations with these people and now that Buzz has become such a ghost town it's vastly decreased the amount of noise.
Too, by following so few people on Buzz it's easy to see and report a post spammer and alert the good people who own the account and can delete the bad guy/gal.
So it isn't that I don't follow enough people, it's just that I use Buzz to actually remark on posts from a very few people and I use Twitter to get the sandblast from a thousand brilliant minds.
I.e. Life is short, the days don't hold enough hours or weeks to days, months don't hold enough weeks and the year doesn't hold enough months to follow and read everyone.
Cheers! (-8

Denis Labelle - @John Gotts: It is not that Google Buzz as a platform is dead, it is the people that you've mentioned and follow here that are "dead" (Twitter to Buzz posting). Zero conversation. As much as I enjoy their insights, I don't follow them here but on their blog/site/etc.
John, you can't just post/tweet, sit and wait. You need to learn about how to engage in social media . I would suggest you to read "Engage" by Brian Solis.
P.S.: Talking about Brian, I don't follow him here but on his blog where we can have conversation/debate.

Robert Wallis - Whatever works for you John Gotts
Time is an issue for us all an the conversational aspect of Buzz can be a time sink.
For me following more works because I make use often of mute for conversations which pop back up in the stream that I'm not interested in, and mute in inbox for conversations which have derailed that I have been involved in.

Denis Labelle - @Robert Wallis: +1

@John Gotts: I took some time to have a look at your fan page on Facebook.
IMHO, again, it is not about the platforms but the way you are using them and this is not only you. Look at all the "big names" here on buzz, they just "dump" content or do "cross-platform posting" (a big "no no" for me or for reputation). When I am posting on Buzz, I am here. Not via Twitter, Blog, Facebook, "from the web", etc. When I post/comment/follow on FB, I am on FB. So no "Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or Seesmic". But, that's me and my approach/strategy.
Also, the old approach of "posting & getting comments" is gone/over (especially when you are the only one posting or even worst, on multiple platforms in "one shot"). It won't last. Engaging and getting the most out of you social media "strategy" can be resumed in 3 words: ask, listen, monitor. It is not about "me", it is about them . Feel free to have a look (and get an idea) at our Fan page for the Japanese clothing store UNIQLO that we built in a matter of months. 190 000 fans coming from all around the world, sharing in multiple languages & media. And this is a foreign brand, with no budget, from Montreal. Observe how the fans are the content providers, not us. We ask/engage, listen and monitor and this, very much part time: http://www.facebook.com/UniqloCo
P.S.: good luck with your campaign.

John Gotts - Thanks Denis. I actually just took a look at your posts and your site and find the things you did on FB very interesting. I've not yet started on my fan page, I've just started making connections to locals so that I can understand what their needs are and engage in solution creation as a social event.
I tried to reach you at your office but only got through to the sales recording.
Cheers.

Denis Labelle - @John Gotts: send me a private message here on Buzz via my Gprofile. I will reply as soon as possible. Have a nice weekend.

John Gotts - @Denis Labelle - done. Thanks and have a great weekend."

Participants: John Gotts, Thomas Tenkely, Robert Wallis, Tracy Crawford, Denis Labelle
Mentioned: Brian Solis
Network: Google Buzz

Post background:

Jacob Friedman (@jacobdfriedman) and I had a couple of exchanges after I made a Buzz post in response to a TNW article where he said Buzz was so unused it was "perpetually unchecked ...".

There was an exchange on Twitter which I Buzzed about. He posted an article with a Buzz poll "dead, dormant, still alive" which I replied to on Buzz.

Sounds like a tit-for-tat-spat, but we've since tweeted back and forth and everything seems cool.

Conclusion:
Buzz is a very small conversational network.
As an asymmetrical network it allows users to engage in an intuitive manner that isn't possible on Facebook.

Conversation builds trust.
Trust builds relationships.
Relationships lead places.

Facebook Places vs. Google Places

2010-10-17T23:41:00.002+02:00

After noticing that Facebook places had gone live in Germany I though I'd do a comparison of Facebook Places and Google Places.
For this post I "checked in" while out for dinner on both services and include screen shots and notes.

Facebook Place
Facebook place pages concentric on "social" (no surprise there). There's limited information relating to the place.

Phone number
Adress with a link to Bing maps

I was interested to see an - "Is this your business?" link: claimed "places" are turned into Facebook pages, which are their business offering.

I makes sense (for Facebook) to try to encourage every business to move over to Facebook, but how many pages are people going to Fan realistically?

Google Place
Google primarily are about information, so it's no surprise that there is much more information about the restaurant on it's Google place page.

Phone number
Address
Link to the business web site
Directions / map
Transit connections
Reviews
Details
etc etc

Google also allows a business to "claim" the place page. Once claimed the owner can upload images, videos and coupons etc

Check-ins

Facebook mobile

Most people will have some idea of how Facebook operates as a "check in" service.

I think that you can only interact with check ins by your friends, though you can "see" a tally of the overall checkin numbers at any place.

The screen shot here is from Facebook's mobile application on the iPhone. There may be slight differences when using other mobile platforms like Android etc.

Google Place - Mobile Check In

Check ins for Google places on mobile happen on Google Buzz mobile.

Here you can see the check in Buzz post which includes a map and a link to the place page.

The big difference though is that when viewing Buzz mobile the place link goes to the mobile place page.

On the mobile Buzz page Buzz posts made at that location are also displayed on the mobile version of the place page.

Left is a screen shot of the Facebook "activity" tab for a place.

Right is the mobile version of the Google place page.
Note: the Google image here is long, as it's a stitched together version of a few different screen shots, as you have to scoll to see all the information on the page.

Activity at a place on Google mobile

As only a few (3) posts from any place will show on the mobile place page there is also a link to Buzz at that place: handy if there happens to be allot of conversation over different periods at a place.

Conclusion

Currently Facebook place pages are the weaker offering in terms of pure information.
Facebook seem to have the edge on "crowd sourced" information, and their approach may suit "places that you know" where you are more interested in who, instead of what.

With the launch of the Places API other location services (Foursquare etc?) may be looking to leverage Google data (which is itself mainly sourced from the web).

For small businesses I'd advise that you make sure you "claim" your place page.

Post to ... From Google Plus (Buzz)

2010-10-11T21:07:00.003+02:00

This is a suggestion I made privately to Google on Buzz a while ago. I'd like to run it by people publicly now to hear what you think.

The suggestion is simple and would be easy for the Google Buzz team to set up.

Share button mock-up

Suggestion

That on post "permalink" URLs, (like the one for this post) of any Buzz post, there should be a share option outside of Google Buzz.

Just adding Twitter and Facebook share buttons would give people on currently using Buzz to at least share and spread some of the great conversations which take place there.

Birthday wishes from Google and Friends

2010-09-20T20:11:00.002+02:00

People who know me understand I'm not big on Birthday celebrations (not mine at least).
I managed to avoid the plague of birthday greetings from close and not so close contacts on Facebook by changing my privacy settings.

Upone visiting my Google profile today I was surprised and delighted by the animated birthday greeting.

Hadn't heard about this feature before.

When you add your birthday in your profile the text says:
"So your friends and Google can wish you a happy birthday"

Looks like the animation (or a similar one) may be visible to your contacts: ~~I'll confirm that if any of them let me know~~ Confirmed: if you're a contact you get to see the animation (without the greeting or the cake).

Thanks Google!

Thanks too to the close friends and family who called to wish me birthday greetings.

... and to Oscar, Küki. and Flo' for the cake.

Comment on Buzz

How to stop following a site or Blog with Friend Connect?

2010-09-19T10:26:00.001+02:00

The question pops up allot in the Friend Connect Help Forums, but is confusing to some people so here's a post to illustrate the process.

First off sign in options

Sign in gadget
Members gadget
Social bar (not pictured

Note: With the same service you used to sign in originally!

Then you need the "settings" window.
Use the "settings" link, in the sign in gadget, or the "site settings" link in the members gadget.

Leave the current site (or blog) from the link shown.

Note: for Blogger blogs it will say "stop following" or similar.

Site owners can change the wording of the link. Here I used "Leave site" when I set the site up.

From the "Sites you've joined" tab in the settings window you can leave other sites you have joined with Friend Connect.

Comment on Buzz

Google Buzz use cases

2010-09-05T22:41:00.002+02:00

I thought I'd cobble a post together covering a couple of brand and celebrity Buzz use cases.

There are questions as to the authenticity of the celebrity profile. If it turns out not to be real I think it's still interesting as it illustrates the kind of engagement which most profiles just don't get.

It may not feel like it sometimes but most people who engage on social platforms don't fit into either the brand or celebrity categories: but I only wanted to look at those here. If you want to present yourself up as a "real person" use case jump in with a comment.

SamsungUSA

Brand
SamsungUSA dived into Buzz pretty quick and there were some pretty damning comments when I originally asked what other brands where using Buzz.

They seemed to have come out the other side of that though and have a reasonable Buzz following; though it's nothing like their Twitter following (@samsungtweets).
Maybe that would improve if they used Buzz as their method to share media and pushed Buzz out to Twitter? Or the difference may just be a reflection of the relatively small numbers* using Buzz.

See also: Samsung USE Facebook page and YouTube channel.

I do like that they've put a link to their Buzz on the YouTube channel.

Celebrity

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus who's Google profile here.

The Google profile is pretty poorly filled out with information. That would indicate to some that it's a fake account: but it could just as easily be that she's just not that adept, or interested in sorting it out. The singer had a public hoo-ha when her Gmail was hacked so that she used, (and probably still uses) Gmail would support the usage of Buzz maybe.
That plus the relative non adoption of Twitter by the artist (@mileycyrus or @xMileyCyrus ?) would make me think it's probably real. Plus I didn't have a great deal to choose from!
~~If the account does turn out to be fake~~ someone has invested allot of time on creating the background as there's a whole family of accounts which are tied to each other.

Update:
The "Miley" profile was fake. Thanks to Linda for her diligence in tracking and bringing the culprit down.
Muh, now looking for a real "celebrity" use case.

For reference: Facebook and YouTube.

Conclusion
To be honest I have no hard and fast conclusions here, and I think it's too early to have them. I'm still experimenting with Buzz personally and professionally. There are allot of things I like about Buzz and a fair few that I don't.
What I wanted to do here was pin a couple of use cases together and watch the conversation play out over Buzz.

*There are small numbers using Buzz. How small seems to be something that is hard to pin down.
Image credit: icontexto

Faces by the comments in Google Buzz

2010-04-23T22:33:00.001+02:00

When Punit Soni posted about a UI change in Buzz I shamelessly jumped in with a suggestion, with particular regard to comments.

A visual mock up might help.

Note: I've only covered the post pages, but I imagine much the same for Buzz in Gmail and the mobile UI.

My issue:
Scanning comments doesn't give me the instant feedback that helps me switch between scanning or really reading.

It's one of the points which @kevinmarks made back in Febuary right after Buzz launched.

The take away there for me was that humans have a large part of their brains devoted to visual processing, which helps us interact socially.

Faces are top of the list for how we make trust assessments i.e. scan or read.

Hover cards:
(is that what they're called?). Useful for more info, but as they require action (e.g. mouse over), there isn't any visual information for comments on the page.

Mock up:
If it looks familliar or safe I'd guess that would be a good thing wouldn't it?

For me, apart from being able to see who has made the comment. When there's a longer conversation it would be much eiser to see comments by the same user.

The Google Buzz team must be pretty snowed under with suggestions.

Would this be helpful or not?

Buzz comments

Google Buzz: No Conversations?

2010-04-21T23:25:00.001+02:00

I caught a tweet by @socialmedia2day referencing this article (originally newcommbiz) where they said that: 90% of the content in Buzz is imported.

If you check BuzzCharts you'll get a very different graph.
True allot of posts are pulled into Buzz (this blog post is headed that way), but can't you say the same thing of Twitter, Facebook etc?

People, who've been round the block, when they first set up Buzz start by puling their content in. It's a very natural way to check something out.

Those with short attention spans, or people heavily rooted somewhere else (i.e. Twitter), may have seen that as "job done".

Actually, for those people pulling tweets into buzz, if you have set up go-location for Twitter: your "pulled in tweets" now show on Buzz map too. The age of a Buzz blip also "fades out" now.

Lots of people who've spent some time in Buzz have now stopped pulling so much in, this post by @blacktar echoes many of the conversations which went on around the topic.

I'm funneling posts out to Twitter (though I'm still on Twitter!), as I feel that currently has more value: Buzz is pretty good with media.

But it was the title of the article "Google Buzz: All Content No Conversations?". Which implied that there isn't much conversation going on within Buzz? That's not been my experience: not sure the majority of people who've tried Buzz (for a while) would agree either.

Edit: Comment on this post below or on Buzz

Twitter location data now in Google Buzz

2010-04-17T10:35:00.001+02:00

Nice to see improvements being rolled out to Google Buzz.

Noticed that location data is now showing up on Buzz posts pulled in from Twitter.

The change shows up most on the "nearby" tab on a mobile device, as this shows the source: but will also help to populate the Buzz map too, which after an initial burst of activity was, in some locations, rather quiet.
You can view a Buzz map in your desktop browser here (works best in Chrome).
Update: Now you can see GeoBuzz posts on the desktop version of Google maps too.

If Buzz gave the option to view "Buzz from my Contacts" or filter by a group that would be really cool especially for location. Then, I don't suppoese I'd check out foursquare. I find all those "I'm at ..." tweets rather irritating: from the "outside" they're just a foursquare ad. For me location information should be supplemental not the information itself.

For people pushing stuff in the other direction i.e. Buzz >> Twitter it would be nice if location data will also show up on the tweet itself eventually: here's hoping.

Twitter's larger and more established user-base still seems way ahead, which is why pulling the location data from twitter makes sense.

Twitter buying Tweetie recently was a good move. It gives Twitter a position natively in the mobile device and control of development. They do need to be careful not to alienate developers (at least the ones who's apps they don't buy). Control of an "official" Twitter mobile App does seem to be a shot across the bows of the services which have thus far focused on location e.g. foursquare, gowalla, brightkite etc.

I soon expect to be able to see which of those local tweets comes from someone I'm following.

Can I suggest on three colours please?
Local / Following / Mutually following

Facebook profile and page clones

2010-03-13T18:07:00.003+01:00

Getting round the limitations of Facebook as a symmetrical network.

This is NOT a how-to.

The term symmetrical network refers to the fact that currently Facebook, unlike Twitter and more recently Google Buzz, requires authorisation from both parties before one exposes the bulk of ones activity to a second party.

Person A requests friendship from person B
If person B accepts the friend request then both A and B's activity is exposed to both parties (you can tweak privacy settings but the assumtion is that A and B know each other and want to share information or keep in touch).

The exception to this has been Facebook pages (Facebook's profiles for businesses) which allows people to "Fan" a page and doesn't require the company (page) to have a relationship with the fan.
It's this "knowing" or trust relationship which makes people feel comfortable with exposing information. People share information with "friends" and as such the information shared can be of a more personal nature than information shared on a public asymmetrical network like Twitter (I'm discounting Twitter DMs here, which are one to one private messages where a reciprocal relationship is required, or Twitter accounts which are not public).

The current Facebook setup keeps everyone happy: you share with your friends and can be kept up-to-date by following (being a fan of) company pages you like: but the company is prevented from posting to your stream directly. They broadcast or can "update" to fans, but they can't directly post to your wall. Which is how it should be.

So what's the problem?
What I'm talking about is where companies (or individuals) break this container wall.
Using "people profiles" set up for a group, organisation or company. Often combined with a cloned page, which allows the one to many "following" too.

Here's an example: What's on Cologne

The "What's on Cologne" person profile here.
The "What's on Cologne" page here.

Disclosure: I run the English Speaking Cologne page. Which is why this profile / page activity caught my attention.

None of this make you feel at all uneasy?

The "person" currently has 477 "friends" (it was 169 when I first became aware of the profile).
Those 477 "friends" do not know who the "friend" is (they probably view the relationship in a similar way to pages they fan).
Those 477 people are sharing their personal information with a person they do not know.

It's difficult to find out who is behind the profile: it appears to be a Japanese music concern.

One person and one page obviously isn't a trend. ....

People:

Pages:

A random handful: there are hundreds of others.

The London "person" has access to ~~3,297~~ 4865 Friends - There is now a second London "person" profile - set up I assume because the first is about to hit the Facebook friend limit of 5000
The London "page" has ~~1,691~~ 2038 Fans

Getting "friends" is allot easier than getting "fans" which will be another reason this trend is accelerating.

Facebook doesn't seem to be doing much to combat this issue, although it's a breach of Facebook's terms.
The adoption of practices like this fuel Facebook figures and will lend sway to any future changes to the "friend" relationship mechanism which Facebook are sure to be contemplating.

I've stuck to "What's on xxx" in this post to better demonstrate my point: but I've seen this often. There are people I know doing this too, although not with malicious intent.

There is a common lack of understanding in how Facebook functions. Which hasn't been helped by the series of changes made by Facebook itself. Do you remember when groups looked different to pages?
It's no wonder people are confused.

Who are you?

2010-02-17T23:05:00.001+01:00

One of the happy side affects of Google Buzz popping up into the social landscape is that there will be allot more activity centered around Google profiles.

That in turn means that some of the many faceless members on both HCJ and ESC should be replaced with an icon instead.

Those new faces will also benefit from their names linking straight to there Google profile.

Then, if Friend Connect gets that "show my comments in Buzz" check box that I've asked for we'll be really Buzzing!

Google Social Search

2010-01-30T16:24:00.000+01:00

Currently Beta. I've been keeping tabs on how Google maps your social graph.
It's quite logical. Most of the links you add to your Google profile relate to you directly and Google does a pretty good job of guessing which links to connect you with. You can of course over ride this by clicking to edit the link and unchecking the "this is a profile page about me" check box.

Friend Connect interests

2010-01-29T22:35:00.001+01:00

I was "interested" to see Mashable playing around with user interests on Mashable.com.

Not sure though that they (or users) know that the questions you ask your users are displayed on their profile on site.
Are all those people happy to know that you have indicated that your household income is $100,000+?

If they'd have checked out what interest are or how it works wouldn't it have been more sensible to have people indicate something like the following:

I prefer to browse the web on my:

Desktop
Laptop
Tablet
iPhone
Android smartphone

This would aggregate the data and adjust ads accordingly, or, if the user logged in (unlikely since Mashable don't provide any incentive to do so) tune the ads directly for the specific user.

Maybe that was there intention: though even if it does work that way for "I earn $100,00+" I bet you get wildly skewed data with questions like that.

p.s. If you've joined Mashable and didn't realize you were telling the world what you own. You can alter or remove your answers by signing in, going to Options > Settings, and then the "Interests" tab.

Google Friend Connect notifications

2010-01-24T10:28:00.003+01:00

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/friendconnect/thread?tid=34ca57ce58ae7684&hl=en

There have been a couple of new Friend Connect roll outs lately.

There have always been user notifications in the member gadget, but it looks like the system has been beefed up to a communicate more directly with admin users too.
Here I'm asked to check out users "interests" with link straight to the administration area.

The other big change looks like one of branding.

True "Friend Connect" suffers from not being a "brand" the user recognizes.
So I understand why there have been changes: but introducing a drastic graphical change ain't gonna please many people already using it, and won't make people confident about choosing Friend Connect to "socialize" their sites.

Not sure yet what other tweaks have been rolled out yet: personally I'm still hoping this "blue button" is a bug!!

Friend Connect Critical Mass

2010-01-14T01:23:00.001+01:00

Very pleased with the "News" that Friend Connect plugins are now available for Drupal and Joomla, two of the most popular open source content management systems around.

What is really significant isn't the announcement.
There has been a Drupal plugin for ages ( though I'm sure this one's been tweeked ), and it's always been possible to use it in Joomla: (I wouldn't call myself technically adept but) I've had Friend Connect on a Joomla site for over a year.
So What's new?
What is new is the style in which this "news" has been crafted and managed.

Add the recent personnel changes like Joseph Smarr and Chris Messina, and were looking at Google cooking up a mighty tasty social stew.
Google are ramping up commitment and effort in the social arena.

Friend Connect was, for quite a while a been a better concept than it was a product.

But the product has come a long way and is set to continue to offer new features which extend it's functionality and appeal.

With this news Friend Connect broadens it's appeal.
It it starts appearing on some high profile sites, then the routine of joining a site / community with Friend Connect will become assimilated into the public consciousness.

At that point people won't have to learn how to join your site: they'll already know how.

They will already have their profile sorted, be comfortable with commenting, connecting with people, and inviting other people to join!

Friend Connect and Google sites

2009-12-31T11:57:00.003+01:00

I see allot of people asking how to integrate Friend Connect into Google sites.

There is an assumption that because they are both from Google that they should automatically work together and then there's lots of hair pulling and frayed nerves when they don't.

So just to let you know .....

Friend Connect won't work on Google Sites.

Why not?!
There are a number of reasons why the two are not compatable.

Google Sites does not allow JavaScript.
Google Sites resolves to sites.google.com - your site is in a directory above /sites/ - so you share the subdomain sites.google.com with everyone else who uses Google Sites. Read this if you're still confused.

Because lots of people ask about the "Friend Connect / Google Sites" problem I wanted to try lots of tricks to see if I could get Friend Connect working on a test site, before proclaiming a definitive answer.

These tricks go further than most people will be willing to go in diving into code.

I ...

Tryed adding the code to HTML view: it gets stripped out.
Hunted for a Friend Connect gadget to "insert": there isn't one*
Hosted the Friend Connect code on gadget hosting and added the gadget by gadget URL: this rendered a "sorry the gadget is incorrectly configured" message.
Added the URL where the gadget was hosted (as well as the site URL) under site settings in Friend Connect: still no joy.

If you have your own domain you could (if you wanted) show site members in Google sites by having an empty HTML page with just the members gadget on your domain and "showing" the members through an iFrame in Google sites, kind of like I do here on a Google Apps "start" page.

But if you have your own domain why would you want to? ...

Also since the canvas was dropped for the lightbox you have the problem of the lightbox opening in the iframe, which looks pig ugly and is a horrible user experience.

So sorry for the bad news but if you have a Google Site forget about Friend Connect .... for the meantime at least!

*note: there is a "Global conversation" gadget, but that essentially just renders an iframe of a Google hosted page.

note to Google: the "mini canvas" (on the conversation web element) is currently not working. Can you fix that please :-)

Looking forward to 2010

2009-12-29T23:50:00.006+01:00

In January 2010 I start work as a "social media coordinator" working freelance for Ford: based in Cologne Germany.

I'm very excited to have the chance to be involved with a company which has shown a real lead in joining “the conversation” going on around their brand.

Looking back over the last few years where I worked mainly alone, building a couple of “brands” from the ground up: what I'm really looking forward to in 2010 is working with people, helping (where and where I can) to move things forward, for both parties in that conversation.

Cheers, and a ...

Happy New Year to you all!

Looking back @ '08 - '09

2009-12-29T23:28:00.007+01:00

2008 / 2009 were interesting years although not as earth shattering in terms of measured success as I had hoped. I spent most of my time and energy on a couple of projects:

HCJ: a “work” project – for art jewellery.
ESC: a “hobby” project – for English speakers in Cologne Germany.

Both projects are a “call to action” targeted at a niche demographic:

Handmade Contemporary Jewellery

HCJ targeted jewellery artists and galleries: It aimed to provide a democratically controlled platform to centralize information (e.g. art jewellery exhibition information), and to redistribute the submitted information to other sites through embeddable gadgets, making an “add here be seen everywhere” system reaching larger audiences with reduced effort, time and cost for artists and galleries.

It did not take off as I'd hoped.

I worked alone for too long.
Didn't “reach” people effectively.
Over estimated other people's technical abilities and their interest in “working together” towards a mutual goal.

I knew the concept was not an easy option for artists but didn't see that as a problem. I had rather an “if you build it they will come” mentality. I now see that easy / short term wins over long term goals: especially ones which is are not “well sold”.

English Speaking Cologne

ESC : a social hub for the English speaking community in and around Cologne.

ESC has a number of advantages as a project over HCJ.

Easier to understand. English speakers from in and around Cologne like to establish connections with the wider English speaking community and do / can meet up in the real world: so it does / can have a measurable / tangible impact on their lives.
I get to speak to a few people about what I'm trying to do, and a few people have liked the idea enough to help ESC grow.

2010 will be an interesting year for me and both projects: because of my new job I won't be spending so much time on them, but will still be providing as much help as I can to those who want the project(s) to grow.
It'll be the year where "my toddlers" walk (or not). Whichever it is it will be interesting!

image credit: HikingArtist.com

How old is Twitter?

2009-12-22T10:38:00.005+01:00

The content search deals that Twitter as made with the search giants are great news, both for Twitter and it's users.
That twitter is quoted here as being a: "three-year-old" startup though seems wrong to me, especially as on page two of the buinessweek.com article they state that: ".. Twitter was formed in 2006 ...".
I'd really like to pin down exactly when twitter first went live.
Not when it was officially launched: but when it first went live.

Personally I first visited Twitter from a link on Odeo.com.
I was a beta tester for studio.odeo.com which no longer exists, so visited Odeo relatively often.
I remember distinctly that on one particular visit there was this new link in the header saying something like "take a look at Twitter".
Twitter was a side project worked on while Odeo was still being developed / launched: so it seems logical to me that the link on Odeo could have been the first publicly encouraged access point to twitter?

I have an email exchange with Biz dated: Wed' October 5th 2005, which relates to my beta access to Odeo studio, and am ~~almost~~ certain that Twitter was reachable long before Evan Williams announced that Odeo was for sale (Febuary 19th 2007).

So the date I'm looking for lies somewhere after 5th Oct' 2005 and somewhere (longish) before 19th Feb' 2007.

If you know when Twitter first went live, and preferably when the link was added to Odeo (my route to Twitter) please let me know with a comment here.

Thanks!
in reference to:

"three-year-old Twitter"
- Content-Search Deals Make Twitter Profitable - BusinessWeek (view on Google Sidewiki)

Edit: Wanted to add an image to "pretty up" this post and found an article on ReadWriteWeb which gives evidence to narrow down Twitters birth.
Still want to know for sure, and when that Odeo link was added too!

Junk Polls

2009-12-12T15:24:00.006+01:00

Produce nothing of value.

This one is like asking 1000 toddlers "Who's your favourite Mother?".

Please make future "polls" better constructed and deployed, so they give results which are actually interesting.
in reference to: http://mashable.com/2009/12/11/top-blogging-platforms/ (view on Google Sidewiki)

Facebook Scams

2009-12-08T14:48:00.001+01:00

My typing isn't great and when I'm in a rush I sometimes make mistakes when entering a URL into the address bar (yes I still do that!).

These occasional boobs have shown up two Facebook scam sites recently.
Sites set up only to catch and abuse the traffic which falls on or two keystrokes away from the Facebook domain.
I can't remember what one of the typos was, as it redirected to a different domain.

The other typo resolved to http://vvvvvvfacebook and it looks like they have since been caught by the "Phishing and Malware Protection" system, which shows that to be a sensible way of warning the illiterate (me) or dim (not me ) that they are about to be taken advantage of.

If you have stumbled across any other sites set up to scam Facebook feel free to let me know so I can "name and shame".

In the meanwhile stay safe!

Facebook: less outbound traffic

2009-12-06T15:21:00.003+01:00

Full URLs (e.g. http://www.yourlink.com) in Facebook photo album descriptions (example) no longer work.

They do (currently), still resolve on the "photos" page (example).

For Facebook page admins it's (another) example of how Facebook, because of it's bussiness model, moves to curb "social leakage".

There's obviously never much fanfare for changes Facebook makes to "tie in" it's userbase. If you spot something odd feel free to let me know.

Deeper Twitter integration with Friend Connect

2009-12-03T10:31:00.000+01:00

Previously people joining a Friend Connect enabled site could use their Twitter profile but Twitter wasn't a login or join option.
Now people can actually join using their Twitter details.

The latest update goes much deeper than that though: inviting people through the twitter network and publishing comments to twitter from a friend connect site are options too!

The only problem I see with this upgrade will be that people still do not generally understand the concept of using an identity provider with Friend Connect. I see allot of duplicated accounts where people see the new Twitter option at the login screen and click that thus creating a second instance on that site.

Note: You can still use all the new Twitter functionality without generating a "second" user.

Login as normal use the "Settings" link, or "Options > Site Settings" (in a members gadget).
Then Add / Remove to add Twitter as one of the networks connected with this Friend Connect account.
Then you'll be able to take advantage of the deeper Twitter integration too.

Facebook: More targeted distribution for pages

2009-11-19T16:04:00.002+01:00

Facebook has made some changes to pages which look like they are designed to allow page admins to target towards a specific geographic region or language group.

The standard distribution "My Networks and Friends" can now be tuned to distribute updates and links etc to a specific portion of your network.

It's a subtle but important update for global players. I only noticed this after publishing an update.
Presumable you choose options to apply to each status update, link or event etc.

Mashable review

2009-11-15T13:44:00.003+01:00

Mashable, previously "All That's New on the Web" which did imply a degree of new content, and currently operate more as a news aggregation site.

Staying ahead of the crowd rather than leading from the front. Useful if you like lists: but not containing much in the way of original thought.
in reference to: Social Media News and Web Tips – Mashable – The Social Media Guide (view on Google Sidewiki)

Friend Connect integration - Mashable : stage 1

2009-11-14T18:41:00.006+01:00

Proof that Mashable are taking a serious look at Friend Connect.
After noting a few days ago that they had re-added the member gadget, I saw today that they are looking to actually work the community aspects of Friend Connect into the site.

Reducing the size of the members gadget as freed up enough real estate to use the recommendations gadget.
I like that it's currently running against the Facebook Fan widget. Although Friend Connect was held back by people not "getting it" it'll be interesting to see how quickly the numbers catch up.

Mashable still have some problems getting their heads round things: they have titled the gadget "Google Faves from Readers" which doesn't make sense. They would be articles liked by Friend Connect members: those members can use different identity providers to join the site through Friend Connect (Open Social), they don't have to use any other Google service.

Currently the gadget is also no-functional, or at least the one favoured article leads to: http://mashable.com/google.htm which gives a 404.
Guess they could be looking at using the Friend Connect API which would make sense for a site with Mashables' traffic, but I'm not convinced.
Also not sure at this point how the article was "liked" as the "like it" or "recommend it" buttons are not yet appearing on article pages. Again more tinkering / head scratching is suspected to be the cause of that.

Anyway it's a very positive move for Friend Connect and the social web that Mashable are trying, even if they haven't quite got it right yet.

If you need any help Mashable feel free to ask!

Your Social Hub

2009-11-13T15:35:00.003+01:00

Chances are you have accounts on ....

Twitter: for information gathering / exchange
Facebook: mutual connections
Flickr: photo sharing

Pulling your social engagement together means creating a social hub.

A social hub page is commonly used by businesses allowing people to easily navigate and connect with their brand on external social sites.
Although useful, it's really a stop-gap measure; better to also allow engagement on your site and don't force your audience to "leave to connect".

Deeper integration through services like Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect.

Up until now Facebook has had all the limelight. With it's huge user base Facebook it has looked the more attractive and many larger sites have been working hard to allow their visitors to connect their site with their Facebook account. I see this as short sighted and have always thought Friend Connect to be the stronger concept.

Why? ...

Facebook Connect will fail because of Facebook's business model.

How do they make money? Through ads.
Where do the ads run? On Facebook.com

This model means that Facebook will always need to focus on bringing people to Facebook.com.
Example: the Facebook to Twitter update in August. Was originally interesting, then it was crippled by changes made to align the feature with their business model.

Friend Connect on the other hand has until now, struggled to take off.
It's business model made it hard to grasp. "Sure I can show people's faces on my site but what else?", "I don't get Friend Connect" were common tweets.

The Friend Connect model:

Lowered point of entry: login with xxx etc.
You engaged with your community on your site.
Interests: User submitted "interests" show in their profile (on the site where they were submitted), and help people to "connect" with "like minds".
User to user engagement: user messaging.
Monetization: option to serve on site ads thus monetizing your community. Ads optimized to a users' interests.
User advocates: Users can advocate you brand by allowing their on-site activities to be published to their Friend Connect stream. Where on site activities appear in their stream on other Friend Connect sites they have joined.
User recruitment: Users can invite people from their networks to join your community.

So in essence:

Facebook needs people to leave your site to go to Facebook.com.
Google lets you monetize your community. Google monetizes the web. The greater the take up the lower the barrier for people to join your community e.g. you only need to learn to ride a bike once.

Your Social Hub
Rather than creating just a page as a social hub. Friend Connect turns your site into a "social container".
Where your community can engaged with your brand and each other through your social hub.
I'm not suggesting that "the conversation" will cease elsware and center around your hub, but people will be able to connect with you or your brand where you want them to: namely on your site.

Who turned on the light?

2009-11-10T22:08:00.005+01:00

Noticed that Mashable have dug Friend Connect out of the dusty cupboard it was confined to.

When I posted "Google Friend Connect hand holding", (shortly before they removed it) it was apparent that they were rather vexed.

Now, with the new features, it's allot easier to see where Friend Connect is headed.
Expect it to become "sexy" as more lights get turned on. Maybe Mashable will write about it again, if they need any help they only need to ask.

Note: currently Mashable have just having brought back the members gadget. That'll probably change I guess, once they look into all the new features.

Image: remo

Pulp Fiction Wave

2009-10-16T11:44:00.003+02:00

Nice to see some people being creative in a way that keeps the interest in Wave going.

Twitter Faves Widget

2009-10-15T15:28:00.004+02:00

Don't know when this went live, but I'm pretty sure it's new.

I started looking at how to pull a JSON feed from Twitter for a users favourites, triggered by my curiosity as to how Google had done it for their "Gone Google" campaign. ....but then got sidetracked by something ... life I think it was.
I'm sure Twitter didn't offer a Faves Gadget then, so it must be pretty new?

.... or

What Wave needs (before you get an invite)

2009-10-10T16:06:00.005+02:00

There was allot of hype about Google Wave and rightly so: the fundamental ideas are interesting and sound (if people manage to make the shift in thinking which is require with a means of communication and collaboration which doesn't slot neatly into any of the current models).

If you didn't get an invite yet don't fret. Wave isn't ready for you and you're not ready for wave.
A few of the things which need to be sorted out before Wave can be useful are:

Permissions: Currently everyone can edit everything and there's no "undo", which makes using wave outside of trusted groups pretty useless.
Admins: The person who starts a wave needs to have some choices as to what the wave can do or how it can grow. For instance a check box which only allows "admins" to add bots. etc.
Read only: This is already in the works. A "read only" version which can be embeded and be "viewable" by people not logged into wave would be very useful; allowing a number or people to edit the information in a "current news" page for a small site for example.

The Wave UI is reasonably sound. My current biggest gripe (appart from all the bugs) is that when someone links to a different wave and you click it, there doesn't seem to be an easy (logical) way to get back to the wave you were in. Apart from finding it and opening it again.
If you click and open a new wave it should open the new one and minimise the one you were viewing.

Ok, that's my first thoughts on wave.
I am looking forward to see how things develop, which they need to before wave is ready for opening up to a wider audience.

Have an opinion on Google Wave? Feel free to leave a comment!

Twitter - Google Friend Connect

2009-09-28T17:04:00.006+02:00

For unofficial Google Friend Connect help: Tweet @notinbed or tag tweets #GFCsupport

Widget currently shows "Google Friend Connect" OR @notinbed OR #GFCsupport

Sidewiki : a closer look

2009-09-23T22:02:00.003+02:00

Most people haven't really taken a good look at Sidewiki. They have trumpeted concerns about spammers, or the "conversation" being taken away from the page.

What people seem to have missed is that as the site owner, you do have the opportunity to plant a comment on your page which will be glued to the top. Providing a useful "invisible" (to those who don't use Sidewiki) way of engaging with visitors.

Comments made in Sidewiki about the page are not so "content centric" as comments made on any native comment system, or at least that is the idea.

As far as spam goes, it's the small sites who will be prone to comments most people would regard as spam.
How comments are presented is calculated by the "quality" of the comment, which will take into account the "rank" of the person leaving the comment as well as the reaction of other people to the comment itself. Large site will have a larger and more active "police force".
Then as the system becomes "data filled" the smaller sites will benefit from this policing effect as "people rank" is established.

If those phrases make you feel uneasy, you should remember it's all about trust: and trust is a good thing.

Google Friend Connect - Activities gadget

2009-08-28T14:53:00.005+02:00

There is a new "Activities gadget" from Google listed in the gadget directory.

This'll be good news for those people who want the "activities" aspect of the social bar, but have been moaning about not being able to style the bar itself.

There is a second "scope" setting which, instead of showing activities on the site shows a logged in user the activities of their friends across other Friend Connect enabled sites.
Interesting to note that Google seem to have trodden all over their own advice as to dealing gracefully with a viewer who's NOT signed in. This just leaves a whopping hole, with the lame message "No activities to show". That's really not on.

Facebook Page updates to Twitter

2009-08-22T00:08:00.007+02:00

Facebook now allows administrators of Facebook "Pages" to link a page's updates to a specific Twitter account (blog post).

It's easy to set up and works super quick (no delay like I had expected).

Not sure what this means for the two giants.... ?
I guess it will mean less twitter logins for many people, but logging in to Twitter itself has never been something that you were forced to do, which is one of the main reasons Twitter has grown: helped by all those developers working on applications to work with Twitter.

I will be using Facebook to help "broadcast" through Twitter, and catch any conversations on Twitter (e.g. direct messages) with the email notifications I recieve using Cotweet to monitor several Twitter accounts as the same time.

To link a Facebook Page to a Twitter account go to: http://www.facebook.com/twitter

picked up from @Mysticle

EDIT: (13.11.09) Not such a great idea now as changes made mean that short links lead back to the FB page. Increasing the number of clicks a user has to make, and, when not logged into facebook the user is presented with a scarey "Be Careful" warning message when trying to visit the original content you wished to promote.

Friend Connect on Blogger

2009-07-22T23:45:00.004+02:00

It used to be a bit of a faff using Friend Connect on Blogger.

The followers gadget is old news, but did you know you can install and use most of the standard Friend Connect gadgets without even leaving Blogger.com?

From the layout tab click "Add a Gadget" click "more gadgets" on the left, and in there you'll find the Poll, Comments, the "Get Answers" and the Sign-in gadets.
To install any of them just click the add button and add them like you normally would on Blogger.

Flickr wants you!

2009-07-16T16:07:00.003+02:00

Flickr has adopted Twitter, and Facebook like "Join Us!" pleas, which show when you visit a photo stream when not signed into the Flickr service.

I guess we are set to have each and every web site lauch a personal appeal to "Join!".

God how dull ....

Facebook censorship

2009-06-30T12:27:00.006+02:00

I followed a link posted on a friends wall on Facebook today and was greeted with ...

" Sorry - The link you are trying to visit has been reported as abusive by Facebook users. "

I'm all for protecting the stupid from themselves, but thought it was a bit much that there was no way to continue to the shared link if you wanted to, in the way Google does on it's search results.

Anyone know of how many people have to report a link before they take it down?

I guess they can only get away with this closed door approach because of the changes made to posted links recently: where you don't leave Facebook but the linked page is displayed within a frame.

Frames suck: most people don't understand that they haven't in actual fact left the Facebook site.

On a second look I then cracked up at Facebook's appeal to the owner of the original linked to page, to join Facebook, using advertising, pages, share and connect: really cheeky.
Facebook: you are not the whole web; personally I don't want the whole planet on there bombarding me with stuff.

GFC Donate gadget

2009-06-22T23:07:00.005+02:00

Google has a "Donate gadget" in the pipeline for friend connect.

It not ready for prime time yet, I've played around with it and currently it isn't functional when you set up the parameters, e.g. an email for Paypal payment.

It looks like it will support Paypal and Google Checkout which are the logical big gun choices for "micro payments", but could offer more options in the future.

I look forward to seeing this one finished and added to the directory, and wonder whether this concept will be altered in a way where it could be used as a full payment system. .... Change the button to buy, .... be able to see which of your friends have bought something, .... view their comments on the product .... Could be interesting don't you think?

In the post

2009-06-18T16:24:00.003+02:00

This arrived in the post this morning for my "real world self".I got it as a thank you from one of the GFC deveolopment team for tracking down a bug and providing feedback.

The back is cool in a geek way, especially as I had already used it here on the blog.

Not Twitter : But ..

2009-06-08T09:08:00.006+02:00

Tenkly asked what people are planning on using the conversation gadget for? ... got me thinking ....

I'm quite a late adopter of Twitter, because it didn't fit my "life model" that well: I'm not reliant on mobile phones (I own one bog standard mobile), I send virtually no SMS's.

But: I've probably been "aware" of Twitter longer than most.
I had a beta account for Odeo (since been sold and didn't move in the direction it was headed). I remember distinctly the first day Twitter Then a side project) appeared as a link from Odeo.

Evan Williams makes it clear that they had no idea that Twitter would become what it ha;, so let's be a little free with our thinking about the "global conversation model".

Imagine:

You build a very simple app that works like the conversation page. All it does is have a text box for the "topic", takes the typed value and builds, with ajax, a conversation gadget iframe on the same page.
Tweek 1: Make the app know who you are (using OpenSocial).
Tweek 2: View "saved conversations". These aren't YOUR conversations, they'd just be topics which you could jump to.
Tweek 3: Show "conversation volume" next to your saved conversations. Done through an API "listener" on the GFC events endpoint.
Tweek 4: Allow "noise reduction" view filtering through all friends, individual friends, or "my comments" (with replies).
Tweek 5: A "friends conversations" panel, for new conversation discovery.

There are more tweeks that spring to mind, but to keep things simple we'll stop there and think about where we are by tweek 5.

It's NOT Twitter: it is more topic or "conversation" based than twitter.

Advertising social media parody video

2009-06-04T23:10:00.001+02:00

This will appeal more if you weren't born yesterday

Friend Connect and Gmail myths

2009-06-04T17:21:00.005+02:00

There is a "run away train" myth going round which claims as fact:

"when when you become mutual friends through a Google Friend Connect widget, you get each others GMail address in your contacts...."

This is NOT true!

Am I wrong about this? Prove it please!!
(I would love to be wrong)

Image credit: otogeo

Conversations Element [web elements]

2009-06-03T16:15:00.003+02:00

"Conversations element", along with the other web elements lanuched by Google recently.

Being able to host, join in and quickly respond to a "conversation" on a set topic is an interesting idea, but it is yet to be seen whether these "themed conversations" can stand up to the ignorance of the common user.
Because this site is a playground for GFC I've jumped on board the GFC conversation, which will, over time, show if any sense can come out of a "global conversation" or whether it just ends up being drivel.

The REAL reason behind the "conversations" element specifically is, I suspect because of the inability of the average "site owner" to comprehend, and implement new technology.

Google's problem, is that they are too bright and it was easy for them to miss that:

Most "site owners" have little or NO technical understanding.

This new approach, helping the technically challenged "friendconnectifying" thier site only one line of code may help, but there is a trade off in that people are asked to understand the "nature" of the conversation, e.g. does this comment box:

Apply to the page I'm viewing?
The site I'm viewing?
A topic?
etc etc

During the course of my experience with Friend Connect I'm always amazed by people's inability to understand something as simple as replying to a comment. Use the "reply" link you moron! ...is often hissed through clenched teeth.

The democratic moderation, (e.g. there is no direct moderation, but comments are automatically removed based on the numbers of people who "flag" a comment, presumably based against the numbers of people who view the comments), is an interesting difference, which may appeal to lazy site owners too.

Styling the social bar

2009-05-23T14:49:00.003+02:00

When Google released the "Social Bar", which is easy to add to your Blogger blog, earlier on this year there was some griping that it couldn't be styled.
Well I noticed this morning that things have now been changed so that you can style the social bar (almost) to match your sites colours.

I say almost because the styling only affects the areas which pop-up containing the "activity stream" or comment etc, so the style the bar itself remains the standard light blue colour.
Still it is nice that these changes have been made available.

Follow me on Twitter!

2009-05-22T13:23:00.003+02:00

"I is now doin' Twitter!"

Feel free to say Hi, pass on any info, let me know when I'm wrong about something, and generally interact.

I'm planning on monitoring any changes with the way GFC and Twitter interact, so follow me to keep up to date.

Profile [Friend Connect] changes

2009-05-20T15:11:00.008+02:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Google just sneaked in some big changes to Friend connect that make a great deal of sense.

The only impetus previously, for connecting the profile you use on a Friend Connect site, to one you already had, was if you didn't want to re-write the same information.

Connecting your Google profile was in fact a bit of a pain, because and links you may have added to the description text, don't show up when the information appears in something like a "members gadget" on a site you have "joined" (or followed if it's a standard Blogspot hosted blog).

The changes still don't parse links added to the description text, but now if you use a different profile (and yes that does include something like Twitter) your name is linked directly to your Google profile page!

This may be the first time that Facebook think "uh oh deary me" as, if Facebook hadn't left the party, presumably if you wanted to used your Facebook profile, then your name would have linked directly back to your Facebook page.

It makes most sense to connect and use your Google profile, because landing at something like a Twitter page gives only snippets of any conversations you may be having and only one link (on your Twitter page), where as you can add a multitude of information and links to your Google profile.

One word of warning: it looks like if you choose to connect to Google but haven't set up your Google profile or it isn't public yet then people land at a "profile not found" page. So make sure you have your profile set-up properly before trying to connect to one!

Lastly, it should be noted that this is a pro-site setting.
So if you change this it will affect all the sites you join from now on (unless you change this setting for any one site), but it is not a blaket change that will apply to all the sites you have joined up to now!

Please visit the post page to comment or Tweet about this post!
:-)

New Friend Connect Recommendations Gadget

2009-05-15T21:21:00.005+02:00

Things are hotting up for Friend Connect with another new gadget this time from Google released today.

The new recommend gadget is great for letting your readers push your best content forward.

You can try it out here, as I've already added it to the site!

Read a few posts and "recommend" the ones you like!

Edit: I had implemented the recommendation button on post pages, but after a tip I found here I now have them showing on the main page too!

Chat gadget for Google friend connect

2009-05-15T12:24:00.006+02:00

This is hot news!

It's been quite frustrating for many with the slower than expected take up of Friend Connect, so it's great to see ClackPoint come up with something that shows a little bit of what is possible.

Try it out on this site here

Do me a favour and please link back to the site when you post about this very new Google Friend Connect news!

Activity bar changes?

2009-05-14T15:17:00.004+02:00

Noticed today that the number of activities shown in the activity bar has been drastically cut.

I didn't document how many were prieviously shown (shoddy work), but in my memory the count was somewhere towards the 100 mark.
Now the activity bar shows only the last 10 activities which is OK here, but much too few for busy sites!

Hope this is just a hiccup until Google nips out, buys, and bolts on some more computers.

Some notice or information about this change from the blog would have been nice: come on Google!

image credit

Hello Twitter (Grrr)

2009-05-13T11:43:00.005+02:00

Today twitter made some changes to @relies which are causing some commotion.
From now on you need to be following someone before you can send them an @reply.
This smacks a little like censorship: why?
Well if I'm walking down the street I could talk to anyone I walk past, but the changes Twitter have made mean basically that I can only talk to people who I have a relationship with (people I follow).

It would have been more appropriate I think to allow people to choose this as a setting for their account e.g. a "only receive replies from people I follow" rather than introducing this as a blanket setting.
You can after all always choose to block a user who sends too many unwanted @replies in your direction.

Interesting to see if people can raise enough fuss to get Twitter to change their mind.

Add the social bar on Blogger

2009-05-11T23:18:00.006+02:00

To add the social bar to your Blogger blog, hop over to Friend Connect.

After you login you will most probably see your blog already listed. This is because the "followers" gadget is Google Friend Connect wearing slightly different clothes.
If not then you'll need to set up your site to use Friend Connect first.

Click the social bar link and set the social bar up to work how you want it to.
E.g. You can set it to appear at the top or bottom of the page, feature or not feature a comment gadget etc.

Because I am already using GFC for commenting I didn't want the comments gadget in the social bar on this site, but using trhe social bar is actually a very easy way to use GFC for commenting on your blog. Set the gadget scope to "page" and then each URL will have it's own related comments.
The downside in doing this is that people don't tend to realize this and just make comments willy-nilly.

Once you are happy with the ways you have set it up, click the button to generate the code, copy it and head back to Blogger.

Adding the actual code:
Remember to download your template before touching it!
There are several ways to do this but I prefer clicking the layouts tab then the EDIT HTML second level tab and pasting the code into the template.
Just past the social bar code directly after the < body > tag (the body tag is quite some way down in Blogger templates, after all the style declarations); save your template, and view your blog to see your new social bar working!

Friend Connect comments translation

2009-05-08T14:36:00.003+02:00

Friend Connect comments now include comment translating!

It should be noted that the "comments gadget" is just the old wall gadget, which has been re-named and improved with the translating feature.
The new feature doesn't seem to be showing up currently, but the official post indicates that this new feature will show up in code generated before the feature release.

Friend Connect improvements

2009-05-08T14:23:00.005+02:00

There have been a number of changes made to Friend Connect over the past few days.

Firstly the landing page has been tarted up, and given a look more in line with some of the other product landing pages (like adsense and adwords etc).

The admin page has also been given a work over.

If you have added Friend connect to your Blogger blog via the friend connect site, rather than running with the "follow" gadget implementation you will be seeing TWO implementations of Friend connect in your admin area.

You can safely delete one of them if this bothers you, by clicking site settings and deleting it from there.
Unfortulatly (for me) there seems to be a bug in the way things have been picked up for me. As the "follower gadget version" (the one that's not expanded in the screen shot) does NOT have a site settings link. So I can't currently delete the clone that's cluttering my admin panel.

EDIT: If you see a "clone" version of your blogger blog in your FC control panel do not delete it.
As I was a Friend Connect early bird I was able to add FC to this blog using the "standard sites" method (because FC wasn't fully supported by the Followers gadget at that point). This "loop hole" has now been closed, so just use the Blogger option.
I'm left using GFC for standard sites and removed the Blogger version, which is causing a canvas problem :-(

RPC call error: Poll Gadget

2009-05-01T11:56:00.001+02:00

I've seen this error pop up a few times.
It's obviously related to a call that the poll gadget is making.
The poll gadget is evidently still being tinkered with somewhat by the developer.
I have seen changes visually, e.g. originally it said #vote(s) cast but now uses the more logical term #voter(s) (as you can allow voters to pick more than one answer with a poll if you wish.

The error only happens occasionally and if any problem (blank gadget) persists, it seems to be cured by clearing the browser cache, which indicates that a new visitor would not be left with a non rendered gadget.

All in all it is good to know that the developer is working on improvments to the gadget, which means the error should be cleaned up soon.

Any other comments about this gadget?

Get answers gadget: review

2009-05-01T11:42:00.003+02:00

I took a look at the new "Get Answers" gadget the other day for a different site of mine (yes I have other sites!), and although I like the concept very much it didn't hack it for me for two reasons.

1. You can customise the colors yet. I attempted to skin the gadget in the normal fashion, but that failed to work. The developer responded to a question stating that Google hasn't opened up the skining API yet, but I am not sure of the validity of that.

2. "What Google says": I guess the developer is adept at using the AJAX Search API and is also looking at monetizing the gadget at a later date. But for me the integration of "What Google says" was flawed. So after a morning testing I did not implement the use of this gadget into the site in question.

Events & Polls

2009-04-22T13:42:00.003+02:00

Two new gadgets for friend connect.

The Events gadget is great for sites which have one foot (or more) in the real world, like club sites etc.
It's a little fiddly to set up and would be much better if it could be administrated through the canvas view which is the interesting feature from the non-Google Polls gadget.

There is a slight nag, which has me worrying about the solidity of gadgets developed by third parties.
Obviously third parties want and are entitled to gain reward from their investment developing and hosting the gadget. But it would be nice to know that you aren't going to have to put up with those irritating FLASHING gaudy adverts suddenly appearing which developers always seem to pick go to squeeze the juice out of their projects.

Friend Connect

More time to play

2009-03-15T12:24:00.002+01:00

Announcement of the new Friend Connect APIs didn't come as much of a surprise.
It does align Friend Connect up more directly against Facebook's connect.

Although they have almost always been viewed as doing the same thing by the media, who don't like to complicate things for their readership, the two products have until now been pitched at very different audiences.

The new API allows the developers, who saw Friend Connect very much as a shallow "bolt on" solution to roll their sleeves up and get mucky with code, weaving Friend Connect much more richly than before into their application.

Spinal tap and the BBC

2009-03-12T12:07:00.002+01:00

I was amused to notice that all the embedded flash players scattered over the BBC news web site throw a sly reference to the cult film "This is Spinal Tap".

The players default sound level is 9, but if that is not loud enough for you, then you can "turn it up to eleven".

Blogger follow gadget upgrade

2009-02-27T00:01:00.002+01:00

Being an early fan and adopter of Google Friend Connect, on Blogger I was miffed that when going from using a "follow" gadget to Friend Connect, that the "followers" didn't come over automatically.

The Blogger / Google team seem to be working on this though, with the announcement today that the the "followers" gadget which is already used by millions of blogs now functions much like Friend connect.

Unfortunately we'll have to wait a while until those old "followers" show up in any new members gadgets, but responses from the GFC team to comments indicate they are working on integrating old followers into Friend Connect.

This should really ramp up the take up of Friend connect across the wider web too, as it increases the pool of "real people" who are, or will be shortly, familiar with the sign up process and gadgets.

Transparency added to Google Friend Connect

2009-02-26T18:31:00.002+01:00

Just a quickie...
Some people have moaned before how they have found it difficult to style Friend Connect gadgets to fit in with their page.

Well they now support transparency, so it'll be much easier to make things site better with the page.

For those of you who already have gadgets on your page you can change this without having the generate new code. Just replace the offending color code with "transparent" (without the quotes).

Here's to making the web more open and social

2009-02-26T17:26:00.005+01:00

Bolocks!! I shouted! ...
If you've watched that video showing how to add Facebook Connect commenting, you will have heard, but may have missed them saying, quote:

.. "Here's to making the web more open and social"

Marketing talk always gets my goat, and the intentional splicing of the words "open" and "social" together, where it really doesn't apply, does nothing to soften my distrust of Facebook.

Doesn't anybody see that Facebook Connect isn't about "making the web more open and social".
What it IS about, is making Facebook more important to it's users.

Facebook Connect is about a relationship between Facebook and the site using Connect. They allow your data to travel backwards and forwards between Facebook and the site.
That is two endpoints along a line. One being the site with Facebook connect, the other being Facebook.

Remember what the campfire catchphrase was at open socials conception?

..."Make the whole web social."

I've tried tio illustrate the differences.
It's actually weighed very much in Facebooks favour: the "whole web" looks nothing like that. If anyone has some facts about size it would be interesting to mash them into one of those "if this melon was the sun..." kind of models.

Of course Friend Connects penitration is still tiny. The big sites are too stupid to see the long tail, and like throwing money away doing things twice: if nothing it helps keep IT people in work.

Friend Connect canvas fixed on Blogger

2009-02-20T15:34:00.004+01:00

Good News!
Until now people have had a "Blank Canvas"when using Google friend Connect on Blogger.

The canvas.html file is one of two files web site owners need to upload to their domain for GFC to work.
On Blogger the files are there for you, as you can't transfer the files there yourself.
So it was particularly irritating that the canvas file didn't work!

That has no been fixed!

To make the most of this I made people's icons in the "recently signed in" gadget also link to the canvas.

Bad News!
I was hoping that the fix / upgrade also meant that you could style the canvas to match your layout, but that was a bridge too far for this upgrade.

When / if this happens it will logically be a setting you can get at through a "your canvas style" link under layout in your Blogger back-end, rather than anything to do with the "skin" option in the GFC advanced settings option as pictured.
That seems only to be about "skinning" the main "Join" button to the Blogger preferred "Follow" where it appears in the member or small login gadgets. Apart from "user familiarity", the importance of which can never be underestimated, I don't know why they didn't make the custom sign-in-prompt the text for that button anyway?

Using Google Friend Connect comments on Blogger

2009-02-14T23:56:00.006+01:00

With the release of the "Social Bar" a couple of days ago one of my biggest gripes about Friend connect was (mostly) sorted.
My gripe was that site owners needed to be able to see / show an "overview" of site-wide activity.
Instead of releasing a seperate gadget, aware of the fact that most site owners don't like giving up "turf", they combined this need with the login, comment and member gadget in one.
Hey Presto! The Social Bar...

So now, I sort of (I also wanted a feed), have what I wanted it was time to look at how I tweek it to my particular needs.
You can if you like use the social bar to completely replace comments on Blogger, just by turning commenting off "hiding it" and setting the scope of the "wall" in the social bar to "page".
But I quite like the idea of a seperate (not related to a post) "wall" so I went down a different route.
First I got rid of the wall gadget in the social bar... Why?
Well people are stupid, and if you give them room to be stupid in then you can't whine when they are.
If you leave the comment gadget in the social bar people using it generally think they are commenting on what they are looking at and not the whole site.
So when you comment in the standard wall gadget in the social bar any "acitvity link" takes you to the site root (as it's set to whole site by default): Dumb.
So I whipped that out, have kept "my wall" on it's own page, as a general "pin-board-comment-wall", and have added in the template Google Friend Connect comments to every post.
Bingo! All links in the activity area in the social bar link to the page with the comment = no room for stupidity.

Google social bar

2009-02-12T00:53:00.003+01:00

I will enjoy the techies having to eat their hats about Friend Connect.

How could they have been so BLIND!!!!

Add a welcome message to Google Friend Connect

2009-02-11T19:18:00.004+01:00

Adding a welcome message for your Google friend connect community is easy.
Just click the "advanced" tab in site settings (at http://www.google.com/friendconnect/), then add a welcome message for people who register on your site!

You can use some html, though it isn't clear to me yet what.
You will be safe with links ( link text ) and full URLs convert to links automatically, so there is no excuse for leaving newly registered members confused!

Google Friend Connect hand holding

2009-02-10T09:27:00.012+01:00

One thing has become clear to me over the past weeks..
Most people (this includes all you "tech savey") are too stupid to understand what Google Friend Connect is, what it is for and how it will change the world.

Hear are some examples of stupidity.

1. Just the members gadget on the site.

Oooo thank you! you let me show my icon (and profile on your page/site).
I'm going to pick on mashable.com mostly: why?
Quote from their about page..
"Founded in July 2005, Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news. ..."
They should know better!
As of writing this they have just the GFC members gadget installed, showing 9305 members.

That makes them feel all warm I'm sure. but what does it do for the "members" jack shit!
This approach is about vanity (and not knowing any better), which is a wobbly chair to stand.

The "members" get their image (very briefly) to appear on the front page. As new people flock to join, they drown in the crowd (the members gadget is small and displays newly registered "members" first).
That's all you get from mashable. Nothing more, not even the wall gadget.

2. Untouched "canvas"
The "canvas" is one of two files you need to upload to your server to allow GFC to communicate. It is a basic HTML page with a bigger container for GFC gadget data.

Mashable has 9317 members (yes I know that is a different number, I just spent an hour working on something else).
If you, want to interact with the other members (yes you can do that!) you'd probably prefer to do it on the canvas.
Why? well the canvas is basically a full page gadget view, filled with the content of the gadget you were viewing / using.
You get to the canvas by clicking the found in the corner of most GFC gadgets.

You can see what a small space the members gadget typically occupies, which also underlines why a "full window" view of a gadgets content would be useful.

Now take a look at the canvas mashable are using ....
It is the BOG STANDARD canvas as supplied by GFC.
They haven't even added their site name!
Bear in mind that the canvas page is basic HTML, so you can style and incorporate it into your site very easily with some basic HTML.

They have 9320 (gone up again) members, and they can't be arsed (or don't know how) to make their canvas at least fit in with their site?!

Edit: 3/10/09 - Two files (of which the canvas.html file was one) are no longer required or provided for Friend Connect. Details.

3. Being short sited
The problem is partly the way that Google has informed (or not) the world. Many won't have heard of OpenSocial or understand how it is connected with GFC. So they lack the tools to build a bigger picture: but bear in mind the the keyword phrase with OpenSocial is to "make the whole web social".
Lets look again at the mashable example:
Sticking your face, and a linked profile on a site is interesting maybe, but on mashable it soon becomes irrelevant. Why? on-one will ever get to your profile to click (or even see it): it's buried under the other 1000 who joined shortly after you.
But let's say that you go back to mashable now and again to read stuff. Remember mashable wants this too!
Well if you could be "seen" reading the site by other site visitors that makes things a little different doesn't it?
Leaving a "foot print" means that you could interact with other people, the site (mashable) could interact with you etc etc. The possibilities are many, and when you throw in the connections between sites that GFC enables (on a social basis) you can, if you think a little hard, have an Ahhhhh moment.

Mashable have been going on about Facebook connect like it excretes the secret of eternal youth.
Let me compare things simply between Facebook Connect & Google Friend Connect:

Face book connect is making friends with the play gound bully.
Google Friend connect is making friends with everybody else.

There are some problems with GFC: things like the blogger canvas issue, I can figure out yet, how to get a "site based activity feed" out of GFC for instance, which is why I haven't dumped the old commenting system (GFC comment on post pages).
There will be more teething problems, but I would rather make friends with everyone esle than make friends with the school bully!

Google Latitude

2009-02-05T19:49:00.001+01:00

Mmmm interesting.

Or at least it would be if I had any friends.

Cover your back! what about security?

2009-01-28T19:42:00.002+01:00

Google recently announced the offline Gmail which it seems the masses have been waiting for.......

But... does I haven't seen or heard anyone mentioning the security implications of this?

First, do you still have to login? Probably, not to would be madness.
What about exposing all your mail to the threats that your computher harbours? Presumably on multiple machines?
I'm sure Google have thought about the security aspect, but they will be able to say (fairly) that you are responsible for the security of your computer!

Remember the average computer user, (not you obviously), is a fecking idiot!!!

i didn't know

2009-01-07T19:29:00.000+01:00

testing ...

2008-12-10T16:54:00.002+01:00

This page is used now and again to test out new stuff without me having to write a new post (which people might try to read or want to read after the "test" is deleted).

Global GFC conversation

2008-12-10T15:55:00.002+01:00

Chat

2008-12-10T12:20:00.006+01:00

Join in the global GFC conversation here - Google Friend Connect Support on Twitter

Another face smashing

2008-12-08T22:30:00.002+01:00

Took another face bashing tonight after falling off my bike again.

This time it was my fault: I was aware that I should probably have some lights on, reached down to flick on the dynamo...... .....shit! where did that large black 4x4 come from.
It not being the bike I am used to, (my one was stolen last time I lay bleeding on the pavement) I wasn't going to stop in time (who can ever remember to pedal backwards!), so I clipped it trying to go round and took a dive, face first onto the road.

Considering how hard I hit it I don't think I look too bad.

Feeling a bit blind

2008-11-29T16:05:00.002+01:00

Feeling a bit blind on and off currently.

Can you "think yourself unwell"? ....Probably.
So I'm hoping that my rather strange occasional blindness is "stress related" as suggested by the quack.

Someone stole my bike the other week, while I lay face down unconscious and bleeding after blacking out on the way home.

friend request

2008-06-02T09:16:00.001+02:00

Random rambles ... comment wall

2008-01-17T01:48:00.015+01:00

Mass

2007-09-27T10:43:00.000+02:00

I cut my toenails yesterday and was pleased with the pile of clippings I managed to accrue.

Was surprised to find it only weighed 0.3g.

Fighting Cow

2007-07-27T12:21:00.000+02:00

Juvenile fun. This really packs the clinches in.

The Century of the Self - #1

2007-07-24T00:29:00.000+02:00

The Century of the Self - #2

2007-07-24T00:28:00.000+02:00

The Century of the Self - #3

2007-07-24T00:27:00.000+02:00

The Century of the Self - #4

2007-07-24T00:13:00.000+02:00

Damien Rice live

2007-07-21T14:05:00.001+02:00

They were a good site. It's sometimes a cruel world

the wheezy waiter

2007-06-22T23:49:00.003+02:00

The wheezy waiter was one of the first self publishing video artists who changed my "this is all rubbish" view, to "it's mostly rubbish".
Hopefully he'll maintain the charm.
Plays newest to oldest episodes.

EDIT: Saturday 10th April 2010
Randomly wandered over to Craig's (aka Wheezy Waiter) blog today to check out how he is doing. Was please to see that the ideas seem to have grown in proportion to his audience (seems to centre around his YouTube channel now).
Also, amused to find the indirect connection we have (had?). The world is indeed getting smaller.
Nice to see that your dedication has payed off Craig 10/10.
Will Craig "catch" the message? Will anyone else see the connection? Does anyone care?

about this blog

2007-06-22T08:24:00.025+02:00

Image credit: Twitter image used with kind permission from Tony Gigov

Hello There!
This blog charts news, insights, discoveries and opinions from around the social web.

Started by Robert Wallis using the pseudonym "Yours Truly". It focuses on social / tech related posts with an occasional opinion thrown in for good measure.

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Amongst things I work as social media coordinator for Ford.
This is my personal website: the views expressed on this site are mine alone and not those of Ford or any other organisation with which I am involved.

contact

2007-06-21T21:33:00.005+02:00

Hello There

robert [dot] wallis [at] gmail [dot] com

You'll need to type it out : no clickable link as I only want to hear from real people.