Archive for the 'Facebook' Category

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Scaled Automation: Google and Facebook Start To Connect Your Dots

Published by Jarred on May 12, 2008 in Data Portability, Facebook, Google, Privacy, Social Networks and Web 2.0. View Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote about Google’s baby step into the social networking game, when it announced it was testing social features in its branded start-page, iGoogle. In an attempt to be a blogger rock star (hah!), I coined the term “scaled automation” to describe the web giant’s approach to this arena. In a nutshell, it combines Google’s penchant for automatically interpreting your social graph (“automation”) with its “long-tail” philosophy of breaking down barriers to the flow of information across the entire web (“scaled”).

To its credit, Facebook — the reigning champion of social networking — picked up on the “scaled” trend and announced Facebook Connect last week. This new feature will serve as a gateway to Facebook’s so-called “walled garden” of social graphs. Websites external to Facebook will be able to offer users the option of logging in using their Facebook credentials. Additionally, users can port some of their social graph data (friend connections, photos, etc.) to those external websites. From the Facebook Developers’ Blog:

Developers will be able to add rich social context to their websites. Developers will even be able to dynamically show which of their Facebook friends already have accounts on their sites. [...] As a user moves around the open Web, their privacy settings will follow, ensuring that users’ information and privacy rules are always up-to-date. For example, if a user changes their profile picture, or removes a friend connection, this will be automatically updated in the external website.

While Facebook will begin scaling across the web, however, it has not embraced the “automation” side of Google’s philosophy. Indeed, in response to Facebook Connect, Google revealed the rest of their social networking plans today with the announcement of the similarly-named Google Friend Connect. Google’s VP of Engineering describes his company’s vision of the social web, and you can instantly see how it differs from Facebook’s:

The distributed model has worked well for the Web. That is what the Web does–many points of light loosely coupled and massively distributed, allowing users to connect to pages of information. [...] Now it is working to connect people to other people.

Google is basically launching the same initiative as Facebook, but the spirit behind the implementation is different. Google wants to connect you everywhere, just like Facebook; however, Google also wants to connect you to everyone.

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Monday Links: May 12, 2008

Published by Taylor on May 11, 2008 in Apple, Energy, Environment, Facebook, Monday Links, Politics, Social Networks and Sustainability. View Comments

Since I was so focused on philanthropy blogging last week, I have a backlog of environmental and web 2.0 news to share. This could be a long list of links, but it should keep you busy for a while.

Social networking? Despite all of the attention paid to it in (occasionally breathless) media coverage . . . Facebook, MySpace, et al have not proven to be terribly effective tools for campaigns. Does anyone really think that the fact that Obama has five times as many Facebook friends as Hillary Clinton has turned out to be significant? Demographically interesting and revealing, sure, but actually relevant to how the Democratic primary process has gone so far?

  • Treehugger highlights a really simple, useful, accurate biofuels comparison chart from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I don’t mean to be a constant cheerleader for algae but…geewillikers, Batman, switch grass and algae look like the best possibilities in that graphic.

[Obama's] response to Clinton’s gas tax proposal was to reject it as a Washington gimmick that would . . . do nothing to address long-term energy issues. That rejection was coupled with a principled energy platform that would address those issues.

Why not try the same thing in WV and KY? Start by telling the truth: as president, he would stop the expansion of dirty coal. [...]

Of course, it’s crucial to couple this with a positive message . . . that means “green jobs,” but more than just that. It means stimulating the development of other industries and revenue sources by spending on infrastructure, education, public works programs, and a decent social safety net. An Obama administration will try to pay these areas back for the sacrifices they’ve made in the name of providing the country with cheap electricity.

It probably wouldn’t help him win WV or KY . . . [but] [m]aybe he could defy conventional wisdom by treating rural white voters like adults, helping them plan a real path to economic health and sustainability rather than telling them fairy tales about the continuing viability of earth’s dirtiest fuel.

  • The Library of Congress has a Flickr account. From what I can tell, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the photos (relatively modest in number) that they post. Case in point, “Auto Polo.” Like polo only using early automobiles in place of horses…Jesus.

    • auto polo

After the auto polo photo, I don’t really have anything else to say. Happy Monday.

iGoogle Goes Social: The Birth of Scaled Automation

Published by Jarred on April 24, 2008 in Advertising, Facebook, Google, Privacy, Social Networks and Web 2.0. View Comments

The Heat Is On

The cold war between Google and Facebook just warmed up a whole lot, and this time it’s Google with its fingers on the dial.

Garrett Rogers reports that Google is releasing tools for developers to begin building social applications for the iGoogle homepage, built on the OpenSocial API.  For those who don’t speak geek, this basically means that individuals and companies are able to tap into the social graph you’ve created through Google — primarily through your Gmail contacts — to build useful gadgets for your homepage.  Users will be able to see “updates” from their friends (see right column of image), paralleling Facebook’s News Feed and Mini Feed features

Who cares, right?  Well, as Garrett points out, the potential for a coup is enormous:

I wonder if this will have a significant impact on Facebook since there are twice as many people who set Google as their default browser homepage than Facebook according to comScore? Who knows, Google might win by default if they get it just right.

With this move, Google is forging together two movements that it has been leading under much scrutiny and controversy: scaling and automation.  Together, they become what I’m going to call scaled automation.  Like Tom Friedman says, if you name an issue you own it… so if this term somehow becomes popular, well, remember you heard it here first.

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Facebook Chat: Social Networking Comes Home

Published by Jarred on April 15, 2008 in Data Portability, Facebook, Privacy, Social Networks and Web 2.0. View Comments

This week, Facebook began slowly rolling out an update to their site that will probably have the most significant impact on the user experience since the introduction of the News Feed.  Ladies and gentlemen, Facebook Chat has arrived.

The upgrade hasn’t been applied to my account yet, and so this isn’t going to be an actual review of the new feature (though I’ve been reading about it and think I’ve got it pretty much figured out).  Rather, I just wanted to share some thoughts about how this is going to affect change revolutionize the social networking experience.

If you don’t count e-mail, instant messaging (I’ll refer to it as chatting for simplicity’s sake) was actually probably the first experience you ever had with online social networking.  Your buddy list was your first social graph.  It was the first time that you could connect and communicate with friends online.  It was the first time you could see how someone presented their online identity through their “profiles”, and the first time you could detect their online presence and know their ”status” through their away messages.  It is only natural, then, that the first generation of social networking is being reintegrated into the mainstream offerings.

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“…and nothing but the truth, so help me Google” [Guest Post]

Published by a Guest on March 18, 2008 in Facebook, Google, Legal Issues, News, Privacy, Social Networks and Web 2.0. View Comments

It’s a pleasure for me to present a guest post submitted by Jarry Taylor, a partner with Maynard, Cooper & Gale PC — one of Alabama’s leading law firms located in scenic Birmingham.  And… he’s my dad!  Thanks to Jarry/Dad for contributing to Tropophilia!

The American Bar Association’s Litigation News reports on a recent phenomenon many of us law types have been talking about, namely the change in the way investigations are performed and how to get information about people involved in legal cases.  Forget the old style gum shoe black cloak, long-lens photographer investigator (although they do still come in handy sometimes).  We’re now talking about finding out all sorts of neat and interesting stuff from MySpace, Facebook and even Match.com.

Have a witness you’re about to depose in a case coming to trial next month?  Worried you might not know all there is to know about him?  Think you should fork out money for an investigator to dig up information about him?  Nah, it’s all right there on the internet and in the social networking world where nothing is sacred.

“They” tell you to be careful what you post as a student because colleges, grad schools and employers will check out those crazy photos you thought it would be fun to share with your buds.  But, those beyond those years or the witless still include information that, sometimes, can be very helpful to the inquiring lawyer on the other side of a case.  Courts are now having to deal with evidentiary questions, and report decisions on whether such information is admissible in court or not.  Even if it’s not substantive information relevant to your case, it can always go to the credibility of that witness.

“I solemly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Google.”  Oh, and that applies to lawyers, too!