Tag: Facebook

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Do Google Get Social?

There have been accusations that Google don’t get social for quite a while now, with the advent of Google + it appears that maybe they do. However there’s evidence that they struggle with some aspects of social and this is exemplified via the recent TechCrunch interview with two of the guys behind Google +, which you can view on a post by Botgirl Questi.

One point where I get concerned is when one of the google guys talks about people not using video for contacting friends, it’s a pain in the arse is why people don’t do it, it’s not intuitive, it takes time to arrange, it takes more time to do and even though he touches upon these points, it’s his surprise that so many people don’t do it that’s concerning.

However Google + is about trying to find new and innovative ways for people to communicate in the real world by the sounds of it, Alexander Graham Bell isn’t going to be too concerned for quite a while I’d imagine.

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Identity Not Labels

The fuss about Google + and pseudonyms is based largely around issues of identity, rather than anonymity. There have been quite a few posts about this, Hamlet Au over at New World Notes makes the observation that Hamlet Au brings more results in Google search than James Wagner Au, I nearly always call him Hamlet, Hamlet is an identity.

Tateru Nino has a few posts on the subject, one of which discusses why it’s difficult to prove the name you go by on a daily basis. However this discussion in itself proves the folly of social networks encouraging people to social network with names that aren’t as widely known online as pseudonyms.

Google haven’t really given any convincing reasons as to why Google + is following Facebook down the anti pseudonym route and for Google, this is extremely disappointing considering how they tailor adverts to content, they absolutely do not need a database full of real names to make Google + work whereas Facebook came from a different angle and whereas I don’t see why today, they still insist on real names, it evolved from people knowing each other at University.

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Google + Doesn’t Look Second Life Friendly

Opensource Obscure, Italian blogger, sometimes pain in the bum, sometimes extremely insightful, currently suspended from Google + for calling himself Opensource Obscure! So the question whether Google + would be pseudonym friendly and then by extension, Second Life friendly appears to have been answered on Opensource Obscure’s Flickr account.  This is extremely disappointing.

I don’t have a Google + account, I don’t have a Google profile either, however Google have plenty of information on me, some of you may notice I have Google Adsense running here, to make that worthwhile I provide Google with my real information, it’s needed at that stage. This is how we normally act as humans, we part with information when we deem it necessary. One of my beefs with Facebook is that they try and push humans into acting in a manner that isn’t natural, I’ve mentioned this before but I know people down my local pub by their nickname only, I’ll buy them a pint, they’ll buy me one back, we don’t need to know each other’s full names, indeed if we did know them they wouldn’t sound right because we know each other by nicknames!

So enter Google +, with different values apparently, different groups of friends in different circles. However this still isn’t natural ordering or filtering, there’s generally crossover, but Google + has moved into the do not touch with a bargepole territory with their moves to suspend Opensource Obscure because it means that we can’t, as Second Life users, use our Second Life names, even though that’s how plenty of people know us!

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Hell Freezes Over!

A day of oddness to say the least. I have been logged in with Firestorm, I’m not a huge fan of TPV’s, as good as they are, there’s always that “who are these guys” issue. I’ve also downloaded and installed Phoenix because I am completely fed up of people telling me I’m Ruthed and showing me pics to prove it after I told them I look fine on my screen! Performance with the latest official viewer has been poor lately, I have to try something else. I don’t know if this will help but when I was logged in with Firestorm, it felt better.

However the more shocking news is that I’ve engaged with the Facebook borg! I know, I know, but I figured out that you can create Facebook pages without needing a Facebook profile. Therefore I currently have two Facebook pages, one for me and one for my sim. However a Facebook page is not the same as a profile and people need to be aware of this.

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No Surprises In Facebook Purge

I’ll start off by saying that I don’t like Facebook, not so much the concept, the concept is actually sound, keeping in touch with people you know. I don’t like the company, their attitude, their privacy values but most of all I don’t like their function creep. Facebook comments are an example of function creep with Facebook getting their grubby little claws into the commenting business and therefore further extending their stifling of speech.

TechCrunch is a classic example of this, they adopted Facebook comments apparently in an attempt to silence the trolls, but they also silenced a great many other people too. However their sister publication, Crunchgear, tried Facebook comments and then kicked them into touch. Facebook comments really do stifle speech, we have a social networking policy at work, I don’t want to bring work into what I blog or comment on because work isn’t relevant most of the time, but were I commenting via Facebook, work is linked whether I want it to be or not, so I opt out of using the system. There are many others in the same boat and they won’t be commenting via Facebook comments either.

However, I am not going to criticise Facebook for deleting Second Life Avatar Profiles, as reported here by Kim Randall and here by Daniel Voyager. People are flouting the Facebook TOS, tough titty if you get caught, it may not be nice but it’s a fair cop Guv’nor. However Linden Lab need to stop pushing Facebook Second Life side, it’s not a happy marriage.

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