If Google is a combatant in the Identity Wars, who is the enemy?
It’s been a few months since Google launched Google+, its latest venture into social media. As is usually the case, sides were immediately chosen. Some lauded Google+ as the next big thing. On the other side, critics claimed it was no more than a feeble attempt to emulate Facebook. What was expected was for the debate to fade away, leaving Google+ users to post animated .gifs to their heart’s content. Of course, the critics would move on to their next target.
That isn’t the way it has really played out, though. No, Google upped the ante by quickly disallowing private profiles. I posted a piece on the private profile policy back on July 6, 2011. I expressed that it didn’t really matter, since one could choose to populate their profile with real or false information. I still thought it would all work out fine. Then came Google’s decision to begin suspending profiles with pseudonyms. This seemed a bit dicey, but there did seem to be a mechanism in place to request a review and validation of one’s pseudonym of choice. If favorably reviewed and determined to be for non-nefarious purposes, the person could keep using their pseudonym. It seemed simple, right? It was…until Google became an active combatant in the Identity Wars. The only problem is that it’s still difficult to discern who Google views as the enemy.
Google’s public-only, profile policy: An opportunity, not a punishment
Let me first get this out into the open first. I don’t see Google’s removal of the option to have private profiles as an issue. That’s right. I’m saying that I don’t care. For that matter, you shouldn’t care either.
Users have never been required to provide government-issued documents to validate the date of birth, gender or uploaded avatar. No, people have always been free to omit biographical information, make things up and use an alias. Isn’t that what Dateline NBC’s ‘To Catch a Predator’ series taught us? From an Infosec standpoint, full disclosure of your information on any site, to include those with supposed ‘private’ profiles, is never recommended. Whether publicly available on the web or hidden from general view, the data you input and files you upload still reside on someone else’s server and can be exfiltrated by authorized admins or unauthorized third parties, via exploitation of unmitigated vulnerabilities, brute force attacks, and similarly scary methods employed by recreational and professional hackers.
The Royal Wedding – Streaming live to a computer near you
Stop right there. Don’t ask why GSL is publishing a piece on the Royal Wedding of Prince William and the soon-to-be Princess, Kate Middleton. GSL has not succumb to the royal wedding fever which seems to have swept the developed world. We assure you. It is geek/tech/gadget-related.
Generally, one associates a monarchy with staunch tradition and formality. Many remember watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana live on television, on July 29, 1981. Way (way, way) back then, the fact that it was broadcast live was a huge event. Of course, 1981 is far behind us, and in 2011, a live television broadcast would fail to impress just about anyone. How about a live stream via YouTube of the wedding? Would that impress you?
Dear Twitter, can I please have a minimal theme?
There are those of you reading this that follow me on Twitter. There are some of you who don’t. If you are one of the former, I can still guarantee that 90% have probably never looked at my Twitter page, simply because you already have a mobile application that allowed you to find and follow me. That said, there are still a ton of people that use the web interface at Twitter.com for their daily Twitter fix.
Stats published by Twitter as late as last fall showed over 80% of their usage coming from Twitter.com and m.twitter.com. This means that someone is more likely to view my profile on Twitter.com than any other way (in a relative sense, based on a “new” person, not one of my current followers). New Twitter came into being months ago, and promptly killed one of the main reasons to enhance the design of your Twitter page.
LiveProfile for BlackBerry hits open beta
Yet another cross-platform messaging app has hit the smartphone market, and although LiveProfile has been out for Android and iOS for a bit already, it finally came into an open beta for BlackBerry today. Aiming to be another “BBM-like” experience, it has a host of features that BlackBerry users will recognize.
Visually, the app is quite polished, and I have to say that I really do enjoy the look of it on my 9800. Up until now, I have been using WhatsApp for my cross-platform needs, which is quite functional, but tends to fall a little short on visual appeal.
Color for iPhone and Android: Social media for the geographically collocated
The latest in an ever-lengthening line of mobile apps for social media-philes was released yesterday. Simply called “Color”, it is a free app with versions for iPhone and Android. Based solely upon the name, one would assume that it was a photo editing or effects app. In this case, the name doesn’t describe the function as much as the goal it seems to hope to achieve…bringing a little more color to our social lives.
The man behind the venture is Bill Nguyen, who has made a name for himself in launching and selling ventures and later selling them to companies like Apple Inc. With Color, Nguyen and company are seeking to change how people interact socially on a digital platform, while in an actual real-life, social situation. According to Nguyen, the evolution toward a primarily mobile computing environment is resulting in a transition to a “post-PC world”. This all sounds exciting, but what does the Color app actually do? We’ve laid it out in simple fashion that users can use to decide if this is a “fundamental shift” of which they want to be a part.
Twitter changed its stance on 3rd party clients – are they biting the hand that feeds?
By now, those who are plugged into the tech scene may be well aware that last week, Twitter’s platform product manager released a statement regarding an update to the Twitter TOS as it relates to 3rd party client apps. This update brings a high standard into place for existing developers, and sets the bar extremely high for any wishing to break into this rapidly growing network.
This move will stifle the production of any new apps designed to allow users to access to Twitter, whether it be from their smartphone or computer of choice. On the other hand, it provides a prime environment for the official applications acquired and developed by Twitter itself to flourish. What better way to make sure your own product succeeds than to tell everyone duplicating it that they have to make their product exactly the same. It takes away one of the major factors in the development game, trying to set yourself apart from the competition.
GetGlue – More than Stickers and Gurus, it’s Foursquare for the antisocial
Chances are, if you were to ask any random person on the street, they have hooked into social media in one way or another. Everyone has FaceBook, Twitter, or something of that ilk, and other social media services have become ever more prevalent as time goes on. Foursquare sparked a new evolution of this new culture, combining location based check-ins and social media sharing and turning it into a game. More and more people are latching onto this idea and using it in new and interesting ways, molding it to their own preferences.
I was once an avid user of Foursquare, but have let it go by the wayside for a number of reasons. I don’t travel around much. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Canada is woefully behind the US when it comes to real life benefits to being the “mayor” of a chosen venue. Last but not least, once I became mayor of my frequent places, there was nothing else to really do. No one challenged my mayorships, since we don’t have a lot of users here. In fact, I still hold most of my mayorships today, even though I haven’t checked in anywhere for months.
Read more…
Limited edition “GSL Not Stickers” officially (not) available on GetGlue!
If you’re a Twitter or Facebook, you may have noticed (via someone’s annoying check-in) that GSL is now included among the indexed topics of GetGlue, the now famous service responsible for reviving the lost, sticker collecting child from our past. To be honest, it took some ingenuity to get it done, considering Tech News sites aren’t generally mentioned on any of the sites currently supported by GetGlue’s Firefox and Chrome browser add-ons. We’re pleased, though, to say we did it. After a little less than three weeks, we’ve had 32 visits, 32 likes and 84 check-ins from friends of GSL who recognized the name and checked-in just to show their support.
Those who read GSL regularly know that we’re not your conventional, geek-related news website. No, we tend to take things and make them bigger (or sometimes just more complicated). After getting added to the service, GSL sent an email to GetGlue asking for guidance on the process of requesting a GetGlue sticker to reward fans who check-in. Unfortunately, they informed us they are currently only partnering with film, television, and music companies. We gave it a good effort. That’s the end of that idea, right? Of course, the answer is no. This is GSL. We chose an alternate route. That’s right. We made our own limited-edition stickers and decided to send them out ourselves. How do you get one? The simple rules await you beyond the break.
Lovefre.sh: Available in the App Store and ready to change the world
Last week, we gave you a sneek peek at the Lovefre.sh app, thanks to an interview we were granted with the company’s CEO, Mark Spofforth. With an HTML5 web and iPhone app, it’s designed to allow smartphone users to find and share good, locally produced food. The concept is a surprisingly simple one, but it has the potential to change how we view and use location-based apps. We’re happy to say it was approved by Apple and, as of today, is available for free, in the App Store.
If you didn’t get a chance to read GSL’s preview of it last week, you really should take a few minutes to do so. You can take a look at how it works on the official Lovefre.sh website. Once you have, install it on your iPhone and start checking in wherever you buy locally-grown foods and share the location with your geographic neighbors. The sooner we start using it, the sooner we can start changing the world…one plate at a time.
[Apple App Store download link]
