1. May
    12

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    The Race For Social Network Dominance

    Google just anounced this morning Friend Connect, it’s own data portability network. It while require almost no programming knowledge to add social network features to your site, according to google:

    Websites that are not social networks may still want to be social — and now they can be, easily. With Google Friend Connect (see http://www.google.com/friendconnect following this evening’s Campfire One), any website owner can add a snippet of code to his or her site and get social features up and running immediately without programming — picking and choosing from built-in functionality like user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.

    Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more.

    They include api connection to other netwroking platforms, also they add open id to the package. Nice.

    Ok so someone else jumped in the wagon, sho would have their services adopted massively? Who knows , but the race is on. I would honestly have Google to handle all of this rather than Facebook.

    Filed Under software, tech


  2. May
    9

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    Facebook Connect: The next big thing?

    Techcrunch released an article today on Facebook Connect. Short description:

    It will allow users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any website. Third party websites will be able to implement and offer more features of the Facebook Platform off of Facebook – the same features available to third party applications today on Facebook.

    This is huge news, I can’t even start to imagine how huge. If Facebook plays their hand of cards right, they well very well take the web to its next stage, and become the social and identity backbone of the internet. Yes you read that right. They will hold your data, they will hold your picture, they will hold your profile and all other websites will only connect and fetch your profile data off Facebook. Wow. I mean, WOW!

    So I guess OpenID will take a huge hit now, maybe? It all depends as I said on how well Facebook plays their hand of cards and on the willingness of users to adopt Facebook Connect.

    Personally, I am tired of registering and haven a gazillion accounts all over the net. But at the same time this worsens privacy issues.

    Filed Under software, tech


  3. May
    9

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    The Perfect Workflow

    Over the last couple of days I’ve been working on a project with Jonathan and due to distance issues we need to get the teamwork done over the net. He found a pretty nice web service called Beanstalk (http://beanstalkapp.com) basically and according to their own description it’s a hosted subversion system.

    The find on Jonathan’s side could not have been more perfectly timed for the execution of this project. We set up a repository, upped a copy of the software we are working on and boom! a few mins later we we’re checking out and commiting files like rockstars. Best of all it’s all hosted, so no need to mantain a repository on a server of our own. I highly recommend this service, even if your team is located the same place you are. Worth the price (I don’t say that very often). The Beanstalk -> Basecamp integration is awesome. Beanstalk updates your Basecamp every time changes are made in the repository telling you which team member did what.

    I’m not getting into Basecamp, but let me say that for the first time I’m using FluidApp for using Basecamp as a desktop app. Things just kept getting awesome-r by the minute. It really helps to have your Basecamp in your dock, at a single click.

    And finally there is Skitch, which Jonathan also introduced me to. At first I thought, “hey it’s just another screenshot app, I dont’t need that”. Was I wrong. Sending screenshots and quick revisions or notes is now a walk in the park. I must say it is the perfect compliment for the workflow.

    In conclusion, get Beanstalk to host your files with version control (awesooome), integrate it with Basecamp for your project / team management. And, if working over the net, get Skitch to show off / make notes / screenshots, etc. Also, for the icing on the cake get Basecamp to work with Fluidapp.

    Kudos to Jonathan for managing to mashup some web 2.0 services to build the perfect workflow!

    Filed Under software, tech


  4. Apr
    23

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    Facebook Chat: Do we really need it?

    Today I log in to Facebook and I find “Facebook Chat” at the bottom of the screen (picture-1.png), wow more clutter on my Facebook. Ok so I gave it a try , saw who of my friends where currently browsing Facebook (no surprise who I saw there haha) double click them, and bam, chat window!

    Now the question came into my mind: do we really need this? I mean, facebook as a social app works ok, and aim/msn/google chat are great to keep in touch with friends and get work done. I don’t see myself using “facebook chat” anywhere in the vicinity.

    Then there’s the privacy issue again… Facebook will surely log these chats and now you’re all exposed showing everybody when you’re online. If there’s one thing I dislike about Facebook, its the privacy issues when my personal life meets a social platform. I don’t like it… I feel exposed.

    Anyways, these are my thoughts on the new feature.

    Update: Ok, I actually used Facebook Chat today for a while. Turns out there is a use for it, and that is people who are not allowed to use (or are blocked from) messenger at work. Now there’s another reason for your IT Department to block Facebook =P .

    Filed Under software, tech