Summary: Since the blogosphere is abuzz in the Web 2.0 dialogue, I feel it’s time to reiterate the call that web sites should universally provide a usable method to transact with them from any capable electronic device. As CMSs becomes the norm, it seems too that such “universal access” capabilities should be the norm. Since we are swamped with so much information, I humbly suggest that we start by being sure to include titles for our content and full text options when syndicating feeds for consumption. I’ll explain…

It’s about the Net, not the Web

Once upon a time, the Internet was all about serving static HTML pages to view in a Web browser. The terms “Internet” and “Web” were considered somewhat synonymous, even though the former refers to the physical means for data trasmission among interconnected electronic devices (tool) and the latter refers to interconnected electronic documents (content). Today, the Internet transmits data in multiple ways, not just by serving up HTML documents for people to view on their preferred browser. The Internet provides services such as e-commerce, communication, video and other types of dynamic content.

We’re Becoming a More Portable Society

Today’s culture embrances portability. The world has become smaller, in part due to the Internet’s possibilities of transacting internationally on a scale unheard of 20 years ago. Further, this opportunity to connect, transmit, and receive information has moved away from simply using a personal computer to view web pages. I would first admonish gatekeepers of web sites to provide a method to view content on any capable electronic device. For example, Mike provides a great tutorial (for us non-code folks) for making your site mobile-friendly. Of course, I am the biggest hypocrite. Perhaps I will implement this feature once I get more than one reader (thanks, Mom).

Nonetheless, there are sophisticated happenings – take, for example, ESPN’s foray into mobile content delivery. Pretty impressive, huh?

Information Explosion

As David over at Technorati indicates, the blogosphere world alone “is over 60 times bigger than it was only 3 years ago.” Because so much content is being created on a daily basis, it is so difficult for the common consumer to find what he or she is looking for. Let’s try to make it a bit easier for everyone…

Titles Matter

Be sure to include titles for new content. I’ve recently “crossed over” and now do most of my reading using a feed reader rather than proactively using a combination of search and bookmarks to visit specific sites for information. As Thomas explains, the “come to me web” is the model of the future. I would argue that as more and more information is created and available, the harder it will be to find it. However, one way to make sense of the information that interests me is to subscribe to feeds available through sites I am interested in. Right now I have over 80 90 sites I subscribe to, so when browsing for articles of interest, the titles really matter. We need to be journalists here. Interestingly, one of the bigger feed evangelists out there does not regularly use titles on his site, thereby making me less interested to see what he has to say when using my new feed reader of choice (hat tip to Mark).

Give me the Whole Article!

In addition, I would say a great many content providers that do provide feeds only provide “snippets” of an article – usually only the first 250 characters. This then forces me to visit the web site to view content. This really makes syndicated feeds worthless for the reader, IMHO. In defense of only providing snippets, I’m sure this practice may, in part, be done purposefully so that I will click on advertisements. However, feeds are beginning to become embedded with clickable advertisements.

I cannot speak to every CMS out there, but I do know that WordPress by default will only syndicate these snippets of an article for those who choose to subscribe to a site’s feed. I’ve chosen to make sure that every post on my site is viewable in its entirety in an RSS reader. Below is the interface used in WordPress to make this change:

Conclusion

We live in an information age where each of us is confronted daily with choices about what information we choose to grab, hold onto, use, and get rid of. We make these choices very quickly. Therefore, I urge all content providers to make their content accessible to all digital devices, but let’s start by making sites “feed-friendly” by offering full-text syndicated feeds along with richly named titles.

Tags: [Technorati, WordPress,vanderwal, infocloud, newsalloy, cms, pim, information management, knowledge management, syndicated feeds, blogosphere, weblog, ux, user experience, usability]

John Battelle recently asked readers to come up with a tagline for the next Web 2.0 conference. This will be the third such conference.

Year One included the tagline “The Web Is a Platform” to which Battelle remarks,

“That felt spot on, because the idea of the web as a place you could build on the work of others was a pretty new idea.”

Year Two included the tagline “Revving the Web” to which Battelle remarks,

“…because it was all about the services and businesses and opportunities that arose from the Web – all of which taken together made the web more robust and more exciting.”

For November’s conference, Battelle suggests the tagline “Disruption” by indicating,

“…the year the Web – in all its forms – really flexes its muscle and begins to seriously turn the soil of the global economy in deep and permanent ways. Think of the disruptions in the media and entertainment industries – probably the deepest disruptions so far. But we’re only in the first inning or so of the disruptions in the mobile and communications space (how excited do YOU think AT&T is about Google offering free Wifi, for example? Or eBay buying Skype?). And the disruptions of search and clickstreams on commerce is only now beginning, and the same is true for the massive IT industry (Microsoft Live, anyone?). And the disruption on our cultural life – in government, for example (can you say warrantless wiretaps meets the Database of Intentions?) – is only beginning to dawn on all of us.”

(more…)

Back in May I discussed the potential misuse of a powerful mapping tool like Google Earth. Today, the New York Times reports that international governments are afraid of the potential for misuse of this technology. Since the New York Times will eventually make the link to their article obsolete (unless you pay for a subscription), I felt compelled to include some of the more interesting tidbits…

From the Dec 20, 2005 edition of the New York Times, “Governments Tremble at Google’s Bird’s-Eye View”

“Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the K.G.B., was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: “Terrorists don’t need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them.”
…
“India, whose laws sharply restrict satellite and aerial photography, has been particularly outspoken. “It could severely compromise a country’s security,” V. S. Ramamurthy, secretary in India’s federal Department of Science and Technology, said of Google Earth. And India’s surveyor general, Maj. Gen. M. Gopal Rao, said, “They ought to have asked us.”
…
“Andrew McLaughlin, a senior policy counsel at Google, said the company had entered discussions with several countries over the last few months, including Thailand, South Korea and, most recently, India.”
…
“When you have multiple eyes in the sky, what you’re doing is creating a transparent globe where anyone can get basic information about anyone else,” said Mr. Gupta, the Sandia analyst. His recommendation to the Indian government, he said, would be to accept the new reality: “Times are changing, and the best thing to do is adapt to the advances in technology.”

Tags: [memory maps, Google Earth, satellite, security, information security, national security, terrorism, map, gps]

Back in April I discussed how the federal government is discriminating against Macintosh users with regard to e-gov business transactions with the grantee community. I still cannot believe that OMB chose a solution that disregards a significant segment of its community. Furthermore, I find it hard to trust a vender who cannot implement a quick solution to cross-platform compatibility issues, particularly now that we live in an era that relies less on any given computing platform in favor of open-standards web services. Anyway, here is the latest word on Mac compatibility with Grants.gov:

I have heard that Grants.gov is not Macintosh compatible. What do I do if I use only a Macintosh?
Grants.gov is aware of the issues facing Macintosh users who apply for Federal grants electronically. Grants.gov has provided the following response regarding this issue on the FAQ page of their website:

“Grants.gov has been working with PureEdge [since acquired by IBM and renamed IBM® Workplace Forms™] to offer a viewer that is compatible with as many operating systems as possible. Once a MAC compatible viewer has been developed information will be posted on our website. Our goal is to ensure the widest possible acceptance of Grants.gov and not exclude anyone from the electronic grants submission process.”

Pure Edge anticipates having a platform independent solution available by November 2006. Until then, PC emulation software for the Mac will allow Macintosh users to prepare and submit their applications to Grants.gov. Grants.gov has provided information [PDF] on using the PureEdge viewer with a Mac.

Grants.gov and NIH are partnering to provide free access to Citrix servers for Macintosh Users who are looking for an alternative to using PC emulation software with the PureEdge™ forms. This service will be available for use at the end of December 2005.

A Citrix server connection allows Macintosh users to remotely launch a Windows session on their own machines by using the free Citrix client application. While connected to the server, Mac users can develop their grant application using PureEdge™ forms. Applicants will need to download and install the free Citrix client application in order to work on the SF424 (R&R) application package with the specific grant for which they are applying.

While connected to the Citrix server, the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR)/Signing Official (SO) can submit the application to NIH via Grants.gov.

Applicants can also use service providers (see Service Providers) for a platform independent solution.

Applicants having trouble submitting their application electronically to Grants.gov should contact Grant.gov customer support for assistance.

Statement from OER Deputy Director regarding Macintosh compatibility:

“We truly regret the inconvenience that Grants.gov’s lack of platform independence is causing Macintosh users. As stated in the FAQ’s posted on this website, the Office of Management and Budget, part of the Executive Office of the President, has chosen Grants.gov as the single portal for all submissions of federal grant applications, and NIH’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), as Grants.gov’s implementer. As the federal government’s largest research granting agency, NIH is expected to be a key player in the DHHS implementation of Grants.gov. We and others have made Grants.gov aware of the difficulties that Macintosh users are experiencing and are working with Grants.gov staff to implement a temporary solution (Citrix). We recognize that this solution is not ideal but ask for your patience and forbearance as we work toward the very complex task of electronic submission of all NIH applications by May 2007. Grants.gov is working with PureEdge toward a platform independent solution by November of 2006. For additional information about Grants.gov please visit their website at www.grants.gov.”

- Norka Ruiz Bravo, NIH Deputy Director of Extramural Research

Tags: [federal government, research administration, Apple, Macintosh, pureedge, IBM, Grants.gov, grants, NCURA, FDP, NIH, eRA]

Well, I may have found a search tool that makes up for some of the limitations of my last post regarding Rollyo. It seems Chris Pirillo of G4TechTV’s Call for Help fame created gada.be, a search tool that allows for unique easy-to-remember urls along with capabilities for RSS search feeds. I look forward to the development of this tool. If I had two nickles to rub together, I’d even consider investing.

Tags: [search, Chris Pirillo, G4, TechTV, rss, gada.be, meta, find]

Since I’m always on the prowl for all that is gadgety-cool as well as anything that may make my life easier, I came across a search tool with a twist…

Rollyo “is the fast, easy way to create personal search engines using only the sources you trust.” In other words, you add the Internet sites that you would like to search on. Therefore, you purposefully limit the universe of possible web sites to search – think of it as a filter to your Internet searching. In addition, you can create multiple search engines based on your interests. For instance, I may add trusted weather Internet sites for my “weather” search engine or add Internet sites devoted to Apple Computer for my “Mac” search engine. You can also share your search engines with others.

The site, although in beta, appears to have quite a following, or at least quite a number of endorsements – Hollywood celebrities like Debra Messing and Rosario Dawson, politicos like Arianna Huffington, to blogger celebrities like Heather B. Armstrong (“Dooce”) and Jason Kottke.

My only suggestion to the team would be to add an RSS feed based on your search engine criteria – that way you can easily see new search results without having to go to the site. I’ve just registered, so hopefully over the next few days I’ll be able to try it out. Go for it!

Tags: [search, Rollyo]

This is the second phishing attack I’ve received in the last 2 months. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Webster defines phishing as

“The practice of luring unsuspecting Internet users to a fake Web site by using authentic-looking email with the real organization’s logo, in an attempt to steal passwords, financial or personal information, or introduce a virus attack; the creation of a Web site replica for fooling unsuspecting Internet users into submitting personal or financial information or passwords.”

Notice the email I received. It looks authentic, doesn’t it? However, when I click on any of the three links in the message, the address that displays does not match the address in the email. Instead, it links me to a very different address.

PayPal must go through incredible pains to fight off these malicious people. They have a great “protect yourself” page that offers some good advice for users.

This social engineering almost suckered me, and I would consider myself rather savvy. This type of scam is generally successful because it played on my fears that someone had broken into my account. I react with feeling before I think it through. Fortunately, once I got to the page that asked for my personal financial details, I realized that I better slow down. That’s when I looked at the web site address and noticed that it was not, in fact, PayPal.

It may not be PayPal. It might be an email from a bank, or some other seemingly reputable establishment. Or it might be the great African money laundering too-good-to-be-true scenario I’m sure you’ve seen. If you haven’t yet been the fortunate recipient of these emails, here’s the scenario as described by my buddy here and here.

Be vigilant, my friends, and sorry to say, but we must be skeptical and distrustful in this Internet age.

Scam Home Page

Notice the address line. Also, notice under “what’s new” that these malicious persons have a link for “PayPal introduces new homepage” to cover their tails in case the real PayPal site were to change their look and feel. You can type any made up username and password to move to the next “verification” screen…

They Want Your Credit Card and Bank Information!

Update

A worthwhile video shows the scam in action.

Tags: [phishing, PayPal, scam, security, fraud]

Yesterday, Google entered into the instant messaging wars by introducing its minimalist Talk client. Google based its instant messaging client on the existing open-source Jabber protocol. What’s interesting is that although Google includes audio speech capabilities (only for Windows users), BetaNews indicates that

“Future additions to Google Talk will include support for the SIP protocol used in VoIP communications, which would allow the client to directly contact phones based on the technology. Google said it was aligning with Earthlink and Sipphone to make these features possible, but provided no timetable for planned availability.”

Right now I’m not particularly excited by this news. What’s another instant messager? I do think it was a good choice to use an open-source protocol. However, what I’m more interested in is how Google will tie this technology in with its other current and future service offerings.

Tags: [Google, Gmail, Google Talk, instant messaging]

My father-in-law and I recently purchased a small video camera (iSight) that can be mounted onto the top of our Apple computers. The purpose of the camera is so that we can both see and hear each other remotely using a combination of the camera and “instant messenger” chatting software that most of us have already used. We had a great time – both video and audio were really good – not choppy like I anticipated it might be. The video was a little fuzzy, but only when I had it fill the entire screen. Nonetheless, it was amazing! I felt like we were sitting across the table from each other. In fact, during another “chat” I put the camera on my laptop, and leveraging the wireless connection in my home, I was able to take my laptop around the house so my father-in-law could see home improvements, etc. from his home hundreds of miles away. Amazing!

Anyway, I was hoping to lure friends and family into getting one of these. There are a few hurdles – you need a high speed internet connection (no dialup) and your computer must be relatively new (you do not have to have an Apple Macintosh). Think of all the long distance costs you will save because chatting this way is free – only the cost of the high speed internet service (and the camera)!

This has been done in the business community for a while now for holding remote conference calls. For instance, CNN recently decided to use Apple’s technology to aid them in their efforts for real time remote reporting.

The psychotherapy profession should really start embracing the use of this technology in order to provide alternative services. For instance, what if a psychotherapist needs to see a family, yet one of the parents happens to be away for business during a planned session. Typically, the appointment would either be cancelled or it might be missing an important viewpoint if the psychotherapist decided to see the reminder of the family anyway. A certain number of counselors already do therapy by telephone or by email, but I think there are 2 limitations with these laternatives. First, doing email “therapy” tends to lend itself more to helping one individual, not many at once. Second, it is common knowledge that a majority of communication occurs nonverbally, so much is lost using the mediums I mentioned. However, using relatively inexpensive webcam technology could be something the profession needs to consider. The major concerns would involve the legal (insurance), confidentiality, security, and archiving issues, but I think these could be reasonably resolved.

Tags: [iChat, Apple, iSight, webcam, im, instant messaging, security, counseling, aamft, psychotherapy, marriage therapy, family therapy]

WordPress and Secunia reported on August 9 that there is a critical security vulnerability in WordPress 1.5.1.3. I can attest to that.

Yesterday I had a very important presentation to give as part of my graduation requirement for grad school. My presentation was entitled “Don’t Get Caught in the Web: Using a website to enhance small business opportunity.” Part of the presentation involved a demo of a live website that I created for my wife’s private practice.

2.5 hours before the presentation, I casually checked the site from work and was presented with a page that read, “Account suspended. Please contact support/billing immediately.” What?! After 52 minutes waiting on the customer service line with my webhost, I was told that they do not provide support over the phone. Instead, I needed to use the form submission to communicate support requests via email. Aarrgghh! Now about 1.5 hours before showtime.

I did use the submission form and received a reply more quickly than I anticipated. My provider suspended my account because they thought I had introduced a malicious IRC bot onto my own webspace. Sorry, I’m not that technically inclined, just enough to install WordPress and to customize it for my liking.

Long story short, a hacker infiltrated my webspace through a vulnerability in WordPress 1.5.1.3. It appears a patch may be available to close this vulnerability, but thankfully, my webhost support contact made a file change on my space to hopefully plug this security hole.

Fortunately, the presentation went off without a hitch and I could access the website. After two more weeks of a summer school class, I will be done with my program. In retrospect, I realize that perhaps I need to use a stricter password for my WordPress account. Security has become a serious issue, folks, and yesterday it became that much more personal to me.

Update

On August 14, WordPress 1.5.2 was released to address these security issues.

Tags: [WordPress, security, hackers, hacker, vulnerability, patch]

Yesterday, Dan Brown, User Experience Lead with Computech, came to my “User Interactions with Information Systems” class to discuss “A Day in the Life of…” Dan offers over a decade of related experience and has his hands in many things, including:

• Founder of the DC-IA;
• Helped with the formulation of the Information Architecture Institute; and a
• Regular contributor to Boxes & Arrows

The remainder of this post outlines my interpretation of some of the ideas Dan discussed. Please see Dan’s post to view source materials and documentation from yesterday’s presentation.

(more…)

Jeff Gates of Life Outtacontext opened my ignorant eyes to an internet faux pas with his entertaining July 23rd entry entitled, “Don’t Get Mad, Get Even.” Jeff first provides the common definition for stealing bandwidth:

Stealing Bandwidth: “when someone links directly to internet files from another Web site without the owner’s permission. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) often limit the amount of monthly “traffic” to or from your Web site. So, often victims of bandwidth stealing are charged whenever other people use their files in this manner.”

As a relative newbie to the blogosphere, I thought it would be wise to save web server space by pulling in images from other sites rather than copying them onto my web server and linking to them from my site. I hadn’t even considered copyright issues.

However, are there times when stealing bandwidth is good? I would argue that if you pull files from another site, common courtesy suggests that you should also provide a hyperlink to the source story or topic you reference. At the end of the day, don’t web sites want to attract readership? If I use an image from another location and I also cite where I grabbed it from (without altering it), wouldn’t this be a positive thing? Wouldn’t it be similar to quoting an author and including the appropriate references to the quoted passage? It seems to me more of the social “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

I wonder what executives at photo sites like Flickr think about this issue. Flickr allows people to share photos, and quite often users provide a creative commons license for their images. How does Flickr feel when a gazillion people link to images on their servers? They even encourage users to link to their personal images for their individual blogs!

I am in a position now where I do not have a large readership. I pay for modest web hosting services, so bandwidth is not yet an issue for me. If I started attracting a gazillion readers who stole my bandwidth by linking to images on my site, I’m sure I might have a different opinion about this issue. But then again, if I had a gazillion readers, wouldn’t bandwidth already be an issue that would be my responsibility to resolve?

I sincerely want to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Update: August 5, 2005

I went to the Drudge Report this morning and found that the images Drudge displays are a result of him linking to these files from other sites. Now wouldn’t that be interesting if the image owners did a move similar to the one Jeff Gates pulled?

Tags: [steal, stealing, stealing bandwidth, bandwidth, blogging, best practices, social responsibility, personal responsibility, Drudge]

On Tuesday, Thomas Vander Wal, the person who coined the concept “folksonomy,” came by my summer grad school class with a talk entitled “Designing for the Personal InfoCloud.”

Thomas talked about a variety of topics, but some of the things that struck me revolved around his discussion of folksonomy. Thomas says that he does not like the definition included in Wikipedia because the site allows users to constantly add or remove content to define the concept. He provided us with the following descriptors:

Folksonomy:

• Actual vocabulary used for objects in a community and across communities;
• Network-based selfish bookmarking;
• Free-tagging;
• Socially shared; and
• Externally structuring content

There were a few concepts that clicked in place and resonated with me. First, something clicked when Thomas explained that folksonomy is the “anti-Google.” Essentially, Thomas argued that search tools build algorithms to help you “find what you want.” However, the concept of folksonomies, manifested in collaborative bookmarking tools (such as Flickr, Del.icio.us, etc.), help you “find what you don’t know you want.” He explained that while a majority of people might want results that are in the mainstream, folksonomies let users find information that might be in the long-tail:

Secondly, I really got hung up on the idea that folksonomies involved “selfish bookmarking.” For instance, when my wife bookmarks an article about Apple’s iPod, she might only use the term “ipod” to tag her bookmark, because she only cares about classifying her article so she can find it later. On the other hand, even though I know I can later find the article by searching for “iPod,” I might try to use multiple tags to help others locate my article. I might additionally use the terms “Apple,” “mp3,” “music,” and so on. However, Thomas cuts through this by explaining that if you choose to assist others this way, then this is really your selfish method of bookmarking.

Thomas’ concept really involves no moral, ethical, or “responsibility of the user” argument when it comes to practicing folksonomies. However, as I’ve argued before, for some reason I am stuck on the responsibility of the social tagger. My ideal would be that taggers use multiple tags to describe the content that they choose to bookmark. That way, it becomes easier for other persons to find their content. This does not negate the concept of folksonomies. The social component to this phenomenon is such that we learn to trust others and the tags they use to describe content. Therefore, I still propose that other services that incorporate folksonomies into their systems provide a mechanism for rating taggers on a “trustworthy” scale.

Tags: [Vander Wal, Thomas Vander Wal, VanderWal, folksonomy, tagging, MIM, UMCP]

For my graduate school class, I must work with a group to evaluate a web site or an information system (or compare multiple ones) for usability issues. Any ideas?

So far, my group has talked about the following:

• API Implementations of Google maps
• RSS Readers like
  • RSSOwl
  • Sage
  • Safari RSS
  • NetNewsWire
  • Rojo

  (and usability of sites and their implementation of XML feeds);

• Bookmark sites like
  • del.icio.us
  • Furl
  • CiteUlike; or
• Blogging systems like
  • Blogger
  • Xanga
  • Yahoo! 360 Blog

Certainly we can think outside the box and look at the usability of non-web systems (e.g., Bank of America ATM vs. Chevy Chase ATM), but it might be best to focus on web-based products. Your thoughts?

Tags: [usability, information architecture, blog, rss, Google, Google Maps, Yahoo, Xanga, RSSOwl, Sage, NetNewsWire, Blogger, del.icio.us, Rojo, Safari, Furl, CiteULike]

More Than Just the Chips?

I thought I’d jump into the never-ending Apple rumor fray. BetaNews reports on July 6, 2005 that:

“Intel announced that it is investing in a company called ClickStar with the intent to create a distribution system for films over the Internet before they are released to home video.”

Is it just a coincidence that Intel and Apple are partnering to produce chips for upcoming Apple computers in 2006? Seems interesting to me that Apple already has a great vehicle for distributing content, which could easily include movies.

Tags: [Apple, Intel, iTunes, movies, ClickStar]

One of my interests is information culture – are people generally willing or unwilling to share information? In a corporate or military setting, reasons for hoarding information might be perfectly justified. Corporations do not want to make public information that might be used by competitors. The military may not want its adversaries to know of its capabilities and strategies.

Internet and software-savvy persons (e.g., social software users, open source software developers) tend to advocate information sharing. Indeed, an information sharing culture often breeds knowledge and innovation. Nonetheless, some people refuse to share information, for one reason or another. Some people feel that their job security rests on being seen as an expert. If the information they possess is shared, then perhaps their job won’t be seen as necessary.

Although I understand the validity of both the need for information security and information sharing, I feel we need to be ever so careful with how we use the proliferation of social software that has grown in the last few years.

For example, I absolutely love the Flickr service. I use it mostly to share pictures with friends and family. However, if I so choose, I can share pictures with virtual strangers from all over the world. Consider the following picture:

U.S. Secret Service Training Facility, MD

There’s been a recent fascination with Memory Mapping, the process of identifying satellite photos of places one is familiar with, and then identifying specific landmarks with notations.

What makes this photo interesting is that it is a screen capture of a U.S. Secret Service training facility in Maryland. I used a publically available satellite imaging service, in this case Google Maps (see also Terraserver & Microsoft Terraserver USA), to locate the site I was familiar with.

I assume that if the images are provided by the USGS, then they can be used freely by anyone. However, now that GPS devices are readily available and image services offer coordinates for specific locations, how much easier might it be for armchair vigilantes to perform malicious acts? I’m sure some of the images are sanitized or scrubbed, but what if some classified locations are missed?

Information sharing is the cornerstone of the social software scene and is essential in open source development. However, these persons who follow the “information sharing” credo must be careful to understand the local and federal laws they abide by, and understand that sharing isn’t always a good thing.

Tags: [memory maps, Google maps, satellite, security, information security, social software, Flickr]

As an American, I am profoundly aware that I am living in a “me” culture, one that took off during Generation X. Here are a few examples of cultural/technical changes, partially influenced by this “me” philosophy:

Television

There used to be 4 main television channels – ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. From these sources, consumers were entertained, informed, and marketed to. Today, it is not uncommon for the typical consumer to have hundreds of cable or satellite choices to satisfy their specific interests for entertainment or information. Consumers with these advanced pay services can also choose to see selected movies, sporting events, music events, etc. with on-demand-like features.

Music

Services like iTunes and Napster allow consumers to pick and choose the individual songs they would like to purchase (or “rent”). Even radio formats such as Jack tries to broaden its appeal to many people, so at least they can hear some tunes off the beaten path.

Web Services

I made the mistake a few years ago when my contracting company planned to implement the portal concept to its web applications. I thought, “Why waste all this time and energy collapsing customized information for people when they can go to individual sites on their own?” I made the mistake of forgetting where I was (America – the “me” culture) and two other critical variables. (more…)

What a nice gift! Flickr decided to reward its loyal customers by offering (for free):

• Double what you paid for! (double subscription length for free)
• More capacity! (2 GB upload per month)
• 2 free Pro Accounts to give away to your friends!

Thanks, Flickr. I also think that offering free pro accounts for a year is a good hook for new customers.

Tags: [Flickr, photo, web services]

Is this an April Fool’s Day joke? I doubt it since Google’s Gmail was announced a year ago on April Fool’s Day.

CNET reports that Google is doubling its offered email storage to 2 GB, with plans to continually add more storage. This really sets the bar high and challenges its competitors, yet Gmail isn’t even out of beta yet.

Before I saw the news, something seemed fishy to me when I looked at my own Gmail account. It was listing my total storage as 1.328 GB…

I suppose my 1.328 GB will eventually grow to 2 GB or more…

Tags: [Google, Gmail]

As a technofile I have the pleasure of using a pc at work and a Mac at home. As a result, I find that I am constantly using a variety of web browsers to see which one will make me a convert.

For the last year or two, the Mozilla Firefox browser has become a favorite of mine. Once I found tabbed browsing and pop-up blocker options embedded within the application, there was no turning back. Some of you might question why I am not using Apple’s Safari at home on my Mac, but I have been disappointed with the browser’s speed and its display of some websites. Firefox, on the other hand, seems much faster and is offered on multiple platforms, including pcs and Macs. There are a number of plugins available for Firefox, including a handy RSS reader called Sage.

My first criticism with Maxthon is that it is only offered for the Windows platform. I suppose this is understandable since it uses the Internet Explorer core. I guess that would be my second criticism – my impression of the IE core is that it causes any application using it to be slower than Firefox.

On the other hand, Maxthon has many included options that might make it superior to Firefox. For instance, an RSS reader is included as an option. Two features I plan to explore are the use of mouse gestures and bookmark groups.

At work, there are a few web applications I use (using Oracle’s run time Jinitiator) that work best using IE. In my brief tests, I have had minimal problems running these applications using the Maxthon browser.

It might be hard to sway me from Firefox, but for those of you who need to use IE, I would recommend Maxthon as an exemplary substitute.

Tags: [Maxthon, Firefox, browser]