About all that Google+ Traffic

So Mashable reports that Google+ traffic has increased massively since Google opened it up to everyone other than Google Apps users.

Great. Happy for you. Hope you’re having a ball.

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But I have three questions. Actually two and a rant. Let’s get the rant out of the way.

Can someone explain to me one good reason why Google continues to deny Google Apps users the ability to participate in so many of its offerings? Because a few companies use Google Apps is not a good reason. You could make Google+ an option, and let the admins (and ass-backwards corporate IT policy) decide. I’m really starting to pull against Google, purely out of some combination of anger, sadness and confusion. Yes, and jealousy.

Now for my questions.

One, how many of the deluge of Google+ users are non-geeks? Facebook has long held a virtual monopoly on non-geeks. You know, that 98% of your real world friends who don’t build their own computers or jailbreak their iPhones. Just about everyone I know uses Facebook to one extent or another- that’s why I ultimately capitulated and started using it. I don’t know a single non-geek who uses Google+. Of course, since I’m locked out, there may be a huge group of regular people over there, networking away while I check over and over to see if I can finally join the party.

Two, how sticky is it? I’m sure tons of people sign up. But what percentage of those people become regular users? I really have no idea the answer, but I think the answer would be a good indication of how much of a threat to Facebook Google+ is. At least so far.

If I ever get to use Google+, I’ll hope it thrives, because nothing is as good for the consumer as competition. Well, except access.

Access would be pretty good.

On the Need for a Social Sharing Pause Button

As I noted in Thursday’s video tour, I like Facebook’s new Timeline feature. As someone who spends very little time on my or anyone else’s Profile (now Timeline) page, I do wonder how the new sharing features will be integrated into the News Feed page, where I suspect most people consume most of their Facebook content.

But, for now, let’s look at what works. Let’s point out a bug that needs to be fixed. And let’s make the case for a very important feature that needs to be added.

Music sharing via Spotify works great.

There are the last few songs I listened to, via my Ice House Blues playlist. If you’re on my Facebook Timeline, and you want to hear a song, just click the Play button, and off you go.

A similar music item gets added to the News Feed.

You can visit the new Music app page, and see what your Facebook Friends have been listening to.

No offense, dudes, but I either don’t know that music or do know it, and don’t want to hear it. But to discover new music, you have to take some chances. I’m going to pass on Tony Bennett, but a little further down the page Marshall Kirkpatrick was listening to some Patti Smith.

So I gave My Generation a spin, trying to recover from my near-Tony experience. A couple of interesting things happened.

First, a box popped up, asking if I wanted to sign in to Rdio, or play in Spotify. I chose to play in Spotify. And the song played, but not the Patti Smith version. The original version by The Who.

This seems like a bug in Facebook’s cross-platform music sharing service.

The other thing that happened is that the song showed up in my Timeline and in the News Feed.

That’s cool, as far as Patti Smith or The Who goes. But what if I’d clicked on something, you know, uncool. I don’t really care if people see me listening to some weird music (especially after seeing what some of my Friends listen to!), but I’d rather not have all of my genre-surfing and rapid song exploration show up in my Timeline, or in the News Feed.

It seems to me that, if we want the Timelime to be our digital life archive, we should have the ability to take a digital time out. I want to be able to temporarily suspend the automatic sharing of my music and other activity. Then, once I’m done messing around, I’ll be ready to share again.

It’s not always about the Play. We need a social sharing Pause button.

A Video Tour of the New Facebook Timeline

Facebook announced some pretty interesting new changes and additions at the f8 Conference today. Probably the most important, and most likely to be controversial, one, is the new Timeline, which replaces your Profile page, and serves as a archive of your digital life.

While I’m not yet sold on the News Feed page redesign, I’m pretty impressed with the Timeline.

Here’s a quick video tour of the Timeline page, with a summary of the things I like, and the one big question I have.

Un-Friendly: The Impersonalization of the Facebook Experience

I’m not all that averse to change. Heck, I just went all-Apple, and am completely happy with it. But I really don’t like the new Facebook layout, and here’s why.

One, it took something that felt very personal and intimate, and turned it into a chaotic mess. I use Facebook to interact with people in a more direct, personal way. I have family, high school friends, college friends, grad school friends, neighborhood friends, tech friends and musician friends. But unlike other online spaces, I only “Friend” people on Facebook if I have (or, in rare cases, want to develop) some meaningful connection to them. As a result, Facebook has- until now- been like a cyber-kitchen table for me. A place to go to relax, and see what my friends are up to. Just the other night, I discovered one of my old roommates on Facebook, and we reconnected. It was awesome.

But suddenly Facebook looks like a series of in-my-face billboards where people are tossing random stuff at me. I want a chill conversation. I am getting a flood of promotion- self and otherwise.

I don’t want a scrolling window/ticker where people “Liking” some link or complaining about this or that roll by. It ends up being a cornucopia of banality, courtesy of the subset of folks who, to be blunt, need to use Facebook a little less.

Two, I detest the new emphasis on Subscribing. I’m not going to subscribe to anyone at Facebook. If I don’t want to “Friend” you- or you me- then I don’t want to see you on Facebook. The suggested list of people to subscribe to just clutters up my screen and stresses out my mind.

I’ve been watching with mild curiosity as a couple of uber-marketers and over-thinkers discuss with themselves (literally) how to turn their “Friends” into “Subscribers.” In other words, to go from a kitchen chair to a pulpit. It’s turning the Facebook experience into a frenzy, as people try to figure out how to get some imagined advantage under the new structure.

My “Friend” (Facebook and otherwise) Robert Scoble was atither the other night about how Facebook is going to win the social war by appropriating the personal and emotional forces that motivate people. With all due respect, there is nothing personal about this new Facebook layout. And the only emotions it invokes in me are irritation and sadness.

We already have laundered spam, in the form of Twitter. I frickin’ hate Twitter, precisely because it is a completely impersonal platform (brilliantly) designed to allow spam to be legitimized and served to millions who have somehow been convinced that it is good. I really don’t want Facebook to end up like that.

It reeks of a traffic play, at the expense of the user experience.

I want my kitchen table back.

Windows 8: Initial Impressions

Like just about everyone else, I installed the Developer’s Preview of Windows 8 tonight. My test machine is a big, heavy three year old HP laptop.

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The short answer is that it looks good. Really promising. It only confirms my expectations that Windows 8 will change things for the better.

Here are my initial impressions.

I did a clean install. I don’t want a bunch of older stuff to clog up my new, thinner Windows experience. The installation process looks substantially identical to the process for Windows 7.

It took about 14 minutes (unattended) to install. I only saw the computer restart once. That’s pretty snappy.

The set-up process, called Personalization, is much more elegant. It gets you online easily and asks for your email address to integrate Windows Live apps. I like this. It just seems cloudy and light.

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Give the software a couple of minutes to prepare your PC and you’re up and running.

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To say that the new Metro Interface is a change is an understatement. To say it has HUGE potential is not an overstatement.

Even Internet Explorer 10 seems stripped down, slim and fast. Switching between Metro and the more traditional Desktop View is as easy as clicking a button.

My initial reactions are 100% favorable.

Windows 8 is going to change things. Just watch and see.

Why is National Geographic Killing Science Blogs?

I don’t care whether Yahoo merges with AOL. In fact, other than serving as a synonym for Huffington Post and a foil for Mike Arrington, I’m not really sure what AOL is or does. Can you still log on to AOL? I honestly don’t know. I’m guessing not.

I used Yahoo for a long time. My Yahoo was only supplanted by iGoogle as my old school news page about a month ago. I still use Flickr some, but it seems to be in the post-purchase, pre-death coma that plagued Delicious for years (Delicious eventually got bought- or given away- I’m not sure which, but it still looks pretty sleepy). If Google Apps users ever get to use Google+, I’ll probably move my photos to Picasa. If I’m not too old to use a computer by then.

The death of things internet is inevitable. Remember Prodigy? Compuserve? Genie? MySpace? TechCrunch? Kidding, sort of.

That’s OK. Take Yahoo. Take AOL (please).

science-blogs

But what in the heck is happening to Science Blogs!?

It would be hard to overstate how much I have enjoyed Science Blogs over the years. I have an entire folder in Google Reader for science-related blogs. Almost all of them used to be Science Blogs blogs.

Until a series of staggeringly bad decisions conspired to kill them.

Last year saw Pepsi-gate.

Earlier this year National Geographic bought Science Blogs. You’d think that would be a good thing. Stability. Cred. Money. Cool photos. But maybe not.

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I’ve read National Geographic. I was a subscriber back when I read printed magazines. I like the publication. But I liked Science Blogs better. Liked.

Because now there seems to be an exodus. Some of it seems to be over the new corporate overlord’s decision not to allow people to blog under pseudonyms. That is a horrible, and probably fatal, policy change. And I’ll tell you why.

Lots of the Science Blogs bloggers are, directly or indirectly, involved in academia or government. And there is simply no way someone in either of those fields- or any field for that matter- is going to write as freely or as interestingly if they have to write under their real name. Plus, if you use your real name and those (quacks in some cases) who disagree with you do not, you are incubating social terrorism. There is a reason why I have rarely mentioned my day job here. Well, actually there are two. One, it’s boring. But, two, people know who I am. If I could go back in time, I would probably blog under a pseudonym. Thor. Or Persifal. Or Cat Daddy.

I don’t know the full back story at Science Blogs, but Drug Monkey dropped some pure wisdom in one of his/her last posts:

It is pretty clear that when corporate flacks ask you for your opinion in response to their reflexive stance they are not in fact going to be influenced.

That is an absolute fact. Less than a month later he/she split, in search of more progressive bananas.

Mike the Mad Biologist soon followed. And set up shop here. Greg Laden is sort of leaving. And sort of staying.

At least Tara Smith, one of my favorite Science bloggers (lower case) who shares my wish for a time machine, is hanging around. I just wish she’d blog more.

I don’t know what’s happening to the internets these days, as old media tries to conscript parts of new media. Do what you will dinosaurs. But keep your hands and rules off my Science Blogs.

Cat Daddy, signing off for now.

A Better View Through Thinner Windows?

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the digital diet that Windows 8 seems to be on. A diet that is as promising as it is overdue. Let me be clear. I think it’s wonderful that the next version of the venerable, but a little long in the tooth, operating system is looking to shed some bloat.

In fact, I think Windows 8 can be a game changer. On the desktop and on various mobile devices.

How much of a game changer depends on whether Microsoft is being visionary or reactionary. If the former, Windows 8 could set the stage for both the reinvention of the desktop and Microsoft’s long awaited push into the mobile space, after a few starts and stops.

But let’s not kid ourselves. Microsoft has to recreate Windows. Because the world is going small and mobile and the current and past versions of Windows are not well suited for small and mobile. I remember trying to use Windows 7 on an HP Netbook. It was a horrible experience, because of the hardware and the software.

On the other hand, Windows 7 on a regular laptop or a desktop is mostly a wonderful experience. And that’s saying something. Microsoft has to make an operating system that will run on an almost infinite number of devices. Apple, on the other hand, has to make an operating system that will run on a handful.

Microsoft’s biggest advantage is its biggest problem. Zillions of hardware makers jacking around with its product. And its image.

Start a Windows machine for the first time, and get it set up the way you like it. Then do the same thing with a new Mac. The initial Windows experience is, at best, a time consuming chore. The initial Mac encounter is simply cinematic. Some of this is not Microsoft’s fault. I refuse to buy an HP machine, because they put so much bloatware on them (it still chaps me that they make you uninstall those stupid games one at a time).

Fortunately, it looks like Microsoft is in the process of addressing many of these issues. Bloatware, via the Signature program. Yet another ridiculous name, but I applaud the intent – as long as it’s not a half-baked smokescreen to drive people into Microsoft Stores (the horror). Bloated load times are under attack via a combination of a traditional boot with hibernation. This is excellent news.

And, of course, look for a bit of mandatory cloud integration. Which makes the primary job of the operating system to load fast, and get out of the way.

Yes. All of this is really good news.

I use Macs, but I run Windows via Parallels, all the time. I’m writing this blog post via Live Writer. But even after installing Windows 7 on my iMac, I had to go in and remove a bunch of stuff I don’t want. And that’s from a downloaded (via TechNet) Microsoft iso. It’s ten times worse with an OEM machine.

So…

I have very high hopes for Windows 8. I have reasonably high hopes that Microsoft will be successful in reducing the bloatware that ends up on PCs. I just hope Microsoft gets in front of the curve. It’s time to stop playing catch-up.

It’s time to lead quickly, load quickly, and get out of the way.

Has Spotify Achieved Non-Geek Traction?

This post has a soundtrack. If you don’t have Spotify, for the love of Duane Allman and Jerry Garcia, go sign up. If you can’t get an invite, and I know or know of you, leave a request in the Comments and I’ll try to round one up for you.

The current Jukebox DeLuxe playlist.

It’s no secret that I really dig Spotify. It has almost completely replaced all of my other music applications and services. Including my huge local music collection on my network server. If I want something Spotify doesn’t have, I add that file to my Spotify library. Not the other way around.

When Spotify was released, I was certain it was going to roll over the social web like a tidal wave. I’m not sure that happened.

My Facebook Friends list is a good mix of three kinds of folks. My high school friends, who are mostly very non-geeky. My tech writer friends, who are extremely geeky. And fellow musicians, who are all ranges of geeky, but very interested in music.

Of my 247 Facebook Friends, exactly 14 have signed up for Spotify and enabled the social sharing features.

Of those 14, four had early access to Spotify. Another one of them is my daughter, who begged for an invitation after hearing me rave about it endlessly. That leaves 9 people who signed up on their own after Spotify officially launched in the U.S. That’s not many. Heck, I’ve sent out 5-6 invitations and only my daughter has signed up.

All of this makes me wonder.

As someone who has tried countless music services, I can tell you unequivocally that Spotify is the best music service I have ever used. I love it, and am happy to pay for a premium account.

But the money is in the non-geek crowd. Because there are a lot more of them. And based on my admittedly non-scientific sample, Spotify doesn’t have the non-geek reach I thought it would.

I hope I’m wrong. Because Spotify rocks.

All the Dead Horses

Here’s the thing with tablets. None of them that don’t have an Apple logo on the back are worth a crap. All of the other OS’s suck, except Android. And the haphazard way Google and the hardware makers administer (or not) versions and upgrades cripples Android to the point of logical irrelevance.

There are only two possibilities for tablet alternatives. Amazon, who will subsidize the hardware and probably has enough sense to maintain some control of the versioning process. And Microsoft, who would be a major player, if it would only get in the game. My guess is that Microsoft is so busy thinking up stupid names for its non-core applications (and then changing them over and over) that it hasn’t realized there is a tablet space, with the second seat open and available. Even so, Microsoft will, one way or another, eventually be a player in the tablet game.

Everyone else is just throwing away money, and hoping that consumers will do the same thing.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t love to read about other entries into this one-horse race.

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Take the exciting, if not so new, Maylong M-150. Somehow I missed the buzz that surely surrounded its release last year. And I don’t think I’ve seen one in my many trips to the local Walgreen’s, where they are- or were- on sale for $99.00. Maybe Walgreen’s has dumped them for one of the other dead horses. But courtesy of a post at Mac Forums today, I had a good laugh. Take a look at this review by Ars Technica, from last year. I don’t read Ars Technica because the name sounds too pretentious (like pre-owned cars and whatnot), but if this is how they roll, then I’m in. Even better, take a look at the follow-up by… wait for it… the Best Buy blog. Best Buy has a blog? For real? That’s sort of like a dinosaur having a Segway. It reads like it was written by a dinosaur while riding a Segway.

Anyway, based on these reviews, it looks like a Maylong may make you long for the days of DOS. Somebody could make bank by starting a humorous review site. I still miss Mirsky’s Worst of the Web.

There’s no competition in the tablet space- yet. But at least there’s a little humor.

We need more of that.

Extreme Irony: Apple II Emulator Edition

You just can’t make stuff like this up.

I have raved for years about how much I loved Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure, back in the 80’s. My long lost brother in law and best man Garry turned me on to the four computer games that dominated my interest like no others. Odyssey, Star Flight, Sim City and Civilization.

Here I am, with my only semi-long lost cousin Janet, rocking some Odyssey in December of 1985.

So, this afternoon, while messing around on my new iMac and feeling all smug, I came across Virtual Apple. They have tons of old Apple games you can play right from your browser. I looked, and lo and behold, there was my digital grail.

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So I happily prepared myself to relive the glory of exploring the Sargalo Sea.

But, no. Because the Apple II emulator plugin only works in…Windows. So I had to open Chrome, in Windows 7 via Parallels. After which it worked perfectly.

Awesome. Really.