The Buzz With Google

The Buzz With Google Gets Fizzled

I don't really give a shit about internet fads. Yes, I have facebook. I used to post these blogs on a myspace account and I do have a twitter that I no longer ever even use unironically. But to be perfectly honest, I think all these services are a little silly and that's why I've ignored Google Buzz until today when every NPR show has mentioned at least once the MASSIVELY stupid privacy problems inherent with Google Buzz.

For those of you who are just tuning in, here's what Google did;

-Google rolls out a Facebook ripoff social networking service
-Google decides to piggyback this network on Gmail
-Google decides to automatically enroll every single Gmail user into buzz without giving them an opt-in option
-Google populates each person's Buzz network with the people from their address book and email interactions
-Google makes all networks public by default

The end product is that Google has made all the contents of people's address books public. You've been communicating with potential new employers without telling your current boss? They're all in your public network. You have been in touch with your ex without telling your current significant other? Whoops! You're a psychiatrist who makes appointments via email? Hello public list of clients! You see where I'm going with this.



Seriously, what the fucking shit, Google. How is it remotely possible that people approved these steps? Yeah, sure. It'll probably get fixed soon. And I'm sure the problem really is mute consider nobody uses buzz anyway. So the problem really didn't exist in the first place but how could you fuck up this badly?

I have people I haven't talked to in like forever. Years at least. And they're showing up in my Google Buzz with confused messages like "Who are all you people?". I thought one night stands or random hook ups weren't suppose to ever catch up on you. Whoops!



It's pretty basic. I honestly don't want everyone who I ever had an e-mail exchange with to be in my circle of friends. Nor do I care about those one time e-mail correspondence. You don't know how many E-bay people suddenly popped up that I have no connection with other than that one transaction.

I had a tense interaction with this one asshole via e-mail a couple of years ago over some annoying business. I hate this guy, he ripped me off massively. And now Google is alerting me to whether or not he's online and updating me with his latest shouts. You know, just in case I want to chat..



Google has seriously been losing more of its luster every time it expands. Soon it will be like all the other companies. Remember when AOL was in just about every home? Ha. Those were the days. I guess the real problem isn't people using Buzz, the problem is people NOT using Buzz. Not managing their privacy settings, and employers or other sneaky peeps using Buzz to spy on people. Oh god, my boss knows I've been talking to hookers! What ever will I do?

Then again, the fix was to all this was to make the "make my network private" button easier to find while still leaving it as opt-out. But seriously, both WAVE and BUZZ are just ajax pissing contest against an imaginary opponent. Who are you really trying to one up, Google? And can I talk about the name? Google Buzz?!?! Who are the ad wizards who came up with that?!



But besides the name being stupid, what's the worse that can happen with this clear security screw up? It's not like someone can get hurt or is at real risk right? Oh wait...

Nevertheless, I am extremely concerned about hundreds of activists in authoritarian countries who would never want to reveal a list of their interlocutors to the outside world. Why so much secrecy? Simply because many of their contacts are other activists and often even various "democracy promoters" from Western governments and foundations. Many of those contacts would now inadvertently be made public.

If I were working for the Iranian or the Chinese government, I would immediately dispatch my Internet geek squads to check on Google Buzz accounts for political activists and see if they have any connections that were previously unknown to the government. They can then spend months on end drawing complex social circles on the shiny blackboards inside secret police headquarters.

But potential risk from disclosing such data extends far beyond just supplying authoritarian governments with better and more actionable intelligence. For example, most governments probably already suspect that some of their ardent opponents are connected to Western organizations but may lack the evidence to act on those suspicions. Now, thanks to Google's desire to make an extra buck off our data, they would finally have the ultimate proof they needed (if you think that this is unrealistic, consider this: the Iranian authorities have once used membership in an academic mailing list run out of Columbia as evidence of spying for the West).

Well crap. Guess this will lead to a lot more arrest. Whooops!



It's not like we're any safer. Their recent partnership with NSA does not make Google look any more trustworthy; Chris Soghoian, an expert on information security, made a hilarious point on Twitter: "How do I sign up for the Iranian government's new email service? At least they are not in bed with NSA."

Now that I think about it, Face Book sure doesn't look all that insecure in retrospect, now does it? How about the very basics like allowing your abuser basic information about yourself? Much like this lady who's google buzz tells her abusive ex husband her personal details.. Hopefully google buzz can grow its user base as fast as the bruises on that woman's face once her ex gets his hands back on her.

While Facebook may not support good blogging practices like Buzz does with its instant sort of message board style, it's a real convenient method to share a link. Besides that, I like the limit of control that I have over who I am socially connected to online and who can see my personal information. Even if only a portion of the social network I have right now decided to use Buzz in its current form right now, it would become instantly unreadable.



We already have reader for sharing shit on the net, a million platforms for legitimate blogging, and facebook for self-selected social networks of girls you'll never fuck. Buzz doesn't add a thing and is very impractical as it is.

Most of all, if Google Buzz is so cool, why does it have such a stupid fucking name? It sounds like a rushed, derivative product that sounds like its supposed to be hip. What's the Buzz around town? Google Buzz. Tell yo Grandma, Homie!

Twittering Across The Internet

Twittering Across The Internet

I may not be as "hip" with the web 2.0 crowd but I do consider myself one that is able to judge how much something is worth. So when I'm told that Twitter turned down a 250 million offer I was left dumbstruck

Twitter, which just recently turned down a half billion dollar acquisition offer from Facebook (albeit to be paid mostly with Facebook stock), is dipping back into the venture capital market, we've heard from a source with knowledge of the deal. They've signed a term sheet with at least one venture fund to raise a new round at a $250 million valuation. We are still gathering information on how much they're raising and from whom.

I mean, do you know what twitter is? Seriously. All "Social Media" and "web 2.0" aside, it's just a facebook or Myspace status update without all the features. Why do people think anyone else cares what they are doing every minute. Does anyone actually read blogs or twitter or whatever other then the people who wrote them. I'm pretty sure the click count for this very blog is small. But at least this provides content... well, something resembling content at the very least.



Is their ad revenue seriously enough to make them worth $250,000,000? Actually, nope. Not at all. At the current time there's no ads. Twitter apparently hasn't even got a plan for making money. They haven't even figured out how to monetize it, how the fuck can they turn down a quarter billion dollars?

If I ever invented *anything* that resulted in me being offered $100m plus $400m worth of any stock, I would sell before you could say twitter. I really, really don't understand why people would turn down these huge offers when stuff like this can disappear as fast as it popped up. Take Napster for example. It just about had monopoly back in the day, now almost no one uses it for anything.

Even if the $400,000,000 worth was in Facebook stock. They should have took it and ran. Even if it's just facebook.... stock? hee hee. To be honest, i do kinda need to diversity my portfolio with xanga and myspace stock.



It seems like a great way to capitalize on the Stickam / Myspace "Social networking = popularity" generation the internet seems to have spawned. Nowadays everything's about "me", what better than a site dedicated to what a person is doing at any time for those types of people?

I know what you're thinking, "Its what all the kids are doing. Why don't you stop hating GRANDPA." Well you know what. I just got a phone with large number buttons on it, cause I must be old. Nah, I get it. You kids like giving your status on the minute by minute bases. This whole blog thing must be something crazy to you kids. More than 140 characters to express yourself? I must be crazy!

The big problem with Twitter and its ilk is that the user base is exactly the kind that will jump ship the moment it starts costing them real money to use, not to mention the tech-savvy crowd are exactly the sort of people who would waste no time at all in bringing out a free alternative - at which point the next chapter in the Twitter life story then becomes Napster redux.


This whale needs to be harpooned

It's also a money pit of servers that go down at the slightest provocation, and doesn't generate any revenue. $250 mil is rampant speculation that someday, somehow, they'll figure out how to monetize it. Which they haven't in almost 3 years. Maybe they should take the money and buy servers that don't shit the bed every 5 minutes posted one minute ago from twitteriffic

You're going to tell me that Google doesn't charge for their services and yet still "magically" makes money. But then I'll correct you when I tell you that Google rakes in massive piles of money licensing their search engine technology, various APIs, advertising, etc. Twitter is an equivalent to "multiplayer notepad".

Then there's pieces like this youtube twitter parody which explains why I could hate it..

OMG! WEB 2.0!!!!1111

Twitter is for social marketing, "social media" and "web 2.0" people love it. Where else can you follow Shaq? Or M.C. Hammer? Yes, twitter is also good if you want to e-stalk your favorite web-savvy celebrity (porn stars mostly). All it does is status updates, the same thing AIM away messages, and facebook/myspace statuses have been doing for years, but without all those pesky "features".

But get it straight, it’s Twittr not Twitter. I mean really, is it that hard to drop the last vowel and put the r right next to t - Posted from the bathroom

Home Is Where The Harddrive Is

Home Is Where The Hard drive Is

The pitch:

PlayStation®Home is a 3D social gaming community that allows PLAYSTATION® 3 users to meet, chat, plan, and launch into games together. You can create your own custom avatar, decorate your personal apartment, play mini-games, shop, watch videos, attend special events, and much more - it's all part of PlayStation®Home.

Social avatar mini-game product placement special event shopping? Hell yes. This is what we live for.

We stopped playing board games long ago because aside from the company's logo on the box, there just isn't enough advertising to keep us interested. Worse yet, once you buy Scrabble, your wallet goes back in your pocket. There's no chance to buy Letter Packs or a Red Bull brand beanie to impress the people you're playing with, or even a Lignet Roset sofa to sit on. What's up with that?

Home promises to deliver all the advertising and microtransactions that board games lack, while eliminating all the fun and the sense that you're communicating with other people. Avatars are sort of creepy in a sleepwalking hipster sort of way, and since typing with the controller is a painstaking and painful process, most people communicate by standing directly in front of one another and using one of a few canned dance moves.

The few games that exist within Home's virtual worldosphere are simplistic and overcrowded. One can't shake the feeling of being the thirty seventh guy in line at a bukkake where the starlet is, in fact, just a blow up doll. At least I can't. I've had that feeling all my life.

Maybe that's a bit unfair. Home delivers so much more than marketing in the guise of social interaction - it also provides yet another layer of abstraction between you and the games you bought a video game system to play.

As gaming grows, console makers try to appeal to wider audiences with the swiss army knife approach. Gone are the days of putting a game in a system, turning it on, and instantly being greeted with a prompt to "Press Start" and play. Now every system bombards you with dashboards, channels and media bars filled with featured downloads, weather updates, advertisements (sensing a pattern?) and system update notifications.

Our video game machines can do more than ever, but it seems that none of the added capabilities do much to improve our experience of, you know, playing video games. One could even argue that premium downloadable content has soured things more than it has provided actual, valuable content that shouldn't have been on the disc in the first place.

If you plan to use Home to "meet, chat, plan, and launch into games together" then you will have one more step to go through after being presented with the XMB and installing any software updates before you can get into your game of choice. I'm not really sure why you couldn't just do this from a friends list within a game.

If you don't plan to use Home as an unnecessary and somewhat awkward platform for launching into games with friends, you will basically have Second Life with no user creativity or deviant sex, but more fauxhawk than you could ever possibly need.