Google's Social Search

Image via CrunchBaseThat was rather fast. Tighten your seat belts. This drama is just getting started.

Watch Out For Steve Ballmer

Mashable: Unfazed by Facebook, Google Rolls Out Social Search Globally: Launched in October 2009, Social Search is a feature that combines regular search results with publicly available data created by your friends’ social media activities. ...... Your “friends” are quite loosely defined and include people in your Google Talk friends list, your Google Contacts, people you’re following on Buzz and Google Reader and other networks you’ve linked from your Google profile or Google Account. Google can also find your friends on public networks such as Twitter and Facebook and gather the data from their public connections as well.

Google probably wants more people to use Facebook like I do. My privacy settings on Facebook are for "Everyone." Anyone can drop by and see all my pictures. I have uploaded more than 10,000 pictures of New York City on Facebook.

Zite: A Challenge To The Social Paradigm

Image via CrunchBaseMaybe social is like search. It is yesterday. The next wave is that of personalization. Search will stay. Social will stay. Both will stick around. In big ways. But perhaps the next wave in innovation is personalization. What if your service figures out ways to know you really, really well?

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That would make room for all sorts of services that portend to be the Pandora of this, the Pandora of that.

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Reclaiming My Twitter Account

Image via Wikipedia

I have decided to reclaim my Twitter account. What I mean by that is I am no longer going to be feeding TechCrunch, Mashable, CNet, BusinessWeek and Time into my Twitter stream like I have been doing for over a year now. They have had their free rides. Now I have a blog that intends to compete with them. I am going to link plenty to them on a near daily basis. But now the feeds into my Twitter stream are going to be only from my blogs. Most of the fed tweets will be from this blog itself because this is the most active of my blogs.

I did that feed thing because when I was desperately trying to accumulate followers on Twitter, I figured I could not fail in my attempt to create a great Twitter stream if I fed from some of my favorite blogs, news sites to visit, my favorite magazines. 

That worked for a while. It no longer works for me now that I am toying with the idea of pro blogging in a serious way. 

A spike in blog traffic can boost your self esteem. It has boosted mine. Now TechCrunch, Mashable, CNet, BusinessWeek, and Time come across as crutches, possibly even competitors. Why am I giving them all that free traffic again? 

TwitterFeed tells me the newest feed from CNet into my Twitter stream has 700 clicks. Those clicks could be mine. Those could be clicks for my blog. 

Hello people, the free lunch is over. 

I never really did the RSS thing, and I tried Google Reader but I did not become a regular. I was using Twitter for all that. But no more. Now I create my own news feeds in the form of daily blog posts that link to many news items from many different sources.

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Why Will Facebook Itself Not Do Facebook Enterprise?

Image via CrunchBase

Fred Wilson: Software Is Media

Why will Facebook itself not do Facebook Enterprise? That is a question I have asked a few different times. The Salesforce guy had a guest post in TechCrunch not long back. A friend of mine emailed me that post through Google Reader. (Ignite, Set It On Fire) And I posed him the question on Buzz. Why will Facebook itself not do Facebook Enterprise?

The dichotomy between consumer software and enterprise software is vapid. It is unreal. It is an inconvenience that ought not last too long.

In his post today Fred Wilson is making the point that software should be as easy to use as media. He has not quite spelled it out, but I don't think he is trying to say he is only talking about consumer software. Software should be as easy to use as media also applies to enterprise software.

Salesforce trying to imitate Facebook to offer enterprise software: is that better than Facebook itself offering an enterprise version of itself? I don't think so.

The inbox was not copyrighted by Hotmail. The status update has not been copyrighted by Twitter. Similarly the stream is not Facebook property. Check in is similarly going to be a commodity feature.

Twitter should offer a Twitter Enterprise, and Facebook should work on a Facebook Enterprise. It just makes sense.

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Twitter Need Get Work Done

Measuring Your Twitter Influence

You read more posts on TechCrunch about FourSquare than you do about Google, but that does not mean FourSquare has become bigger than Google, or ever will be. It is just that location has been all the buzz this year. The buzz might have shifted from Twitter, but that in no way means Twitter's utility is less now than it was in the Spring of 2009.

I am so glad I don't have to choose, I log into Facebook every day, often several times a day, but if I had to choose, I'd pick Twitter. I want to be finding new people, new info, I want to access people who I otherwise can't access.

Twitter has not realized its potential. It has not even come remotely close to realizing its potential. Twitter has work cut out for it.

(1) Simplify

If you are a SEO Optimizer in a small town in Kenya, I am going to consider you part of the tech elite. Twitter right now is at the level of the tech elite. Twitter has to simplify and appeal to the average person.

Learn from Tumblr. If I were a new person, and I showed up on the Twitter homepage for the first time, I'd get scared and I'd leave. If I were a little more gutsy, I'd sign up, and then leave, and not see the point in coming back.

The first page has to be dead simple. Okay, so here I give you my email address, and I put in my password here, and, wow, now I can send out my first tweet? Cool. And based on my email address, you are telling me these people in my circle are already on Twitter? Can I follow them? Wow. Here are five topics of interest to me, or three. Based on that you are suggesting three celebrities on Twitter and three lists. I'm excited.

(2) Eat Into The Ecosystem

Twitter Needs To Eat Into Its Ecosystem

Buy or build. Both cost money. Here's money: Twitter Should Go For A Netscape-Like IPO. Twitter has to go public, and with that money it has to go on a buying spree.

A site known for 140 characters, look at how long the URL for a tweet is: http://twitter.com/paramendra/status/11872417573

That is too long. It should be more like http://tw.tr/1r

That long. Anything longer is too long for a tweet URL.

Photo and video can't be separate services. I am one of the top 100 people in NYC on Twitter, and so far I have never used Twitpic. Am I supposed to create yet another account?

Some of the obvious services have been stated by many. Integrate them into the Twitter site itself.

(3) Link

Why can't a phrase in a tweet be a hyperlink? Bit.ly throws people off. It scares people. The name does not help. It is as if it will bite. If you can't just go ahead and hyperlink a word or a phrase to the desired web address, you will save on space, for one. 140 characters will feel like more space.

(4) Search

This is my number one gripe with Twitter. Google searches the entire web. You should be able to search just your site, just your servers. That is not too much to ask. Every tweet that was ever sent out has to be searchable. That way I'd not need a separate bookmarking service. I already don't need a separate RSS service. Twitter is my Google Reader. I go to my Twitter page in the morning to skim through the headlines of the day.

Real time search is not only real time as of today or the past few days. Real time as it happened a year ago is also relevant.

Twitter Should Hand Over Search To Google

(5) Visualization

Tweets are meant to be read a thousand at a time, a million at a time. Make it possible. Make it possible, fun and playful for individuals and small businesses to play around with the tweet database.

(6) Scale

Get rid of the fail whale.

(7) Monetize

This is where Twitter is going to break away from the Netscape model. Twitter will make a lot of money. It has already started. The tweet is to the web what the atom is to the universe. Prove that. And then go make a ton of money.

Monetizing Twitter: A Few Ideas

It has to be the ad model. The Twitter ad is going to look like a tweet, but it is going to look different. It has to be obvious it is an ad. Color coding maybe?

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Buzz Takes Gmail To A New Level

Image of Adam Carson

Earlier today I was fooling around with Buzz. Even before that from just reading about it in the news, I never thought of Buzz as a Twitter or Facebook killer. My suspicions have now been confirmed. Buzz is a Gmail enhancer. Otherwise my Gmail experience was starting to get a little staid.

Google reinvented email with Gmail. I don't think it has reinvented social, updates and geo with Buzz. But it sure could not have afforded to be left behind. Social is not Facebook, updates are not Twitter, geo is geo. These are elements of the web experience, and they will seep through to everywhere or most places. The leading dot com could not have skipped the cacophony.

Two names popped up during my first experience: Adam Carson, and Vin Vacanti. I never connected with Adam on Facebook like I now do on Buzz. The guy got me on the Reader bandwagon long back, but once I got strong on Twitter, I shifted over to Twitter. My Twitter page is my newsfeed. I skim through the headlines in the morning on my Twitter page. Vin I got introduced to over email last year. I met him in person a few days back. And now I am part of conversations with his friends. And Buzz does not cut into my allowed Gmail space. That is important to me.

Right now my Buzz box is sexier than my Gmail Inbox, and only one click away. I am liking the experience.

One Buzz thread had the founder of Gmail and FriendFeed saying Buzz looks "familiar." How did Google find out I might be interested in that particular Buzz thread? They got it right. I don't know how they did it, but all I got to say is keep tweaking those algorithms.  

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Five Years Of Gmail: What Would Gsus Do?

How time flies! Gmail is five years old already. That is ages in internet time. I was an immediate convert and an evangelist. It is more than extra space, it is different, I would rant and rave. There still are people around who have email but who are not on Gmail. I try not to judge. But I will have to admit, it's hard not to.

Begs the question, what will Gmail be like in five years? It is hard to predict. I will give the Steve Jobs answer. When asked what the iPhone will look like in five years, he said, I don't know. He said he could not have predicted five years earlier there would be maps on the iPhone, but you got maps. So it is not easy to predict what technological breakthroughs we will see over the next few years that will make new, exciting features possible.

But I do have a wish list.

(1) More Space

That was Gmail's first selling point. The least it could do is stay up with the hunger of the power users. Say if you offer 50 GB, and only 1% of your users use 10 GB or more, you still get to boast that you are offering 50 GB, right?

If the internet were to end up with a trillion websites, Google should not be complaining, right? More pages, more searches, more ads, more revenue. Gmail is the same way. More email inside that Gmail account, more ads you get to serve. So why complain?

I am especially thinking of my friend Sree here. I read his piece in Forbes earlier, and I am unhappy that Gmail has been bleeding his wallet.

(2) Two Inboxes

One for people I have emailed at least once, and one for the rest. I should not have to create a new, private email account just because I became famous, right? This arrangement would also add to Gmail's already great spam filter. I mean, if I have never emailed you before.

(3) My Gmail Should Be My Phone Number

One global phone number. I hope all the hype about Google Voice is true. There is talk Google Voice is to be integrated with Gmail. Swell.

(4) Video Mail



Video chat is great, but so is text chat. There is text chat, and there is text email. So there needs to be video mail.

(5) Social

Keep adding social elements to the service.

(6) Better Integration

I should be able to go from my Gmail account straight to my Google Reader account, and why not? Maybe there are a few other services to integrate.

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I Get Twitter

Enterprise 2.0 Adam Carson mentioned Confused Of Calcutta a long time ago as someone really passionate about Web 2.0. I took note. Recently I had an email conversation with Confused. We went back and forth. It was nice. Somewhere along the way I realized he is huge on Twitter. As in, he tweets.

Then I read up on him. I came across this list where Google CEO Eric Schmidt is number six and Confused is number 11. I was impressed. He is a CIO with British Telecom which has a presence in over 173 countries.



Somewhere along the way I decided to tweet as well. Open an account, and let it hang. I had no plans to be active. This despite Confused's very recent post where he is all gaga about Twitter.

Yesterday I spent some time talking about how I viewed Twitter now
Thinking about Twitter: a submarine in the ocean of the Web Finding the sea of green: More on Twitter is My Submarine

I had misconceptions. I feared Twitter is about creating an online Leoned Breznev diary towards the end of that guy's life. He would put down mundane details. I ate. I had coffee. I went to sleep. I ate. I drank coffee. Sleep came upon me. I had lunch.

It also felt like a basketball pro is being asked to go to college basketball. As an avid blogger, I thought in terms of full page posts. A phrase or two? That is lowball, I thought. At my blogs I discuss ideas and concepts. Big minds discuss ideas. Twitters must talk about themselves. I ate. I had coffee.

And I am a laptop guy. I spend so much time online, when I am offline, I like to be offline, take in the city, the people, the street scenes, the subway filth. Twitter looked like a mobile concept. You can't experience the internet on a handheld, the way the internet is meant to be experienced.

So I admired Confused more than ever, and aren't young people supposed to get tech fashion first? I am in my mid 30s. Confused is in the mid 50s. I was not enamored about getting fashion sense from Confused.



Then one day I quietly signed on. It will not hurt to get an account. It does not have to stay active. Noone will notice. My second post said I did not think I was so newsworthy as to be twitting. That was my Declaration Of Independence.

But very soon I got it. I think it was only yesterday that I started, and I am already an addict. You tweet. You blog. You email. You search. You face the book. Tweet is fundamental to the internet experience.

My first Direct Message was to Confused. You got me on Twitter, I said. I had not said thank you, I had not said I was excited. I might as well have meant you added to my chores. Welcome, says Confused, in the tone of an evangelist. As far as he was concerned, there were no negative connotations to Twitter. It was all good.

I joined Twitter. Not long after Demi Moore joined Twitter. We both joined the same day. But for some reason she has way many more followers than do I. I am going to think she is a little bit more better looking. Or maybe a lot better looking.

It is nothing to do with star quality. I am Barackface. I have a thing or two going on for me. Hey.

And then the discoveries began. Wait a minute, I might have signed on not yesterday, but the day before. Anyways, it was the same day as Demi. Kevin Rose, the second most followed person on Twitter, brought Demi to my attention. Kevin and I are close like that. That is the Twitter way.

There are so many good reasons to tweet. You blog, you tweet. You send out emails. You add friends and updates on Facebook. It is basic.

If I can tweet once or twice a day, and if I can read a few news items on Google Reader most every day, I am an active blogger without any new blog posts at my new number one blog: Tech N Biz. I have not become lazy as a blogger, I have gone high tech. This way all the personal talk gets zapped by Twitter, all my urge to read the news gets zapped by Google Reader. And so the blog posts are posts that I just have to go ahead with, not chores, as in, oh no, I have not blogged in a while, my blog is going stale, let me go blog.

Then yesterday I learned to hit reply and join conversations. Suddenly I feel like an insider.

I have rediscovered pals like Scott and Upendra from the New York tech scene.

Democracy For Nepal used to be my primary blog. Then Barackface became my primary blog. Now I am trying to get Tech N Biz to become my primary blog. Twitter and Google Reader have been a huge help in bringing about that shift. Confused Of Calcutta got me on Twitter, Enterprise 2.0 got me on Google Reader. Enterprise 2.0 got me to Confused Of Calcutta. Confused Of Calcutta got me on Twitter where I met Demi. Demi Moore. And also the Digg guy Kevin Rose. But then Confused has a star quality of his own. I mean, to be on that list.

Talk about star quality, with his goatee, I think Confused looks like a rock star.