Facebook login fail and semantics
Tags: facebook, google, login, semantic, web
If you have heard of Facebook Login fail on RWW, read this first. It’s actually hilarious! But after guffaws and chuckles, it made me think, semantically.
My thoughts were echoed on RWW follow up post to what happened. Just a brief background on what happened. People searched “facebook login”, came upon RWW’s article, mistook it for Facebook, signed in via Facebook Connect and ranted how its new “design sucks ass”. To all of us in the “know”, it is funny and facepalm worthy. How idiotic could these people be? Can’t they distinguish between these things?
Apparently not:
As the web is becoming global (1 Billion+), it is becoming the playground for people not literate at all with basic things like a URL. They see Facebook as a product/service, not as a website that is part of the WWW.
It begs the question if these people are actually idiotic at all? Yes, they might not know the inner workings of the web, do you know the inner workings of a TV (or something equally complex)? Bad example, but you catch my drift.
Shouldn’t this “portal” to the net, being Google’s search bar allow us to take us where we want to go on the “interwebs”? It makes perfect sense to want to type into Google, “login Facebook”, to take me to where I want to be, without having to click on a search result.
How Google would deduce this when people would just want to “search” the term I’ll leave to the semantic experts. I have some ideas though.
1) Once it becomes clear what the user’s purpose is for each intended search, Google could ask the “searcher”, considering they are logged on with a profile, if that is their intention each time? Click yes, and it does it all the time.
2) We could use the power of humans to vote on preferred actions for terms. People vote that if you type in “login facebook”, it takes you there, while others might vote that it should stay a search term. There are obvious flaws with this approach and possibility for exploitation.
3) Pay? Enough money will convince Google. Instead of using the normal “sponsored by google” ads at the top of some search results, it could be a different colour with a click-able link that immediately takes you to facebook. If you cookies are set, it’s logged in. I guess this approach is very much similar to ads, but there is the potential to add further action with these links.
4) Invent new search “terms” such as the already established “define: <word>”. If you type in “login: Facebook”, it should take you stored Facebook login data on Google’s profile and immediately log yourself in, or just immediately take you to Facebook if you are already logged in.
——–
These are just some ideas I had to write down. Kept thinking about it whole day. What do you think? The approaches above are flawed. Can you think of any way to approach this? Would Google even want people to NOT view their search results?
Is my knowledge being reduced to pointers?
Tags: google, technology, wikipedia
After studying for a test this past week, I reaffirmed a theory of mine. It’s not technically a theory. It is already happening, and I think most people can agree.
I have to remember about 300 pages for a test. I’ve realised how I remember the knowledge. I remember where the information and even sometimes how the data was structured on the page, but I couldn’t remember the details. To me, it feels like the pointers to memory that are used in computers.
I feel that our generation, driven by the internet (Google and Wikipedia) where we have a wealth of information at our fingertips start to think about our knowledge in a different way. We don’t make the effort to remember all the data, but rather only remember where to get it, once we need it.
So in essence, my knowledge is being reduced to a bank of pointers of which Google and Wikipedia are the most important (Wolfram to a lesser extent).
In the past, it could’ve existed to a lesser extent, ie just go to the library to get your information, but the effort required was much greater. To me it is apparent that it is becoming more profound.
Is it good or bad? I’d say, it’s a natural progression for the merging of humans and technology. I’m no expert on “brain power”, but it seems obvious that we don’t to spend too much time to remember it all, but rather spending time on applying our knowledge.
Surfing the real-time web
Tags: facebook, google, real-time, twitter, web
It is now the middle of 2009 and the web landscape is already looking very different from the start of 2009. Twitter is primarily responsible for the surge into the real-time web. Seeing Twitter’s success in covering news before any main news site is remarkable. It is here. It is now.
Facebook saw the success of Twitter and subsequently changed their homepage (which I still think is a bad choice). Facebook also made the status update feed real-time: an inevitable change, considering they also opened the status API. What is this Facebook? Are you trying to become Twitter with photos and quizzes? C’mon now.
Seeing the real-time building, Google saw that they were losing search power and made options available to their search to make it more real-time.
The biggest surprise to the real-time venue is definitely Google’s Wave. Will it change the way we interact on the internet? Who knows. When you see a wave (a real one) approach, it might seem huge, but that might mean it might break before it’s of any use to the surfer. Meh, it’s a bad analogy, but you get my point. Will be really interesting to see what Google Wave can pull off!
So where to now?
I didn’t expect to see this surge into the real-time web. I’m wondering what web services will filter into the real-time environment. The implications are immense to me. It means that people are now even more connected, right now. Within 5 minutes of it happening, I knew about the hudson river plane crash.
What implications it has on our psyche, I don’t know. We are more and more, constantly aware of the world and its happenings…
Where do you think the real-time web will go? What do you think the psychological implications are for being constantly and instantly connected?
Where is the internet going?
Tags: facebook, future, google, internet
A lot of people have speculated on where the internet might be going. I have my own ideas. I’d like to put them in this blogpost so that I can say “I told you so!” in some future time.
I have 3 CORE ideas:
-1) Semantic Web
-2) Enriching local communities
-3) Standard API to connect any hardware to the internet.
So, let’s start:
Semantic Web:
A semantic web, is a web that can disambiguate between meanings of words and know precisely what you want from it. It is “intelligent” so to speak. When I ask Google a question, it should give me a straightforward answer instead of returning search results.
Why will this happen?
Computers have always served us, and will continue to do so (at least we would hope so). It is only a matter of time before the web will know who we are, where we come from and what we are looking for.
Enriching Local Communities:
The world is becoming more and more global each day. I talk to people from all over the world every day. It’s awesome to know it is possible, but hey, we are still ultimately “living” locally. We may think globally, but still live locally.
If you think what Facebook has done. It has enriched the lives of the people that are close to you. Sharing and talking about photos after a party, commenting on status updates, etc. It is enriching the “local” lives we lead.
I foresee more emphasis being placed on exploiting your immediate surroundings. As recently stated, Twitter is trying join that “game”. The world is connected, but now we should start strengthening those connections. It starts with your neighbours.
Standard API to connect hardware to the internet:
Call me crazy, but I think every major technology breakthrough is a step closer to establishing a technologically induced state of telepathy.
We connect through instant “updates” through statuses and services like Twitter. It is the closest we have to letting people know what’s happening “right now”. It’s great and all, but it needs a more dynamic and automatic entrypoint.
For this to happen, random hardware, like an oven for example, should start getting connected to the internet to catalog how we use it and what for. Made an roast in the oven? It stored the recipe and should start recommending new recipes.
It should happen automatically, not manually. The only way for this to take off is for all hardware to receive a “standard” by which programmers can program API to connect random hardware to the internet.
—-
So yeah. That’s my ideas. Let’s hope I can say, “I told you so!” in the future. Do you think I can?
The best of Twitter is ahead!
Tags: google, semantic web, twitter
“We believe the best of Twitter is yet to come”.
Except for tweeting “what I am doing” or posting interesting links, I’ve been asking lots of questions on Twitter… and usually before I venture to Google if someone doesn’t respond.
I’ve gotten great replies to great sites and with good reason. Google don’t have that extra human aspect that they add into their search. Two sites can be practically identical and could be close to each other on Google’s search results, but because people have visited that site, THEY know and understand my question and can distinguish between small (yet profound) things that Google can’t pick up (yet).
And really. Let’s be honest here. We trust another human’s reply to a question much more than any computer would.
So, I read here that Twitter is working on something like Yahoo! Answers, something I’ve been wanting for a long time. And as they say. It is less cluttered and much faster.
“You put a question out to the global mind, and it comes back,” Mr. Chaffee explained. “Millions of people are contributing to the knowledge base. The engine is alive. You get feedback in real time from people, not just documents.”
It makes me think that WE are becoming the semantic web. Twitter can if they want to, store questions. If you ask a similar question, it returns what users answered. Voila. Semantic Web.
Just AWESOME.
Twitter: The new backbone of the web?
Although I haven’t used Twitter for a long time, I can clearly see what is happening. Twitter is becoming the new backbone of the web (if not the world).
Twitter is becoming the place where data comes in and data goes out. For a better metaphor, it is beginning to act like a massive gate. Through the use of simple link posting and Twitter’s API, lots and lots of data comes into this gate. You are the owner of this gate and decide which information you read. The rest of the data just goes by.
What I’m trying to say is, is that Twitter has become a backbone for everything that is happening on the web: The proverbial Informational Highway. The web feeds straight into Twitter, where the users disseminate the information. There are loads of examples of this. The largest is obviously simply posting links and then after that, services like my Tweekly.fm. It takes the data that is already there, that is somewhere else, feeds it into the gate where the information promulgates around. It is interesting, because WE are the cogs of this machine. WE choose how the data is gathered and dispersed.
The power of Twitter as a means for attracting information and acting as a force for sharing information is becoming uparalalled. The more people that use Twitter, the more of the web’s data gets feeded into it. It creates a very interesting environment where, for example, news is heard before traditional media catches on.
It will really be interesting to see what happens in the future! Heck even @Google joined Twitter today. That must mean something. Kudos to Jack Dorsey and co.
Is the web recreating telepathy?
Tags: facebook, google, internet, telepathy
Think about it quickly…
Yes, this is what is happening.
Here are some definitions of telepathy (thanks google):
“The sympathetic affection of one mind by the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of another at a distance, without communication through the ordinary channels of sensation.”
“It is the transference of thought from one mind to another. Distance and time seem unable to affect this phenomenon.”
“A term that refers to the paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings or activity of another conscious being.”
“Telepathy is the transfer of thoughts, feelings, or images directly from the mind of one person to another without using physical means.”
—
Call me as crazy as Tom Cruise on Oprah, but hey, this is happening. Through services like Facebook, I know the thoughts and feelings (”status updates”) and images (photos/flickr) of “another conscious being”.
“Distance and time seem unable to affect this phenomenon”. I can talk to someone from New Zealand right now if I want to.
—
Doing more research, there is actually a better word for this. It is coined “Techlepathy”. Each new “great” web service is an example of this. Twitter? Flickr? Facebook? Yes, all of them takes the idea of a technological telepathy to a new stage.
What’s next?
10 Internet Predictions for 2009.
Tags: 2009, google, predictions
Hai. I’m making internet predictions for 2009. Stay a while and listen.
1. A comedic web series following wannabe Guitar Hero rockstars will rock YouTube.
2. People fooled by The Onion will decrease even more.
3. Blizzard will send the gaming population crazy with another witch hunt.
4. More gullible people join Facebook and send spam mail detailing how your account will be deleted if you don’t send the message to 10 people.
5. Global warming sends much needed moisture for cloud computing to create a storm.
6. Digg posts a link to itself, crashing the site.
7. World of Warcraft reveals API to get data out of it. (twitter indundated by “orgath dinged lvl 45″)
8. Google reveals location based ads placed on busses. (ie bus rides past a bar, and an ad pops up showing how cheap the beer is in that bar).
9. Parents have to start deciding when to allow their young’uns access to their Facebook profiles. Is Young Johnny ready too see mommy in a drunk photo?
10. dotCommunism gains a few more members.
—
All plausible I think. Lets see again in 2010. 
Redesign and Google Friend Connect.
Tags: facebook, friend connect, google
So. As you can see, I redesigned my site and added Google Friend Connect! Instead of making one from scratch I took the wonder Google Chrome theme I got from Wordpress and edited it here and there.
I love how it looks.
I’ve been browsing the web looking for comments on the whether to use Facebook Connect or Google Friend Connect and I’ve stumbled upon this post at ReadWriteWeb. It stipulates to me why I’ve opted for Google. It boils down to one fact. The potential for growth and new uses for OpenSocial is huge. The userbase (for OpenID) is also much much larger than Facebook’s.
It also ties with the book I’m reading. It is Wikinomics by Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams. If you haven’t read it, it is about how collaboration through the internet is changing the economy. One of the biggest arguments is having a truly open “mindset”. Using the world as a resource, the opportunity to exceed Facebook Connect will only be a matter of time. Hope that makes sense.
—-
On other notes, any respectable web entrepeneur should have twitter (which I got). My first “proper” Facebook application should also be showing its face soon.
Playing with Friend Connect.
Tags: friend connect, google
Sooo. I’ve added Friend Connect, but the whole layout of my site doesn’t really work with it (properly).
I’m going to redesign my website. This time I’m not taking a stock wordpress theme. I’m going to try and build it from scratch. So yeah.
If the site goes wonko, that’s just me tinkering around!
Social
Personals
My electronic music
Tweekly.fm - my last.fm/twitter mashup
My twitter babblings
My Last.FM top weekly artists.
