Online search giant Google recently made its foray into the formal social media sphere with its Google Buzz service. Tied into the popular Gmail web-based email client, Buzz was rolled out to Google’s approximately 146 million most active users, the company saying that a social network has always been beneath the surface of its email technology (WSJ.com). But even with the current social-media craze, many users were unhappy with what seemed to be an intrusion on their everyday social routines. We’ll look at some of these users’ comments and I’ll espouse what I see to be some of the possibilities that we might not be hearing over the Buzz. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, I know it’s probably too early to be talking about this, seeing at Wave is still in its preview. But I’m a little bit disappointed in it. This is probably just because the web app isn’t feature complete. Still, at this point I can’t see myself using it as broadly as it was represented in the announcement video.
For one, it’s just confusing to keep track of who is writing/changing what when you have multiple people working on the same wave. It’s also tough even to reply to other wavelets that are sitting there. Some of the UI still seems really rough and not at all intuitive. Maybe they’re working on this.
But I think that that is my biggest issue with it. It’s so confusing to work in that I just get turned off to it. At least in IM you know who is talking when. In Google Docs you can save and edit – though the changes by other people don’t display in realtime. I guess the collaborative part of it is the point. It’s a realtime wiki, basically. And I suppose that’s okay. But it certainly doesn’t feel ready for all of the other tasks it was suggested for when Google premiered it.
Oh well.
I’ve still got a few Wave nominations. Anyone want one? First come, first served. (You can also tweet @joelgoodman)
Wow. So, Google Chrome was announced yesterday and introduced today. I downloaded it and am running it in Fusion on my Mac Pro at work. And it is SPEEDY. And I like the design. I wish it was a bit less cartoony and a bit more flat. But overall, I’m enjoying the experience. The browser itself really does just get out of the way. And Gears is built in.
I can’t wait till they release the Mac version. It could very well become my browser of choice. So far I’m impressed. We’ll see how this thing goes.
http://www.google.com/chrome
Hearsay