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AOL’s Buy of Social Network Bebo is Great News…

Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

…for the few lucky folks who’ll make a ton of money in the transaction. For AOL and the rest of us, it’s no big deal.

Why do I say this? Several reasons:

• Social networks are extremely trendy. Members Only jackets were all the rage once too. Bebo may be rich in advertising opportunities today and a wasteland tomorrow.
• Initiatives like Google’s OpenSocial will make it easier for developers to create cross-social network functionality and meta-social networks, which will in turn make it easier for users to (ex)port their contacts and social graphs from social network to social network. Stickiness to individual social networks will decrease as social aspects are built more into Internet plumbing.
• Bebo isn’t Facebook or MySpace.

I feel like I should have some witty closing sentence here but I can’t think of one. :)

Protect Yourself Using Desktop Search

Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Miscellaneous | 3 Comments

Must people accumulate lots of stuff; digital stuff is no exception. We’ve got mounds of files and other documents on our computers at home, work and in our various email accounts. Over time we’re bound to let some of our private information seep out and end up in places we don’t want it to be. Using desktop search products (e.g. Google Desktop or Windows Search) you can instantly search your files for occurrences of your social security number, bank account numbers, credit card numbers and any other information you’d prefer not to have floating around.

When searching for items like social security numbers, be sure to look for multiple formats, e.g. “xxx-xxx-xxxx” and “xxxxxxxxxx”).

While you’re at it, you might want to perform the same searches in your email accounts. Many email services provide excellent search capabilities.

Don’t forget to clear your search history when you’re done so you don’t leave any additional crumbs.

Usng Google’s “Did you mean?” Feature as a Better Spell Cheker

Posted on January 20, 2008
Filed Under Internet | 18 Comments

Over the years I’ve used Dictionary.com to spell-check the odd word here and there. Recently however I’ve started using Google’s “Did you mean?” feature as my official spell-checker.

Most people have used Google’s “Did you mean?” feature even without knowing it. It works very simply - if you do a Google search on a misspelled word, you’ll most likely be asked, “Did you mean: correctly_spelled_word“. This feature wasn’t built as a spell-checker per-se (in other words, the audience for this feature isn’t generally people looking up the proper spelling of words but rather the person who incorrectly types a search term. Recognizing that the search term is spelled incorrectly (which would return poor results) Google suggests the proper spelling so you can get the results you expect.

However, there’s no reason that “Did you mean?” can’t be used directly as a spell checker, and that’s exactly how I use it now. I like it better than the dictionary sites because a) I get just the results I want (the correctly spelled word), b) the results are nearly instant since I have a Google search box just a single click or keystroke away and c) most dictionary sites are built to define words that you spell correctly, not correct incorrectly spelled words (therefore, you end up typing in the incorrectly spelled word several times in trial and error mode until you get the answer you’re looking for).

Give it a try. Go to Google and type in an incorrectly spelled word or search phase and you should get a “Did you mean?” suggestion.

Email Needs an “Opt Out of this Thread” Option

Posted on December 21, 2007
Filed Under Internet | 9 Comments

Have you ever been one of multiple recipients on an email and gotten caught in a storm of “Reply to All” activity? I have - it’s annoying and I want a way out.

What we need is an “Opt out of this thread” option. I think implementation would only be feasible within proprietary email systems that don’t rely on Internet standards to route messages between users. (The capability to support this doesn’t exist in the Internet email protocols [e.g. smtp, pop3, and imap].) For example, I could see this implemented within the boundaries of corporate email systems (e.g. Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes) or public systems such as Hotmail or Gmail but not between separate email environments or systems.

In a sea of gimmicks to reduce email overload I think this option could have a positive effect.

Providers Should NEVER Ask for Your Password

Posted on July 16, 2007
Filed Under Internet, Miscellaneous | 8 Comments

I’m in the process of switching my mobile plan from Verizon Wireless to Sprint.  While verifying my identity during several calls to customer service, I was very surprised that the reps asked me for my account password as part of the questions.  No one should ever ask for this information, and you should never provide it if asked!  With most* online services, all you need is a username and password to get complete access to an account.  This gives the rep complete access without an audit trail, should the rep wish to conduct abuse (unlikely, but a highly unsecure process nonetheless.)

* More and more online services, especially financial institutions, are requiring information in addition to your username and password before granting account access.  However these cases are still few and far between.

It’s bad enough that we all have our social security numbers and credit card numbers floating around as easy fodder for identity theft, so we should avoid giving away the keys to the kingdom while we’re at it.

This was timely as there have been some blog posts lately regarding websites whose internal system constraints or politics (my own assumptions) force less secure passwords (ironically, the post I linked to is about a financial service).  After having it drilled into my head over the years (and coming to the same conclusion myself) that a 6-character password doesn’t provide appropriate security, it’s too bad that some websites actually won’t let you choose longer ones.

Back to Sprint - I hope they reconsider their policy around establishing customer identity on the phone.  At a minimum, asking for your password undermines efforts to establish trust in an increasingly online and digital world.

Some Lesser Known Google Search Tips

Posted on March 1, 2007
Filed Under Internet, Miscellaneous | 6 Comments

Google’s Matt Cutts recently appeared on Episodes 137 and 138 of DL.TV with a handful of not so well-known but very handy Google search tips.  Some highlights from the list include (paraphrased):

• Include quotes around your query to get results that contain exactly the text you enter, in the order you enter it.  This is helpful when you want to narrow down your search and you know the exact expression you are searching for.  For example, type “loose lips sink ships” to find all exact matches (returned 193,000) of that phrase.  If you search for loose lips sink ships without the quotes, you will likely get many more results (returned 583,000), since you will be including pages that contain all those words but not necessary that exact phrase.
• Phrase your query in the way in which the result might appear.  For example, if you want to find out the height of Mount Everest, try the query “mount everest is * feet high”.  The query is written in a way in which the result is likely to appear on a web page.  The height (the variable piece of information you are trying to find) is specified as an asterisk.  In the results, the height will replace the asterisk.  Note that I included quotes since I expected the results to appear exactly as I wrote in the query.
• Search for ranges of numerical values in a query.  For example, you are interested in Mount Everest base camps between 10000 and 20000 feet.  Include the range separated by a “..” as in the query mount everest base camp 10000..20000.  Note that I left off the quotes since I didn’t really know how the words would appear.  Alternatively, you could search for DVD players in the $100 to $300 range with the query dvd player $100..$300.
• Exclude certain keywords by using the minus sign.  For example, you are interested in ribs, but not the pork variety, you could query on ribs -pork.  This will return results containing the word ribs but not pork.

These are just a few of the many Google search tips that are available. 

Increasing Your Blog Readership Using FeedBurner and Email Signatures

Posted on February 23, 2007
Filed Under Internet | 18 Comments

I agree with Robert Cringely, FeedBurner is going places.

I called FeedBurner today to ask about some solutions to support corporate blogging and spoke with Jake Parrillo from the Business Development Team.  We drifted to talking about blogs in general and about ways to generate traffic to a blog.  He told me about a free FeedBurner service called Headline Animator, which according to FeedBurner allows you to:

Create and customize an animated banner that cycles through your feed’s five most recent items. It’s an easy way to promote your content anywhere you can place a snippet of HTML.

The result will look similar to this:

 

 

Jake told me that he uses the Headline Animator to spread the word about his blog by including the banner in his email signature.  Outstanding!  He says it’s really helped to increase readership.

Email signatures are just one idea; you can of course place the banner anywhere.

Setting it up is really easy.  (See the Headline Animator Overview and FAQ for more details):

1. Set up a FeedBurner account
2. Burn your RSS feed
3. Click on the Publicize tab
4. Click Headline Animator
5. Configure the theme (controls the size and colors of the banner; there’s an “Email Signature” theme) and the Title
6. Click Activate
7. Copy the resulting snippet of HTML and paste it anywhere you like.

I just configured a Headline Animator banner for my blog’s RSS feed and included it in my Yahoo email account’s signature.

Thanks Jake!!

p.s.  Too bad there haven’t been too many tech IPOs lately, I’d love to get in on this one.

Windows Home Server Will Achieve Limited Adoption

Posted on February 20, 2007
Filed Under Consumer Electronics, Internet | 5 Comments

I don’t believe that Microsoft’s recently announced Windows Home Server (WHS) product will achieve wide adoption among the product’s target audience. Announced by Bill Gates at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January,

Windows Home Server will help families with multiple PCs connect their home computers, digital devices and printers, in order to easily store, protect and share their treasured photos, music, videos and documents. By automatically backing up home PCs, centralizing a family’s digital “stuff” and allowing access to it away from home, Windows Home Server will help simplify and enhance family life.

I expect the product to see great uptake among technology enthusiasts but I don’t think it will be pervasive with the typical Internet family. Reasons include:

• People don’t think of themselves as running support operations. (Credit for this bullet comes from colleague and friend The Derf.) When it comes to people’s computers, they just want them to work and they expect their data to be safe. Unlike things like printers and scanners (and even WiFi) which provide direct and obvious utility, WHS is a pure infrastructure device and therefore won’t be recognized as essential.
• For PC and consumer electronics products to be widely adopted I believe they must either fill an obvious gap (I don’t think the gap is obvious here since most people don’t think about things like backup) or they must significantly improve the user experience. For example, WiFi allows you to sit out on the deck and browse the Internet. Photo printers give you the instant gratification of passing around just-taken digital photos. So what about appliances that backup PCs? Wait, doesn’t that just happen automatically*?

Paul Thurrott covers the product and states Microsoft’s objectives towards ease of use in his preview of WHS at the SuperSite for Windows. It’s an interesting opposing view.

* Microsoft seems to recognize how important (and generally missing) consumer PC backups are.  (Backup is a primary function of WHS). As such, I’d like to see Microsoft implement an Internet-based backup offering as part of Windows Live OneCare which could be integrated with Windows Vista and XP. I think Vista should present users with an in-your-face prompt to back up their data to OneCare following new PC setup.  Including this functionality in Vista could spread the protection of PC backup to the 90 million+ units of Vista that IDC estimates will ship in 2007.  Note:  If you are interested in Internet-based backup for your Windows machine today, check out Mozy and Carbonite, which are very good and inexpensive.  The Webware blog has a post on some other services as well.

Wikipedia’s Success Doesn’t Validate Wikis

Posted on January 16, 2007
Filed Under Internet | 1 Comment

It seems like everyone is using Wikipedia. Almost no one will disagree that Wikipedia has achieved astounding success over the past year. With high Google PageRank, Wikipedia results are likely to be at the top of many search results. This, and the fact that Wikipedia has become near-de facto standard for people doing ad-hoc research ensures that this cycle of success will continue.

Wikipedia’s incredible success however doesn’t validate the Wiki as a collaborative platform. Rather, it’s the combination of right-place, right-time, critical mass, network effect, viral marketing Web 2.0ishness that made Wikipedia shine. Wikipedia is similar to many other Internet success stories in that their formula for greatness is anything but easy to decompose. However in the case of Wikipedia, a critical item NOT in that formula is the use of a Wiki as the underlying collaborative engine.

This is evidenced by several factors:

• There are no other Wiki mega-success stories on the Internet
• Problems associated with democratizing content creation, as has been the case in several high-profile Wikipedia-related cases have raised a degree of skepticism towards the Wiki as an authoritative body of knowledge
• The Wiki paradigm, a collaborative process which allows users to directly contribute to other people’s work, isn’t radical enough to cause a paradigm shift. The underlying technology, which lets users modify each other’s content in-place has existed for a long time under different window dressings.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t good Wiki use cases (i.e. corporate internal/team collaboration) or that future hits like Wikipedia won’t happen, but the Wiki as a medium isn’t the secret sauce that will make the collaborative environment a success.