Month: March 2013

Ditch Instagram For Mobli?! Seriously?!

Posted by | Mar 30, 2013 | , |

Another day, another Instagram hating app emerges who (surprise!) supports video as well as pictures. The app is called Mobli (which is obviously a play on the word mobil) who promises to destroy Instagram through sheer awesomeness. Since advertising your presence is expensive (and capturing the attention of mega sites like The Verge and TechCrunch is even more difficult) they have resorted to what can either be described as ingenuity or desperation. […] Mobli invites Instagram users to upload an original picture and tag it on both platforms under the tag #mylastinstagram, and to then quit Instagram for at least three months. A team of Mobli judges will select the most original and creative picture and award the winner $100,000. (Globes) Mobli announced this competition using an age old geek stunt (which you can read about on Globes), but that is another issue entirely. My question to the minds behind Mobli is this: why do you need to resort to desperate measures with a silly bribe lotto? In fact, why are you even trying to compete against Instagram when you are not in the same market? (as Mobli is more like Keek or Via.me than Instagram) When Instagram first launched they didn’t trash talk against Flickr. Instagram didn’t even have a way to import Flickr photos. Instagram just built a better app that was fun and simple to use...

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And we are live!

Posted by | Mar 23, 2013 | |

Testing out PostHaven. So far, so good. I’m glad the site is optimized for mobile. I’ll buy a custom domain for it later on.  Hopefully an iPhone app launches soon in order to make the most out of...

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Too much information? Noise reduction apps that iLove

Posted by | Mar 22, 2013 | , |

Since being an ignoramus isn’t one of my life’s goals, I try to stay enlightened on current events affecting planet Earth (and beyond). You can call me vain, but there are a zillion things I’d rather do than read about corrupt politicians, health hazards, corporate fiasco’s, or “pending” environmental Armageddon’s that always threaten life as we know it (depending on which scientists you follow). Since eating contaminated food, getting plundered by bad laws, or sucker punched by a cold, corporate entity is not how I envision living life to the fullest, I use several apps to help me filter out the noise from a variety of sources. Flipboard Flipboard is an elegant news aggregator that automagically sifts though the headlines of the day, as well as my various social streams upon Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and Tumblr. Although there are similar apps out there (like Undrip which I love due to its App.net integration), Flipboard is the best app available for humans (read: non-geeks/information addicts). Feedly Feedly is another app you should use, which (if you’re an information addict) syncs with your dying Google Reader account. You can even add sites you want to subscribe too as well, allowing you to view the news sans algorithmic filters. Note: With Google killing off Google Reader soon, using Feedly is highly recommended as they will effortlessly migrate your subscriptions away from Google...

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Why Most (Federated) Social Networks Fail (Updated)

Posted by | Mar 18, 2013 | |

This was originally posted upon Google+ and has been reposted (with a minor update) here. Whenever Twitter or Facebook enrage the digerati there are massive calls for alternative social networks that embrace openness, decentralization, open source code and world peace. Not surprisingly most of these “open” social networks fail to gain traction and either remain a spectacle amongst the geeks or quietly go extinct, only to be replaced (ironically) by centralized social networks. While much text has been violently typed as to why they fail, here are my brief, biased and unscientific observations as to why they fail. Not unique: Most social networks (both federated and non-federated) die here. They are ultimately just another clone, offering no major features to distinguish themselves. Example: When Dispora launched as the Facebook alternative it was just that–a Facebook alternative. Contrast that with Google+ whose distinguishing features is group video chats (aka Hangouts). Spamicide: Once a federated social network has established it’s niche, something amazing happens. Spammers take notice and flood the gates. Multiply that across numerous servers and you then realize why the blogosphere (the closest thing to a true federated social network) abandoned pinging eons ago. Battling the spam bots is similar to the war on drugs–it never ends and demands more time, resources and (ultimately) money than what anyone anticipates. Once spammers take over, users flock away leaving the once...

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Fact: Google+ Isn’t Bigger Than Twitter

Posted by | Mar 17, 2013 | , |

I keep hearing people cite a weird statistic saying that Google+ (a social network that I love) is bigger than Twitter. It’s not folks–not even close! On December 6th of 2012 Google posted these official numbers: Today Google+ is the fastest-growing network thingy ever. More than 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active across Google (+1’ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search…), and 135 million are active in just the stream. Note: Emphasis mine. Just 12 days later Twitter tweeted out out this stat: There are now more than 200M monthly active @twitter users. You are the pulse of the planet. We’re grateful for your ongoing support! Those are the official stats from both companies. Now fast forward to January 22nd of 2013 and we hear GlobalWebIndex proclaiming that: Google+, who despite being branded a failure or ghost town by large portions of the media, grew in terms of active usage by 27% to 343m users to become the number 2 social platform. So in approximately 57 days Google+ added 208 million users?! Really?! Google+ is growing really fast, but not that fast! If Google had surpassed 200 million users you would have read an official report somewhere stating that as fact from Google. While I love Google+ and hope it continues to grow, Google+ has yet to play second...

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