Declaring Your Social Media Independence

The Evolution of Social Media

I read an article this morning titled “The Evolution Of WordPress.”  WordPress is the fabulous CMS software that powers this blog.  Hack wordpress a great blog that I read was commenting on the changes and improvements the WordPress software has seen.

In the same way the advances in Social media are dramatic.  Systems, methods, and technologies that many rely on were not around or were in infant stages just 5 years ago. 5 years in technology terms is a enormous amount of time but in the real world 5 years is a blink of an eye.  The web as we know it has changed dramatically in the last 5 years.  Its modern inception is only a mere 15 years or so old.

Web applications have given this ‘have it now crowd’ nearly instant gratification.  I have commented before that I am amazed at the feature development of some of the current Web apps.  Just bursting into prominence in the last 6 months or so FriendFeed and Toluu continually wow me with enhancements.

Social Media Addiction

Do you remember life before a cell phone?  Perhaps the cell phone era is difficult to remember we have come to rely on them so heavily. Now when I leave my cell phone at home despite $4 a gallon gas prices I turn the car around and go back for the phone.

I think many of us have the same thoughts about social media.  We have become so attached to Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, and any other social media application that application failure is devastating.

The twitter addicts have been hunting all over for a place to get their fix.  They have stirred the blogosphere into a buzz over start-ups like Plurk and identi.ca.

The twitter addicts seem to have become attached to Twitter in the same way they are attached to power, water, and other necessities of life.  They seem to be the most rabid.  But I venture to say that Gmail, FriendFeed, or Google Reader went down in the way twitter has I would be equally as frantic.  Social media addiction is prominent.

Declare Your Independence

I challenge you to declare your independence from Social media at least for some period of time.  Declaring your independence will assist you in breaking your cycle of addiction.  This should assist in the event that your favorite application goes down or becomes unreliable.  So take a break from social media.

Perhaps we should stop for a minute and smell the fresh air.  It is summertime. We should take a break and get outdoors.  We could take our families on vacation.  I recently saw a user friendfeeding on vacation from the beach.  This flickr image appeared in the friendfeed stream posted from the beach.  Could the addiction be anymore evident?  No friendfeeding or twittering during family time.   Take a break so you can appreciate and enjoy social media later.

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My Blog Has Been Louis Grayed!

Yes this is a good thing.  In fact it is a very good thing.   Louis Gray is one of the premier Tech bloggers writing today.  I visit his site daily and even have an email subscription to make sure I do not miss a post.

Louis has shown great interest and respect for the small unknown blogger.  Since March he has been profiling 5 Blogs a month.   March, April, May and June.  The small blogs he has spotlighted have taken off and many are must reads in my google reader now.  These blogs have included Hutch Carpenter, Charlie Anzman, SheGeeks, Julian Baldwin, Michael Fruchter, Mark Dykeman, Colin Walker, Alexander van Elsas, and many other outstanding blogs.

I am honored to be included in the list for July.  I am included in great company.  I already subscribe to two of them.  I have already been reading Nathaniel Payne’s NerdFlood and David Risley but can not wait to check out the other two as well.  Here is the list:

1) Bob Warfield / SmoothSpan Blog (smoothspan.wordpress.com)

2) Jesse Stay / Stay N’ Alive (www.jessestay.com)

3) Franklin Pettit / FPettit.com (www.fpettit.com)

4) Nathaniel Payne / NerdFlood (www.nerdflood.com)

5) David Risley / DavidRisley.com (www.davidrisley.com)

Thanks Louis for the link and mention.   I am honored to be in the company of your monthly featured bloggers.  I better get posting.  I currently have 33 open drafts in WordPress.  It is time to finish some off and put out more content.

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Better Google Reader

Better GReader is a Firefox extension by Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. This Firefox extension combines many Google Reader Greasemonkey extensions into one easy installable package.

I updated to the newest version 0.2.5 that includes a Greasemonkey script with enhancement to the feed icons.

The addon uses each sites favicon as the feed icon. Pretty cool. You can download the Greasemonkey script only here.

Finally here is a link to the Lifehacker post about Better GReader.

Is An IFrame Integration?

What constitutes real integration and what is just silly? Integration to provide additional functionality is great. But my question is that really being done. The following are 3 examples using 3 different methods of so called integration all using iframes.

Readburner recently released an update that combines Google Reader into the ReadBurner site. It is being called Google Reader integration. It is actually no more than a tab with an iframe for the google reader site.
As I said before I am using FFapps.com to expand the FriendFeed functionality. One of the Greasemonkey scripts they have released is called FF Tabs. It adds a tab to FriendFeed called Techmeme and when clicked on simply embeds Techmeme into FriendFeed as an IFrame.
The third is a bookmarklet I read about today on Louis Gray’s blog that combines Google Reader into friendfeed via simple bookmarklet. When FriendFeed is open you click the bookmarklet and Google Reader is pulled in.

Readburner coded this iframe as functionality into their site, the second is a user created Greasemonkey script, and the third example is a user generated bookmarklet all created to add functionality via IFrame.

We all use tabbed browsers correct? What are we really gaining? I always have multiple tabs opens that include Google Reader and FriendFeed. Are these IFrames true functionality? I would say NO. They are nice but not really that helpful.

I am all for true innovation and integration this just is not it.

Google Reader Gets Notes

Google Reader Notes 1Image by VoIPman via Flickr

Google Reader gets notes. The ability to annotate a note to a post is very cool. The ability to share anything from the web feed or not is cool. But…

I typed a quick note as I shared a Louis Gray post. But I misspelled a word. How do I correct it? This is just an example of many questions I have with these new enhancements.

Sidebar – Who else thinks this is too little too late? I am using FriendFeed so much this is almost irrelevant. FriendFeed allows more than a note. It is a real social network with conversation. I can comment and then edit the comment. – End Sidebar

I still love Google Reader it just seems like the enhancements are so reactionary. What happened to Reader being on the cutting innovative edge? It seems Reader is back on their heels.

Profy.com a new hosted blog/feed reader Google Reader competitor is giving much more flexibility for noting. Profy‘s free form way of letting you share a whole post and blog it in any way you want is much better. [For more on Profy see David Knight’s interview with Svetlana Gladkova, Profy Vice President.]

The Google Reader note is good idea. I just think buggy enhancements need to be thought out more. Do not put it in play and then fix it.

But now my first ever note has a freaking TYPO! How do I fix it? Geez. I wanted Google Reader to update already but the enhancements need to be clear and valuable. Get rid of the bugs and complete the enhancements. So here is my bug/completion list…

  • Combine Notes to remove duplicates – If one entry has a note and the other doesn’t I do not need to read both.
  • Show/Link original linker – If you read alot of shared feeds or just Scobles’ you will see notes and have no idea whom they came from. I suggest linking to that person’s shared feed.
  • Edit my notes – you can not edit a note once it has been posted.
  • Fix the double share process. If you note something and check shared it shares it once. When the note box goes away the share button is not selected. Make the check box on the note window flag an entry as shared.
  • Friendfeed can read comments separate from the entry. Question only: Can the notes be read in XML independently from the post?

Toluu Invites

Toluu the new beta RSS sharing site is currently in private beta. Never heard of it? Check out this ReadWriteWeb article. I have some invites if interested. Leave a comment with your email if you want one.

Update 06/13/2008: Toluu is gaining alot of momentum. The latest enhancements are great. For more about the founder Caleb Elston go here. I have 25 invites. Leave a comment if you want one.