A nation of fake people on Facebook

My address book gets messy but this is a massive pile of spam, duplicates and facade profiles for teens hiding from the folks.

Sure, there is probably a program to sift through them but there is some sad set of eyes out there with the job of perusing the wasteland.

83 Million Facebook Accounts Are Fake

Facebook gone public. Good and bad or just bad?

As you probably know, because its has been on every news outlet ad nauseam (including my little corner, hah), Facebook has gone public today at 11AM EST. In a valuation worth over $100 billion dollars, this is a big day that should help define what social networking is really worth.

Turn your commute into a game with Waze!

UPDATE: After acquiring Waze, Google is now integrating traffic reports, generated from the Waze app's users, into the Google Maps app. Still no signs of closing down Waze itself as there is no way to report incidents from Google's own app.

Google Maps Gets Waze Real-Time Traffic Reports | PC Mag http://bit.ly/14yvehz


Your commute is probably boring and leaves you feeling unproductive. What if you could score points and compete with your friends just by driving? Waze aims to do just that and more. Waze, in the most basic sense, is a free turn by turn navigation service for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. Two really great features give it a big leg up over the other options. First, it is a game where you get points for driving and finding road goodies. Second, it is a social navigation app. When you are playing the game, you are actually providing Waze with valuable information about road conditions, avearge speed, and additional map details. This information helps Waze to determine better directions for you and other drivers using the app. As you earn more points you rise in rank, relative to other Wazers, and are able to compare your road warrior status against your friends on Facebook who also use Waze. It is surprisingly addictive, expecially when you realize that you can play a Pac-Man style of game by driving over roads that require fresh data (your avatar turns into a Pac-Man and munches up the road). As you can tell, this is a very social way to approach GPS navigation. In addition to just passively providing data, you can also report traffic jams, speed traps and road hazards to warn other Wazers (you get points for those too).

I've been using the app now for a few weeks and am pretty happy with the results. Waze has been much better than Google Navigation at avoiding traffic jams and it provides surprisingly accurate ETAs when using the navigation. It only gets better as more people use it, so download it and start navigating better, together.

Download: http://www.waze.com/download/

Prediction: Drumo will crush city-data.com forums

Okay, its not like the place is hugely popular (though very active in its own right), but www.city-data.com is a great place to go to get a wealth of information on many cities in the world. If the mountains of analytical data are not quite what you are looking for, city-data also has a robust forum where you can post questions on individual city forums and locals, hopefully, respond. It is a great set up and I've used it to get information on places I was moving to or visiting. I'm also an occasional contributor on the Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago forums.

Drumo is the forum part of city-data but much better. A pretty UI and game mechanics keeps users engaged and entertained. Additionally, local businesses can reward users for their advice and support with deals and special promotions. Unfortunately, it is limited to a few cities that are nowhere near the United States. Though, if it is successful, and I think it will be, I'd expect to see this spread fairly quickly.

Check it out:


Drumo from Drumo on Vimeo.

Read/See More: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/drumo-is-quora-for-cities/

Twitter finally gets an update

With the likes of Google+ and Facebook rolling out exciting, sometimes controversial, updates on a regular basis. Many of us have been left wondering if Twitter was ever going to evolve too. Years have gone by with users complaining that conversations are broken. It has gotten to the point where people just don't think of Twitter as a place for conversation. It is a broadcast medium that will leave you woefully disappointed if you ever wanted to see how your Tweets evolved across the network.

Twitter's new @USERNAME stream and Activity stream are set to tackle this issue. The @USERNAME stream will combine the @Mentions and Retweet streams into one. Additionally, activity on your account and tweets is included. This will allow you to see things like information on new followers and who is favoriting your tweets. The Activity stream displays similar information but is focused on the activity of those you follow.

This should help to make following conversations and identifying your biggest fans easier for most users. Popular Twitterers might not care for these enhancements as their @USERNAME stream will be flooded with retweets. However, it is good to see Twitter taking a step towards innovation instead just letting the service bleed active users.

What I like about these changes is that they don't mess with what Twitter has become as a broadcasting service. In fact, it looks to me that these changes are about keeping track of your broadcasting reach. These are just the type of enhancements Twitter needs to keep from becoming irrelevant in the eyes of Facebook and Google+ users.

Read More: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/10/twitter-activity-streams/

Socialbots disguised as real people steal 250GB of Facebook data

I don't know how many times I have said this but, I feel it still hasn't been enough. DO NOT accept friend requests from random people you've never met or conversed with. They might look really hot or super in to you. Maybe their profile looks professional and polished. It doesn't matter. Don't trust your judgement. If you haven't seen them, spoken to them or otherwise know they are a real person then just hit "Ignore."

'Socialbots' steal 250GB of user data in Facebook invasion | Security - CNET News:

'via Blog this'

Google Reader Rolls Out a New, Clean, Google Plus-Integrated Interface [Updates]

Google Reader Rolls Out a New, Clean, Google Plus-Integrated Interface [Updates]:

Google Reader is following in the footsteps of Gmail, Docs, and Voice with a clean new interface, that's easier to use and contains integration with the Google+ social network. More »

Flavors.me is a beautiful and highly usable way to set up your personal page

I was just checking out this website, flavors.me, and it is one of the coolest, sexiest places to host and design your personal information page. The design here is truly phenomenal. Simple, one-step sign-up and a clean interface provide an experience that is clear and straightforward while allowing for a lot of customization. Speaking of customization, if you want to add an even more unique look beyond what is available in the free version, you can upgrade to their premium service for just $20/year. It includes more fonts, SEO metadata, the ability to re-route from a custom domain, analytics and more.

Get the whole scoop in the following video.

Get notified, or don't, on Google+

Google just rolled out the ability to customize your notifications settings even further than before. Limit notifications to specific circles, individuals or let the spam train ride. With a precipitous drop in activity since Plus went to open beta, Google needs to entice users back in with every little feature they can eek out.

More: Google+ Now Let’s Users Customize Who They Receive Notifications From [News]

GM gets into the car-sharing game

While I am about as far as you can get from the cities that support GetAround, a peer to peer car-sharing program, I am still a member and actively watch their progress. This sort of thing seems to make a lot of sense to me but I am somewhat skeptical about its adoption by the general consumer. I think people are still a bit suspicious about an internet company getting them rental cars from strangers. However, GM hopes to eliminate that fear by incorporating RelayRides, a new start-up similar to GetAround, into their OnStar service. In my opinion, this should alleviate consumer skepticism as OnStar is already a very well trusted brand.

Read more: TechCrunch - Car-sharing Startup RelayRides Partners With GM

Are you alive? PassMyWill Entails Your Social Identity to Your Friends

Know someone who died recently from your friends list on Facebook? Having a dead person in your friends list can be odd when you still see their automatic postings from various QOTD, Astrology and Reader Apps that make it appear as though they are living. Sure, you could remove them but, somehow, it seems wrong to toss a life away into forgetfulness through the, usually passive-agressive, method of removing "friends." They died, its probably not their fault.

PassMyWill is a service that will monitor your social activity. If you don't post anything, it will try to contact you via email. If that fails, it will send a list of logon credentials (that you put together ahead of time) to a list of people of your choosing. The idea is that you trust those individuals enough to do something nice with, your now ironic, social media presence. Perhaps a memorialization or, if your the joking type, some kind of silly, from the dead, social networking. 

It is a decent idea, but not without some concerns. I don't think this can actually differentiate from automatic app posts and real human posts. Security is another concern. Your friends will need a security key to access the passwords once you pass away. However, many are still uncertain about whether the system is easily tricked into distributing your passwords unintentionally.

Furthermore, there are easier and more sensible ways to accomplish this task. Unless you are a sad and pathetic internet troll who has no friends and has been shunned by all family, you will likely be able to include something in your will, or your security deposit box at the bank, that someone you care about will be able to access. If you haven't thought of that in this day and age it might be time to formulate some kind of plan. If you are like me, your partner should know how to access your social accounts (unless you are a sneaky sneak with things to hide). If you don't have someone close to you, include it in your will to have your accounts deleted by the executor. Just be sure to update it whenever you change your passwords.

Read More: TechCrunch - PassMyWill is a will for your online assets and passwords

Don Draper invented FB Timeline

In case you missed it before the original was removed, Don Draper Presents Facebook Timeline. A hilarious mash-up of one of Draper's best scenes and FB Timeline. Check it out before it slips away again!

Google + API trickles out

Developers can now get public posts and profiles out of Google Plus. Not enough to really get things going, but at least it is a start.
Read more: Mashable

Google+ API still an interminable wait away...

ARGH...it is so frustrating waiting for it to come out! I understand that 6 months isn't a terrible turn around for an API but Google is up against Facebook's neck-breaking velocity and bone-crushing inertia. It seems as though the non-techies are forgetting about Google+ fairly quickly (for me, that's fine) and by the time that API rolls around, the fresh G+ additions to apps like TweetDeck and HootSuite won't generate, in my opinion, the buzz and usage needed to make G+ relevant comparative to Facebook. I hope I am wrong. I really like Google+ as a real replacement to Facebook (for me, not everybody).


Check it out: TC - Google+ API Launch Still Months Away

Own a shop? Keep up on your online presence or be closed!

Apparently, there is a new tactic being used by some very shrewd and seedy business owners. In the hopes of stealing customers from a successful competitor, some shop owners have been going on to Google Places and flagging their competition as "Closed." It seems that Google has almost no vetting process for these flags (which just makes them switches). Because of that, some shops have been packed one day and empty the next as some guy at the place across the street decided that his biggest competition is now closed. So, until Google figures out how to begin managing this, it would behoove anyone with a presence on Google Places to keep up on their business profiles.

Just another example of why you should always remain aware of what is going on with your entire online presence. You never what might have gone wrong whether by some technical error or malicious intent.

Check it out: NYT - Closed, Says Google, but Shops’ Signs Say Open

Social Nets at Full Tilt: Not really what we thought it'd be

Some people remember when Facebook and Twitter were new and interesting things. Now, 'everybody' is on and the networks are operating at full potential with everyone you know and don't know sharing their lives and thoughts on the networks.

Good, right? Well, not so fast. Yes, almost everyone you could possibly want to friend or follow is out there and is sharing. However, how much noise do you see in your Twitter and FB feeds. It is rather overwhelming, and it should be. The data and information of even your truncated social landscape is more than a person with a full-time job can handle. Like in real life, we have to form task or topic oriented communities to help us focus on the social activities that mean something to us. Unfortunately, we haven't seen this behavior truly take off, but it looks like the networks, with Google+ at the lead, are moving in the direction of making your communities/circles/committees/lunch groups easier to parse out of the noise.

Will social networking lose its wild west, share all, see all ways in favor of neatly controlled cliques and groups where all members see the activity that only they care about? Will (real)friendless basement-dwellers be echoing into a social metropolis with all its shops opened to members only?

The Social Network Paradox | TechCrunch:

'via Blog this'

Gather 'round the Google+ hangout and watch some YouTube

Twitter / @YouTube: You can now start a Google ...

Yep, that's right. You can now start a huddle and watch YouTube videos with your friends!

The opportunities here are great. Maybe give a video presentation over the web and have a real conversation with your participants. Or, you could just waste time with your buddies watching cats do cat things.