There’s a very simple business reason why Google cares if they have your real name. It means it’s possible to cross-relate your account with your buying behavior with their partners, who might be banks, retailers, supermarkets, hospitals, airlines. To connect with your use of cell phones that might be running their mobile operating system. To provide identity in a commerce-ready way. And to give them information about what you do on the Internet, without obfuscation of pseudonyms. 

Simply put, a real name is worth more than a fake one.

- Dave Winer

The entire post is worth a read, and Dave is pretty spot on. The Google reps I've spoken to deny this, but it's obvious to anyone who understands how Google works. Just about everything they do and service they provide is about search and advertising even if they don't seem related to search and advertising directly.

I'm sure that the real name/common name policy is also rooted in other beliefs held by the heads of the Google+ project. However, given all the pushback on this both externally and internally, it seems like a policy they should have given up if it was just about a misunderstanding of how people operate on the Internets. Throw in the fact that it's about money, better data mining, and the ability to tie what you do online to what you buy, and things crystallize a bit.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

I had better luck with my Epic 4G — the contacts program there will send the vCard via GMail, which is all I want. Makes it easy to share my info with folks. But the way Android is constantly trying to link up contacts and combine multiples is driving me insane….

Anyway, who else is going to BlogHer?

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

From an excellent cartoon essay “Why I love and hate having a smartphone” on The Oatmeal. 

This is my favorite thing about phones right now. Talking about the type of phone you have can lead to fisticuffs!

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is open to participation. If you want to install a dead drop in your city/neighborhood follow the ‘how to’ instructions and submit the location and pictures.

I love this idea. I have about 30 USB drives without a purpose. This seems like a good one to me.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

“I had one good pickup line, and e-readers ruined it. I can no longer hit on a handsome man on a long commute by asking about his book — because I can’t see it.”

-- Lisa Lewis, writing in the NYTimes’ City Room blog on how e-readers make it harder for her to strike up conversations with strangers. - Matt (via cnnmoneytech)

Is it wrong of me to think: "Quit harassing strangers, woman, and mind your own business!"? It’s probably wrong of me…

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

A user of Google+ was logged into Google with both individual and his company’s Google Apps login, and discovered that Google+ can be used — at least partially — with Google Apps:

As reported by Google Operating System, Google’s John Costigan confirmed this: “We’re actively working on making Profiles (and Google+) available for Google Apps - it should be available in the coming months.”

Personally, I feel that this is where the tools that Google+ offers may be of greatest utility, as a stream-based business collaboration tool, an example of what I call work media. As I recently wondered, the effort involved in defining circles might not be worth the effort. However, if you are working in a company of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people, creating circles for projects, departments, or topically-oriented collections of people makes a lot of sense.

Note also that Google Apps already has an app store architecture, so the rollout of apps like Huddle and Hangouts would be simple.

And there is the opportunity to convert the over 25M Google Apps users to something worth paying for.

This is an excellent idea. I do think workflow could be improved by Google+ for Apps accounts. Especially for long email conversation chains. Too bad my magazine is no longer using Google Apps.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

erinonthemoon:

zombiesonparade:

Urgent Reminder For all Tweeters.

This is a legitimate concern.

Excellent advice.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

Cory Watilo via

This is a screenshot from an official promotion video of Outlook 2010. Seriously, what a trainwreck. I still remain a Microsoft fan, but this screenshot just shows the lack of any intelligent design direction anywhere in the company.

I previously wrote about the design disconnect at Microsoft here.

Gross.

Our workplace is going to move to Office 2010 soon and I’m going to be forced to use Outlook instead of my beloved Thunderbird. I want to throw up every time I think about it. This doesn’t help.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

Tumblr opens doors to government agencies from Medill Washington on Vimeo.

markcoatney:

chels:

I worked with the awesome David Charns yesterday on this piece about the government using Tumblr.

You may have seen the State Department’s Tumblr but there are others who are joining up, too. The National Archives runs a few (Document of the Day, the Exhibits Tumblr, and one about Our Presidents). One of my favorite things yesterday was meeting up with the ladies who blog from the National Archives and talking about funny documents they have. Did you know they’ve got the Jell-O box used in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial? One woman said she came across documents from the Civil War listing the health of every horse in every regiment for EACH WEEK of the war. Crazy.

Anyway, the whole article is up on The Daily Caller. And thanks a million to Mark Coatney, the Peace Corps Tumblr people, everyone from the National Archives, and the USA.gov folks.

This was really nice work; thanks, Chelsea and David.

Really loving the diversity of uses people put Tumblr to. Makes me wonder why more companies, publications and organizations haven't jumped on it.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

changetheratio:

This. #nofilter #changetheratio

The New Yorker has come out with its profile of Facebook COO Sheyl Sandberg: “A Woman’s Place: Sheryl Sandberg & Male-Dominated Silicon Valley.” Stop for a second - it’s 2011 and it’s sort of nuts that such a title should even work. And yet! Sandberg is terrific and Auletta shines a light on the issue of access, and visibility, and opportunity - all of Change the Ratio’s favorite obsessions. It’s a great time for Sandberg’s message to be magnified (raise your hand; don’t leave before you leave; lean in) and a great time to be an awesome woman doing cool shizz ready to catch that spotlight now that it’s finally swinging around.

This is great for CTR, too. I was psyched when David Remnick emailed me back in March to hear my thoughts on the matter and more psyched to get to bend Ken Auletta’s ear for 90 minutes in the Hashable office - but he spoke to lots of people and seemed focused on Sheryl and the Valley, so who knew what would make the cut. But we did - with our core mission of visibility front and center. He also included a precis of the contretemps with Michael Arrington not even a year ago - and my God, how out of date it sounds now, eh? See below:

Sandberg and many other women in Silicon Valley think the problems women encounter are usually more subtle than blatant sexism. “I think it is largely innocent,” says Rachel Sklar, a New York writer and entrepreneur who has actively protested against digital conferences that invite too few women to speak. Sklar co-founded a women’s organization called Change the Ratio, and she tries to make sure there are more women onstage. “You can’t know about what you don’t see,” she says.

Some suggest that women are also to blame. Michael Arrington, the editor of TechCrunch and the organizer of the TechCrunch Disrupt conferences, defended venture capitalists and Silicon Valley males in a blog post last summer. “The problem is that not enough women want to become entrepreneurs,” he wrote. Referring to Sklar, and her campaign, Arrington added, “Yeah ok, whatever, Rachel. Every damn time we have a conference we fret over how we can find women to fill speaking slots. We ask our friends and contacts for suggestions. We beg women to come and speak… . And you know what? A lot of the time they say no. Because they are literally hounded to speak at every single tech event in the world because they are all trying so hard to find qualified women to speak at their conference.”

It is SO not hard to find qualified women to speak at tech, digital and entrepreneurship conferences - good Lord, I trip over all of you every day. I can’t imagine that all but the most clueless and narrow-minded readers won’t think to themselves, huh, that doesn’t sound quite right, as they mentally go through all the amazing women who are making incredible stuff happen more and more visibly every day. This article will swing that spotlight around even more, and hopefully further illuminate the blindspot where guess what? There are lots of qualified, amazing women raising their hands and leaning in.

This is a good day!

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

"As I'm browsing around Google-powered sites there’s occasionally a red notification alert that pops up and immediately grabs my attention. Soon enough I'm clicking through the various notifications and seeing what my friends have shared and who has recently begun sharing with me."

-- The One Google Plus Feature Facebook Should Fear (via digiture)

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

My favorite is the Microsoft one. You could almost just copy and paste for Sony.

via: laughingsquid

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

“By limiting the number of people who can join Google+, Google is hugely limiting what kind of experience those people will have. Early adopters have plenty of influence on mainstream opinion and love to boast, so if they log into a barren wasteland then you can bet they’ll be telling their friends that ‘yeah, I’m on Google+, but it’s not that great’.”

-- Duncan Geere writing at Wired’s Epicenter blog on why you don’t need to find yourself a Google+ invite (via cnnmoneytech)

This sounds really familiar….

Oh right, it’s what everyone was saying when Google Wave came out.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

The problem I have is that the entire argument is stupid. Most of the apps I use on a regular basis are just front-faces for the web anyway. Use Facebook app, a Twitter client, maps or weather? They are all just front ends to web apps. Even email clients are just a front face on data and information from the web. So where do you draw the line?

(A hint: there isn’t one. This is just another fabricated argument to give us tech nerds something to argue about.)

I will disagree, but only slightly.

My most-used apps are those that do more than just front the web for me, they also give me access to data even when the web is not available. Developers have been lax in creating really useful caching abilities in many apps because there’s this idea that people are only using their devices at home on the couch or maybe at work. Well, yes, because they’re not terribly useful on the go.

Unless you have mobile connectivity, but even then that won’t help you on a plane, in a subway, or out where the 3G don’t shine. Plus, given that Wi-Fi only tablets are much less expensive than their 3G/4G counterparts and don’t come with an expensive data plan (which you may be locked into for 2 years), a huge chunk of the audience isn’t going to be always connected.

I think mobile App vs. Web is a good discussion to have when you think about the advantages mobile apps have int hat they can serve up data even when there’s no connection. How to convince developers that this is something they need to think about? That I can’t answer.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

stoweboyd:

steverubel:

The most important part to read is their guide for reporting and how journos are using Twitter to find sources.

Jake Tapper from ABC News:

The way [Twitter has] been most useful is in terms of following people. I’ve been able to use it for reporting and to find sources. Last year when a health insurance company raised its premiums in California and it affected thousands of people, I didn’t know how to reach any of them, so I sent a Tweet out to my followers: “Is there anybody out there who is a customer of Anthem Blue cross who got their insurance premiums raised?”

@lemoneyes tweeted me that she had and so I followed her. I got her information through DM and then emailed her, we verified her situation and then we sent a camera crew to her. The next morning she was on ABC’s Good Morning America. There is no way I could have done that before.

Liquid media will liquefy all solid media.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

ianbrooks:

Browser Wars by shoze

Seriously, I cant fault anybody for using Firefox in lieu of Chrome, even though it is the clearly superior product but if you’re using Internet Explorer still…. really? I question how you’re capable of dressing yourself in the morning.

Artist: blog / deviantart

Chrome would maybe be superior if it had the extensions Firefox has. I can’t do my work with Chrome’s skimpy extensions and tons of useless apps.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

iheartchaos:

“Nuts for Nintendo”, an ABC News 20/20 special from 1988

John Stossel and his mustache take an in depth look at this “Nintendo” craze that all the kids were about in the 1980s.

You know, there really should be a word for that stupid, condescending tone that reporters and newscasters like to use whenever talking about anything newfangled or related to science, technology, video games or whatever teenagers are into. That tone that tells their old people viewers that “We don’t really get it and don’t really care to”.

Via

There has to be a word for that tone. If there isn’t, we need to create it.

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

ELEMENTS OF EXISTENCE (by Nick Gentry)

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.

ROCKVILLE.egg on Aviary.

The publishers of all-volunteer local news blog Rockville Central made an unusual leap in March: They bagged their traditional Web site and instead moved their operation entirely to Facebook. The Post’s Ian Shapira chronicled their decision and what it could mean to the media industry. Though the blog has a relatively small reach, their gambit poses a question for the broader media industry. Are journalism outlets taking best advantage of Facebook? Will the role of social networking sites continue to grow when it comes to content aggregation and distribution?

Shapira’s account of the decision is here. And below, Rockville Central’s publishers explain how the maintenance and mechanics of their work has changed since they went all Facebook, all the time.

“Rockville Central: Day to day maintenance”

By Cindy Cotte Griffiths and Brad Rourke

Since we shifted from being a standalone Web site to being all-Facebook, we still have many of the same basic chores to perform to keep content running, but we go about them in a slightly different way.

One change with using Facebook is that things we used to schedule ahead of time now need to be done at publishing time. So, instead of Brad scheduling the week’s “POTD’s” (Picture Of The Day) and letting them publish on their own, on Sunday afternoon Brad will gather the week’s photos and write a Note for each one, saving it as a draft. Then, around 6 each morning, Brad will take that day’s POTD Note and publish it. (Our rules for POTD: The photos must be taken fairly recently, within the Rockville city limits.)

Read More

This post was syndicated from my Tumblr. Comment below or Reblog @ Tumblr.

To see all of my Tumblr posts, please follow me there.