In so far as I like to react to things in the style of Navin R. Johnson, let me say “The new Twitter is here, the new twitter is here!”
It actually is pretty nice, especially for people like myself who for some reason often use the web interface anyway. But mostly I’m posting this to make people like @mamamezlove jealous. :)
This is the first time this has happened to me:
I’ve had lots of friends available on chat for a long time, but this is the first time there were many available, and all had video chat enabled. Google’s push for increased adoption perhaps along with the need to install video chat to use the “call within Gmail” feature that was recently introduced may be driving this. But whatever the cause, it’s pretty cool.
Kiss your phone numbers goodbye… sometime in the not-so-distant future.
Hot Tub from S SHAPIRO – DIRECTOR REEL on Vimeo.
I’m pretty sure that this is part of a global cross-species simultaneous mutation… all species are slowly but surely learning to yell, man-style… the earth is finally responding to our mistreatment of the planet, and soon she will have her revenge by having super annoying screaming animals bugging us at every juncture. every time you litter or piss in the ocean, or what have you, something will be there to yell at you annoyingly.
“Heeeeeeey! Heeeeeeeeyyyyyy! Recycle that shit!”
But wait – what if this is contagious? What if it goes airborne and starts infecting humans? There would be men screaming like men all over place!!!!!
This is the second time I’ve found this shirt. The first time was in Cincinnati in 1995 when I graduated from highschool and some friends and I wanted to wear aloha shirts to commemorate our “never having to go through this again.” I’ve worn it occasionally since then,and it has remained a favorite if not oft chosen garment since that time. Continue reading
Google Instant Search is the first thing in a long time that has made me want to go to Google.com rather than just search fromt the Chrome URL bar. That in and of itself is quite a feat. Really. But, oh man… every time Google makes a change to search people (mostly people who don’t really understand SEO) come out yelling about how this is “going to kill SEO.” And it happened again this week with Google’s release of “Instant Search.” But Instant Search is only going to kill SEO if you’re terrible at SEO. For the rest of us it represents more opportunities and targets to optimize for, and even thought the analytic tools may not quite be there yet to break down user behavior to a point that makes it completely easy to take advantage of, there is still plenty that can be done. And I’d love some discussion or feedback on this one, so hit me up with comments here or via @supnah on Twitter.
What is Google Instant Search?
Google Instant Search basically means that when you are performing a search from google.com Google will start serving results to you before you hit the “return” button – while you are still typing in your search term. Google effectively tries to guess what term you are ultimately going to type in and serve related results for it before you’ve even finished in order to help you save time. Google will also serve up recommended search terms that it thinks you might be aiming for so that you can quickly select one of those with one click rather than having to finish typing all of the rest of the letters in your search term. Here are examples of both… (click for enlarged view) Continue reading
I am here to tell you how angry cows proved 1) that the HTC Incredible is built pretty damned well, and 2) that the new features of Google Voice and calling from within Gmail completely useful and disruptive of the traditional relationship between customers and mobile telephone service providers. For more details about those telephony features and their disruptive nature, check out my earlier post about Google’s disruptive telephony features, but this one is all about the angry cows…
Last weekend I went to a wedding in Bend, OR and decided to stop and do some fishing at Black Butte on the way back to Portland. Unfortunately, the herd of free range cattle that sometimes graze there were out, and I didn’t notice them at first as they were in the distance and around the corner from some trees and brush that blocked the view. My girlfriend and I were on a small outcropping of land into an area where the stream widens out quite a bit when the herd came around the corner. They were all business with bulls out front – ears and eyes up, horns sharp. We were already boxed in at this point – the bulls were past us and drinking at the water’s edge downstream from us. The rest of the herd was upstream from us blocking the path back to the stairway that runs over the fence.
Google recently introduced free calling from within Gmail – allowing users (in the U.S. at least) to call domestically for free, and call internationally for very cheap. Here’s why this is interesting:
• It’s a play at Skype and “SkypeOut” – their VoIP to phone service. Google is trying to get the huge user base of Gmail accustomed to chatting, video chatting, and even making phone calls through Gmail.
• It’s defense against Facebook whose chat services are being adopted and used a ton by Facebook users (i.e. everyone). You’d also better believe that Facebook is going to continue to improve its messaging feature, which one day may rival full feature email services like Gmail.
• This is the beginning of the end of phone numbers as we know them.