Google's Ideas

So Google thinks Facebook is competition?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/former-chief-eric-schmidt-admits-google-didnt-take-facebook-seriously/story-e6frgakx-1226067954921?from=public_rss

Amongst the big 4 of the net (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon) why would any one of the 4 ever feel competition?
Seriously each has its own market share for different things.
Amazon - the no1 retailer online.
Facebook - the no1 socialiser online
Apple - the no1 user friendly app.
Google - the no1 search engine.

Why invent competition when there is none. Sure, 300million people are honked on to Facebook, but they are not going to give up Google for searching. If any weird attempt of copying Facebook occurs on Google, I'm not really sure if that's going to help them.

For starters, its going to turn me against the search engine. What your doing is smart, i.e, google books, google scholar. It's unique. Remember, even the little attempt at Google buzz was such a failure, so why muddle with things that are to be left to others?

If adds, and income is being attracted by Facebook, it seriously isn't a reason to panic. You still have the market share of users in search engines, and a lot of advertising income will still be generated that way.

So chillax and retain your personality GOOGLE. A little advise from a little person.
If anything Facebook, is the one to fear with all the law suits and controversies.

A Return to Blogging after a Pause

I was, of recent, actually, rather than on a subconscious level, appreciating the level of technology surrounding us. This occurred especially in light of the recent FB group controversy and the confusion over our private lives intermingling with our public lives.

Whilst I was on Facebook, I would have never considered myself an addict, but I immensely enjoyed spending time on it to look at photos and what not updates of 'facebook friends'. Apart from my "real" friends(people I actually met on a regular basis in real life, and new of their lives), I found my self, unconsciously, making generalisations of people based on just what they potrayed facebook. At times, it was so bad, that I would consider someone else discriminatory, for making those comments. But how often do we reflect our true selves on Facebook. Even before this question is asked, what is the point of analysing these people so meticulousy on Facebook. Was I going to employ them, was I looking for a potential partner or friend(considering most of them were meant to be my 'friend' or atleast acquaintance')? No. It is the simple nosiness that is innate in us. I found myself doing the same thing, old 'paati's' do in India, and I get so cut at them for doing so. The paati's would munch their betel leaves, and having nothing else to do with their time, would go 'avanga veetla.......intha ponnu....etc'

It's funny how generation gaps aren't really generation gaps. Are we really more modern, and fair in our perspective? I think, on reflection, its more just the same old prejudice bundled up and expressed in a different way. Oh, the beauty of technology enabling us to do this even in our uber busy lives.

The faceless acussations of facebook

Does a week go by without someone alleging something bad against Facebook? Is this media's way of grabbing our attention and making us read the news? Or is the jealousy rage rising, cos FAcebook is so successful?

The recent article on news.com.au, 'Facebook addicts can't relate', just blew the pipe for me. Clearly the person making these allegations has no clue or has never met a person with 900 friends on facebook.

"If you are not rehearsing looking someone in the eye in three dimensions, but instead you have 900 friends on Facebook ... one does question what kind of relationship they might be having,'' was the allegation put forward.

But this is crazy, I may have a fair while to go to reach 900 friends, but I know many other's well past this fanciful number. And I can assure you their social skills are great, and relationships are strong. You can't just randomly go an add 900 people, although you may add one or two, or a few more, and have a solely online relation that in their terms lacks 'empathy'. Its through meeting them in person that you get to add more people. So obviously some where along the line this person had met these 900 poeple.

the accusation of 'not rehearsing' is absolute attrocity. Shy people will actually feel like contributing online, and become more confident in meeting peole they've already met online, because the introduction is already done. And so what if we rehearse, doesnt that still help us in our interactions with others? Even before the net savvy days, people rehearsed to make face to face conversations, eg when they proposed, met an important person etc. So the fact people rehearse, if in fact they do this on FAcebook, can only be viewed as a positive.

We will all have the story, of meeting someone, forgetting, later finding them on FAcebook. See, fb actually encourages us to form a relationship and meet up with them later. Or how about the times, we've seen someone a 100 million times, but never had the opportunity to talk to them. Remember the times, you would have caught up with a friend, and started talking about what someone wrote on FAcebook. This just goes to suggest that fb even encourages conversations.

I'm an advocate for facebook, for the fact it connects people. There are disadvantages, no doubt, and it in no way replaces face to face conversation, but when this is not possible, Facebook is a great tool to facilitate face to face conversations.

Thus, 'YOUTHS hooked on social networking sites are struggling to relate' has no substance or merit. Facebook enhances relational skills, plus maybe a bit of stalking and bitching on the other side, but that's another blog.