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Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

December 26, 2009

Information Overload [image]

What is better than an infograph? An infograph about the internet :)

This nifty infograph called “A day in the Internet” is a little mind blowing. We all know that there is TONS of information being shared online through email, l media sites, and mobile technology, but when it is compared to something as regular as a photo album, one can’t help but be a little humbled.

Here are the statistics:

A Day in the Internet

An average day online is basically information overload

An average day online is basically information overload

Created by Online Education. Click on Image to Enlarge.

Is User-Generated Content Dumbing Down Media?

With this information overload, I can’t help but have a little debate in my head on whether or not this plethora of user-generated content is making the world a better or worse place. Of course, I personally think it’s making the world a better place,  but I am a digital utopian, which makes my opinion rather biased.

It reminds me of Andrew Keen’s book “The Cult of the Amateur” where he argues that “what the Web 2.0 revolution is really delivering its superficial observations of the world around us rather than deep analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgment.” This is what happens, he says, “when ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule.”

What do you think? Is media for better or for worse, with the increasing importance of user-generated content?

Filed under: Controversial Picks — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Roba @ 7:59 pm

December 2, 2009

Is Technology Making us Cocoon Away From Society?

I can still hear it ringing in my ear every time I sit behind a computer screen “Get off that thing and go interact with Real People!”. That was my father’s reaction whenever he noticed me spending too much time on the computer. It has been more than a decade since I started growing up with the internet, and up to this day, my parents still feel that the internet makes people withdraw from society and leads them to become anti-social. That idea is not only fostered by my parents but also by a lot of people. You know what is even worse than being an internet user? To be an internet user and avid gamer!

Personally, I never bought into that argument at all, and apparently the people at PEW set out to find the truth. The results of the research have been interesting, to say the least.

Social Interaction

Social Interaction

The numbers…

People who use the internet have been found to have a more diverse network of people whom they interact with. Internet users are 55% more likely to have a discussion partner that is not part of the family. Not surprisingly either is that internet users who blog and share photos are more likely to have a confidant (people whom they trust and confide in) of a different race and tend to interact with people from across races and political lines. That’s certainly an advantage since our comfort zone is constantly challenged and hopefully not by many trolls.

[read full article >>]

Filed under: Controversial Picks — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — M. Bamieh @ 4:40 pm

October 10, 2009

Google Wave: First Impressions from Real People, Not “Experts”

Note: This post was written by Brian K. McDaniel (@BKmacdaddy on Twitter). Don’t forget to check out his amazing web designs at: bkmacdaddy.com, and follow him on Twitter.

In case you’ve been living under a rock & haven’t heard, 100,000 invitations to try out the much-hyped Google Wave were sent out last week. Everyone that received an invitation was also given 8 more invitations that they could send out to whoever they deemed worthy.

The story…

Social media & technology geeks (like me) drooled with anticipation, & when it became obvious that I was not going to be a recipient of the initial ‘wave’ of invites (pun intended) I began using Twitter to try to cajole someone into sending me one of their 2nd generation invitations with promises of lifelong friendship & dedication. Sure enough, thanks to the power of Twitter, I received offers from a few of my followers who were willing to send me a golden ticket, & my joy knew no bounds. My young friend @storiesofmac assured me he signed me up to receive one of his coveted invites, & the waiting began. Finally, almost a week later, I opened my Gmail inbox to the most wonderful automated email I’ve received to date. I signed up & created my Wave account, then began looking for contacts to add.

But alas, the first day I was only able to connect with two, & at separate times. So in essence, my first impression of Wave was that it was pretty much another version of instant messaging. I had a couple brief conversations, marveling at the real-time vision of someone else’s letters appearing as they typed, & laughing at their typos & edits (& mine). My joy was diluted, although I could see the obvious potential.

Google Wave - first impression: IM service

Google Wave - first impression: IM service

[read full article >>]

Filed under: App Reviews, Web News — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Brian K. McDaniel @ 6:16 pm

July 30, 2009

I Want My Twitter Fix And I Want It Now! Overcome the Censors

Are you a Twitter addict that happens to be stuck in China, the U.A.E., Iran, or even the White House? Then chances are that you won’t be able to get your Twitter fix, but worry not for as long as there is an internet connection then there is way. We will be going through some of the ways to bypass the blockage of Twitter and help you get your fix.

Bypass Twitter's Blocking and Censorship

Bypass Twitter's Blocking and Censorship

1. Use your instant messenger: If you are using Gtalk, Msn or Yahoo add the user “imified@imified.com”. As soon as you start chatting with that user(bot) you will be provided with a menu and it will create an account for you on imified. Select the “My Account” from the main menu by typing 4(default) and you will be redirected to the imified website and there you can add the Twitter widget and add it to your account menu. So when you access it you will be able to get notification and update your status. This will allow you to easily update your Twitter timeline from anywhere you can access your IM, even on a phone. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with imified!

2. Use your email: Browse to twittermail and enter your Twitter credentials and they will supply you with an email address. By using that secret email address you will be able to send and receive tweets using your email account, the message body of the email sent will be the tweet.

[read full article >>]

Filed under: Hacks and Workarounds — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — M. Bamieh @ 2:00 pm

April 30, 2009

Facebook’s Evolution: Biting off Chunks of the SN Market!

How long is Facebook going to stay, as I may call it, “The Big Boss” when it comes to Social Networking sites? Are Facebook’s continuous efforts to bite off chunks of the social network market proving to be successful and how much of the chunks can it digest? Are there any currently available sites which can confidently say they are competing at the same level with Facebook?


Founded February 4, 2004 with the aim to “Give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected”, we have been more than aware of, and even impressed with, how Facebook has been on top of the game since the beginning. By taking chunks of the social networking market and offering a more comprehensive service and wholesome user experience to its users, Facebook its proving, day by day, its commitment to improvement and innovation through researching its current and potential customer needs and creating features and applications that meet them accordingly!

  • Facebook added the photos features. This, coupled with their SN platform, provided a great method for people to share private photos and even for professionals to use it as a portfolio and in turn gave Facebook a chunk out of the social photo sharing segment such as Flickr.
  • Moreover, Facebook added a videos service allowing people to share videos between friends and with better privacy options. So, that’s how Facebook took a chunk out of the social video sharing market, like Youtube.
  • In August 2006, Facebook Notes, which currently has 21,456 fans and proved to be highly social and easy to use, was introduced allowing Facebook to obtain a chunk of the blogsphere market.
  • In February 2007, Facebook added a new gift feature to the website, which, in my humble opinion, was a way to obtain a segment of the online greeting cards market.
  • In May 2007, Facebook acquired a chunk of Web 2.0’s mashups market segment by launching its SN platform.
  • In July 2007, Facebook allowed users to post attachments to their walls, which was most likely an attempt to replace or dilute the use of e-mails thus biting of a chunk of the e-mail users market.
  • In another conquest, Facebook introduced fan pages and groups that highly resemble forums thus allowing Facebook to take out a chunk of the social forums market.
  • What about Facebook chat? Well, it seems that it was a try to take a chunk of the instant messaging market (I can’t assert how successful this was, but I’m sure many people tried and are still using it!)
  • On December 2008, Facebook opened the gates with “Facebook Connect”. This in turn helped FaceBook take a chunk of the Open Authentication systems like OpenID.
  • Now, I come to the news article that got me thinking about writing this piece, the latest Facebook conquest was: Obtaining a chunk of the micro-blogging market, the one Twitter is it’s king, through opening status updates. A new application, RSS Feeds, makes use of this new feature.

What do you think would be the next market chunk Facebook is going to bite off? And will the following step be integrating music and playlists into the default Facebook site rather than an added application?

P.S: Thank you swardraws of Flikr for the sandwich photo.

Filed under: Deductions and Realizations, Research-Based Topics — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Beirut @ 12:33 pm
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