Brandon Live!

Okay, I finally found something cool about Twitter that Facebook lacks. Public access.

Facebook has all sorts of awesome privacy options, but there’s no way to have my status updates shared with everyone, which is what Twitter allows. Even unauthenticated users can see my Twitter updates. So there is a difference after all. It’s like Instant Messaging, but everyone can see it and jump in whenever they want.

If I wanted to come up with some kind of gimmicky Web 2.0 buzzword for it, I might go with “OpenSource Conversations.” And if I were really shameless, I’d go back and stick it in the title of this post.

What I can’t decide is if Facebook should go in this direction. It’s definitely very close to what they offer. On the other hand, part of what makes Facebook be Facebook is that it’s all about your friends and not so much about how much attention you can get from complete strangers.

I’m curious what other users of both services think. Do you use both Facebook and Twitter? What unique aspect(s) of Twitter do you find appealing?

A couple weeks ago Chris and Scoble showed me in-person what all the fuss with Twitter was about. I’d heard it talked about, but was too busy to even bother finding out what it was. After a quick demonstration, I decided not to sign-up as it just seemed like a goofy way to waste time (which isn’t something I need more of at the moment).

However, tonight I was hanging out with some of the MVPs (mostly the young, hip Windows Live ones) and finally decided to sign-up. With MVPs looking over my shoulder, the sight of the words “Welcome back, Robert Scoble!” proved to be an irresistable temptation.

Anyway, I’m on Twitter now. It’s pretty much the Facebook “status” feature, ripped out and offered as a standalone service. The real difference is the network of people. Facebook has my friends from high school, college, and most of my 20-something friends all on board. But Twitter has… the entire blogosphere. Or maybe that’s just Scoble’s Twitter followers.

Another drive-by-blogger has people talking about future releases of Windows.  The problem isn’t just that it’s a no-name blog with one post and nothing about the author.  The problem is that there’s no source and that the content looks to be nothing more than something some guy dreamed up while bored.  Yet people are still discussing it at places like Engadget as if it were credible?

All that I believe has been said publicly is that the next release of windows “won’t take 5 years” and that it won’t be a “minor release.”  Anything else is speculation or misinformation.  In this case, it appears to be speculation based on some old plans and ideas.  Astute readers should have realized that the moment they saw the name “WinFS” appear (for those that haven’t kept up, the oft-misunderstood WinFS is no more).

Parts of it did make me chuckle, though.  Like the non-sensical suggestion that WinFS would replace NTFS in “Vienna.”  Nevermind the fact that WinFS is dead - that’s like saying Avalon will replace DirectX*

*  Avalon requires DirectX (or some rendering technology) in order to render to the screen, much as WinFS requires NTFS (or some filesystem) to store its database.

Everyone is talking about the new Facebook updates that happened yesterday. I first heard there were new features when I saw a friend’s personal message on Messenger exclaiming how great the new “Feeds” were.

My first reaction was, “Whoa, cool.” Which quickly was replaced with “What the hell!” I was really only bothered a little bit, mostly thinking that the execution was the problem and not the idea. That didn’t stop me from posting status messages like “Brandon is going to the bathroom. This update brought to you by Facebook, your one-stop stalk shop.” Because I’m just too damn clever like that.

But really I don’t think these features “go too far” as others have said. But I would have done things differently. For example:

1) No warning. No one knew this was coming. There was no chance to provide feedback.
2) A lot happened at once. These kinds of changes should have been rolled out gradually (which is what people are used to with Facebook features), so they’d be less overwhelming.
3) It was retro-active. So status messages, updates, etc that had happened in the past (and most users thought were gone forever) were suddenly visible in a nice little timeline for the world to see. If they’d said “Okay from now on your changes will show up here unless you turn this feature off” I think it would have softened the blow. Instead, you logged into your profile page and saw a list of things you’d done on Facebook over the last days or weeks that you had no idea were being tracked for public view.

4) Not everyone uses Facebook the way it’s intended. Judging by their response to the uproar, it sounds like they want Facebook to be a place where your friends are really your friends - and each of them is just as close a friend as the next. In reality, many users (myself included) have people as “friends” on Facebook that we haven’t talked to in years. And while every once in a while it’s interesting to check up on what old high school acquaintances are up to, it’s another thing to see a daily account of everything they do delivered to your Facebook homepage.

What would help them a lot would be if they’d implemented this on a group level. Instead of having a News Feed of everything all 120 of my “friends” do, it would show just updates from my closest circle (or circles) of friends.

That said - I do see their point. Even though there are a lot of people on my Facebook friends list that I haven’t talked to in ages, they’re all people I knew personally at one time. This is in contrast to MySpace where I think the paradigm is a bit different. In some ways, this move is almost counter to the MySpace direction - as it distinguishes Facebook as a place where you keep in touch and share with your close friends - whereas MySpace is a more public-facing view of your online social life.

Here are some more links about the changes:

Fred Stutzman on Facebook as an “Identity Archive“

Liz Gannes says Facebook makes itself useful.

Writer is a new blogging tool from Windows Live.  It lets you publish posts, pictures, maps, and more on all kinds of blogging services.

I just downloaded their beta and I’m posting this entry from it now.  Pretty sweet app!

Screenshots, info, and download at their blog.

Check it out!

First up, I made a couple of posts this week to our FindMyStuff Team Blog.  The second of which is about our support for searching over sources that output OpenSearch RSS.  Check it out.

Second, I’m about to head off to Gnomedex 6.0.  I’m running on less sleep than planned, so caffiene will have to get me through the day.  Hopefully I’ll get online during the event, but no promises.

Major Nelson pointed his readers at the first official Sony Online Entertainment podcast.

You can listen to it here.

If you listen close you can actually hear the Marketing guys whipping the presenters anytime they inject the slightest hint of emotion or even think about saying a single word off-script.  Seriously guys, you sound like robots.  Try listening to one of Major Nelson’s podcasts and see if you hear the difference (heck he even interviews a VP in that one).

Wired had an interesting article recently titled “The Kinsey of Clicking.”  I found the various insights on how the internet affects modern relationships to be interesting.  But more than that, it prompted me thinking about this topic.

At least two of my friends (Steve and Chris) met their sweethearts via Match.com.  While my own dabblings haven’t been quite so fruitful, I did have some positive experiences and certainly gained a new appreciation for the medium (especially as someone who transplanted his life a few thousands miles last year). 

Beyond that, the effect of IM on people my age is undeniable (even though I still consider it to be wholly impersonal).  And now MySpace has taken the phenomenon started by LiveJournal to a whole new level. 

It all makes me wonder just how much modern technology has influenced (both good and bad) my dating life, and whether there are some traps I should be learning to avoid.  One I’ve always tried to watch out for is having IM become the primary (or exclusive) means of communication with someone I’m dating.  Recent experience only reinforces that concern.

www.roboscoble.com

Alright, here’s the real scoop:  That site redirects to www.msreadr.com - a site (plus RSS feed) that aggregates a whole bunch of Windows Live blogs!

Yup, it’s official.  I first saw the news via Chris last night.  Robert had hinted pretty strongly about this possibility a liitle while back, so it’s not terribly surprising to me.  It’s my understanding that several factors influenced his decision, and I can’t say I blame him for any of them. 

I think there’s no doubt it’s a loss for Microsoft, and maybe somebody could have done more to keep him around.  However, I think Robert has picked a reasonably good time to leave.  Not because I think Microsoft has trouble ahead - quite the contrary.  I think Robert set out to make Microsoft a better place and a better company - and I dare say he succeeded.  In some sense, I think a part of Robert felt that “his work here is done.” 

Still, Channel 9 won’t be quite the same without him.  As for conferences and the like, I’m sure we’ll be graced by the Scobleizer’s presence courtesty of his new role at PodTech.net

Good luck Robert!