Archive for the ‘social networks’ Category

The GlobalGrind Facebook app is pretty sweet I must admit. Essentially, what this app does is make it super easy for a GlobalGrind user with a Facebook account to access and utilize GlobalGrind within the Facebook framework. Adding the GlobalGrind Facebook app was simple and took no time at all. When you are logged in your facebook account and click on the Global Grind app, it looks just like the website for the most part. You see the latest popular photos, stories and videos, which you can choose to ‘grind’ or ‘trash’; as well as photos of new users of the week. Users can also submit a link to Global Grind, invite friends or take the Global Grind trivia challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

I love Twitter, but sometimes; ok a lot of times, I forget that just because I know about Twitter and actively use it, doesn’t mean that everyone I know is doing the same thing. I forget that not all of my friends and family are total web geeks such as myself. So when people ask me “why I use Twitter” and tell me how pointless it seems, I become stunned and am all of a sudden baffled by the fact that they are truly unfamiliar with Twitter and a lot of other social type sites and apps I use.

Thanks to Lee Lefever who created a video titled ‘Twitter in Plain English’, I can now direct my friends and family who question Twitter to this video.

As a matter of fact, why don’t I just add it here for their convenience.

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

I think twitter is a great tool. It isn’t all business for me. It’s a social and information sharing thing for me. What do I mean by that? I’ll gladly explain. It is social because sometimes I treat it like my water cooler moment. It also allows me to not only connect with existing friends on twitter (although none of my friends were on twitter when I first joined in November of 2006), but also allows me to meet other people. For some reason; people who are unattached to social web activity, think that services like twitter and facebook (and so on and so on) replace real life interaction, but they don’t. I think it does just the opposite. I think these types of services enhance and increase people getting together in the physical world. For instance, through twitter I have met a ton of folks from all over the place. I reside in Northern Virginia, but when I go to Atlanta this summer to visit a friend, I know there are about 10 people on twitter that I follow (and vice versa) whom I can meet up with to have cup of coffee. When I go to Nashville for my family reunion this July, I know 5 people on twitter I can hook up and chew the fat with (you get the drift). Am I saying these people on twitter are my best friends; of course not, but not everyone is your best friend anyway. However, they are people whom I share a common interest and what’s wrong with that? There’s no harm in expanding your social network of peers and friends.

Twitter is also a most excellent place to share and receive information. People on twitter share links to articles, other blogs and websites, share invites to new web apps and sites, details on various conferences and expos, etc, etc. I love information sharing as most other people on twitter do as well.

So, in a nutshell, I love twitter. Before assuming it’s ridiculous, give it try; you just might like it……

I got an invite for BBMNATION back in January I think. So I signed up to see what it was all about. Bbmnation is a social networking tool that allows you to connect with the people around you using BlackBerry Pins. So I signed up and completed my profile and started trying to figure out how Bbmnation worked. Dang, I was and still am confused. When I initially started roaming around I honestly didn’t know what to do and I thought; maybe they’re still working everything out; I’ll check back in a month or so.

I checked back a month later and was no less confused. There is no razzamataz to this site and there is nothing from a design perspective that grabs me and makes me want to stick around. Maybe that’s done intentionally (IDK). When I think of a social network, I think of a site where members join and engage in conversation within that site. This is not how Bbmnation works. With Bbmnation, you add friends to your ‘network’ and then you carry on further communication by contacting them using their BlackBerry pin and you converse - BlackBerry to BlackBerry.

I am trying to understand this, but it seems so pointless; like an extra unnecessary step. When BlackBerry owners contact other BlackBerry owners using their pin; it is free. This is a great, but in all honesty I’ve had two BlackBerries and have never used a pin to communicate with other BlackBerry owners.

Besides, just because someone has a BlackBerry; it doesn’t mean that I want to ‘befriend’ them. Being a BlackBerry owner is not a prerequisite for becoming friends.

If you are a BlackBerry owner, go on over to Bbmnation and signup. I’d really like to know what your opinion of Bbmnation is. Maybe I am missing something or maybe it really is as pointless as it seems.

I am just now realizing that I have been neglecting my Facebook page. Not because I don’t like Facebook anymore because I do. I love Facebook and I love how I have met new people and have reconnected with people I lost touch with due to moving and you know; life. The thing that makes me tired with Facebook is all those darn third party apps and games. They kind of tire me out. Every time I go to my Facebook profile I have to go through all these games and apps and sometimes it makes me want to scratch my eyeballs out.

I like Facebook for the communication portion of it. I just don’t find all the other stuff that much fun all the time. I have to really be in the mood to sit down and fool with all of that, which lately seems like never. So, to all of my Facebook friends, forgive my negligence, I’ve just been experiencing some Facebook Fatigue…..

I got an invite for Socialthing last week and I accepted it and poked around to see what it was all about. I signed up for it a few months back and actually forgot about it; as I typically do with all new apps I sign up for. So, this week there was all this fuss about Socialthing and I am honestly trying to figure out WHY…

Before I got my invite to Socialthing, I had already received an invite for MessageDance and was also signed up for FriendFeed. I know about at least 15 social media aggregators and I gotta say, Socialthing is not one of my favorites. In all honesty, although I am signed up with Socialthing, MessageDance and FriendFeed; I am not using any of them.

So why this big buzz about Socialthing? Two weeks ago the big buzz was about FriendFeed. I think it’s cool to have one place to stream all of your online activity, but Socialthing only allows you to drag in profiles from twitter, Live Journal, Vimeo, Pownce and flickr while FriendFeed allows you to drag in profiles from 28 other services. Not bad aye….. That’s way more than Socialthing allows you to drag in, but I am more impressed with Profilactic, who supports 144 different social sites by default, but they say you can add as many custom sites in as you want. Now that is something to get excited about.

Yet in still, I am not using any of these feed sites. I’m not sure exactly; I think I am experiencing profile fatigue (I’ll be blogging about that soon). I don’t feel like setting up another profile.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t know what all the hoopla is about Socialthing when there are clearly more and better lifestreaming apps available….Just my $0.02 cents.

I ran across a site today called Six Groups that looks like it may be some competition for Ning. Ning allows you to create and manage your own social network and join other networks. It’s pretty flexible and gives you the option to upload photos, images, audio and video. Surprisingly, the video on Ning pages play immediately and have pretty good quality.

Looking at Six Groups, it appears to be a Ning clone (I don’t mean that in a bad way). Six Groups also allows you to create and manage your own social networks as well as join other social networks. I have not signed up for this service, so I am not sure if it is as flexible as Ning. For instance, Ning lets you brand your page and choose to make your social network public or private. Not sure if Six Groups gives you all those options, but at first glance, it looks like a Ning-type site.

The one thing I don’t like about Ning is that when you join other social networks on Ning, you always have to create a new profile page. It would be so much easier if it allowed you to have a main profile page that was used across all social networks you joined on Ning. It’s kind of a pain recreating your page everytime you join a social network.

So, we’ll see how Six Groups measures to Ning. I’ll be keeping an eye out.