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Google Tries To Remind People That Blogger Still Exists
Do People Prefer A Spoon-Fed Internet Experience?
Test Your Rock-Paper-Scissors Skill Against A Learning Algorithm

Google Tries To Remind People That Blogger Still Exists

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PDT

Google usually has really, really bad video advertising for their products, but this time around they actually came up with something good promoting the Blogger product. It’s good because it actually states things about the product and why you would want to use it. And it has a snazzy-cool soundtrack besides which:

There is, however, a sad part to this advertisement.

Whenever you see any company asking you something in reference to "Where have you been?", that means the product isn’t doing well and is losing steam, big time.

A few months back MySpace sent out mass emails to all of its userbase asking the exact same question in an attempt to revitalize the brand; it didn’t work.

In fact, the only company in history I’ve ever known to use a ‘lately’ question as an advertising slogan was Ford Motor Company ("Have you driven a Ford, lately?"); they only got away with it because of their size. Note that since that ad campaign they never used it again.

While the ad by Google is good (for a change), and the Blogger product may be long in the tooth, what about you? Do you still blog, or do you prefer the status-update style of Twitter or Facebook?

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Google Tries To Remind People That Blogger Still Exists

Do People Prefer A Spoon-Fed Internet Experience?

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PDT

John C. Dvorak recently blasted Facebook with his article The Ghetto Called Facebook. I agree with most of the article but disagree with notion that FB’s main competitor is Second Life due to the fact the two, while both social, are two completely different platforms; saying the two are direct competitors is a bit of a stretch.

I also disagree with the notion that Facebook is another AOL, because AOL’s rise was mainly due to guerilla-style marketing (you all remember those floppies and CDs that came in the mail), while Facebook’s userbase was built upon the idea of simple connectivity using true information instead of screen names. As such, AOL would have never turned into Facebook even if they kept their popularity because their way of gaining traffic is the polar opposite of Facebook.

What does ring true however is the idea that by and large, people do in fact prefer a spoon-fed internet experience.

To be more specific, people prefer centralization over decentralization. When there is a go-to place where people know they can connect to others, they will go there. It absolutely does not matter how unbelievably bad the privacy of personal information is handled in that central location. It absolutely does not matter if user’s souls are bought and sold as dehumanized commodities and nothing more just for a buck. It absolutely does not matter how clunky and wrong the experience is in that location. The people will go there and all jump off the cliff like lemmings.

Massively popular social web destinations are built for those with a seven-year-old’s mentality; they are made for people who don’t think and just merrily skip along under the assumption that their interests are being best served. Those who actually do think understand this obviously isn’t the case.

Am I saying that the target market for Facebook is stupid people? Yes. Don’t worry, I’m not calling you stupid if you use FB. Not at all. But you do know the system is primarily designed for those who barely know how to turn a computer on, much less use one.

You can fight Facebook’s stupid by going in to go out

Let’s say for the moment you have your own blog, web site or whatever and you’re having a very difficult time getting your friends/relatives/etc. out of the system to see your content. There are two wants to combat this:

1. Link out

You take a bunch of photos and want to show them, so you post to Flickr, Photobucket or whatever photo site you use. Post the link to the photo collection as a status update in FB so people can see them. They will click through and see your stuff.

2. Use a community page, link out

This is the same as #1 above but with the added advantage of having a 100% public Facebook presence that doesn’t show all your personal info to the world.

To create a page, go here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/learn.php

Dave and I use community FB pages quite a bit. There’s one for PCMech, Dave’s page and my page.

Whether you choose to link out from your personal profile or opt to use a community page, this is how you get people to your other places on the web. Stupid people will see your links and say "Durr.. link on Facebook.. from a friend.. durr.. must be good!", and click.

Yes, I know, this is sad, but true. It does work. If someone doesn’t know how to click a link, then.. well.. there’s no hope for them at that point.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Do People Prefer A Spoon-Fed Internet Experience?

Test Your Rock-Paper-Scissors Skill Against A Learning Algorithm

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT

Everyone out there is probably familiar with the head to head game Rock-Paper-Scissors. While statistically no one player has an advantage over the other, computers can analyze player behavior and predict what they will choose. This simple page demonstrates this artificial intelligence in action:

Test your strategy against the computer in this rock-paper-scissors game illustrating basic artificial intelligence. Choose from two different modes: novice, where the computer learns to play from scratch, and veteran, where the computer pits over 200,000 rounds of previous experience against you.

Like any matchup, one side will not win all the time and according to the law of averages, you should win, lose and tie an equal number of times. What this page attempts to exploit is any patterns you and other human players tend to follow and use them against you.

Give it a try and see how you do. If nothing else, this is a great way to kill 5 minutes.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Test Your Rock-Paper-Scissors Skill Against A Learning Algorithm