More Yahoo Commentary

Well I know … Yahoo + Microsoft or Microsoft + Yahoo === ????

I’m no Microsoft fan, but I’m starting to see reason in Microsoft’s attempt from a tech point of view… I’ve been trying to read almost every article I see appear in my Bloglines feed reader about the possibilities. I was surprised to see how much work they’ve been doing together… I guess it shouldn’t surprise me… they announce the intercommunication between Yahoo Messenger and MSN a few years ago (even though it only started working recently), Most of Yahoo’s mobile development has been related to WiMob. And I was surprised how much work they’ve done with integrating ActiveX. So yes, I can seen why Microsoft is interested… Yahoo has done all the work for them, well at least from a web front.

But here is the flip side… we keep hearing about the ‘Yahoo’ side, but we don’t here much from what Microsoft has to offer but a Name and $$$. So I can see why Microsoft is interested, but why would Yahoo. I know they are struggling against the Open Juggernaut Google. And yes Google on the web is probably equivalent to Microsoft on the desktop.. the difference is that they are openly public, free, and nice. Google is more than happy to share and to the public, well that makes them look like the good guys… but that is not the point of this post.

So yes, what does Yahoo have to gain…. but what does Yahoo have to lose… well basically there existence… If they merge/are acquired my Microsoft, it is only a matter of time before they and shadowed and the name forgotten, if they stay solo, where they could just fade out of existence… So what to do… well I think the bigger fear on both sides is the extras Yahoo has… Sites like Del.icio.us and Flickr among I’m assuming others, but those are the only two I use. While yes they are owned by Yahoo, and yes your Yahoo ID can be used and linked together, for the most part… they are totally separate entities. I like it that way.. I’m a Yahoo/MyYahoo/YahooMail/Y!Messenger user, and a Flickr and Del.icio.us user, but other than my knowledge… they really aren’t connected and I like that… but now what happens if yahoo merges or disappears… will we loose them too?

So anyways… Again I’m seeing make issues with the marriage, not from a parent point but from the children… some how I don’t see this as another Brady Bunch… just a bunch of disgruntled children…. I guess only time will tell…. that all said, while I’ll be keeping all my accounts with Yahoo… I’ll probably start slowly moving my world to Google (the open-friendly-juggernaut), so expect my mail, and flickr to move to Gmail and Picasa… still not sure what to do about Del.icio.us…

Open ID, first there weren’t enough, and now there are to many

For those out there who have been following the whole OpenID, it has been pretty interesting. First the whole idea in my opinion is great, one ID to track your web-based life. At sites that support OpenID, simply setup your account and then link it to your OpenID, and then ‘never’ worry about all the passwords again.

My first thought was that this was great, and it would be great if this was link to say email or something. I was looking forward to when Yahoo (my primary email provider) would start supporting OpenID, but over the last month or so… I’m skipping ahead. So when I first heard about OpenID there were only a handful of providers. I found out about it through Plaxo. They recommend MyOpenId.com, so off I went to explore… and create my first ID. That too is when I thought about the fact that I wanted to connect my ID to my email…

So like I said.. OpenID it suppose to help sync and simplify our online identities, of which I have many. I have my Blogger/Google id through this blog, I’ve got my email id via Yahoo. I’ve got my blogroll id through Bloglines (well I didn’t initially consider that an ID, but they do provide personal blogs so). And if you consider Bloglines and identity, then I’ve also got Del.icio.us, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and then there is also Plaxo.

Well so here I had my OpenID at MyOpenId.com, then Bloglines announced they were providing ID, and I think they (and Ask.com) may have been the first to provide such ID. Then a few weeks ago as groups started announcing there 2008 line ups…. many others just started announcing they were going to provide IDs. This week was the most interesting, if not just the last 2 days. Late last year OpenID2.0 was finalized, and then yesterday both Yahoo announce that they were going to provide ID (link) and Google’s Blogger has done the same (link). So now here lies the dilemma… I’ve been using Yahoo as my personal email for years… starting back in HighSchool so while I have a nice alias that points at my yahoo id, my ID is an old highschool name from my BBS days…. Now my Google/Blogger ID I’ve been using is more of the kind of web ID that I’ve been using as of late. Most new account logins use the same username especially sights that I comment on and such. So which to use….

Well that brings me back to my topic… at first there weren’t enough ID providers, and now there are too many to choose from. The funnier part is that the one company that introduced me to the notion of OpenID and OpenSocial for that matter was Plaxo. Plaxo is a my synchronization of life. My yahoo, google, aim, and local addressbooks and calendars are all synced through Plaxo. My blogs, del.icio.us, flickr and twitter, are sync through Plaxo Pulse. SO if anything, Plaxo is my single ID, so while they accept OpenID and were one of the first to do so… why don’t they provide??? Oh well I guess even with all the syncing and simplifying Plaxo and OpenID do, it makes sense to not connect your OpenID to a very public arena. I guess having a OpenID only provider will help insure security… The bottom line is, while it is a good thing that OpenID is now out in the open with thanks to BigWeb (Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc)… I’ve decided I like my quieter OpenID provider MyOpenID.com . That all said, I think if I ever did switch my OpenID to another provider, at this point it will only happen if Plaxo becomes a provider.

OpenID: what it is
List of OpenID providers can be found here.
List of site allowing OpenIDs here and here.

Open ID, first there weren’t enough, and now there are to many

For those out there who have been following the whole OpenID, it has been pretty interesting. First the whole idea in my opinion is great, one ID to track your web-based life. At sites that support OpenID, simply setup your account and then link it to your OpenID, and then ‘never’ worry about all the passwords again.

My first thought was that this was great, and it would be great if this was link to say email or something. I was looking forward to when Yahoo (my primary email provider) would start supporting OpenID, but over the last month or so… I’m skipping ahead. So when I first heard about OpenID there were only a handful of providers. I found out about it through Plaxo. They recommend MyOpenId.com, so off I went to explore… and create my first ID. That too is when I thought about the fact that I wanted to connect my ID to my email…

So like I said.. OpenID it suppose to help sync and simplify our online identities, of which I have many. I have my Blogger/Google id through this blog, I’ve got my email id via Yahoo. I’ve got my blogroll id through Bloglines (well I didn’t initially consider that an ID, but they do provide personal blogs so). And if you consider Bloglines and identity, then I’ve also got Del.icio.us, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and then there is also Plaxo.

Well so here I had my OpenID at MyOpenId.com, then Bloglines announced they were providing ID, and I think they (and Ask.com) may have been the first to provide such ID. Then a few weeks ago as groups started announcing there 2008 line ups…. many others just started announcing they were going to provide IDs. This week was the most interesting, if not just the last 2 days. Late last year OpenID2.0 was finalized, and then yesterday both Yahoo announce that they were going to provide ID (link) and Google’s Blogger has done the same (link). So now here lies the dilemma… I’ve been using Yahoo as my personal email for years… starting back in HighSchool so while I have a nice alias that points at my yahoo id, my ID is an old highschool name from my BBS days…. Now my Google/Blogger ID I’ve been using is more of the kind of web ID that I’ve been using as of late. Most new account logins use the same username especially sights that I comment on and such. So which to use….

Well that brings me back to my topic… at first there weren’t enough ID providers, and now there are too many to choose from. The funnier part is that the one company that introduced me to the notion of OpenID and OpenSocial for that matter was Plaxo. Plaxo is a my synchronization of life. My yahoo, google, aim, and local addressbooks and calendars are all synced through Plaxo. My blogs, del.icio.us, flickr and twitter, are sync through Plaxo Pulse. SO if anything, Plaxo is my single ID, so while they accept OpenID and were one of the first to do so… why don’t they provide??? Oh well I guess even with all the syncing and simplifying Plaxo and OpenID do, it makes sense to not connect your OpenID to a very public arena. I guess having a OpenID only provider will help insure security… The bottom line is, while it is a good thing that OpenID is now out in the open with thanks to BigWeb (Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc)… I’ve decided I like my quieter OpenID provider MyOpenID.com . That all said, I think if I ever did switch my OpenID to another provider, at this point it will only happen if Plaxo becomes a provider.

OpenID: what it is
List of OpenID providers can be found here.
List of site allowing OpenIDs here and here.

Facebook vs MySpace

A few weeks ago I killed of my Friendster account because I was tired of the constant emails and other privacy issues. Nothing to due with the usability of Friendster, just that it kind of annoyed me and I was tired of checking multiple social networks. Basically now I’m only using 3 social networks: Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. LinkedIn for those who don’t know is a Social Networking site for the business world. The kind of networking that people like Lauren and most MBA students do. An old mentor of mime tipped me off to LinkedIn around when it first came out and I love the simplicity of it. Anyways, I’m diverging from my topic. What I’d like to get at through this post is a simple comparison of MySpace vs Facebook and which suits me best. First off, I want to state that I don’t think that one site is better than another, just that I prefer one over the other for my own reasons.

Facebook and MySpace (and Frientster): what they are:
They are all Social networks. They all let you keep in touch with friends who are on said network. And they allow you you in a mass communication way let all your friends know what you are up to and where you are at.

Features (basic ones):
Some common feature that basically all social network have now in days are:
1. Profiles: a simple list/description of you and what you like to do.
2. Status: what you are currently up to or a quick comment about how you are. MySpace also includes a simple ‘mood’ feature. With Facebook, if you are a Twitter user you can also link your Twitter posts to your Status.
3. Photos/Videos: the ability to store and share photos. A nice feature about Facebook, is that you can add application and sync with other online Photo tools. I personally like Flickr from Yahoo and I can share my photos straight into Facebook.
4. Mail/Messenger: the ability to send ‘email’ like messages to friends and contacts on your list. Most social networks also allow you to send mass broadcast messages to everybody in your network. MySpace calls these Bulletins, Facebook doesn’t directly include this, but basically any time you add an application or an event, a bulletin like post is made to all your network and only to those who are listening.
5. Blogs: one the newer items added to most social networks is blogs. For those who don’t know a blog (like the one you are currently reading) is a simple web enables log or weblog or blog for short. Both Facebook and MySpace include blogging tools, MySpace calls it simply a Blog, Facebook calls them Notes. The best part about Facebook is that you can import your ‘external’ Blog to your notes.
6. Themes: MySpace has them, Friendster kind of had them, Facebook does not.

My thoughts:
While what I’ve stated here is nothing new to most, let me tell you where I stand…. Basically I only use MySpace because some of my friends and family refuse to make the leap to Facebook, just like many originally did not want to make the leap for Friendster to MySpace (I was one of those). Overall I prefer the usability of Facebook over MySpace. One of my biggest complaints about MySpace is also one of the best things that MySpace offers, Themes. Themes are a great way for a person to share about themselves, but in the MySpace realm, the sky is the limit and that can cause problem and browser incompatibilities. The number of times I’ve tried to view friends MySpace pages and sat there and watched my browser spin till it crashed was ridiculous, to the point I even quit visiting some of my friends pages, including both of my brothers. I eventually found a way to suppress much of a profiles theme, but then what is the purpose of having one. That said, Facebook does not have themes per say. You have tons of flexibility in what you show on your profile and what you see of others. Facebook accomplishes this via its own and its 3rdparty applications. Recently Google and a number of other companies and groups announce ‘OpenSocial‘ (also check here for more on that) which will eventually create a ’standard’ format/platform for similar application. MySpace, Hi5, Plaxo and a number of other social and social like sites have signed on to use this new platform. Even though Facebook has not yet signed on with this new platform (and may never), they currently are probably the base line for competition. And again these applications are what make Facebook shine in my view for the best social network. I’m online a lot and am spread across a bit of the internet. This blog is hosted by Blogger, I use Del.icio.us to track my bookmarks and sites of interest, and Twitter keeps people informed of my status. I also use Flickr for my photo hosting, Gifthat for my web wide wish list, and recently I’ve slowly started using Digg to share new articles I read and want to share. And I like to track everything in one simple location for which I use Bloglines. So here is where it all comes down… Facebook… my status is updated via my Twittering, my Notes via my Blogger blog, at the same time my Digg posts are posted to my Blogger blog as are any Flickr postings. Plus all other photos I upload to Flickr are available via my Flickr application on my Profile page as are the music I’m listening to via Last.fm. Basically everything in my web world is viewable to the public via my Facebook profile. Maybe you can do this all on MySpace and Friendster, but I don’t have the time to figure out how, and Facebook just makes it easy.

On a side note Plaxo who is part of the OpenSocial alliance created Pulse earlier this year. Pulse also allows me to sync my world together and share it, that said, I personally don’t consider Plaxo a social network but more of a contact management tool, that said definitely check it out.

Well I think that is enough on this topic for now, but…. only time will tell.