Nov
07
This morning I browsed through the nominations for the 2007 weblog awards and it made me think back to earlier this year… I loved this piece of sheer brilliance by Shane from Ideate:
Never the less, there are some awesome blogs over there so go check it out and vote for Yblog ZA who is the only South African blog in the category for Best Middle East or Africa blog.
Another interesting thing is that in the Technology department, it is the Gadget sites Engadget and Gizmodo that are by far the front runners and Fark! is by far the most popular online community.
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Blogging, Social Web Stii
Nov
01
This is quite an interesting move. Facebook is going a wee bit more professional. Paul tweeted the other day he’d like Facebook to have a CV application (or something to that likes) and now there is. What is even more interesting is that you can import your LinkedIn public profile as your resume. Even better still is the way it is done as it parses your public profile page and uses the hResume Microformat to do so as LinkedIn does not have an API as yet. Goes to show, who actually needs an API if you’ve got Microformats.
The application is called Professional Profile. After you installed it (and used the Skip button 
), you can see who in your network also uses it. Somehow this counts as a recommendation? Not entirely sure how that works, but we’ll see…
The main thing is the My Resume tab. If you click on it, you get to your resume page. You can select to either upload your CV in MS Word doc format or if you have a LinkedIn profile that is pretty much up to date, you can enter the URL to your public profile and click the Retrieve button:
Once it retrieved your LinkedIn resume you should have a page with all your relevant work experience and work history provided your LinkedIn profile is up to date:
There is a couple of other nice features such as you can search people’s resumes. So if you need to recruit a specific skill, you can search for people with the Professional Profile installed! This could make Facebook quite a valuable tool for companies looking to recruit people, especially if you consider that there is more people on Facebook than there is CV’s in any eRecruitment site’s database!
This is great not only for Facebook as a professional networking tool, but also for demonstrating the practicality of Microformats!
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Semantic Web, Social Web, Web 2.0 Stii
Oct
26
Elan says in his interview with Charl Norman:
“We believe that SN platforms like Facebook are very hard to compete with but social Media such as Digg is an easier area to challenge because we are sure we can provide MUCH more local relevance than a Digg can. You won’t see a headline about SA winning RWC on the Digg, Reddit or Stumble Upon front pages?
The interesting challenge is going to be if our local competitors like MG, IOL, iafrica, Times etc will be willing to add the laaik.it button? They are all adding Digg, Muti, Reddit buttons etc - Hard to see how they cannot add us.. we want to see content from everywhere on the site. We are not trying to create a walled garden for Media24. That’s NB.”
It looks like it was probably built and researched around 24.com’s own user base. Elan says they are not trying to build a walled garden for Media 24, yet they have nothing new to offer to the world outside their garden walls. I was asked what I thought about it yesterday and my immediate answer was: “it is 24.commish”. It lacks basic functionality, as Adii said, and the link submission process is tedious. Not at all well planned at this stage. Their users would use it regardless. Yes, it is true, they are still in beta so it could be argued that those things are still in the development schedule.
I can see no reason whatsoever that the above mentioned people would not add your button. It would drive your share of the online community to them so there is absolutely no reason why they would not do it. Apart from the fact that it is hard to add something that is not there. I assume it is still in the development schedule? Riiight, well let us know and we’ll add it.
Another thing, just in case you were wondering, is that if you do happen to implement a submission API of sorts, I’m pretty sure the guys at Muti would enable their submission process to add everything that is being submitted to Muti to Laaikit automatically. Double exposure! Thats breaking down walls for you. It remains to be seen if you are true to your word in that you want to play outside the 24.com garden walls. Prove it. Give us API’s to work with and it might become very, very interesting!
I do not think this is a threat at all to Muti. My guess is that the only users Muti would lose at this stage is the Mclaren entourage. Big loss, I know. We’ll just have to learn to live without them.
I do however agree with what Uno said, they have 60% of the SA online share and that in itself is a good thing. We’re all going to benefit from the exposure to a great big chunk of the SA online scene. It is good. They are going to expose their walled in users to the rest of us, so I’m quite excited about that.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: laaikit, muti, social-bookmarking
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Social Web, Web 2.0, muti.co.za Stii
Oct
25
Orkut is great. Definitely a better functional platform than Facebook. That is if you can automatically filter SPAM. It is things happening like these that makes Orkut unbearable for me. It was getting better a while ago, but has flared up badly again.
Look at this community group, for example. It is the ever popular Apple community with 49000+ members.
Now look at some snapshots of the rest of that page:
It is a sad and sorry sight. Especially since I really like Orkut more than Facebook. Thing is, how long before others get fed up with this shit and leave too? GMail has got the most intense Spam filters I’ve seen in a long time. They should really look at ways applying it to Orkut to make it that much better!
Facebook is also not entirely Spam free… Although not NEARLY as bad as Orkut, it is starting to raise its ugly head. On this group’s wall:
You get a nice non-related wall post every so often. Don’t you just love it?
Blogged with Flock
Tags: Orkut, Facebook, spam
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Social Web, Web 2.0 Stii
Oct
19
It is highly frustrating to get all these damn Facebook application invites. It sucks and it seems a lot of people think so. And the solution is actually very, very simple! Let me show you:
Lets suppose you want to add the Zombies application. You will get to the application’s home page:
Now you click on the Add Application button and go to the next step where you need to select some options:
Select your options, whatever tickles your fancy, no-one really cares. Once that is done, click the Add Zombies button.
Now take note: The application is installed. The next step is not necessary and is A PAIN IN EVERYONE’S ASS!!!!!
See the “Skip” button? USE IT PLEASE! FFS!!!!
See how simple that is? Right. So stop sending bloody f&^%king application invites! If you REALLY feel that I would like this application, feel free to tell me about it and I’ll check it out and make a decision. Its that simple. Really.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: facebook, applications, invites, pissed-off
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Social Web Stii
Oct
19
Flock 1.0 is here! Finally! Its been a long wait and now we’ll see if it was worth the wait! I am busy checking out the Social Network integration and so far there has been no glitches. I feel like a hypocrite saying this (seeing that I always say I don’t like Facebook all that much), but their Facebook integration is handy! It makes your Facebook friends more accessible by the looks of it.
All in all, I’m quite excited about this new release! Lets see now what it offers us!
Blogged with Flock
Tags: flock, browsers, socialnetworks, release
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Social Web, Web 2.0, flock Stii
Oct
05
Since May this year I took off my Stumble shoes. I loved Stumbling, but it was a time killer. Some people wasted time on Facebook. Stumbleupon.com was my nemesis. That and things got busy. Hectic busy. Still is, but I’ve realised that all work and no play makes Stii a dull boy. So yesterday I retrieved my Stumble password again and did a bit of controlled Stumbling. I paced myself so that I do not get carried away again.
I have to admit that of all the Social Networking/Bookmarking sites, Stumble is still my favorite. My favorite is to select a tag or channel and start hitting the Stumble button and discover new useful sites! Man, you’ve got to love it. Facebook can kiss my ass. I’m back on Stumble and would rather spend the hour a week I spent on Facebook over there, thank you very much! Now its just going to be a case of pacing and disciplining myself…
To all my old Stumbling friends, sorry for deserting you for this long!
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Social Web, Web 2.0 Stii
Sep
26
Micro$oft might be buying a smallish stake in Facebook, if you want to call $300 to $500 million a smallish stake! Already geeks are up in arms and have started a Facebook group called “If Facebook sells to Microsoft, we’re leaving”.
Now I dislike Microsoft as much as the next geek, but then again I don’t have not much love for Facebook either! I’d much rather use Orkut. The funny thing about this is that Facebook (ironically) is built using non-Microsoft technology (PHP) while Orkut on the other hand IS using ASP.NET.
The Facebook group gives this reason for aborting Facebook if Microsoft buys:
However, given Microsoft’s dismal record in protecting the privacy of users, most clearly demonstrated when Hotmail became an overloaded hotbed for spam and security breaches in which Microsoft itself was both negligent and complicit, you can bet that Facebook’s signon will be replaced with a Live ID (Passport Network) signon. Savvy internet users have long vowed never to use any service that requires a Microsoft Passport or Live ID, so here’s hoping Google beats Microsoft to the deal. At least Google hasn’t (yet) proven that we can’t trust it with our private data.
Thats all good and well, accept (and excuse my ignorance) what privacy? If you want privacy, stop using Social Networking sites! Baddies can only steal from Facebook what you gave to Facebook! Nah, not so sure that reason flies well with me. You should definitely NOT store sensitive data on ANY Social Networking site, let alone Microsoft sites. Its what they call S-I-L-L-Y. You should also not use Windoze, but people don’t listen…
That aside, although I do despise the whole Windoze LiveID thing, security is not the main reason why I’d leave Facebook. I took a particular dislike in Microsoft and SCO’s efforts in beating down on Linux. It left more than a bad taste in my mouth and was terribly lame bullying tactics from two mean giants. At least SCO is getting whats been coming to them and are being de-listed from NASDAQ on the 27th of September. Thats what you get for trying to screw someone for a buck! Karma, baby!
The thing is though that Microsoft will only have a smallish stake in Facebook which is 5%. I doubt they will be able to call the shots and force their LiveID onto the Facebook community. That being said, I’m sure there will be no lack of trying! It is valuable to have all those numbers using your technology!
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Business, Social Web, Web 2.0 Stii
Sep
10
This I find quite interesting. There is no doubt that the Digg effect is great for your traffic logs. Even if you hit the sub 100 diggs, your server is likely to take strain. What I find weird is that how little times people actually digg something!
If you look at this post of Lenovo running the Poll on which Linux to ship with, they have had far more votes on the poll that they have had diggs. In fact, the ratio is only 3.4%! Admittedly, we do not know how many traffic actually came from Digg and how many came from other sources. You would however think people who support such an initiative would vote on the poll and at the same time digg the article to get even more voters to support the cause.
I just find it amusing, thats all.
818 diggs
VS. 23720 Votes
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Tags: digg, linux, lenovo, ubuntu
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Linux, Social Web, Web 2.0 Stii
Sep
02
This is a quick comparison between Facebook and Orkut in one very limited aspect.
Something needs to be clear. I’m not saying Orkut is better than Facebook or vice versa, but where Facebook is lacking is that it is not a useful resource for information. Specially for technical information. Orkut on the other hand is a very good resource of information. It is being actively used by more technically orientated people, it seems! At least on the PHP side.
So here is what I did. I searched for the term “PHP” on both Facebook and Orkut. No surprise that Orkut’s search results is 10 time more accurate as it is a Google owned service! But hell… Surely with the budget Facebook’s got they could do better! I simply could not find the “main” PHP group in Facebook effectively, so I got to it through the PHP Cape Town group I belong to.
In Orkut, top result is the 1st prize I was looking for!
Below is a screenshot of the results Facebook gave me when I search for only “PHP”.
Here is what Orkut produced. Much, much more Google-accurate
I then decided I’l expand my search a bit for Facebook as who know, maybe PHP is a common phrase amongst Fookers. So I searched for the term “PHP Develop”.
A wee bit better results this time. At least the first five result were relevant with the top result featuring my favorite MVC framework! But low and behold, five results down and we’re back to some peculiar results…
This is the bottom half of the results:
Finally I found the PHP group I was looking for in Facebook. Only one problem is that it seems small and empty with only a couple of hundred members. The information provided in there is also a bit stale and useless. I should maybe try asking advice at a later stage and compare the helpfulness of the two platforms…
On the other side over at Orkut, the group is active! Very much so. In the forum section of the group there is almost more posts for today than there is in the whole of the Facebook PHP group! They got some interesting Polls running and it sports a nifty group of members amounting to more than 16 000 members at the time!
Here is some of the interesting polls…
At the time of the screenshot there was 16895 users. Quite significant!
All in all, for me personally as a developer I’ll be looking much more into Orkut than Facebook! Still I will not abandon Facebook at all! Lets face it, nothing beats Facebook at networking since almost everyone is there!
Not sure that this case study will be in everyone’s interest, but it might be well worth your while looking into it.
I’ve looked at Orkut previously, but got spammed too much for my liking so I stopped using it. That was a long time ago and it seems that they made some efforts combating the SPAMMERS!! Let’s hope…
Blogged with Flock
Tags: facebook, orkut, social-networking
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Social Web, Web 2.0 Stii
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