Why I believe Google+ will succeed where all the other social networks tried by Google haven’t
Google+ has been making the rounds these days, the funny thing being people apart from the techie circle have actually grasped it, seen it, played around with it. From most accounts, it seems eons better than what Google came up with before, whether it can take down the reigning duopoly at the top is another question. However, I’d like to try and drive into why it may become successful.
There has been a lot of emphasis on social networking in Mountain View these days, so much so that Google employees had their bonuses linked to it and Google’s accomplishment in that field. It seems that’s how much of a threat Facebook and Twitter were being perceived as. And so you could say, if you pour enough dollars into something, sooner or later, you’re going to hit gold. But I think there was something different this time around.
It seemed a bit like, in the last three or four years before the step-down of Eric Schmidt, Google had seemed to believe in its own hype about itself. That they were amazing, awesome, that they had reached the top, and were just going to dominate from now on. Then what can happen, the drive to innovate and create dies down a bit, you get into a comfort zone, or you start to believe you’re too big to fail. One thinks that Vista was such an example. That is why Wave, and Buzz were just unleashed on the world, there was no measured approach, it was just “this is awesome, and people WILL like it, because we’re Google”. This time around, much more measured, much more cautious, and the product seems to be much more, for a word, ‘developed’. One is reminded of the Gmail launch, when Hotmail was running dominant, and it looked like no one could touch it, when little by little, people switched over to Gmail and then massed.
To go back to the thought of the fare this time being more developed, one only has to see that Google Wave and Buzz were good ideas however one believes that’s just what they were, ideas. No thought had really, or it felt like no or very little thought had really been put into how they were going to fit into the existing ecosystem. Whereas, with Google+ one gets the feeling, the developers/programmers have sat down, and come up with a list of why Facebook/Twitter are popular, and their weak points, and then figured how to improve upon it. There seems to be a definite USP to Google+, if someone asks you why I should I switch. You can say something apart from “because it’s made by Google, and by definition, it’s great,” there are actual cogent reasons for why you should/could switch. Something that Mac users rarely provide but we’re getting off the point.
So, in summary, Google’s social prowess seems to be growing. Too early to say whether this is IT or not, but they seem to be going about it in the right way.
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Things fall apart; The centre cannot hold
And anarchy is let loose upon the world.
-WB Yeats..The Second Coming
Hey guys, The poem above very much reflects my thoughts at this moment, spurred on as it was by the dreadful events going on at Celtic, and with Neil Lennon. The falcon is very much a creature of the falconer, very much under its grasp, it hunts when the falconer wants, it goes and comes at his beck and call. However the poem above twists this and asks what if the falcon can't hear the falconer. What if after having loosed this idea/creation/concept, you can no longer control it.
On the news today, there was a report of a guy who jumped the railing and tried to accost Neil Lennon on the pitch itself, fortunately nothing happened. But I would venture to say that this person would not have done so under normal circumstances, i.e say Rangers and Celtic didn't have this huge rivalry between them, and the derby day tension hadn't been played up to the max. This guy probably, in my opinion wouldn't have done that. When they we're amping up the rivalry for the derby that day when this all erupted, from which the aftershocks are still being felt, no one thought that it would lead to this kind of sectarian violence and death threats.
Secondly, another example which I'm sure everyone will have thought off, the atom bomb, or more precisely the splitting of the atom. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall Einstein regretting the fact that he had ever worked on the splitting on the atom. The co-conspirators (for lack of a better word) in the Manhatten project, seem to be quite taken back as well at the gross level of destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When scientists, and mathematicians were calculating/figuring out how to split the atom, I wonder how many of them thought of the untold destruction that it would wreck on the world.
Thirdly, and a bit more fluffily...Harry Potter, or more specifically the Harry Potter Fandom that seemed to just come into existence somewhere between the third and fourth books, and gather steam in the long space of time betwen the fourth and fifth books. The volume of fanfiction, fanart, and just in general, fan love for the series propagated itself towards the characters of the Harry Potter series in a very interesting if a tad weird way. Draco Malfoy, became the undisputed hero of the fandom and to further mix it up Harry and Draco, a male/male pairing became the most celebrated couple. Pairings started abounding like anything, slash started multiplying, and characters that had barely lines or two lines written on them in cannon had entire lives, entire character histories established, and then expectations set for certain characters SHOULD act. I would be quite impressed if J.K Rowling had forseen that.
At the end of it all, one wonders if this is why naysayers are needed especially when anything new comes out. Because 'nothing ventured is nothing gained' but then again 'a bird in hand, is worth two in the bush'
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Things fall apart; The centre cannot hold
And anarchy is let loose upon the world.
-WB Yeats..The Second Coming
Hey guys, The poem above very much reflects my thoughts at this moment, spurred on as it was by the dreadful events going on at Celtic, and with Neil Lennon. The falcon is very much a creature of the falconer, very much under its grasp, it hunts when the falconer wants, it goes and comes at his beck and call. However the poem above twists this and asks what if the falcon can't hear the falconer. What if after having loosed this idea/creation/concept, you can no longer control it.
On the news today, there was a report of a guy who jumped the railing and tried to accost Neil Lennon on the pitch itself, fortunately nothing happened. But I would venture to say that this person would not have done so under normal circumstances, i.e say Rangers and Celtic didn't have this huge rivalry between them, and the derby day tension hadn't been played up to the max. This guy probably, in my opinion wouldn't have done that. When they we're amping up the rivalry for the derby that day when this all erupted, from which the aftershocks are still being felt, no one thought that it would lead to this kind of sectarian violence and death threats.
Secondly, another example which I'm sure everyone will have thought off, the atom bomb, or more precisely the splitting of the atom. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall Einstein regretting the fact that he had ever worked on the splitting on the atom. The co-conspirators (for lack of a better word) in the Manhatten project, seem to be quite taken back as well at the gross level of destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When scientists, and mathematicians were calculating/figuring out how to split the atom, I wonder how many of them thought of the untold destruction that it would wreck on the world.
Thirdly, and a bit more fluffily...Harry Potter, or more specifically the Harry Potter Fandom that seemed to just come into existence somewhere between the third and fourth books, and gather steam in the long space of time betwen the fourth and fifth books. The volume of fanfiction, fanart, and just in general, fan love for the series propagated itself towards the characters of the Harry Potter series in a very interesting if a tad weird way. Draco Malfoy, became the undisputed hero of the fandom and to further mix it up Harry and Draco, a male/male pairing became the most celebrated couple. Pairings started abounding like anything, slash started multiplying, and characters that had barely lines or two lines written on them in cannon had entire lives, entire character histories established, and then expectations set for certain characters SHOULD act. I would be quite impressed if J.K Rowling had forseen that.
At the end of it all, one wonders if this is why naysayers are needed especially when anything new comes out. Because 'nothing ventured is nothing gained' but then again 'a bird in hand, is worth two in the bush'
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Why I might understand why some people don't like Sport
India wins the World Cup, amazing day, great day...But strangely when I should be glorifying in India's win, and rejoicing that for once the team I support won, with me watching live, (Arsenal, Minnesota, Orlando Magic), I can't help but actually understand the viewpoint of people who don't like sport or who don't understand the attraction of sport and it's effect on the populace. India won the World Cup, it was awesome and all...but the world kept turning, the Earth didn't move, Nothing significant happened, The clocks ticked around like usual, As the statistics go..in those 8 hours that it took to watch the India-Sri Lanka final (which was an amazing match btw)...80 people died in Africa if what I read about a person dying in Africa every 6 minutes is true that is. Why is it that I spend so much time on sports, why does it determine my mood, and moreover why do I get so emotionally invested. It's just a game, they're just the best players of that particular game playing out there. I'm sure for them, it's hugely significant..achievements, dreams, raison d'etre for playing...etc, etc, etc.
I suppose one could trot out the old maxim of when Tendulkar scores a century, the poor man on the street who has had one meal of daal-chawal (lentils+rice) today, he'll be happy despite being hungry. Other reasons have included, as the Pakistani captain said "for this one month, the whole country has forgotten all it's divisions, Shia, Sunni, and come together to support us wholeheartedly". But in the end, it's just a moment.
And I've come to the realization, that watching sports shouldn't impact that much. You should savour the experience, but not get so involved that say if Arsenal draws AGAIN...and Man United somehow comes back AGAIN from 2-0 down to win 4-2..shouldn't matter that much.
Uh huh...:D
I suppose one could trot out the old maxim of when Tendulkar scores a century, the poor man on the street who has had one meal of daal-chawal (lentils+rice) today, he'll be happy despite being hungry. Other reasons have included, as the Pakistani captain said "for this one month, the whole country has forgotten all it's divisions, Shia, Sunni, and come together to support us wholeheartedly". But in the end, it's just a moment.
And I've come to the realization, that watching sports shouldn't impact that much. You should savour the experience, but not get so involved that say if Arsenal draws AGAIN...and Man United somehow comes back AGAIN from 2-0 down to win 4-2..shouldn't matter that much.
Uh huh...:D
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