I’m usually a big fan of convenience software, especially software that allows me to communicate with my networks more gracefully and quickly.
So, initially I was excited about OnlyWire, (notice I didn’t put a link there, yes… that is a deliberate spurn). When I signed up for Onlywire, I had visions of easy bookmarking as I browsed the web, and seamless updating of my bookmark sites saving more time for chatting. Read more
Filed Under:
TechnologyTagged:
onlywire,
Qwitter,
social media,
technology goddess,
twitter
Google Friend Connect Beta is moving forward with the next wave of approved beta testers in it’s preparations for open beta testing. I just received my Google Friend Connect invite today and the Technology Goddess blog is now participating in the beta version of Friend Connect.
This great social app integrates full community capability into any website or blog, and although right now there are not a lot of widgets developed yet with Google Friend Connect, it is OpenSocial and so I am anticipating that once it goes live there will be a multitude of wonderful gadgets developed to optimize your on-site community!
I have already integrated Google Friend Connect on the Technology Goddess blog, and you can now join the community and the conversation!
My Thoughts so far:
- Google Friend Connect was super-easy to install and integrate, easier than building most social widgets. I have created a basic tutorial for you in the Technology Goddess blog showing my own installation of Google Friend Connect.
- Right now the “wall” widget is ready to use so users can comment on your site, a nifty feature of the “wall” is that you can specify whether you want the widget to be for the entire site or a page. This means that you can have different areas of pages of your site, or perhaps a popular article on your blog that can have a unique “comments” wall for your community. Yes, blogs already have “comments” but the fact that you can now create this anywhere for your community is outstanding.
- The “Ratings” widget is similar, you can specify the “ratings” widget to cover an entire site, a page, an article or item. So yes, you can have rating not only for your articles or blog posts, but perhaps for your reviews of other products? I will have this widget integrated shortly with new articles that cover technology apps. so that my community can share in the ratings process.
Erika - Google Friend Connect Setup and Installation Videos on Technology Goddess Blog
More Information on Google Friend Connect and for more Google articles like this one.
Filed Under:
GoogleTagged:
community,
friend connect,
friend connect beta,
Google,
google friend connect,
opensocial,
pre-beta,
social media,
Social Networking
Twitter, and Social Media have today, come of age. Even before the terrorist attacks on Mubai, India broke mainstream media, social media sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages providing eyewitness accounts, updates, live reporting of lists of the dead and injured from hospitals in Mumbai and tweets pleaing for blood doners to come to the hospitals as casualities mounted. With over 6 million users, an estimated 80 tweets providing eyewitness accounts were being sent every 5 seconds from Mubai.
Neha Viswanathan, a former regional editor for Southeast Asia and a volunteer at Global Voices, told CNN.com, “Even before I actually heard of it on the news I saw stuff about this on Twitter.
Several people who were trapped inside the hotel were tweeting their locations asking for help, and another was tweeting that terrorists were asking for the hotel rooms of American citizens and holding them hostage on the floor.
CNN.com summed it up; “It was the day social media appeared to come of age and signaled itself as a news-gathering force to be reckoned with.”
Twitter users mobilized immediately tweeting phone numbers for helplines for family members with loved ones caught up in the attacks, and tweeters were key in quickly creating lists of the dead and injured beteween hospitals which were quickly posted online in real time. Twitter users posted at hospitals kept stock of blood supplies and pleaded for volunteers to come down and donate blood as stocks ran low with directions to the hospital.
Twitter user “naomieve” wrote: “Mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it is a social media experiment in action.”
Twitter was not the only social media site that played a critical role in the hours after the attacks began.
Google Maps showed the key locations and buildings being held with links to news stories, eyewitness accounts and links to images, as Flickr provided a streaming feed of haunting images live from the attacks. CNN reporters and other major broadcasters uploaded their Flickr images as well.
One of the major drawbacks, as in any situation where information is being virally spread, it’s likely that some of the posts on Twitter were unsubstantiated rumor or inaccuracies.
One major news website had egg on it’s face after reporting a couple of the inaccurate tweets, one of which was a tweet that circulated saying the Indian Gvt. was asking Twitter users to please stop tweeting live because of security issues.
It was suggested at one point as the Twitter-fury esclated that the terrorists were using Twitter to get information about what the Indian security forces were doing, which led to an avalanche of Twitter users tweeting, “Die DIE DIE if you are reading this!” Some Twitter users and bloggers later complained it was an avalanche of tweets and re-tweets that was hard to sort through.
One thing is clear: Twitter and Social Media have proven that social news sharing, can be faster and more critical in moments of emergency than mainstream media, and that the news is no longer under the global control of mainstream media, but in the hands of the people. At least in the hands of people with Blackberries or text-enabled cell phones.
~ Erika, http://TechnologyGoddess.com Social Media News
Social media Stories like This one…
Filed Under:
Social MediaTagged:
india,
mumbai,
social media,
Social Networking,
social news,
terror,
terrorist attacks,
tweets,
twitter,
twittering
Kevin shares insights with me into Google’s OpenSocial philosophy and future as well as FOAF, the Google Social Graph API, how the Googlebot follows FOAF and XFN markup links and publicly declared connections, what Google Developers are currently focused on in the lab and the future of Google Friend Connect.
I so enjoyed talking with such an innovative and brilliant mind on the forefront of internet social development. Go grab a latte and sit down for this full interview, because you will not want to miss a word of Kevin’s in-depth peek inside Google’s Development environment.
