Technologist For Hire

So I pull up Google Maps today to find a Taco Bell (because the one near me was recently torn down to make way for a BIGGER Taco Bell, but it still not finished), and I am greeted with what looks like a simplified version of the site.

Upon further inspection, it is more featureful, and just visually simplified.

This new Google Maps now contains a Terrain View, can pull in Wikipedia articles for all of the locations on the map, and pulls images from a new Google service called Panoramio.

It is pretty friggin sweet.

Take a look at this screen shot of the terrain map, loaded with Wikipedia articles & photos: http://nexdot.net/gmaps_new_wikipedia_and_photos.jpg

In reply to my OpenSocial post, online reputation company Rapleaf co-founder Vivek Sodera sent me some interesting statistics that they have gathered. The statistics show the overlap of users between social networks. Why does this relate to OpenSocial? OpenSocial is a bridge between Social Networks and non-social networks. If User X has an account at 5 different social networks, and trends show that this is a common practice, and, as Rapleaf has done, you can identify which social networks have the greatest overlap, you could (for instance):

1. Target your OpenSocial implementation towards certain users
2. Verify that it is a good idea to participate in OpenSocial (wink, wink Facebook!)
3. Tailor your OpenSocial implementation to link data from certain social networks (those that show the greatest overlap)
4. Streamline a user’s access to their overlapping data!

Social Network Overlap - OpenSocial Participants (…and Facebook)

• The greatest overlap between OpenSocial container sites exists between Myspace and Hi5, in which 43% of Hi5 users also use Myspace.
• Facebook users are 63% female and 36% male whereas the sites integrated with the OpenSocial platform are 61% female and 38% male
• 52% of Facebook users are 18-25, whereas 40% of the users are 18-25 for the five container sites on the OpenSocial platform
• Facebook users tend to use 2.9 major social networking sites on average whereas users of OpenSocial container sites tend to use 2.7 major social networking sites

Detail

Facebook Users

• 2.6 million users identified in Rapleaf
• 63% female, 36% male
• 17% <18 yrs, 52% 18-25 yrs, 21% 26-35 yrs, 5% 36-45 yrs, 5% >45 yrs
• 2.9 major social networking sites used on average
• 62% are on Myspace, 5% are on LinkedIn, 9% are on Friendster, 10% are on Plaxo, 22% are on Hi5

Myspace Users

• 11.3 million users identified in Rapleaf
• 63% female, 36% male
• 20% <18 yrs, 40% 18-25 yrs, 27% 26-35 yrs, 7% 36-45 yrs, 6% >45 yrs
• 2.4 major social networking sites used on average
• 15% are on Facebook, 2% are on LinkedIn, 9% are on Friendster, 6% are on Plaxo, 17% are on Hi5

LinkedIn Users

• 0.8 million users identified in Rapleaf
• 38% female, 61% male
• 2% <18 yrs, 9% 18-25 yrs, 49% 26-35 yrs, 24% 36-45 yrs, 16% >45 yrs
• 3.2 major social networking sites used on average
• 16% are on Facebook, 25% are on Myspace, 12% are on Friendster, 16% are on Plaxo, 8% are on Hi5

Friendster Users

• 2.3 million users identified in Rapleaf
• 58% female, 41% male
• 12% <18 yrs, 39% 18-25 yrs, 36% 26-35 yrs, 7% 36-45 yrs, 5% >45 yrs
• 3.0 major social networking sites used on average
• 10% are on Facebook, 44% are on Myspace, 5% are on LinkedIn, 5% are on Plaxo, 26% are on Hi5

Plaxo Users

• 1.3 million users identified in Rapleaf
• 62% female, 37% male
• 16% <18 yrs, 39% 18-25 yrs, 24% 26-35 yrs, 10% 36-45 yrs, 11% >45 yrs
• 3.6 major social networking sites used on average
• 20% are on Facebook, 53% are on Myspace, 11% are on LinkedIn, 9% are on Friendster, 15% are on Hi5

Hi5 Users

• 4.5 million users identified in Rapleaf
• 60% female, 39% male
• 21% <18 yrs, 44% 18-25 yrs, 23% 26-35 yrs, 6% 36-45 yrs, 6% >45 yrs
• 2.8 major social networking sites used on average
• 13% are on Facebook, 43% are on Myspace, 2% are on LinkedIn, 13% are on Friendster, 2% are on Plaxo

Interesting; in this post on TechCrunch, Michael Arrington says “…resort to becoming a MySpace user along with the rest of the unwashed masses”, in response to somone who had their Facebook mysteriously deactivated.

Also, with all of these new platforms emerging, I am wondering what their overlap will be between each other?

Google is unstoppable. This Thursday, November 1, 2007, Google will launch OpenSocial (url goes live on Thursday); a set of API’s that allow developers to interact with ANY social network that chooses to participate. What does this mean? It means that in order to access Orkut, LinkedIn, hi5, Plaxo, and other currently participating social networks, a developer only has to learn one API: The OpenSocial API. This reduces the cost and time associated with developing applications against a social network, and also opens the doors for new/existing social networks to give access to their data via the OpenSocial API.

The internet needs more standards and APIs. The things that differentiate the 200 different clones of an original idea, also clutter and confuse the internet. If the clones worked together, to form a network, everyone could choose their niche clone, and still enjoy content from the rest of the clone-network. For example: Youtube clones. If all Youtube clones worked together on a standard API, they could aggregate all of the videos, comments, and users together to form one large Video Sharing Network. Another example: del.icio.us clones. If all del.icio.us clones worked together on a standard API, they could aggregate all of the bookmarks, tags, comments, ratings, and users together to form on large Social Bookmarking Network. Google is giving the tools for one large Social Networking Network to exist.

Next, once there is an OpenAPI for each form of web2.0 product, we need a central OpenAPI that links all of those APIs together. Then we will have one global network, filled with tags, and users, and sharing, and stalking, and a lot of highly targeted advertising. Everyone will be happy, and the internet will implode.

[Via TechCrunch]

You are not reading that wrong… Gmail now has IMAP!

Note: They are rolling the feature out to select test accounts now. If you do not have IMAP options in your settings, you are not cool enough. Google will most likley do a full scale roll out shortly.

For ages, Gmail has been strictly POP3-only for external access. It got the job done, but it lacked functionality. There are a few key differences between POP3 and IMAP4 (at the user level) that make the addition of IMAP very exciting news. With traditional POP3 access to email, you generally are required to download the message (thus removing it from the email server). This sucks if you use a web interface (such as Gmail) & a remote client or mobile device equally… you would be missing emails from the web interface as they were downloaded to the remote client or mobile device. Google tried to combat this problem by adding a “keep on server” option. This was cool, but now things you do to the emails do not sync between the web interface and the remote client or mobile device (such as an email being marked as ‘read’). IMAP solves these problems! With IMAP you aren’t removing the email from the server on download, and all actions performed on an email, are synced between the clients and server. And the best thing of all? IMAP PERSISTENT CONNECTIONS! Think Microsoft Exchange-like functionality… without Exchange (or Microsoft). You can have a constant connection to an IMAP server and be notified instantly of new mail and have changes synced on the fly. This is why IMAP rules.

Good job Google. Good job! I have been waiting for a LONG time to see IMAP available on my account. I use Gmail for domains, so I have @nexdot.net and a bunch of my other sites hosted at Gmail. I was previously using my Motorola Q to access them all via POP3… it sucked. Now I have switched them all over to IMAP and I couldn’t be happier.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=75726