Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Some Bloggers Are Hard to Follow
OK, most people who blog, also read a lot of blogs. And it can be really hard to keep up with all of those blogs. Everybody has a favorite method of doing so. I feel that subscribing by email is sort of old-peopleish, but some folks really love it and won't have it any other way. So why, WHY, would any blogger only offer one method of following when there are so many different methods available? Most are relatively easy to implement on your blog, too (at least, I have had NO trouble implementing the desired tools on Blogger or on my self-hosted Wordpress blog). Here on my Blogger blog, I had gadgets set up within about 5 minutes that let people follow via email, RSS, NetworkedBlogs, or Google FriendConnect. On my self-hosted Wordpress, I found a number of plugins, or was able to copy and paste code into text widgets, for people to follow me via Facebook, Twitter, RSS, email, and NetworkedBlogs. It's so easy, and by neglecting the available options, a blogger effectively limits their loyal readership. Even if your readership is pretty steady, why would you not want more?
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Google+ Business Pages
According to Technorati, the Google+ Business Pages are coming soon. And it's about damn time! I guess it's impatient of me to say so, since Google+ only recently went into open beta, but I feel like I've been waiting forever for the one feature that will finally allow me to ween myself off of Facebook.
While I of course will have to continue using Facebook at least a little bit for business purposes, I continue to grow more and more uncomfortable with the direction Facebook is going. I understand why they're going the way they're going; what was once no more than a social network has now been around long enough to be a major business with a big-time paying clientele. Facebook isn't there to be a social network anymore, but to perform market research for that paying clientele. While privacy may be a myth on the internet, I for one at least want to be able to harbor my delusions of privacy controls.
While I expect Google+ to add more features and functionality over time, I currently enjoy the simplicity of the interface and the user-friendly privacy controls. The very last thing stopping me from making the leap is that I follow a wide range of business fan pages on Facebook. As Google+ makes the business pages available, and as business start trickling in (mine included), I look forward to much less time on the old social network and much more time on the new one.
As the Google+ population grows and diversifies, I think I'll mourn the loss of the techie/nerd community from the field testing days, but I guess that's a price that has to be paid for Google+ to truly be competitive. Honestly, I would love to see the day when Google+ is to Facebook as Facebook was to MySpace.
While I of course will have to continue using Facebook at least a little bit for business purposes, I continue to grow more and more uncomfortable with the direction Facebook is going. I understand why they're going the way they're going; what was once no more than a social network has now been around long enough to be a major business with a big-time paying clientele. Facebook isn't there to be a social network anymore, but to perform market research for that paying clientele. While privacy may be a myth on the internet, I for one at least want to be able to harbor my delusions of privacy controls.
While I expect Google+ to add more features and functionality over time, I currently enjoy the simplicity of the interface and the user-friendly privacy controls. The very last thing stopping me from making the leap is that I follow a wide range of business fan pages on Facebook. As Google+ makes the business pages available, and as business start trickling in (mine included), I look forward to much less time on the old social network and much more time on the new one.
As the Google+ population grows and diversifies, I think I'll mourn the loss of the techie/nerd community from the field testing days, but I guess that's a price that has to be paid for Google+ to truly be competitive. Honestly, I would love to see the day when Google+ is to Facebook as Facebook was to MySpace.
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