WTH is that foursquare thing?

So, lately, I keep getting asked, “What is that foursquare thing that has been making up the majority of your tweets/Facebook posts?” Very basically, foursquare is a “location-based social gaming” service. As you’re out in the real world, you use foursquare to check into the places and establishments that you go to with each check in earning you points and badges and in some cases, special discounts.

Say you go out to McDonald’s. You check in via your mobile phone. If you check into that McDonald’s more often than anyone else has, you become “mayor” of that McDonald’s. Now, I haven’t heard of any McDonald’s doing so, but let’s say Mccy D’s knows about foursquare and runs a special: Free Quarter Pounder for the foursquare Mayor. If you are the Mayor, you’re pretty happy, dining on free nom nom’s. If you’re not the Mayor, you probably want to be, so you’re likely to keep going to that McDonald’s, trying to become Mayor.

As you’re checking into places, you also earn badges for special events. The first badge you earn is the Newbie Badge, which you get automatically with your first check-in. There are a few well known badges, and many more secret/unknown badges. There’s the Gym Rat badge, which you get if you go to a gym 10 times in a month; a Don’t Stop Believing badge for checking into three places tagged with “karaoke;” the School Night badge for checking into a venue after 3am; and, one of my favorites, the Douchebag badge, for checking into a place tagged “douchebag.” For the more unknown badges, you just have to keep checking in and be surprised when you earn them.

So, what is the draw to the service? It’s really that every time you walk out the door now, you have a game to play, and something to earn for each stop. You may hate a particular bar (because the bartender is a douchebag) but if you go there any way, you earn a badge (Douchebag badge!) for having stopped there. And, it’s not like another location-based service I used before (brightkite) where I never really felt like there was a social aspect to checking in. foursquare becomes social once you start competing with your friends, family, and usually complete strangers to become Mayor of certain establishments.  After just two months of using foursquare, I already have more connections through the service than I did with a year, plus, of using brightkite, and, I’ve gotten more people to start using it over bk. foursquare just brings that extra something to the table.

I’ve actually been lusting over foursquare for many months now. At first, foursquare was city specific. I’m in the Philadelphia metro area, but I never actually go to Philly, so for a while, the service really had nothing to offer me. Then they went global, so I signed up for an account, but only to be disappointed to find there was no Blackberry mobile app, which is pretty essential to me. Sure, there was (and still is) the m.foursquare.com site, however, I think if you’re site needs a “m.___.com” site, you really ought to just create an actual app for the big smartphone contenders. Just my thoughts there. Anyway, foursquare finally pushed out an official beta version of the Blackberry app and now I can stop lusting from the outside. Their website is clean, as are their mobile apps, and the service is seriously easy to use.

There you have it… that foursquare thing.

Verizon: Not A Heaping Pile of Shit

So, I was just thinking about the iPhone and AT&T, and how it’s sad that Apple’s product is greater in quality than AT&T’s product, which reminded me of an exchange of tweets I had with John Gormly (@jgormlyjr) a few months back. John suggested that people are more likely to let others know when they are displeased or unhappy, as opposed to when they are satisfied and content. He was, of course, speaking about mobile phone providers as well as mobile devices themselves, and John has it completely correct. Most people are definitely more likely to speak up when they are displeased. I can distinctly remember way back in elementary school, a teacher had called my parents to tell them I was doing great in school, and that she was impressed. When I got home that day, I remember my parents being in awe, not that I was doing well in my studies, but that a teacher had actually called with something other than bad news.

Okay, so, how does this relate to my train of thought about AT&T, and more importantly, the title subject, Verizon? It’s quite simple, really. Proving John right, many are tapping away at their keyboards complaining about AT&T’s service, whether it be via blogs, tweets, comments or statuses. As I can’t recall having heard any one praise their service, I’ve automatically just assumed that, yes, case closed, AT&T has some horrible service. But then, I remembered John, and our conversation, and realized I am really only hearing half of the story. There are undoubtedly just as many consumers out there happy with their mobile service provided by AT&T, as there are those unhappy. The difference is that they’re just not bothering to write anything about it. And that brings us to the title of this entry: Verizon.

There have been a number of occasions I’ve taken the opportunity to, briefly, mention that I am fond of Verizon’s services. Yes, services. I decided in an effort to encourage more positive discussions about products used, even though knowingly in vain, I would take the time to go into more detail about my satisfaction with VZ.

Firstly, as I already noted, I said “Verizon’s services,” up there. As far as I know, I’m using all they have to offer. I suppose the love affair started early. We had Bell Atlantic landline telephone service in our home from the earliest I can remember. Bell Atlantic, of course, merged with GTE in 2000 to form Verizon Communications. We still have Verizon Voice in our home, although, admittedly, its soul purpose is for bill collectors (usually calling the wrong number) to call, not be answered, and leave voicemails, which are listened to, and, subsequently, deleted. It’s likely that once our contract is up, that we will cancel Voice to save a few dollars monthly, but it’s of no fault to VZ, just the fault of lack of use/necessity. I cannot recall at any time having been displeased with the connection and having service unexpectedly cut.

Years ago we had AOL and dial-up to connect to the Internets. And we all know that dial-up eventually finds itself to be not enough and burdensome. Initially, we made the switch from dial-up to Comcast Cable. We kept this for a few years, but no one was really satisfied with the service. Finally, in 2006, we cut Comcast Cable internet and moved up in the world to Verizon DSL. I do not miss having to constantly unplug a modem and wait, no, hope, that when it is plugged back in, finally powered up, it’d be connected and working. I also do not miss having to call a 800 number to find out why the Internets was broken (lol) and being told to unplug/plug back in [again] as a non-solution-solution. VZ DSL stayed connected, with no down time. Last year, Verizon finally rolled out FiOS in our area. And we were in the first dozen of residents in the area to adopt it. I can’t recall exact numbers, but I do know that there was a significantly great change in up/download speeds.

We now have FiOS for our phone, Internet and cable. I would obviously like the FiOS cable, considering I can have widgets on my TV screen. I love anything that isn’t just the way the makers want it, but customizable to the way I want it. Verizon just recently added a Twitter and Facebook widget, and although right now, they’re pretty primitive compared to what one would expect from a Twitter or Facebook widget, how cool is it that I can have Twitter and Facebook on my TV? Picture quality is great, and I have more channels to choose from than I even know about. Importantly, there have been no service interruptions to our cable.

Finally, VZ Wireless, AT&T’s biggest competition. I first started using VZW three years ago. Originally, I was using their prepaid service. (Prior to this, I has been using Tracfone prepaid wireless.) Having never lost signal or dropped calls, I decided in 2007 to go contract. I have been with VZW since, first with a Motorola w385 handset, and now with the Blackberry Storm. I still have not had any problems whatsoever with my mobile service. I am quite certain that I will be with them for very long time. No, AT&T, you cannot lure me over to you, no matter how many new iPhones Apple gives you.

So, here’s a question for all: are you happy with your providers?

(I guess I ought to throw a bit of a disclaimer up. I do own stock in Verizon Communications, as I have that much confidence in the products they offer and the company. One could probably suggest this blog has motivations because of my owning stock in VZ. It’s not the case, but you’re more than welcome to your suspicions.)

Ahh, Blogging On The Move

Basically, I’m simply trying out the beta WordPress for Blackberry app on my 9530 Storm. Sure, it works, but this is sp not optimized for the Storm. I’m stuck using the keyboard I hate and in portrait view. I’ll add a screenshot later. This will probably just take up space, unused.

Update: The screen shot app I have on my phone can’t capture the keyboard (for some reason.) Instead of a screenshot, here’s a real picture of my phone with the WordPress App opened up.

Review: Wakoopa.com

Not too long ago, I had dedicated one week to writing down where I went on the web. By the third day, I had started getting discouraged when I found out that there was a website, with download-able software, that could save me the trouble of writing out “12:40am Yahoo! mail. 12:45am Twitter.” I trucked on, but I also started using that software on the side. I’m talking about Wakoopa, of course. Wakoopa provides a tracker to download that will monitor the programs your computer uses, whatever it may be, from your browser to install prompts. It even monitors the websites you go to (don’t worry about those dirty sites. Wakoopa doesn’t track those, and if by some rare occurrence it did, not likely but if, you can make your usage of any particular program/website private to your connections or just yourself.)

There are really three ways to use Wakoopa. The first, most obvious, is time management. How much time are you wasting spending at your computer? What are you doing while at your computer? What should you be giving more attention to [while at your computer?] There are all kinds of charts mapping out your computer use: most used software; use of the last six weeks; individually listed programs use; lists of what you use in the background. You can even grab widgets to share on other sites what you use most in specific categories, such as gaming or design, etc. Second, Wakoopa is a social network that revolves around software use. Each program/website has a page where users can review and rate them. Love it or hate it, you can let others know about it. Lastly, it’s a suggestions network. As you let the Wakoopa tracker run in the background of your computer, Wakoopa learns more about you and the kind of programs you would be interested in. On the homepage, referred to as the dashboard, you’re given two separate suggestions. One list of suggestions contains other Wakoopa users with similar program use as you. The big suggestion list, though, provides you with links to other programs that you’re likely to be interested in, based on your current program usage.

Overall: I haven’t uninstalled the Wakoopa tracker yet, which says quite a bit, as I often go through and clean out programs from my computer. I’m not so sure it’s for every one. I suppose you do need a bit of nerdiness to want to keep track of usage and look over charts, but I do like Wakoopa and think if it sounds even kind of interesting, you ought to give it a go.

Shame on you, MySpace

Just two days after laying off 480 U.S. employees, with more to come internationally, in an effort to cut costs, MySpace is celebrating today the one year anniversary of the launch of MySpace Karaoke by giving away a trip for 2 to Las Vegas. Well, I guess we know where some of the money saved from the layoffs is going to, since there is no mention any where on the home page announcement or on the Karaoke page about the contest being sponsored by any company. Way to go MySpace.

Many people claiming to be current and, now, former MySpace employees have been posting on TechCrunch alleging that the management teams (mainly VP’s, SVP’s, etc) are the one’s that should be cut for under-performance. Perhaps SVP & GM of MySpace Karaoke, Nimrod Lev (dead serious that that is a real name) should be one of them out the door?

Hurry up.

So. Twitter is down for maintenance right now. Interesting to note, the U.S. State department is claiming a bit of credit for that.

Oh and I’m working on a 15 step program, written by MG Siegler over at TechCrunch.

This blog post, is step 8. 😉

Just when I was starting to worry…

After the first couple of weeks on Twitter, tweeting about very mundane tasks, getting a grip on what the site was really about, I finally fell in love with Twitter, essentially, for one purpose: the flow of information. When news happens, it’s on Twitter long before any editors can approve an article for web publishing, and before the major news outlets (eg. AP, Reuters) even send out notices. I remember specifically a plane had crashed, and news of it spread on Twitter. Michael van Poppel of BNO News called the coroner’s office in the town the plane crashed, to the shock of the clerk that answered the phone. Poppel tweeted out that the clerk asked, “How did you hear so FAST?” And that’s where I think the real power behind Twitter lay. Something happens, and the Twitterverse knows instantly.

When Trending Topics were moved from the less-than-obvious search page, to the home page, I was quickly disappointed to find that memes were taking the place of information. #3turnoffwords and #3turnonwords hit the trends and are still being tweeted about. I’m not sure why I was so surprised by this. I expected there would be fun and games, but I suppose I didn’t imagine the games would quickly out weigh the information. I started thinking Twitter was losing a small bit of that information flow. It’s always nice to have a reminder that things just aren’t what they appear. I think that, most likely, Robert Scoble deserves credit for this one.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares victory in the Iranian Presidential election, the government shuts down mobile phones, and access to YouTube and Twitter within Iran, opponent Mousavi accuses Ahmadinejad of rigging the election, and Tehran is set ablaze by protesters. Twitter is flowing with real-time updates, photos and videos of riots, and police action. Meanwhile, main stream media, specifically, CNN, is running Larry King discussing David Letterman vs Sarah Palin. Enter Scoble. “CNN: you should be ashamed. Horrid news judgment today. Absolutely horrid.” It didn’t take long for disgust towards CNN to migrate from FriendFeed to Twitter.

As I type this, #iranelection, #cnnfail, Tehran, and Mousavi are all in the top five Trending Topics. Although CNN has been the one graced with a failtag, it’s not the only main stream media that’s ignoring the events taking place in Iran. In a retweet, Scoble points out that all of the networks failed. Luckily, Twitter’s on this story. Otherwise, who else would?

Product Dilution: Ultimate Website Killer

 If you’ve ever been to a candy store, you’ve seen how the store has tried to make as large and wide variety of candy available to you as possible, and it works, because you walk around the store, over and over, just trying to decide what you want. Eventually, you have chosen a few different types of candy. Many services try to recreate this idea on the web. The goal is that if they provide you with enough options, you’ll spend a lot more time wandering about on their site. This works, too, for some time. We all want to try the different flavors, but as every one knows, too much candy leaves you with a sour stomach and a toothache. Just the same, too many features on a web site leaves users wanting less.

 As a website is growing, expanding product offering is a huge driving force to keeping older users entertained, and generally speaking, it’s not a bad idea to move forward from your original idea, as long as you are still true to the reason you made the site. However, it’s far too easy to go over board with your offering. Product dilution can be thought of as a bubble. As we all know, bubbles pop eventually. Each feature needs to have a dedicated team that understands the back end behind the feature, and they need to be ready to search out problems and errors and, as timely as possible, solve any issues before it burdens the end user. And this is just the start of a dangerous cycle.

 Too many options available is the perfect way to meet a stagnation in new user sign ups. If there’s no clear direction for a website, any potential users will turn away for another website that does have a clear direction. Your existing users will start converging into their own niches on your site, where they only really use a certain few features, while ignoring the rest. If you ignore any particular one, especially older features, you alienate the users that are dedicated to it. Of course, if you’ve moved on from developing the existing products, the users are likely to feel they’re being left behind, and what they are going to do is begin migrating to another website that caters specifically to the product they used most at your site. It only takes a few members to say, “I found a better site. Come join me,” before your user base starts dropping.

 So, here’s where we get to more problems. Your user base is dropping, your new sign ups are stagnating, and you’ve got a plethora of employees working on products you’re not sure you can financially support. You have to start cutting employees. The remaining users will notice this cut, too. Why? Because you have less people paying attention to the products you’re offering and the issues the users are having. Why is that significant? A few lines up: if you don’t pay enough attention to a product, your users don’t feel important, and they leave.

 MySpace is one of the most recent victims of product dilution (among other things, but we’ll stay on topic.) Way back when, MySpace was a music oriented social networking site. In the process of competing with other sites in the market, MySpace began developing new features left and right. Taking a look around the site, you’ll find a myriad of wide ranging things to do. Blogging, messaging, forums, groups, karaoke, videos, restaurant reviews, and chat/IM are just a few of the features on the site. MySpace has overwhelmed itself, and, ultimately, its users. The company lost view of its original goals and purposes, so it’s users are flocking to other sites that have clearer intentions, such as Facebook, who, as MG Siegler recently pointed out, has a problem of their own: keeping it simple. Despite this problem, putting MySpace next to Facebook and it’s quite obvious which site is more bloated.

 So remember, don’t attempt to be the site that has every thing. In the end, the one thing you won’t have is success.

Review: Addictomatic.com

As if I needed another reason to spend too much time on the Internet, I have come across Addictomatic. This is search on steroids. I did a review recently on Search3.com. Search3 lets you search, from their website, Google, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter and Ebay in one shot. Addictomatic is the site Search3 wishes it was. I’m having trouble finding a definitive list of where Addictomatic pulls information from. It’s almost overwhelming. So far, I see results from Google, Bing, Twitter, YouTube, FriendFeed, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, Twingly, WordPress, Technorati, Bloglines, Wikio and more. Simple to use. Enter a topic, click create, and be overwhelmed.

Addictomatic crawls the web in search of the terms you’re interested in. The amount of results is pretty impressive. The layout, on top of being clean, is customizable. You can drag your favorite sites for a term to the top of the page, then bookmark it, and come back again and again to get new results. One draw back is that there’s nothing to suggest that the results are 100% relevant. It seems to just look for the terms you input and give you any page with those terms. But really, it doesn’t get better than this. Addictomatic earned instant bookmark for me. Go on. “Inhale the web.” You’re sure to like this site.

Review: WolframAlpha.com

When it comes to Wolfram|Alpha, let me just start by saying, stop reading anything that wants you to believe Wolfram|Alpha is a search engine or is “close to being” a search engine, because it’s not. Wolfram|Alpha is a computational engine. It does not provide “search results.” It provides “data.” It is not a link between you and a website relevant to your interests. Wolfram|Alpha is more of an encyclopedic-super-calculator-data-aggregator/comparison-information-machine. And that’s really just scratching the surface of Wolfram|Alpha‘s capabilities.

I want to start “small” with what Wolfram|Alpha can accomplish. It’s actually taken me a bit to really understand the power this site has, and all of the tech articles out there passing it off as “The Google Killer That Couldn’t,” didn’t help in the least. Mathematics is going to be the most common aspect of the site that is used and mentioned. Enter in any simple equation–(2+2)4 for example–and Wolfram|Alpha will provide the answer, nice and sweet. Now, throw in something a little more exciting: x^2 sin(x). Wolfram|Alpha chose this particular input/result with good reason, that being, it shows off. From plots, to roots, to alternative representation, Wolfram|Alpha gives you all the possible data related to the input.

Moving on from equations, let’s talk historical data. Try December 7, 1988, in Philadelphia. The first information given is about the date, specifically. How long ago was the date? What day in the year was it? Which week in the year? Then, it moves on to the city on that date, giving the temperature throughout the day, including high, low, and average, cloud cover, time of sunrise and sunset, and moon phase. Finishing it off, Wolfram|Alpha provides data strictly about the city/area, such as the city center elevation and population at the time of the closest census. I think first of story writers. Not all writers want to be factual about small details, such as the weather or when the sun rose, but for those that do, this is perfect.

The informational scope that Wolfram|Alpha encompasses is incredible. Maybe you’re into buying and selling stocks. Type in a few stock symbols, and Wolfram|Alpha will give you side-by-side comparison. Maybe you’re a musician, looking to find scales. Or maybe you’re just into music and want to know who wrote that song and when it came out and how high on the charts it got. Into astronomy (or working on a school paper?) Find the position of nearly any celestial body at any date, or find specific details, such as mass and orbital period, about them.
On a diet? Figuring out a mortgage? Play the lottery? Are you a physicist? Interested in political figures? There are piles upon piles of uses for this site. Wolfram|Alpha‘s about page says it “contains 10+ trillion of pieces of data, 50,000+ types of algorithms and models, and linguistic capabilities for 1000+ domains.”

Overall: Even if you think you’re never going to use Wolfram|Alpha, stop reading this blog right now, and head to WolframAlpha.com/examples/ and look around at just some of what the engine is capable of computing. This is the website I wish I had when I was in grade school using Microsoft Encarta for research, and it most definitely gets play with my current studies.