jBoxer

I’ve read many opinions on Google Buzz over the past month. Some are smart, some aren’t. Today, I read one that takes the cake, as far as idiocy goes. From the article:

I’m not a social networking fan, anyway, and to break my GMail, my primary email account, with something as stupid and useless as Buzz; I’m irritated. I usually wake up to 20 or more emails in my Inbox first thing in the morning. Today, I had one. Yes, one. I’ve sent numerous messages out today and I don’t know if they’re swirling about in some mail queue or if they’ve reached their destinations. Thanks Buzz. Thanks a lot.

I’m not sure that Google’s tech people realized how much bandwidth a service like this uses. It’s a lot. Just ask Twitter. It’s especially bandwidth hungry because, unlike Twitter, Buzz doesn’t limit you to 140 characters.

The insinuation that Buzz is responsible for his low email count this morning is utterly ridiculous. Does he think that Buzz has created some magical black hole in Teh Google’s intarwebz that’s sucking up his email?

Also, the whole “bandwidth” thing is beyond stupid. Yeah, I’m sure Google’s tech people (the folks behind Youtube) don’t know much about bandwidth.

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Every single holiday since I can remember, my mom has made a dish called Lokshen Kugel. She makes it with egg noodles, cottage cheese, sour cream, and a bunch of sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon (as well as the standard eggs and stuff).

Today, after getting the recipe from her, I made it myself. The weirdest feeling was opening the oven halfway through. There was a dish I’d seen dozens of times before, but for the first time, it wasn’t in the oven at my house (the one I grew up in), and it was made by me instead of my mom. It was very surreal.

I haven’t tasted it yet. But when I do, I’ll post about it again. I also took some pictures, so I’ll be sure to put them up (once I find the cord for my camera).

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Facebook has a new design. Every programmer I know loves it. Almost everyone else I know hates it. I could’ve written those three sentences a couple years ago, copy/pasted them every six months, and they would’ve fit perfectly every time.

Of course, the pattern has always ended the same way as well. People forget about it within a month, and when the next change comes around, it’s “It was PERFECT the way it was, why are you changing it?!”

In fact, I’ve seen a bunch of people asking “why does Facebook keep changing the interface?” Most people are asking it rhetorically, with the implied answer being “to confuse users.” However, if asked honestly, it’s actually a pretty good question, with a pretty good answer.

Facebook has gotten where it is today by innovating. Prime example: the News Feed. When they added the News Feed, no one else was doing anything like it. Despite massive user riots, they stuck to their guns. Two years later, everyone loves it, all the social networks have copied it, and there would be massive user riots if they scrapped it.

Facebook has stayed at the forefront of social networking innovation by constantly throwing everything at the wall, keeping what sticks (News Feed), and scrapping what doesn’t (“How do you know this person?”). It’s in their best interest to do this; they make their money from venture capitalists and advertisers, not from charging users.

If they charged users, changing the interface so often would be a bad move; users would stop paying as soon as they became confused with a new interface, and they’d lose money. As it stands, users who are confused with a new interface can take a break at no cost to Facebook, come back in a few weeks (as they always have), and the advertisers and venture capitalists (who only care about long-term success) are happy.

Obviously, Facebook and its investors have become accustomed to the pattern: make a change, suck up the complaints (possibly while making some adjustments, like the additional privacy options after the News Feed was added), and reap the benefits of being a bastion of social networking innovation for another six months. Eventually, maybe the users will get used to it as well. I’ve actually seen a few status updates along the lines of “I guess I probably won’t hate this so much once I get used to it” after this update, so who knows?

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