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What I’m Ungrateful For this Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving - Suckers.I hate Thanksgiving. Call me ungrateful or call me a grinch, but I hate everything about it. The food, the family, the football, the gluttony. It all disgusts me. Nothing says being grateful for what you have by watching Football on the couch all day and then enjoying a huge feast.

In honor of my extreme hatred of the holiday, let’s celebrate all the things I’m not thankful for in social media this year:

  • Failed Social Networks - 2010 is the year we said hello and goodbye to Google Buzz and Apple Ping. Both of them have failed miserably beyond adding another layer to something that worked just fine before. I can’t tell you the last time I used either feature in iTunes or in Gmail, both of which I use EVERY DAY. Way to fail Google and Apple.
  • Crappy Tweets - We all do it. We all know better. Seriously though, why doesn’t this stop? You think people would get smarter about all the crap they share with the entire internet, but no. They don’t. Also, to every single person who has tweeted something about “Fisting the turkey,” you disgust me.
  • Facebook’s Quest to rule the Internet - Facebook is on a rampage to rule the internet. With their ubiquitous login, new unified inbox, and their plan to add a social layer to everything (because we didn’t know how to be social before Mark Zuckerberg), Facebook is on a war path. Doesn’t anyone else wish for simpler times when we just connected with our friends?

Am I alone I my hatred of Thanksgiving?  Is there anything you wish you could give back to social media this holiday?

Oh, and before we get there, Black Friday drives me just as nuts too.

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Foursquare is F#*&ed

R.I.P Foursquare 2009-2010

Facebook, the 500 million member gorilla the room, announced its deals feature for places last week. After I spent a shopping trip using and loving enjoying this feature, I predict Foursquare, Gowalla, and their like will not last too much longer.

When I went shopping this weekend, I remembered I heard something about a deal when you checked into the GAP on Facebook. Let me be clear: I hate Facebook, and I hate checking into places. But if I know checking in will save me a few bucks, I will totally go for it because it provides me value.

I loaded up Facebook, and suddenly I’ve got a list of stores in the mall, some with little golden tickets offering me deals when I check in. I load of the venues and I can see what the deal is before I check in. I planned the rest of my shopping trip around Facebook’s little golden tickets.

Then, when I used a coupon, Facebook posts on my wall that I got a deal. Now my friends can see that there are savings to be had, and then they’ll want them too. Pure. Fucking. Genius.

This is game, set and match. My massive list of Facebook friends just saw I saved 20% at Macy’s and H&M and are free to like and comment on that. Facebook Deals are moving to national brands quickly, something Foursquare has struggled with. Mom and Pop Stores on Foursquare or the like are probably already on Facebook, and it’s easy as hell to set up a deal. If you’ve got 500 Facebook fans, and only 40 Foursquare users, where are you going to go?

Any location based service that wants to stay alive needs to do something big, bold, and exciting. No more meaningless virtual badges. No more check-in deal guessing games. Provide real value to people. Otherwise, the foot of Mark Zuckerberg will crush every other service that tries.

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One Login to Rule Them All

One for Zuckerberg on his throne.
In the Land of Palo Alto where the Dot Coms lie.
One Login to rule them all, One Login to find them,
One Login to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Palo Alto where the Dot Coms lie.

Facebook announced yesterday that that it will be introducing it’s login for multiple sites into the mobile app space as well.

If you don’t believe Facebook has plans to slowly take over the internet, stop kidding yourself. Facebook sees itself adding a “social layer” to all aspects of the online experience. While this would make logins incredibly easy, it also makes them incredibly insecure.

Facebook has never proven to be a bastion of protecting your data, and has recently come under attack for how insecure their login actually is. So now, instead of your data only being vulnerable on your computer, it will also be vulnerable from your phone.

This is another feature that adds to the bloat of the social network. Facebook: stop trying to take over the entire internet, and get to work making it more fun to friends to connect.

Don’t make me send Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, and Ian McKellan after you.

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What the Daily Deal?!

I’ve been on Groupon for two months now and I’ve yet to buy anything.  What’s the deal? (Pun intended). Do you use Groupon or any similar services?  Do you like it? Explain it to me.