Early Adopter Grief: Google Video and Yahoo Buzz Bite the Dust

Early adopters are having a hard time with the lives of their early favorite apps lately. Two deaths are hitting me where I live right now:

The first one is Google Video. I got an email from Google, letting me know that I needed to download all my old videos and find a new home for them by April 29th:

Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. We’ve always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.

On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We’ve added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don’t want to download your content, you don’t need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)

Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.

Thank you for being a Google Video user.

Today, the news hit that Yahoo will be “sunsetting” Yahoo Buzz. On the Buzz website: “Yahoo! Buzz will be discontinued as of April 21, 2011. As of this date you will be unable to access the Yahoo! Buzz site. This was a hard decision. However this will help us focus on our core strengths and new innovations. We appreciate your patronage. The Yahoo! Buzz Team.”

This comes along with the death of MyBlogLog and a variety of other services in the Yahoo family that I don’t remember ever using.

Why I Liked These Services

Google Video, at its inception, was one of the only services on the web that placed almost no constrictions on how it hosted your video. The way it converted from just about any codec is unmatched (adjusted for “codec inflation”) in any service to this day, including its successor YouTube.

Up until recently, you still couldn’t do all the things with YouTube you used to be able to do with Google Video, including upload videos of any length, and easily export any video as a user (not a producer) direct to MP4, enabling the use of your videos as an iTunes or RSS podcast feed.

Incidentally, the death of Google video may precipitate my move away from the service to a non Google video hosting solution, since they still haven’t upgraded my personal account to something that allows for longer video sizes.

As for Yahoo Buzz, I’ve got a lingering attachment to it because it was the first time I’d seen the idea of Digg implemented correctly for the masses. It was structured in such a way that it could service thousands (if not millions) of content sources while still providing both massive traffic for publishers (and I do mean MASSIVE) as well as a good user experience.

Farewell to both. You will be remembered fondly.

Fun With Bots (Now, on GChat!): Chat with juicyqt72

I’ve posted other fun chat logs with bots in the past. This one seems to be pretty much a slightly modified variant on the old ones from six or so years ago.

Funny that this one lies about its age. The name is juicyqt72, which indicates that, born in 1972, “she’d” be 39, yet “she” claims to be 24 in the first response.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, and previously.

Bonus: this never quite explained thing from 2003 where Google was crawling IRC conversations that one time.

juicyqt72 <juicyqt72@aim.com>	Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 11:28 AM
To: rizzn.dourden@gmail.com
11:21 AM juicyqt72: me: hello juicyqt72: hi .. have we chatted before? 24/female here…you? me: don’t think so. just saw a friend request 11:22 AM juicyqt72: i’m sorry ..i get to be forgetful at times!! how’re you?? me: i’m fine. juicyqt72: Just got out of the shower…long day been kind of busy! but i’m feeling naughty! so what’s up ….. want to have some fun? me: I always love fun! do you play magic the gathering? 11:23 AM juicyqt72: I need a man that can make me squirt……have u ever made a girl squirt? lolz me: Squirt what? Capri Sun? My sons do that sometimes, but then I yell at them for getting it all over the carpet. juicyqt72: gonna change my clothes … want to see ? 11:24 AM me: no thanks. juicyqt72: no worries..thouhght u wanted to see me naked ..:) me: What gave you that idea? 11:25 AM juicyqt72: wanna play on cam? me: Magic the gathering? Hells yeah! I’ll break out my special deck! juicyqt72: click <URL REDACTED> ..k, now fill out ur info ..don’t worry it’s FREE …. ..give it a second to load ..when you get in we’ll make a private room ….k? me: you know there’s a video button on this chat window, right? 11:26 AM I don’t want to go to a porn site to play Magic. juicyqt72: i use this site to play on cuz i don’t want to be recorded !…this site doesn’t allow users to record my webcam! you know? Accept the invite, if you need the link again its <URL REDACTED> me: Google doesn’t allow you to record in Gchat either. Are you afraid I’ll record your play style and capture your strategy? juicyqt72: credit card is just to verify your age, you’ll get in for free thru my page but you need to verify that you’re an adult …can’t show ass and pussy to minors .. u know? me: What? 11:27 AM I don’t need to see your pussy to play Magic. juicyqt72: let me know when you’re done or if you need help …i’ll be gettin’ ready for you ..K ? my pussy is nice and tight me: What is wrong with you? I don’t want to see your pussy! juicyqt72: brb.. 1 second … got to restart my cam …u coming? want to taste my pussy?? 11:28 AM me: I don’t think so. You don’t seem to know the first thing about playing Magic. Step 1: It doesn’t require your pussy. juicyqt72: k ur good let me know when you’re in babe.. my pussy is nice and tight me: I don’t think you’re listening. juicyqt72: are you in yet? me: No. Go away. 11:29 AM juicyqt72: kYou have blocked juicyqt72

RURO: The Cutest Robot You’ve Ever Seen!

This robot is probably too cute to be used as an effective security ‘bot, but it does have some interesting features for an educational robot. RURO the robot was designed to teach kids about recycling.RURO was designed by grade-school kids and sponsored by Osaka’s business community. A contest…

via RURO: The Cutest Robot You’ve Ever Seen!.

Who Do You Trust?

Is it a bad thing that I tend to trust machines over humans?

Obviously, not in every single case. There are certain exceptions.

All things being equal, though, were I to come across a human stranger or a strange machine, I think I’d be more likely to trust the machine to perform up to expectations over the human.

What I’m not self-aware enough to know is whether that’s an innate trait of mine, or a bias built from experience with humans and machines.