MySpace’s Tom Anderson Comments on G+
The days when Tom Anderson, the iconic first friend on everyone’s MySpace account, was active on his own service have long past. Most of Tom’s old co-workers have headed over to Facebook, but Tom himself seems to enjoy what Google+ is doing for the Google ecosystem.
Earlier today, he took the time to post a somewhat lengthy rumination on where Google+ fits into the major social networking ecosystem:
Google+ seems like a "reaction" to Twitter/Facebook. But are you starting to see the ways that Google+ just makes Google a better, more integrated set of services? Google already has top-notch products in key categories–photos, videos, office productivity, blogs, Chrome, Android, maps and (duh) search.
Can you start to see/imagine what Google+ does for Gmail? Picassa? Youtube? Not to mention search? The +1 system that Google now has control of (unlike Facebook Likes) can really influence and change the nature of their search.
My original vision for [MySpace] was that everything got better when it was social–so I tried to build all the super popular things used on the web (blogs, music, classifieds, events, photos) on top of MySpace’s social layer. When Yahoo launched 360, MSN launched Spaces, and Google launched Okrut, I was shakin’ in my boots. But quickly I saw that it’s really hard to layer in social to features after the fact. At MySpace we had the luxury of having social first, and building the products on top of that layer. Then I choked and Facebook realized that vision. 
But Google+ really seems to be primed to make good on that original premise–that everything gets better when its social. And unlike FB, Twitter, or anyone else, Google already has the most advanced set of products. And if I can clearly see where this is headed, then I think what we are getting is a much better Google. Does that kill FB/Twitter? Who cares? I’d use all 3, but more importantly, I’ll be using Google products I never used, or use them in new, better ways I never used them before.
Oh yah and I love my Google TV 
MySpace recently sold to a company very few people know about for a price tag that decimates what News Corp. originally paid for it.
I know what animal you're thinking of.
Hey Rizzn-ites,
Have you ever played 20 Questions with a computer or small orb? If so, you know that computers and technology, are very capable of predicting what we’ll say and what we’re thinking.
How does it do it?
Greg Blonder, who we interviewed on 
the show about a month ago, posted on Internet Evolution today not asking how it does it, but noting how it doesn’t, and posing a work-a-round for poor predictive technology. I’ve chatted with Greg a few times, and he’s a great guy to talk to, but I don’t know him well enough to know exactly how much of an AI fan he is.
I am a fan of AI. I’m an AI nut. One of my big fantasies (given enough cash and computing cycles, one that I think is realistic), is to create a truly sentient (at least by Alan Turing‘s standards) AI.
Greg gives a couple examples of how current predictive technology falls short:
- Search engines, and their contextual ads: “Search engine companies believe that they can target ads more efficiently based on invading my privacy and analyzing my last hundred search queries and emails — and thus charge a premium for each ad served. But last week, while I was seeking information on car recalls, I was flooded by ads to buy the very same lemon from the same company I was investigating.”
- Piracy: “The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) snoops around our computers to see what music files we’re posting and trying to guess our intent. Do we own the track we posted, and are we just backing it up to the net?”
It’s hard to argue with his examples (and there are others in his list), but I’ll try. The bottom line that Greg is getting at is that invading privacy to learn more history is not going to assist a computer in accurately predicting the future. I think that frankly, the opposite is true.
Remember the 20 questions bot I mentioned in the opener? The trick to those AIs is for them first to narrow down the possible responses you could have to a narrow list of nouns, and then, narrow down the possibilities further with a refined tree of questions. Most modern 20 questions AIs can get the answer in less than 17 questions, but rarely more than 26.
What do you need to do when all you have is one question (a search query), and no retries? You need more context. You can either get that by coaching the user to be more specific, or you can use historical context.
Search engines, particularly Google, are going back not just a hundred queries, but years in their history, to determine context and intent. Google is also working to invade our privacy on a number of levels, and I’m not just talking about that silly street view thing they have on the maps system everyone seems to be up in arms about.
Look at Blogger, GMail, Search History, GTalk, Calendaring, and just about every tool that’s graduated from Labs into common usage. What’s a common thread? Not just organisation and assistance in utilisation of said data – archival! They default to archiving all text chats, give you nigh unlimited space to store email conversations, go back as far as they can in their history of your searches, and give you a free tool to record your thoughts on everything from the mundane to the profound in Blogger. Then they tie it to one nifty little Google Account that has your name and cookie attached to it.
They want to give you a gPhone and a Social Network too, not so that you can do better business with it (although that will be the selling point so that you’ll use it) – it’s to give better context and idea mapping so that when ads do get served up, it’ll know from that bulletin you posted about how much you hate your Honda POS, when you search that term, you aren’t necessarily looking to buy a new one.
Read some Kurzweil, if you don’t believe me. Even if you do – read some Kurzweil. Age of Spiritual Machines changed the way I think about the future. Kurzweil talks about how for a time, AI’s will be almost indistinguishable from unmodified humans in levels of performance and in some cases appearance. And then there will be a period where they excel in every way possible past the unmodified human, especially in matters relating to cognition.
All that having been said, the very things that are driving us toward that solution, that is the ability for Facebook and Google to sell us better, more targeted and predictive ads, are the very same factors that are driving us towards the solution to the problem that Greg proposes.
Greg thinks that we should have a ‘transparent internet‘ – that is an internet where actions have consequences. We are slouching ever towards a social internet – where we log in to an internet based operating system that is focused around our task list and our workgroups. Social networks imply responsibility, as actions are increasingly coming with consequences. It’s easier to dig up dirt on a person by looking through their photo albums, but it’s also easier to see where information has been forwarded from, as more and more information is moved around by the grease of social tools like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
I don’t think we’ll ever quite have the transparent internet Greg asks for, with modified SMTP and DNS protocols and security aware browsers. There’s just no margin in it for anyone. We will, though, see both more accurate predictions from computers as well as more accountability in our online actions due to social networking. Count on it.
/rizzn
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RizWords Weekly Roundup
I’m going to try to highlight a few things from the show this week that I think warrant further discussion. This may or may not become a regular feature. We’ll see how you guys like it.
gPhone
Do I really need to say more about this? Check Episode 116 of RizWords (you may need to subscribe to the feed to listen). Also read these two posts. The second one contains links to other interesting coverage. Or just Google gPhone. Everyone’s got an opinion now.
Two Unfortunate Investments (originals: here and here).
On Thursday we talked about VC put into startups Veveo.TV and Wis.dm. Both Art and I puzzled over the amount of money flowing into these two losers.
Wis.dm is basically an expanded form of the comments features on every website on the web, but tries to be the newest Web 2.0 to pull wisdom from the crowds. On Wednesday and Friday, I inaccurately referenced from memory the anecdote of Sir Francis Galton, who was from the 19th century, not the 17th, as I said. The anecdote itself was properly related, though, which can be found in his Wikipedia entry:
[T]he crowd at a county fair accurately guessed the butchered or the “slaughtered and dressed” weight of an ox when their individual guesses were averaged (the average was closer to the ox’s true butchered weight than the estimates of most crowd members, and also closer than any of the separate estimates made by cattle experts).
The example by which the term is defined dictates that yes or no questions aren’t going to be the type of questions that the crowd displays it’s wisdom, and I can’t think of many other instances where a comment form is worth $9 Million in development time. My question: “Where’s the beef?”
Similarly, Veveo is a puzzling investment, weighing in at between $14-28 Million. Veveo promises to index videos, making them searchable. Their big selling point? An autocomplete feature.
As we mentioned on the show, we sincerely hope these aren’t signs of the end times (in terms of our current tech boom cycle). I certainly remember similarly stupid investments last time around. Either there are some highly charismatic PR folks at these firms, or there are some highly stupid investors over at the VC firms of Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, OmniCapital Group. I’m not familiar with the staffs of any of the companies (the startups nor the VC firms), so I really couldn’t say. The type of money these firms are doling out though (North Bridge Venture Partners in particular), it’s worth coming up with some worthless ideas, getting a Web2.0 design job done, and trying to get a zillion in VC.
I’m game, anyone wanna join me?
Digg’s Very Prominent New Media Failure
A front page story over at Digg.com Friday morning was a something we covered on Episode 120: Homophobia Inc: Message of Hate Raises Hundreds of Millions of Dollars.
The type of story we love more than most others at RizWords is a story exposing Old Media screw-ups. What we hate is when a prominent New Media source like Kevin Rose’s Digg promotes to the front page a piece of pseudo-journalism full of not only factually incorrect but borderline libelous content.
The piece prints falsehoods that could be discounted by doing only cursory research, alleging that the non-profits Christian Broadcasting Network, Focus on the Family, and Family Research Council devote the entirety of their organisations’ energy into anti-gay agenda. Give those sites a cursory glance. Clearly they have other focus than just talking about their moral take on homosexuality (which, by the way, is a far cry from being hate-speech or homophobic).
Art and I both attempted to comment dissenting views on the forms, and within seconds, both our comments were buried.
My point being, the failure isn’t the blogosphere. There will always be moronic drivel in the blogosphere. The failure is in Kevin’s algorithm. The tripe was promoted to the front page before the Digg count reached 100. For better or for worse, Digg is a major New Media news source. If they want to avoid the fate of Dan Rather and CBS News, they should look at changing the system before more people realized how game-able Digg is.
Facebook: You Can’t Look The Other Way Anymore
I did a blog post on the business side of the Facebook API, which has been covered on the show several times. The type of money trading in this space can’t be ignored, and neither can the ease of entry. This week, not only was it revealed that Facebook wanted to get serious about good applications, but it was also revealed that Bill Gates is a Facebook user, as well as many other prominent Microsoft executives.
This isn’t surprising to those of us who listen to Ken or Scoble, but with news like this coming out, it is getting hard to keep up thinking of reasons to stick around that ol’ trailer park… especially in light of the way they like to beat up on the tenants.
That’s about all the news that’s fit to discuss. Any questions? Comment or email!
/rizzn
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RizWords – Daily Politics and Tech – EP51
RizWords – Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 51 – download now – subscribe now
- A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it’s Tech, it’s here.
- Remember, if you’re listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
- If you like the podcast (and you haven’t already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don’t forget to sign up for the discussion list.
- Other Podcast Plugs:
- TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast … it’s good times!
- Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
- NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I – has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
- You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet’s most interesting people.
- Sponsors:
We opened the show with something Mark thought would be good news for conservatives wishing to stay sane in the mornings… of course Art found the dark cloud around the good news rather quickly:
Rosie O’Donnell has fought her last fight at The View.
ABC said on Friday she will not be back on the television talk show following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.
It ended a colourful eight-month tenure for O’Donnell that lifted the show’s ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show creator Barbara Walters.
O’Donnell feuded with Donald Trump and frequently had tense exchanges with the more conservative Hasselbeck.
O’Donnell said last month she would be leaving because she could not agree to a new contract with ABC executives.
“Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at The View,” Walters said.
“I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change.”
In a statement, O’Donnell said that “it’s been an amazing year and I love all three women.”
‘US troops terrorists’
No one was feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with Hasselbeck began over O’Donnell’s statement last week about the war: “655 000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?”
Talk show critics accused O’Donnell of calling US troops terrorists.
She called Hasselbeck “cowardly” for not saying anything in response to the critics.
“Do not call me a coward, because No 1, I sit here every single day, open my heart and tell people what I believe,” Hasselbeck retorted, and their riveting exchange continued despite failed attempts by their co-hosts to cut to a commercial.
According to a New York Post report, O’Donnell’s chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing moustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in The View studios.
ABC executives did not return repeated calls for questions on the incident on Friday.
Scrapbook-like video
On Thursday, O’Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner’s birthday. The View aired a taped show on Friday.
On her website, O’Donnell posted a scrapbook-like video on Friday with pictures and news clippings of her tenure at The View.
Cyndi Lauper’s Sisters of Babylon played in the background.
A day earlier, she had posted messages on her website indicating she might not be back.
“When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the work is done,” she wrote. “Any more would take away.
The Nose on your Face finds a conspiracy uncovered in all this:
Despite claims that a monster pig shot in Alabama bears a striking resemblance to “The View” host Rosie O’Donnell, both ABC and O’Donnell representatives deny that the enormous swine is the controversial star. ABC’s abrupt announcement on Friday, however, that O’Donnell would be immediately leaving “The View” only lent strength to the rumors that she may indeed have been bagged by 11 year-old Jamison Stone while on a hastily scheduled “foraging retreat” in Alabama.
“Rosie does like foraging as a stress-reliever,” said her spokesperson, Amelda Johnson, “but she stopped going to Alabama several years ago after she discovered it was a favorite foraging haven of Starr Jones.”
In Newsguy Jon news:
Sheen Re-Thinks Loose Change Alliance
May 27, 2007 — SUPPORT for the loopy 9/11 documentary “Loose Change” – which argues that the World Trade Center terror attack was part of a secret U.S. government conspiracy – is quickly losing steam.
A source tells us Charlie Sheen “is having second thoughts” about being involved in an updated version of the flick, which has a huge following on YouTube. As Page Six reported in March, Sheen had agreed to narrate the ridiculous flick, presumably to give it some needed Hollywood sizzle.
The conspiracy documentary got a further boost earlier this month when Virgin Atlantic announced it would offer the current, narration-free version as an in-flight movie choice. But just days later, it scrapped the idea. “After Virgin announced it, bloggers went nuts and there was so much negative feedback that [the airline] a few days later nixed it,” the source said.
After we revealed Sheen’s participation, the “Two and a Half Men” star told Extra: “It’s a story that needs to be told. It’s a story about the truth, and the truth needs to be exposed. It’s not just me, not just the Hollywood community [that] is standing up saying what you have given us doesn’t make sense. We just want better answers
.” As for Sheen now pulling his support, the star’s flack, Stan Rosenfield, did not return calls over two days.
Another proponent of the “Loose Change” theory is Rosie O’Donnell, who trumpeted her feelings about it on “The View” and her blog, making ABC brass nervous and infuriating some viewers.
O’Donnell reportedly had booked the film’s producers, Korey Rowe and Dylan Avery, on Thursday’s show. But after getting into a fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck Wednesday, and after her chief writer was caught defacing Hasselbeck’s photos with mustaches, O’Donnell left the show.
“Loose Change” pushes the widely debunked “controlled demolition” theory, which claims the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center were blown up from within. It alleges the jet-fuel fires inside the towers weren’t hot enough to melt the buildings’ steel beams.
Those claims were soundly refuted by Popular Mechanics magazine, which meticulously shot down every single one.
In other Venezualian news, there is major political change afoot… the pictures tell the story better than the links do, but pay close attention to both:
CHAVEZ FORCES CLASH WITH DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS!
Venezuala continues its descent into hell.
** The Jungle Hut is following the clashes from Venezuala.
** Globovision has photos from the crackdown by the regime.
** Venezuela News and Views- Even in San Felipe we are hearing sirens and pot banging!
** Devil’s Excrement- “Chavista thugs are attacking another private station!” -Photos
** Xeni Jardin has video links of the regime blasting the protesters with water cannons.
** Citizen Feathers has video of the “pot-banging” against the regime.
(ElPais)
Chavez warned (via BBC): “Venezuelan armed forces are ready. Anyone generating violence will regret it.”
He even sent in the tanks for the first time on the opposition.
A supporter of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) uses the Venezuelan flag to cover herself from tear gas during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. (Reuters)
Venezuelan troops earlier today seized the broadcast equipment of the opposition television station.
Reuters reported:
Venezuelan troops have seized an anti-government television channel’s broadcast equipment, the station said on Sunday, ahead of a controversial midnight EDT/0400 GMT takeover by President Hugo Chavez that will take the broadcaster off the air.
Supporters of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) lie on the floor after being hit by tear gas during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. RCTV is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez’s administration refused to renew its broadcasting license which ends on Sunday. (REUTERS/Yuri Ferrioli)
Publius Pundit has several pictures from the protest earlier before the clashes.
Fausta has a podcast posted discussing the closure of the popular opposition news station.
FREERCTV.com has more on the shutdown.
This is very sad.
Actress Cynthia Lander cries during a live broadcast at RCTV station in Caracas May 27, 2007. The government is not renewing RCTV’s license after 53 years on the air because of accusations that the broadcaster participated in a bungled 2002 coup against Chavez, incited violent demonstrations and aired immoral programming. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Supporters of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) clash with police during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. RCTV is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez’s administration refused to renew its broadcasting license which ends on Sunday. (REUTERS/Francesco Spotorno)
Previously:
Hugo Chavez Silences the Opposition- Sends Tanks In!
We had a huge discussion on the devolution of democracy in the UK, much to the chagrin of some of our British listeners:
UK: Police to Get Tough New Terror Powers
David Cracknell writes in The Sunday Times:
New anti-terrorism laws are to be pushed through before Tony Blair leaves office giving “wartime” powers to the police to stop and question people.
John Reid, the home secretary, who is also quitting next month, intends to extend Northern Ireland’s draconian police powers to interrogate individuals about who they are, where they have been and where they are going.
Under the new laws, police will not need to suspect that a crime has taken place and can use the power to gain information about “matters relevant” to terror investigations.
If suspects fail to stop or refuse to answer questions, they could be charged with a criminal offence and fined up to £5,000. Police already have the power to stop and search people but they have no right to ask for their identity and movements.
More here.
Turning to tech news, the whole blogosphere is buzzing with the Facebook stuff. Here’s our token coverage:
MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”
Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman rips into MySpace today as he applauds Facebook’s new developer platform.
Facebook’s timing is perfect. They just released an API that gives third party developers deep access to Facebook functionality and it’s 20 million users. Not only can these third party startups get a widget placed on people’s Facebook profiles, but they can also get viral distribution through users’ news feeds and access core Facebook features. Using the tools that Facebook made available, developers could build new versions of some of Facebook’s own applications, like Facebook Photos. Users can then remove those default applications and add the new ones. Like Microsoft with Windows, Facebook is now competing with application developers on its own platform.
This isn’t all just talk, either. The most popular third party application, iLike, has nearly 400,000 users just a couple of days after launching and 10x what they had just last Friday. That means nearly 5% of Facebook’s users have now included it on their profile.
Kopelman’s post looks at the new reality from the perspective of a startup. MySpace is a minefield – startups want access to their users but suffer from the very real possibility of being banned, either temporarily or permanently.
Facebook is viewing things from exactly the opposite position: they are giving startups access to Facebook’s core feature set, and allowing them to show advertising and conduct transactions with users without even asking for a cut. This is exactly why I called Facebook the Anti-MySpace last week. Kopelman goes on to say:
Think about it. If you ran a venture-backed company and had to decide whether you wanted to focus your effort on: (a) a property that welcomed you in and let you keep 100% of the revenue you generate or (b) a company with a vague policy that doesn’t let you generate any revenue, which would you choose? I don’t think it’s even a decision. It’s an IQ test.
Kopelman estimates that $250 million has been invested in widget companies in the last 18 months. When these startups think about where to spend their resources, they’ll be weighing MySpace’s relative size advantage (MySpace has 100 million users, growing by 300,000 or so per day. Facebook has 20 million users, growing by 100,000 per day) to the open and transparent nature of Facebook’s approach. On balance I agree with Kopelman. Startups can build a very large business on the back of Facebook. The MySpace path is much riskier.
And as a nod to a few of our listeners who have talked a bit about needing this kind of service, we present Gaboogie:
Conference calling is a $2 billion business in North America alone. But it’s not perceived to be a sexy space, and Gaboogie, which brings some next generation smarts to conference calls if making sexier. Gaboogie starts with a beautifully simple “why didn’t I think of that” solution to this problem: the service calls you. No password is needed because if you’re not supposed to be there, you don’t get called. Participants simply press ‘1′ to join, ‘2′ to decline, and ‘3′ for ‘later.’ The service makes the adjustments for time zones, too. And if you get disconnected, the number is on your caller ID to redial. Calls are setup through the website and it’s easy to check the schedule online. Moderators have a dashboard to monitor calls in progress. You can set participation in a call to “lecture” which lets you simply listen. Calls can be recorded and shared as RSS feeds or MP3 files, all with a single click. Attendees can be added on the fly by simply dragging them from the phonebook.
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Final Post of the Day
I’m running up on the end of my day, and I don’t think I’ll have enough time to really give this topic the amount of time it deserves, so I’ll bottom line it up front, and then go into more depth until I absolutely have to leave the office and head home: I like Twitter.
I won’t go into the whole history of how this stupid little service became popular. You can find a hundred other blog posts that talk about the birth, death, and re-birth (in terms of popularity) of this little Web 2.0 app. What I will say is that this simple little script is useful for a number of varied reasons, and has an added benefit of stirring a bit of nostalgia for the ol’ Mr. Rizzn here.
Let me explain this.
Twitter is defined as status microblogging, in case your wondering. Essentially, if you’re familiar with MySpace… imagine the bulletins system hooked into your Instant Message client or your SMS system for your phone, with RSS capabilities.
Twitter reminds me of my old Diaryland days… people reading and writing short (although in the case of Twitter, they are limited to 140 characters) blog posts about what they’re doing and feeling, etc. You’re exposed to your closest friends, and instead of being forced to channel your writing into a niche as in traditional blogging (for professional reasons), it’s more stream of consciousness, more real.
That was the beauty of Diaryland. The format was unique, the sub-culture was limited in size, up until the end, and you were able to make and keep friends that were both geographically local to you as well as local to whatever mind-space you tended to inhabit. It tended to sate the voyeuristic nature we all possess.
I was talking to my friend Levontaun about it (one of my old D*land friends). He said:
So yeah, I thought about what you said about missing what Diaryland used to be, people writing short posts about what they are doing and feeling.
I feel the same way about BBSes. My online social life got started on Chrysalis BBS here in Dallas back in the mid 90s. Everyone was local, if you met someone on the computer, odds are that they were NOT from Virginia or South Africa. Talking to people from completely different cultures is great, but chances are that you’re not going to hook up with them without serious effort. On the BBS, we had GTGs almost weekly. I still have many friends I met from there.
Diaryland was kind of the same, as there was a culture of us Dallas people that all became associated with each other. That’s how I met Matt, Louis, Derrick, Amanda, Missy (Lapis) and a host of others. There were people from everywhere else, but not many.
Myspace has changed everything once again. You can browse local, but chances are most people you find are not computer nerdy-type people like us. Most of the people on there are your average computer illiterate assholes or wannabe hood rats.
I miss the old days. Does this make me old?
I definitely miss the BBS days though – never made the connection to Diaryland, but that’s probably one of the things I liked about it.
If there were a way to bottle and repackage that culture, well, it probably would still be un-profitable, but I’d enjoy the heck out of it.
Podcasting is the closest thing I’ve come to recreating that feel, since it’s such a narrow niche (or it was when it started) that it had that tight-knit feel to it where everyone’s more or less on the same bleeding edge page, to mix some metaphors.
I think it may not make us old, but it definitely dates us. In internet years, we’re old farts, though.
Still, and keep in mind I have no stake in Twitter or anything, I think you should check it out. It’s like a low committment/involvement community thing that lacks the MySpace clunkiness. If I was able to populate my Twitter circle with the old crew, I think it might feel a bit like home.
