Google hearts Jaiku

The Google acquisition train just keeps on rolling down the tracks.

I logged on to Jaiku this morning to be greeted with the information that it has become yet another member of the Googleplex.  The acquisition seems to have created quite a stir across the tech news blogosphere (for example here, here and here).  There seems to be two common themes:

1. Jaiku isn't nearly as good as Twitter, so why didn't Google buy that service instead? (rubbish by the way, I grew to hate Twitter very quickly as an unreliable, US-centric elitist self-congratulatory club, but that's just me)
2. It's all got something to do with the rumoured GPhone and competing with Facebook

My money is on the latter of the points, regardless of my own personal opinion of the Twitter service.

What I find most disappointing is that finally I was enjoying using a service that wasn't a Google owned one, which meant that at least some of my online presence wasn't being absorbed by the 'Plex at Mountain View.  Every time I try and break away, they just suck me right back in *sigh*

On the other hand, I'm very happy for the Jaiku crew who have all acted like a bunch of upright gentleman (and one of the co-founders is a sociologist by training, which is even cooler - I love finding fellow sociologists!) so I feel this is a well deserved break for them.

Facebook etiquette: Finally!

Note: An updated and revised version of this post can now be found at techwhimsy.com.


I am happy to concede that I was slow to jump on the Facebook bandwagon. After all, there is only so much adopting that one can do in a fast paced, 2.0 "must be the first, oh please, I just have to be the first" fashion and Facebook was over that threshold. However, once I signed up, I found myself bewildered as I had no context for the rules of engagement. I needed an etiquette guide and I maintain that social networks like Facebook are failing their new users when they don't at least point to a user-generated guide.

Enter Wired's new How To Wiki. I am relieved that the community has filled the gaping void and provided meaning to the bewildering array of behaviours I have witnessed in my short time on the 'book. I present to you Save Face on Facebook.

The list seems like common sense to me. All except the one about not writing on your own wall, that is. Why is that? The whole Wall-to-Wall thing seems counter-intuitive to me and I think that's one for the Facebook usability gurus to work on. Apart from that one lapse, I'm happily powering my laptop with my own sense of inflated self-satisfaction.

There should be more etiquette guides to social networks. I hope that this is just the start of something bigger for the social network movement.

Cosmopolitan's New Etiquette Guide originally uploaded to Flickr by numberstumper and edited by me. Used under a Creative Commons By Attribution - Sharealike 2.0 licence.