CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-21 12:40:54 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Sad to say this but G+ redesign sucks for reading

I find myself looking here occassionally and becoming distracted by the ugly way the fonts are displayed on my windows machine - different sizes and grades of important. Not easy to 'read' unless there is a pretty snack bite picture with it. 

I will stay the first to defend the relevance of G+ as a backbone for tons of services on Google but I find myself less and less going in here - rather using facebook for 'publishing'. Despite all the awesome features like autohashtagging and more. 

I also do not think that the model of pinterest works well for information based tiles ... this may be different for the casual users on a mobile but given how Google wants us to use this everywhere .. I am doubtful. What is your impression? Are you using it more or less? 

#googleplus  

2013-05-21 12:28:28 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Don't Mess Up Tumblr: Five Lessons Learned from YouTube

+Hunter Walk  gives some good insight of what Yahoo should (not) do with tumblr. 

Being one of the first Googlers to join YouTube after the acquisition taught me a lot about what works, and doesn't work, when you bring a fast growing community property into a larger entity. There are clearly parallels between our situation in 2007 and what Tumblr will experience with Yahoo. Marissa is a friend from our time together at Google and I'm impressed, but not surprised, by her decisiveness and vision. I don't know David Karp but we share a number of mutual friends and at a 2012 group dinner he passed me the salt, so we've got that. But since neither of them replied to my tweet offering $10k/hr consulting services, here are five Lessons Learned for Not Messing Up Tumblr.

2013-05-19 14:14:17 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The aesthetic of The Americans

Through listening to +Tom Merritt and +Brian Brushwood on +TWiT's  Framerate, I discovered the show The Americans. Tom specifically mentioned the 80's aestetic of it, and I catched up from the 6th episode or so on Hulu - can't wait to rewatch it from the beginning later. 

Seeing today in my timeline the trailer for Gorky Park, I immediately thought "this is what they where going for" - the same lightning, even some of the actors look 'similar'. 

The trailer for the americans is much more colorful to see it from, but if you are looking for a new series, this could be interesting to you The Americans - (TV series - 2013) - Trailer

#theamericans   #framerate  

2013-05-19 14:07:23 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

My honest, sincere reaction to using Google Glass for the first time

2013-05-19 13:33:50 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

This. Is. Hilarious.

Some of the jokes are too inside the beltway. But even if you know nothing about the VC game, you are still going to smile.

If you've had the privilege of pitching to VCs, you are going to die laughing.

#gotesla   #creativity  

Nikola Tesla Pitching Silicon Valley VCs

2013-05-16 11:21:27 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

Share what's new - everything but Audio. Why?!

You can share photos. Videos,. Links. Events. And probably soon more - everything but Audio. Except maybe if it is music. Do we honestly have to make videos out of soundfiles, just to have them played here? 

#googleplus  

2013-05-16 11:18:40 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

The new G+ experience - clearly just for mobile and for snack sized bites

I have seen that move for quite some time: Leaving the desktop users behind. Aka the power user. Using / browsing the new pinterest like google plus is not for somebody who wants to consume mass amounts of informtion quickly - why it also makes sense they killed google reader. But in the long run: If all you serve and optimize for is fingerfood, that is the only thing you will get. 

I do like the masonry style on pinterest with just pictures, but the de-emphasis on text here will make me reevaluate 'blogging' here. Hm Hm. 

2013-05-16 11:35:07 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

[UPDATE] - Hangouts Android App now compatible with tablets
A lot of users were reporting that the new Hangouts app was not compatible with tablets (eg. Nexus 7 or Nexus 10). This issue is now resolved and you all should be able to install the app on your tablets.

Please let us now, if you still experience issues.
Sorry for the inconvenience


#Hangouts   #googleplusupdate  

2013-05-16 11:12:08 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Kickstarter: Help kids (and grown ups) understand this computer science thing

Happy to back this project by +Ajit Jaokar  - I always enjoy when he talks about his little clever son and am curious to see, what results this will bring. And: Stuff made for kids usually has the side benefit to be easy digestible information for grown ups too. ;) 

Or as he describes it:
It all started off as a hobby with me (Ajit) teaching programming languages to my son Aditya (then 8 years old).

Khan Academy was always an inspiration for us and Aditya wanted to build “our own version of Khan academy for JavaScript” (in his words!)

So, we set out to do that .. but ended up with something different ..

Out of those initial efforts grew what is today feynlabs ..

I used to talk to Aditya about Richard Feynman - one of the greatest teachers,scienti... more »

2013-05-15 14:04:53 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Youtube Trendsmap shows what videos are trending by region / age

Under http://www.youtube.com/trendsmap you can check what's currently trending in the US and per gender, age and region. 

2013-05-14 12:48:59 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

Flash suggests installing Google Drive

Looks like Google is really trying to push the Drive aspect. Not only by consolidating services (like seen over the weekend) but now also by bundeling the drive software with flash updates (previous that was the antivirus suite from somewhere - Mcaffee?).

#googledrive  

2013-05-09 22:09:53 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Neutron creme and I, Benedict Cumberbatch, am an idiot

Noted: If you want to do a prank, involve a professional hollywood prodcution team and the props department.

And yes, Benedict Cumberbatch has an amazing voice! g

found via +Emil Lamprecht

#startrekintodarkness #benedictcumberbatch #simonpegg  

2013-05-09 21:51:54 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I'd like to use that for producing trainings! Youtube starts paid channel

Starting today, we’re launching a pilot program for a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates.

I have been waiting for that and would love to use this for teaching videos on how to use Social Media and alike, because this stuff changes so fast. Case in point: Last year I recorded a DVD-Training on Social Media and that was partially out of date just by release time.

First up would probably be "how to do a proper form on Google" as you where able to see the first 76 rsults on the "interested in having a paid channel?" form ;)

2013-05-08 16:03:58 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 16 +1s)

How to make advertising - Technically, we are not yet inside.

Nice play on the Enterprise parts, introducing the "we are already ahead of what you see", good acting, not cringeworthy. I already watched it three times and still enjoy it. Oh in case you did not know: I live in Germany where they engineer those cars (the other one too), yet I watched and shared a US commercial .... 

ps: And am I the only thinking that Nimoy would have made a good Gandalf too?

#enterprise   #startrek   #spock   #audi   #mercedes  

2013-05-08 13:29:13 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

uh? Website links directly in search suggestion box?

Now that is new to me.

#google #seo  

2013-05-08 12:42:41 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

*Ender's game coming to the big screen'

Looking forward to this one. But now that I know it is coming, why can't there be something automatic "add this to calendar, tell me when it is premiering here" etc?

2013-05-06 21:59:45 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Twit is talking Google Glass

Great twit episode about Google Glass, how it feels, peoples reaction to it and why it is exactly not like the segway. You might not listen to twit normally but this is a different episode.

I am not willing to shell out more than 500$ for this, but this kind of stuff will be a disruptive game changer. And it is Google, not Apple, pushing for a more enhanced future for us. The show is also right on currently it is mostly "and that is all it does?" it was the same with computers in the beginners. Give it a listen. ;)

Guests: +Leo Laporte +Robert Scoble +Ryan Shrout +Tim Stevens

#googleglass  

2013-05-03 21:58:18 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Gaming the system. I like it.

Full time economist in a gaming company? :)

No one knew what was going on, but the market was obviously being manipulated in some way. They put their full-time economists on the job to try to figure out what the hell was going on. “So we’ve now had to go and fix that. Our players are devious, and they will find ways to mess with our systems, and we’ll often have no idea,” Lander said. They finally had to close the loophole, much to the dismay of the characters who were quickly getting rich by blowing up ships with nearly worthless items.

2013-05-03 17:08:42 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 17 +1s)

I heard someone is making a “smart watch”.

(Photo: http://retrothing.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452989a69e20148c7f6ec13970c-800wi)

2013-05-03 17:07:52 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Test your website on mobile devices

Useful, simple tool to check how your site looks on mobile devices.

Responsive Machine helps Web Developers and Publishers of responsive websites to get a quick and useful overview of all the different views and resolutions for the most common mobile devices. With Responsive Machine you can test and preview your own or external sites, save screenshots or simply share your own site links

2013-05-03 13:56:30 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Don't "launch" your product

+Vibhu Norby writes:
Take the word launch out of your vocabulary – it’s a sign that you are gambling on your app and not building a long-term, sustainable company.

[For the same reason that people want to call themselves 'entrepreneur' because that means being cool they 'launch' products and pay too much attention on their coverage on Techcrunch etc only. That is nice and all, but not the market.

I remember talking to a startup,  target group moms, which was soooo obsessed with getting the tech mafia excited about their product. I asked them why they did not a clever campaign at blogher instead. Their comment? "We don't do mainstream." facepalm

Company building is boring. Requirements, procedures, hiring etc is boring. Because it is not as hipster to talk about yourposi... more »

2013-05-03 13:38:05 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

What is your mobile strategy?

665 million daily users.
1.11 billion monthly users.
751 mio monthly active mobile users.

And that is just what people do on Facebook.

#facebook #mobile  

2013-04-26 15:58:22 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 10 +1s)

Call to action for G+ postings

This is going to be a major game changer. For all those people who still believe that g+ is just what you can see on the stream when going to google plus ... one should think about the implications with local on this.

AND mobile.
AND integration in services like gmail / gcal.
AND search.
and especially this means google will have better access to strucured information about elements and content on your webpages!

This is exciting.

2013-04-26 16:04:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Youtube: The Top 500 Brands generate nearly half a billion views against their content each month

Which proves the point - brands are media companies.

2013-04-16 22:19:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Crows and vending machines

Interesting ideas on training crows - and even more so about the fact that crows remember people so well! Training them to spy on people might not be so far of ... 

2013-04-16 19:08:29 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Looks like we are getting closer to the Holodeck.

I am curious how this will be used outside of just gaming. 


#oculusrift  

2013-04-16 14:00:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Rich snippets and Micro Data explained

This guide has been created to provide a quick and easy way of generating different types of rich snippets for your website, using a combination of Micro Data and Schema.org you can generate snippets.

Nice to look around and get ideas
#seo #richsnippets #microformats

2013-04-16 11:55:51 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

Googple Plus and authorship will be the new pagerank

+Jeff Sauer made an extensive analysis of the relevancy of Google Plus and your authorrank with intruiging numbers.

(This is a summary posting and he has linked to the full study in the article).  Worth bookmarking.

2013-04-05 14:54:53 (4 comments, 5 reshares, 10 +1s)

Do you trust Facebook to be not evil?

I may not like google all the time, but I trust them to make my live better in a win win situation. I don't with facebook. I expect anything out of facebook to be a 'gain all for us, maybe a breadcrumb for you - if you pay us to'.

Talking about Facebook and privacy is a default conversation in any workshop I do, so I just started to include those slides to get over that point more quickly. Mind you, +Om Malik  lives in the US where 'privacy' has a much lower hurdle than over here. I am curious to see what the EU will make out of that.

2013-04-05 11:57:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Let's All Shed Tears For The Crappy Startups That Can't Raise Any More Money

As +Dan Lyons writes so well:

So maybe now all those people who have been playing “entrepreneur” will go get actual jobs making actual products and gain some actual experience. Maybe they'll go back to university and study medicine, or engineering. Maybe they will realize that not everyone should be an entrepreneur - the Valley produces maybe 10 good companies a year - and that being an employee at a good company adds value too.

In my dreams I imagine them leaving the Valley and going off to accomplish something meaningful. Using those brains to do medical research, develop new drugs or eradicate poverty. I imagine them teaching in public schools, providing health care to poor kids. Joining Tesla or SpaceX. Pushing AI a few steps forward. Solving big problems, the kind thatcan... more »

2013-04-03 21:23:04 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

“We’re living in a world that needs to be reinvented from scratch.”

Think about that for a little time.
New social contract. New ways of working. Living. Dating. Family. Everything needs to be reinvented which makes us 'us'

2013-04-06 13:54:05 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

New compose interface switched on in Gmail, soon non avoidable

I am sure many of you just love the new 'feature' of gmail of the new compose 'experience'.

Here you can find the according posting of the team
https://plus.google.com/+Gmail/posts/T6KBPp4gALt

+Jason Cornwell noted back in October
A huge Gmail feature is launching today!  Compose and reply are the most complex parts of Gmail, and we have completely redesigned the experience to facilitate multitasking, remove or hide complexity, and subtly encourage people to write shorter messages.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/118336139840053353940/posts/7wrx2mNdE4y

(emphasis mine). As I said, dumbing it down. Kidproofing it for grownups, because there might be people out there, who are 'challenged'.

And as stated in my comment (attached below) I am... more »

2013-03-26 22:24:23 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

There is still so much potential in making a better shopping experience ...

So I need to buy a new mouse. I like my old model, but it is broken and not produced anymore. I can buy by colour (don't care) and get wireless (no thanks) and with many buttons (I like two plus wheel, nothing else, thanks). But nowhere can I search for length of mouse or width. Or hear the sound it makes (too loud clicking annoys me).

Okay then let's go to a site like Logitech as one of the big sellers .. I can choose a few things but not figure out the sizes of the device. Given that this is something I use all day, this is pretty important to me - and the information is all available. Kinda. Because most of what f.e. Amazon is reporting on size is the boxes this stuff comes in. I'd buy the old model if it was still around but it has lasted so long, I only can get one for like 75 Euro.... more »

2013-03-23 11:50:55 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 9 +1s)

This is exactly what I want Google to do for me

Some might cry again "oh bad google is taking away profits from companies by promoting their own stuff!!" but I as the user get exactly what I wanted - not other pages plastered with advertising but the answer I wanted.

Additional service announcement for foreigners: German stores are mostly closed on Friday and Monday, likely also Saturday could be a shorter shopping day. Expect end of world hamster shopping behavior on Thursday, Saturday.

2013-02-17 11:08:35 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Ingress: 'or unique local biz' they said

submitted a portal for #ingress. I mean if that does not qualify for unique, what does? ;)

2013-02-15 13:47:42 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 23 +1s)

XKCD bringt es wieder auf den Punkt:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/app.png 

PS: Lest auch den Onmouseover-Kommentar auf  http://xkcd.com/1174/ 

2013-02-15 13:46:13 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 12 +1s)

Fun for friday: Programming quotes

My favs:
I invented the term 'Object-Oriented', and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.  -Alan Kay

Perl – The only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption. -Keith Bostic


via +Oliver Leon Ueberholz 

2013-02-10 02:21:53 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 20 +1s)

D'awwww

2013-02-09 20:18:14 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

The Demographics of Ingress

Still looking for my invite hint ;o) 

This is based on a non-scientific sample of 1,572 players of Ingress, Google’s augmented reality game.  The survey was posted to Reddit, Google Plus, Twitter, and IRC.  From there it passed through informal networks, so hopefully respondents were dispersed enough to make the results meaningful.

2013-02-04 19:48:30 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 1 +1s)

A blog post explaining what we look for when hiring developers:

http://blog.booking.com/booking-com-developer-hiring-process.html

2013-01-27 20:12:45 (7 comments, 10 reshares, 14 +1s)

U love to READ!

2013-01-27 20:11:26 (2 comments, 4 reshares, 6 +1s)

Kitchen Cheat sheet - if you like cooking but get always screwed up by those funky american measurements!

Includes F to C, oz to ml / G, and some other stuff. 
(Now it would have made sense to have a "ready to print for your fridge thing'" instead of an infographic, but hei. Babysteps.

2013-01-25 20:20:54 (5 comments, 16 reshares, 24 +1s)

The Tiny Transforming Apartment That Packs Eight Rooms into 350 Square Feet

I love these things and how they interact and make room for so much more!

2013-01-25 15:30:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

How to take a once in a live time photo:
Snapping a Picture of Curiosity's Landing

However, sometimes we get a request for an unusual observation by HiRISE. One such call came in long before the Mars Science Laboratory touched down on Mars. The Curiosity rover team asked us to take an image as the rover was coming in to land. That landing didn't happen until August 2012, but we first started looking at what was required to take this image back in January 2011.

I still can't imagine they made that happen - both the crazy landing and this even more amazing timed picture!

2013-01-20 20:52:14 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 9 +1s)

"Don't you think it would have been be easier to just go to the moon?"

My fav line: The apparent omnipotence of special visual effects increases linearly with your date of birth

I mean, come on, just think of how bad the visual effects still where at the end of the 70s! :) 

via +Gizmodo  "Why the Moon Landings Could Have Never EVER Been Faked: The Definitive Proof"

2013-01-16 18:46:48 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 4 +1s)

Meet the Euglossa bazinga

Brazilian biologist Andre Nemesio from the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia discovered the new species and decided to dub it by using Dr. Cooper’s fun catchphrase. “Sheldon Cooper’s favorite comic word bazinga, used by him when tricking somebody, was here chosen to represent the character,” according to a paper written by Nemesio and his team. “Euglossa bazinga has tricked us for some time due to its similarity to E. ignita, what led us to use bazinga.”

2013-01-15 18:00:43 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

What happens when Peru brings its culture to the small town of Peru,Nebraska?

15 min video showing people of Peru, Nebraska of what they are supposed to be doing / experiencing as Peruvians. Nicely made, and inspiring. 

via +Piotr Górecki 

2013-01-06 21:07:53 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

"That's new ..."

Indeed. Usually I am not into anything Horror / Splatter, but this looks like fun. Plus hey, what can go wrong with sexy Hawkeye ;) 

Normel Trailer with a bit more story line:
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters Official Trailer #1 (2012) - Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton Movie HD

[though them being call 'han-sel and grettel' instead of the german version will take getting used to. ;)]
#hanselgretel  

2013-01-04 17:49:23 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

+FreshBooks gives an insight into their learning for the App design process

I like the process from "what we thought would work" to "what the customer wanted". Too often it is about what the company wants, how they think the customer should behave - that will never work. 

2013-01-04 17:48:29 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

And I was wondering why I did not see any response on my postings here. Turns out I switched off public by accident. grrr. :)