The Social Dilemma (and how you can help solve it)
The web is great, isn’t it? Seriously. All the data you could ever want or need, at your fingertips. Friends to meet and share thoughts and ideas with from all over the world. Great web applications that allow you to share interesting information with your friends and spark conversations. Well…in theory, anyway.
Here’s the big problem though; How can you get the best out of this application or that website if all of your friends don’t use them? Especially the hardest people to convert: Your real world friends and family. Take, for example, one of my favorite social news sites, mixx. mixx is a great place to submit articles, photos and videos of things you find interesting and share them with your friends. But only if your friends happen to also use mixx. Or another favorite application of mine, twitter. twitter allows you to instantly share information with friends, update your friends on what you’re currently doing or just share your thoughts. But, again, you can only update the people you know who are also twitter users. Ugh.
02.21.08Untangling the Web III: Instant Gratification
Instant Messaging has been around almost as long as the internet itself. And before Instant Messaging, there were message boards and chat rooms. It can be an easy way to keep in touch with your real-world friends, a way to chat with the folks you meet online or an effective tool to communicate with the people you work with. Unfortunately, for far too long Instant Messaging has required downloading and installing one of a myriad of programs. This makes it a hassle when your workplace won’t allow you to install programs or if you’re at a public computer. Thankfully, several online applications have been created in the last couple years that make it possible to send and receive instant messages from your web browser. I’ve got two IM applications I want to focus on today: Meebo and Google Talk. I’m also going to discuss an IM-like application called Twitter.
Like a lot of you reading this, I spend a great deal of time online. There are also times I need to be at computers other than my home PC. In order to best keep in touch with my friends, of both the virtual and real-world variety, I need applications that move beyond the desktop. I need applications that I can use anywhere. Which is why I use Meebo and Google Talk for Instant Messaging. Twitter, while not an Instant Messaging application, is another way to keep in contact with your friends and let them know what you’re up to.
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