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Buzz: The New Kid in Town

Mar 26th, 2010
by Jim Reverend.
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Less than a month ago, Google unleashed a new creature into the wild: Google Buzz. In an already crowded room full of social media giants, why would Google even bother? In part, because they are Google. Webmail already existed before google released gMail, and yet gMail has certainly taken its share. But also because Buzz is just unique enough to stand on its own.

Buzz is like Twitter in that it’s easy to use and by default open and public. It’s like Facebook in that you can share more than just a status update. It’s like Tumblr in that each of the different types of things you can share is formatted in a way best suited to it. It’s like Loopt in that you can publish your location as well.

It’s different than all of these in that it does these things in a way that is easy to understand, integrated with the gMail experience, very mobile capable, and built using a hybrid of open standards as up and coming protocols to tape it all together.

Will it let you do something that you couldn’t already do? Not exactly. Just like  gMail, it’s about making an existing experience better, not about making something altogether new. But, I’d argue that, even at one month old, it does a lot of things better already. Of course, it has some room for improvement too.

To understand what is better about it, you really have to try it. But it can be compared and contrasted with other services.

Take Twitter, for example. When it comes to making a status update, typing text into a box is typing text into a box. There’s no “better” or “worse” about it unless it can read our minds. Google hasn’t announced that feature, yet. However, Twitter was built around the age of the the text message, SMS. And while SMS is still widely used and isn’t going away anytime soon, smart and capable platforms (like iPhone, Android, and others) make SMS seem archaic in comparison. The 140 character limit of a Twitter status update is an example of this. As a PRO, Buzz has no such limitation. As a CON, however, Buzz is not capable of being delivered to your mobile handset by SMS.

The use off Twitter has sort of evolved though. It’s initial use case — a sort of global, opt in, mobile connected chat room — is no longer all it is used for. While it’s usage patterns have evolved, the service really hasn’t. People now include links, and hash tags with many of their Twitter updates. Even with URL shorteners getting shorter and shorter, a link takes up about 19 characters. Include a space separator, 5 characters for a hashtag, plus the hash and a separating space, and you’ve used up 27 characters leaving you only 113 to write commentary. This means that Twitter is being used less and less for new content and more and more for passing around content written somewhere else.

With its lack of character limitation, Buzz is better suited for sharing links and various media with commentary. Even without commentary, Buzz does a better job simply because, in Twitter, a link is still just a link. In Buzz, smart display features kick in to highlight photos, embed movies, and play audio.

Tumblr is an interesting service in that they were one of the first to realize that due to trending usage patterns, Twitter was, literally, dying for feature enhancements. They took the idea behind Twitter, stripped it of its SMS roots, and added new display features for the most commonly shared media types. They gave users the ability to embed and customize, tacked on comments and group blogs, and added features to allow for sharing and searching amongst one another. What was born was a beautiful, feature rich platform for sharing both thoughts and links to interesting things.

Tumblr pretty much stopped right there, but maybe that’s enough. As an engine for publishing short form thoughts and links, in a manner that allows you to express your own personality in look and feel, it is one of the best. Buzz doesn’t come close to the customization and embedding features Tumblr provides. And though Tumblr only allows two protocols for integration with other services, they are the most commonly used protocols: RSS and ATOM.

Since Tumblr, other services have come out with a slight twist on the feature set. The most notable of these is Posterous. While it lacks some of Tumblr’s customization and rebroadcasting features, it adds additional points of outgoing integration– Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr, to name a few. However, it doesn’t allow for any incoming service integration at all. And it’s preferred method of interaction is plain ole email. This means that there probably won’t be “an app for that” and you probably don’t need one.

Buzz’s greatest competition is Facebook. Compared with this social networking giant, the biggest differences are lock-in and open standards. Buzz relies, as often as possible, on open standards. This means that, as long as the site you wish to connect it to is using open standards, there is little to no learning curve or development required to get the two to integrate. Facebook, on the other hand, requires an application to be developed for it specifically suited to that integration task. The difference is subtle and, because of this, I’d argue that, right now, Buzz is closest to Facebook in it’s realized feature set.

Buzz has the strong, technical upper hand between the two in that it is more open and encourages interoperability. In fact, someone else could, tomorrow, invent a Buzz-alike service and, right out of the box, it would play nice with Buzz allowing content to flow back and forth between the two with little to no effort. Also, being integrated with gMail, Buzz has the potential of competing with Facebook’s user base. However, users, in the end, don’t care about this. What they care about is the answer to this question: who and what can I connect with RIGHT NOW? And, at least RIGHT NOW, between the two, Facebook wins.

But know this: Buzz is a force to be reckoned with. It doesn’t have everything right on the first pass. Not by a long shot. But if it continues to maintain technical superiority over Facebook, while adding new features implemented elsewhere (like Tumblr and Posterous and Twitter) and not currently present ion Facebook while maintaining its influx of users, it won’t be long before the two are neck and neck in who and what can be connected to. And at that point, Buzz might just take the lead.

To get a feel for some of these services, check me out there.

twitter: revjim (status updates)
twitter: revjimweb (automated updates from all my various blogs)
facebook: Facebook
tumblr: revjim
posterous: Now, Daniel! (status updates)
posterous: Life of Daniel (a log of interesting communication)
Google Profile
Google Buzz (all of my sites fed in along with some original content)

revjim RSS feeds

Dec 18th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

All the cool kids use RSS Readers. I prefer Google Reader, but there are lots of others out there including Bloglines, Feedreader, and even LiveJournal. And, if you prefer a desktop application there are even more to choose from.

Whatever your feed reader of choice maybe, you’re going to need some feeds to stuff into it. So, I thought I’d take this moment to tell you about the Feeds offered here at revjim.net.

I write in a lot of places.

  • LiveJournal (life, micro blogging, one line updates announcing posts elsewhere)
  • Tumblr (links to thinks I like or find interesting)
  • Arranging Light (one daily (ha ha ha) photo of either experimental or portfolio quality work)
  • Flickr (all of my published photos regardless of quality or usage intent)
  • Twitter (micro blogging)
  • revjim.net (everything else)

If you subscribe to any of those services, then you probably just want to subscribe to me in that service. However, to make life easier on the rest of you, I’ve created special RSS feeds. They are powered by FeedBurner and they will be updated to follow the particular content being presented regardless of where I happen to be writing it or what tool I happen to be using that week to do so.

Isn’t that nice of me? So, without further delay I offer you, 100% free, unabridged, unrated, and with the directors cut included with every purchase, the following feeds.

revjim world
[feed]
This is for the true revjim fan. If you need all the revjim you can get and you need it now, this is the feed for you. It’s non-stop revjim action. It has all of my entries from revjim.net, as well as my entries on life from LiveJournal. It also includes my daily (ha ha ha) photo from Arranging Light as well as all the links I post on Things Jim Likes. I do all the work to make sure you don’t get double posts and that you are presented with links to the most appropriate location. Yeah, I’m a nice guy like that. Additionally, for the RSS feeder challenged, this feed can be subscribed to via email so you get an email once a day with my postings from the previous 24 hours.

revjim site
[feed]
This contains the entries from this site. This site is basically used to house anything I don’t put somewhere else. Make sense, right. As it stands today, this means everything except photographs, random links to interesting sites, and more personal or local entries about my life. It is currently powered by WordPress and self hosted. If this should change the feed will change with it.

revjim links
[feed]
This contains all of my random links to interesting sites. It’s currently powered by Tumblr. If this should change, the feed will change with it.

revjim life
[feed]
This contains all of my posts about my life. It is currently powered by LiveJournal. This feed contains a filter of the posts on LiveJournal to ensure that you don’t get all of the little updates that I post there to tell you that I’ve posted in other places. It currently does NOT contain the secured posts I make, though I hope that will change in the future. It also does not currently contain the Life posts that I sometimes make on revjim.net. As soon as I get a few things straightened out, I will make sure that it does. If I should change my publishing location, this feed will change with it.

arranging light
[feed]
This is actually the feed from my Arranging Light site. It contains a daily (ha ha ha) photo of either portfolio quality work or something new and experimental. It is powered by WordPress and is self hosted. If this should change, the feed with change with it.

Tumblr

Oct 30th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

In short, I have a new site you can read: http://revjim.tumblr.com/

There are hundreds of sites begging people to put their cool links into them (delicious.com and the like). But none of them really let you customize the site and make it your own. On top of that, almost every piece of social networking software has some form of link sharing built in (like FaceBook) but most of them are exclusive to the members of that site and require a bunch of hoops to make things start flowing. There’s StumbleUpon which is awesome for finding new content and sharing it but not so good at keeping that content organized or sharing it in a customizable fashion. I find myself sharing lots of things with lots of people in lots of ways, but each of them locked up to a subset of users in it’s own less than desirable way.

And then there is Tumblr.

They are smart enough to not link a single account to a single site. So, any account can post to multiple sites, create sites of its own, or not have any associated sites. They also allow multiple contributors to sites and even allow private posting (though you have to be a member to view).

They offer complete customization even allowing the use of sites like Google Analytics for traffic analysis and Disqus to enable comments.

Their approach to content is intriguing. From short blurbs, to chats, to text posts, to photos, to videos, to audio, to reblogging… the site is based around the concept of formatting differently for different media types and excels at displaying whatever it is you put into it.

It can be used to share links, photos, thoughts, or just about anything else on the web. While most of it’s users tend to focus on sharing found content, it is certainly suited to hosting original content as well.

So, with all that, I’m going to begin using it to share the interesting things I find online. Should I find the content becomming to heavy in anyone topic, starting a new Tumblr specifically for that topic is a piece of cake.

The good news to you is that, you don’t have to sign up for anything to follow along. Just visit my Tumblr and bookmark, subscribe in the RSS reader of your choice, add to LiveJournal (Try LJUser: revjim_tumblr), follow in FriendFeed, ignore it all together or, really, whatever makes you happiest.

I will more than likely start a second Tumblr for the interesting links and photos of a … less than pure nature. Drop me an email if you’re interested in a link.

microblogging platforms: Tumblr vs Pownce (and Twitter too)

Feb 14th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
2 comments

In case you were waiting for it, Pownce no longer requires an invite to join. For some time, this has been a limiting factor toward wide spread adoption of this particular microblogging platform. Despite that, it has racked up quite a few impassioned users. Opening the doors will only bring it more success.

Microblogging — short entries formatted for multiple media types — is becoming more and more appealing to me. It is often too much trouble or just seems silly to post a single link, or one tiny picture, or a silly quote in my “blog”. While my writing here at revjim.net hasn’t been all that structured or well-thought as of late, that is sort of the goal with a site like this. Adding short posts in the middle of these well thought essays just doesn’t seem right. Microblogging is an answer to that.

As mainstream microblogging is a fairly new concept, there are really only two high profile contenders in this arena today: the above mentioned Pownce and Tumblr. While having an account on both is annoying, if you know enough people on each of the two platforms it just makes sense. But updating both on a regular basis just seems ridiculous. So, how to choose which one to adopt for my own purposes.

Instead of going with the most popular option, or the option that was around first, I’d prefer to weigh them by their merits and hope that the popularity will follow. There is a certain subset of features that both of these platforms have. I will not get into that list. Instead, here is a list of Features each platform has that the other does not, as well as a list of annoyances present in that platform.

First, some links: My Tumblr. My Pownce. (And My Twitter too.)

Filters. In Pownce, each note can be directed at the public, at all of your followers, at a subset of your followers, or at a single person. While this in some way starts to cross over into the “email” territory and, due to the lack of instant notification (outside of email notification) doesn’t offer any distinct advantages in that regard, the ability to be “private” in some way is certainly useful from time to time. Tumble does not have this feature.

Templates. With knowledge of HTML and CSS, Tumblr allows its users to format their Tumblelog in any way they can imagine. This is not possible with Pownce. A fairly extensive list of tags and a clean templating engine makes this a very flexible platform. This also means that including Google Analytics stats, generated content from other systems, and various widgets into your Tumblelog is entirely possible. With Pownce, if the feature wasn’t built for you, then it’s simply not available. In the event that you’re not so HTML-savvy, just like Pownce, pre-made templates are available too.

Comments. Part of what makes publishing on the web rewarding and fun is the response it creates. And comments are the easiest, most public way of getting that response. Pownce provides the ability to reply to any note built in. While Tumblr does not offer comments explicitly, Templates allow you all the control you need to integrate 3rd party commenting systems like Intense Debate or Disqus with ease. Comments are not the primary service being offered by these microblogging platforms and, because of that, they may not be as full featured as some of the 3rd party offerings. For some, like myself, this will be considered a PRO. For others, this will be considered a CON because, despite the features and flexibility, additional work is required to make it happen.

Content Types. Tumblr supports 7 different content types compared to Pownce’s 3. However, Pownce’s “Link” content type is smart enough to determine the use of popular media hosting services (like Flickr, YouTube, etc) and format those notes in a special way. However, if you use a service outside of those known services, Pownce offers nothing but a plain, boring link. Tumblr, on the other hand, allows for customization for each of these content types. While not as automated as Pownce, this allows for a lot more compatibility and customization.

RSS Reading. While both services produce RSS feeds of the content you create, Tumblr will read in RSS feeds and update your Tumblelog automatically when the RSS feed updates. Using some clever HTML/CSS tricks, you can even customize the way information from certain feeds looks when it is added.

Domain Customizing. It’s not really “useful”, but it sure is fun. Tumblr allows you to point a domain name (or a subdomain) at its servers giving you your own brand name even in the URL bar.

File Sending. While Tumblr will allow you to share Video, Photos with your followers, and will even allow you to upload some of these media types directly to their servers for sharing, Pownce will allow the sharing of any file. This additional freedom opens the gates to providing application downloads, entire folders of information in a zip file, torrents, and much, much more. Tumblr will allow you to post a link to anything, including the above mentioned media types, but you have to host the media yourself, which adds to the complexity.

Tags. Tumblr allows you to tag your posts. At this point, you can’t sort by them or filter by them. However, you can use these tags to format those posts in a special way. In the future, tags may offer a whole new set of features that Pownce doesn’t offer.

Conclusion!

If I need to share a file that Tumblr doesn’t host, I’m fully capable of uploading it myself and linking to it. And I’d prefer to use a feature-rich, centralized comment system instead of whatever little bit might be provided by the microblogging engine. And, being a hands-on, control-freak kind of guy, being able to format my media types in anyway that I desire trumps the little but of automation that Pownce provides in this arena. And, while I really, REALLY, really like the ability to filter who is reading what I’m sharing and be a bit more private from time to time, I probably wont use it all that often. So, with that, for me, Tumblr makes the most sense.

What about Twitter?

There seems to be a common misconception that Twitter is a microblogging platform and is in direct competition with the likes of pownce and tumblr. I’ve actually seen blog posts comparing Twitter with something and indicating “having posts longer than 140 characters” as a “pro” for the non-twitter system.

There are lots of different ways to use Twitter. Some of those ways come close to the same usage pattern you might see in Pownce or Tumblr. But, where it really excels, and what those other systems do not challenge, is as a personal mass communication tool. Twitter is a more accessible version of the “away message”. It’s a Facebook status outside of Facebook. It’s updateable via SMS, Instant Message, and even Email. No matter where I am, I can usually update Twitter. And, because Twitter also sends out SMS messages, I know that using it means that I’m updating lots of people in a very immediate way. This is far different from the way Tumblr or Pownce was meant to be used.