Sharing your desktop online with a friend is a great way to troubleshoot a technical issue. Chrome has a nice app that allows sharing of desktops using only the browser. Google seems to like the idea of people sharing desktops screens and it even has this feature on Google+.
Sharing your computer screen with friends is useful but with Google+ it can be done with many people at the same time.
Share Screen on Google+ Hangouts
Start a Hangout session from your Google+ account and invite your friends to be a part of it.
Now at the top you can see an option that reads “Screenshare”. Click on it and you will get a popup of all the windows you have open on your computer.
Now select the window and the screen is shared. This works only to share screen and not give or take control of a desktop. For that the previously mentioned Chrome app is necessary.
Hangouts is a great online tool for video chatting in groups. But allowing screenshare actually makes it into more of a teaching tool. For example someone can share a quick draft of the post he is working on to get ideas in realtime from their Google+ friends.
I do not think this is a new feature but just simply not very popular, even though Hangouts is quite popular. Do drop in your comments.
Redesigns are always a tricky part for any social network. Last year when Google+ was released, Facebook reacted with Timeline and a complete redesign. Google+ is often called a better designed clone of Facebook and it is living up to that identity by rolling out cover photos for Google+ profiles.
The new design has also made Google+ features (which were probably under utilized) a lot more prominent by sticking the icons to the left hand side of the page.
The new design is pretty decent and probably needed as Google+ was looking a little incoherent with it’s previous design. The fortunate part of this new design, is they have not touched the features or privacy options. This was one of my biggest grouse against Facebook, whenever they opt for major changes.
That said I wonder if Google+ did the wise thing by copying Facebook’s cover photos feature. The cover photos feature on Google+ is a sure sign of Facebook still setting the trend among social networks while others are still catching on.
Here is a video of the new Google+ design
I am not sure how many Google+ fans will get angry over the new design. When Facebook changed their design quite a few did not like Timeline at all, as is evident from comments on this post.
What are your views on the new Google+ design? Do drop in your comments.
The popular photo app, Instagram was bought for a cool $1 Billion by Facebook. Instagram is a popular service and solely exists on mobile phones. It has no revenue model but has a growing legion of users.
The fact that Facebook is buying a company that makes no money for a cool billion dollars is going to start floating rumors that yet another dotcom bubble is around the corner.
Whats so special about Instagram?
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Instagram is a big social success but on a platform on which no one has really suceeded. Instagram is a service that solely works on mobile phones. It allows people to skim through various filters and share these photos on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
It is gaining a lot of popularity with younger audiences who usually are more comfortable sharing photos from their phones than a slightly older demographic.
Instagram is very personal, as in the photos shared on it are taken by people on their personal mobile phones. So Instagram users end up taking photos of places they visit or see rather than sharing some random online photo.
You cannot have a online social experience without photos being shared among your friends. Facebook understands that and if Instagram was part of Google+ or Twitter, it would have lost out on a big opportunity. Photos also ensure that people will not quit a service. It is like an insurance policy against your users getting tempted to move to another social platform.
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What part did Google have to play in this?
There are some interesting things happening with Google over the past few months. Google has some incredibly successful products like Search, Android, YouTube, Gmail and Chrome. These products until only a few months ago seemed to be unrelated and independent.
But recently it has integrated so many of its services like Chrome app for Android, a renamed Android Market (Google Play) selling movies and books, Google+ spreading its tentacles into every Google product and search becoming more social. Also with a successful mobile OS in Android, it will have tremendous clout in a future, where more people will go online from their phones rather than a computer.
Facebook has now become defensive because to ensure a strong growth rate and also make sure Google does not take away its users. Acquiring Instagram was a wise move as it might block Instagram from Google+. Facebook will also suddenly have a lot of expertise at hand on how to build and attract a mobile only audience. That said, maybe a billion dollars was a bit too much. 🙂
What are your views on Facebook acquiring Instagram? Will it fuel great things for Facebook or will it fizzle like so many acquisitions? Do drop in your comments.
When Google+ was introduced to the world, it caused a lot of excitement. Tech blogs went into overdrive about the supposed Facebook killer. Over time there is a lot of debate on Google+ failing because it has not managed to really dent Facebook. There are many people who are not too happy about Facebook either.
So who will survive in the long run? Facebook or Google+? I believe the answer to it is neither and Twitter will outlast them all.
#1. Twitter is anonymous
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Twitter does not expect users to use their full names and associate it with your account. This sort of anonymity simply does not exist on Facebook or Google+. Also Twitter does not expect users to have only one account. You can have multiple accounts and they can be about anything you want.
#2. Network of strangers
On Facebook we connect with our family, friends and even colleagues. That is pretty great but the fact is most Facebook contacts are a phone call away. Twitter is a different network where almost all the people we follow and more importantly consume information from are complete strangers.
#3. Breaking News
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Twitter has consistently broken news from around the world a lot faster than traditional news media. This has made even the traditional new media scan Twitter and tap into it for local updates and opinions. I doubt any news channel or web service can compete with the ability of Twitter to make a 140 character update into a trending global story within minutes. Presently no other web service can compete on this point with Twitter.
#4. Twitter has more potential to make money than others
Even if Facebook is selling ads and making millions if not billions, there is always the problem of having relevancy to their ads. Facebook has all my personal data and can sell me personalized ads, but I am unlikely to click on a Facebook ad. The reason for this is because I am not on Facebook trying to check the latest trends but rather to connect with friends.
I might actually click on a sponsored tweet as I often check out latest trends on Twitter. The idea is simple, selling something to people who are looking for something is easier.
#5. Platform Vs Network
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Facebook is a great place to connect with people but it expects you to play by their rules. They expect users to access Facebook on the website or through their official apps. Twitter is incredibly open and I won’t be surprised that a majority of Twitter users access it through 3rd party apps. Twitter seems less like a network and more like a platform. Platforms are not specific to a particular purpose and users have to define why and how to use these platforms.
A lot of tech experts might not give Twitter a great chance ahead of Facebook, but then nobody gave much of a chance for a web search engine called Google or a free email service called Hotmail.
What are your views on Twitter and it’s future on the internet? Do drop in your comments.
Today, exactly a year ago the Indian Cricket team won the World Cup. I thought about that glorious day from a year ago and wondered what sort of social update or photos did I share a year ago? Searching for your Tweets, Facebook updates or photos shared on Instagram can be tedious if not downright frustrating.
Timehop is an internet service that sends you email updates everyday with what you shared on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Four Square.
Sign up with your Facebook account on Timehop.com and also link your other account on social networks like Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram.
Timehop will put togeather all that you shared on these linked accounts from exactly a year ago. This information is sent to you via an email. This email will be the same one you use for your Facebook account, which you have linked to Timehop.
Additionally Timehop also sends interesting global news and events in the email update, which happened exactly a year ago. I find this a great way to relive some interesting updates and photos we shared on social media websites.
Google+ might not have made a big dent in the social media niche but it has a popular feature in Hangouts. Hangouts allow small groups to conduct video chat online. There are many Hangouts which are very informative and it would be great to catch up on a few.
GPHangouts.com is a website that is like a search service and directory for public Hangouts.
For instance I searched for WordPress related hangouts and straight away I got a link to a public Hangout.
A lot of users also tend to schedule public Hangout sessions and add them to the website’s directory. To schedule a Hangout session on the directory, users need to use their Google ID to sign in. I guess this is insurance against spammers who might schedule fake Hangouts.
Users can even search on Google+ for current Hangouts which are happening. But there is not option to schedule Hangouts.
Almost two and a half years ago, Yahoo rolled out Yahoo Meme. It was supposed to be a Twitter killer. It allowed more than 140 charachters, allowed inserting photos or videos and more. I personally also found it a very attractive design but it simply could not match up to Twitter.
Today Yahoo has announced that they are shutting down Yahoo Meme. New registrations will be stopped from 25th April and on 25th May 2012, all the URL will be inaccessible.
How to Export Your Data from Yahoo Meme
If you have been active on Yahoo Meme, it might be wise to backup or export all your photos and status messages you shared on it. You can use your Google ID to export all your data from this link.
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You can also delete your Yahoo Meme account from this link.
To be honest this was expected. It was probably the worst of all the social spinoffs failures which include the likes of Google Buzz.
Facebook is a big constant in our online social media life. Your comments and interactions with your friends and family members on Facebook, often speaks a lot about you as a person. A “year in the Like” is a online app, that allows you to look back at a whole year on Facebook, taking into account your Likes, comments and photos you shared.
“A Year in the Like” Features
Visit the website and allow the app to work with your Facebook account. I found it trustworthy in the sense it is a tool created by Microsoft.
Look through what sort of updates you want to look through and also who you want this app to be visible for among your friends.
Your comments and likes start to roll out with the background being an image that you might have shared. All comments and likes are clickable and if done to a particular image, it loads up that image as the background.
Finally users can also easily create a ready-made video of your comments and photos. This video can then be shared with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.
I recently wrote how Google+ did a few things better than Facebook. In that post I promised to also visit the other side of the argument and find 5 things Facebook did better than Google+. Facebook might not have the best UI or still might not get their messaging service spot on, it does manage to keep people addicted.
#1. The Novelty of Facebook
Facebook has a certain novelty. When it was created, it was meant only for campus students from the U.S. It outgrew that phase and created some simple features like wall updates, relationship statuses and most importantly the ‘Like’ button.
All these things we associate with Facebook and not any other social network simply because of its novelty. Google+ has to find it’s own sense of novelty rather than mirror all the features from competitors.
#2. Facebook Groups
Google+ simply lacks the ability to give users the chance of creating interest groups. I am part of a couple of book reading groups on Facebook and they are extremely useful. It gives the feeling of being in a smaller network within a network.
I am surprised the Google+ does not have a similar feature on it. It does have excellent service called Google Groups and it would be a wise idea to allow some of these Google Group features being merged into Google+. At the end of the day, Google+ users still do not have any options to create their personal small groups within the bit network.
#3. Facebook Comments
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I see many blogs allowing users the ability to comment using their Facebook credentials. Google+ only has +1 buttons which can be used on 3rd party websites. I think it would be a great idea to allow people to comment on a blog using Google+.
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Facebook Comments is often used to increase the interactivity of a website with readers. Also it is less likely that people leave hate or spam comments with their Facebook IDs.
#4. Facebook API
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I am not a developer and hence I won’t be able to write at length about why Google+ taking so much time over releasing its API. Google+ is now over 6 months old and with lack of API available, there is a real chance that 3rd party developers might simply have lost interest in creating great apps for it.
#5. Facebook is not serious
I am not suggesting Facebook is not serious about itself as a company. But it seems to not take its role on the internet all that seriously, which is actually the truth. It is a great way to efficiently waste time. When Facebook messed up on privacy, people might have felt outraged but they did not leave the website. The reason was social networks are not that important or critical to people’s lives like say online maps, email or search engines. Facebook gets this part but I doubt Google+ does.
What do your views on Google+ and Facebook? Do drop in your comments.
Twitter has just announced that it has acquired the popular blogging platform Posterous. It will keep Posterous running as it is and not make any changes for the moment but we should not rule out changes for Posterous users in the future.
Acquisition are usually either defensive or growth oriented. Last year Twitter bought TweetDeck to make sure that UberMedia did not get it. It was a way to ensure UberMedia did not own too much of Twitter related platforms.
Posterous on the other hand is an aggressive acquisition. It will probably fuel newer features on Twitter or maybe Posterous could be used to share posts longer than 140 characters.
Posterous is a popular blogging platform, even though it was not as popular as WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. Probably that the reason it was up for acquisition. On the other hand it could mean a lot of things for Twitter.
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The Challenges for Twitter
Even though Google+ might have been created as a balance for Facebook, it has also indirectly laid out challenges to Twitter. It has borrowed a lot of ideas from Twitter including introducing hashtags. Even Facebook is breathing down Twitter neck with ideas to get into the allowing feeds based on interests.
So it will be interesting to watch what Twitter churns out and also to see if Posterous can make a bit of a comeback as a blogging platform.
What are your views on Twitter acquiring Posterous? Do drop in your comments.
