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Category: brightkite

Brightkite or Buzz?


Tuesday February 9, 2010

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Google announces a new product that integrates with Gmail inbox that will allow you to start conversations about things that you find interesting. Google Buzz is about location more than anything, sharing information about your day to day online is considered to be richer if there is a location tagged to the post. The idea is that your description will have more weight if the reader has an idea of your whereabouts. Buzz will let you share links, photos, and videos throughout your social network.

Google Buzz on your mobile phone (Information Provided by Google Mobile Blog):

  • Buzz.google.com: A web app that provides access to Buzz from your iPhone or Android phone’s browser.
  • Buzz on Google Maps for mobile: The new Buzz layer allows you to see buzz near you or anywhere on the map. You can post public buzz directly from the layer, and even attach a photo from your phone. Also, try visiting a mobile Place Page to read recent comments or to post buzz about that place. You can access Place Pages from the web app as well, by tapping on the place name in any location-tagged post.
  • Buzz Shortcut from Google.com: You will see the buzz icon in the top right corner of the google.com homepage. Just tap on the icon to trigger the posting box.
  • Voice Shortcut: The voice shortcut, which is available in the quick search widget on Android and in Google Mobile App on iPhone, allows you to post buzz without typing anything. Just say ‘post buzz,’ followed by whatever you’d like to post.

Google Buzz at first glance seems kind of exciting and might be useful. Unfortunately, this is not some new social media idea, Brightkite.com has been implementing the same concept for a long time. Who knows, maybe Google’s version will be superior? It seems like Google is focused on so many projects right now it’s hard to believe they can manage providing a solid product. What are your thoughts, Brightkite or Buzz?

 

 

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Have you seen He’s Just Not That Into You? This film opened yesterday and since today is Saturday I thought I would provide a little preview of this romantic comedy. Technically speaking, He’s Just Not That Into You, was not on my to-do list for February 6th, so I have not yet seen the movie, but I have seen the previews. I think this is one of those films that I might be able to convince my husband, Dennis, to see. Why? Eye candy! There are enough “big” stars, both men and women, in this film to keep everyone happy for 129 minutes. For your convenience, I have included a trailer for the movie in this post. You will see that the producers feel that the basic interactive groundrules for men and women are established when we are very young children, which is “he says one thing, but means another” and “she hears what she wants to hear.” As an aside, I remember my first little boy “friend.” In 1954-55 we walked to kindergarten each morning holding hands. His name was Raymond Wood. I think he was always nice to me!

Ok, here is the scoop: He’s Just Not That Into You is based on a self-help book that was written by Greg Behrentdt and Liz Tuccillo. No, neither Greg nor Liz is a psychologist. Both were writers for Sex and the City, they based this book on a famous line from the 6th season episode called “Pick-a-little, Talk-a-little” which originally aired July 13, 2003(yes, the episode title is the name of an annoying song from The Music Man). Six years later and with a reported budget of $25,000,000 we now have a romantic comedy that will either make you laugh or help you escape today’s crazy technical world for two hours.

Probably the most poignant message in He’s Just Not That Into You is this: In today’s world, unlike when I was wondering “why doesn’t HE call?,” a person can’t just expect to hear from someone via a landline phone, they need to worry about every known “SOCIAL NETWORK:” myspace, facebook, youtube, plurk, plugoo, brightkite, ping, twitter, yammer, and the fatal text messaging via the cell phone. As Mary, played by Drew Barrymore, says: “It’s exhausting!”

The fact is love, or what we hope will turn into love, makes us do foolish things. We are all guilty of this, we are human. In 1965 Martha (Reeves) and the Vandellas released “Love Makes Me Do Foolish Things,” it never made it to #1, but many of us loved this song, because in 1965 and for a long time after that, our social networks consisted only of a phone and the Friday night mixer (dance). This song made us cry and if we were really lucky that special someone would ask us to dance and we would forget all our troubles. Escape!

So for this Saturday: Dance to this music,take a break and go away with your friend. Go to the movies or rent a movie,love the one you’re with, and let me know how this works out for you, write a comment on my blog post.

P.S. For the record, if you are wondering what happened to little Raymond Wood. We continued through grade school together as friends. After that we lost touch. In 2006, my mother passed away. As I stood outside the church waiting for her funeral to begin, I looked across the crowd and there stood Raymond. He walked over to me, put his arms around me and said “I wouldn’t miss being with you today.” Precious memories, indeed!

Reading Time: 3 minutes


Brightkite for the iPhone from Brightkite on Vimeo.

Brightkite, a location based social network, now has it’s own iPhone application. One of the unique features of Brightkite as a social network is that it organizes its members according to where they are geographically. After experimenting with the new iPhone application I anticipate there will be an upsurge in Brightkite activity as the application makes this social network not only easy to use but very appropriate to the iPhone’s features. Application will require the iPhone 2.1 software.

I have found as a general rule that I prefer the iPhone application interfaces for social networks to their online equivalents. It seems to me that when designers have to flesh an application down to fit on the iPhone improvements and ease of use tend to follow. I will surely be checking in more as the “checking in” procedure is really sleek with the iPhone’s GPS built in.

Take a picture and geo-locate it. Find where your friends are nearby. Take a look at Brightkite, it is especially fun when you are traveling as you can search for restaurant reviews and local attractions. It is a great place to ask for restaurant and lodging suggestions and there tends to be a trend among users to photograph and post their meals when dining out.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

There is a world out there, more of a world. With the push of a button, a million possibilities await you; this Utopia is smaller than a note card, and lives inside your pocket. The new IPhone is the cutting edge of technology, the Alpha y Omega; there are many instruments that try to compete and at the surface appear to be similar, but with a little investigation you find something quite unique.

Your music, photos, and email accessible with a touch-screen, is only the tip of the iceberg; real time GPS and any kind of application you could think of, with more to come. The question is not what your IPhone can do? Rather, what can your IPhone not do? Having the ability to manage your social media real time makes social media more universal. Millions of web sites have and are making their pages IPhone friendly; companies have become aware of the implications and the potential of this virtual treasure chest. Wake up on time, plan your day, work from anywhere, and do all of this while listening to your favorite tunes! On a daily basis I find something new and exciting regarding the capabilities of this hand held computer. I am experiencing the joy of this product, like no other gadget I have ever had; at times the excitement can be too much to handle.

I can still remember: my first desktop, my first laptop, my first Discman, and my first IPod. The desktops were bulky and slow and were inefficient; speed got better, but what about size? Laptops made up for the size problem, and for a time satisfied your needs; but you could never fit your laptop into a pocket. Discmans made sound mobile, but they skipped and you had to carry all your cds with you wherever you went. IPods held all the music you wanted and could fit into a pocket, but in a pocket already containing: car keys, cell phones, palm pilots, and whatever else one carries with them daily. Was all the clutter convenient?

It seems like so long ago that I started this technological ride into the future. I felt like I was on the brink of something amazing taking place; with every year that passed, the horizon became closer. The anticipation of a new gadget that would make my computer more universal, faster, and a little better was what I dreamed about. The release of the IPod was the pinnacle of technology when it came to media; first with music and recording, and then with video. I was satisfied beyond belief with IPod, and wondered where Apple could go next with this device? A phone? An IPhone?

With the advent of the IPhone it became very clear that the sky was the limit. You could now manage your whole life with this masterpiece; from organizing your media, all the way to managing your business, work and play had truly become One. Isnt that what life is about? The freedom to accomplish your needs from wherever you exist at any given moment; especially in this fast paced world, a world where every second counts, when he who arrives first gets the prize. The plot has been set, the characters are in their right places; I welcome you to the climax, enjoy!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

When out and about, Lisa and I are “Life Streaming” using Brightkite, Twitter and Plurk.

It added a whole new dimension to our trip to Tucson.

By sending a SMS message to BrightKite with our location, @ Blythe for instance, Then sending shots we were taking with our iPhones via email to BrightKite where they were then tagged with that location.

As BrightKite posted the picts they tweeted them for us so those that were following would be notified of new content. (HI MOM!)

With the actual conversation taking place on Plurk, where we could use the direct link to all of those iPhone/BrightKite images we took the time to share.

Next we get home and slam everyone with our Nikon shots…

But that is another post.

Got a Life? Have fun with it!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Wouldn’t you like to know if someone you have friended on your favorite social network was in your neighborhood? Say to hook up with like minded sports fanatics, or nerds? There is just such a service and it is called BrightKite, a “Location Based Social Network” and it is in invite only beta. If you would like a BrightKite invite reply to this post and we will make sure you get one. With BrightKite you can post your location to predetermined place marks, or send your location via sms. Once you login to a placemark you can email in photos of your location that others who are on your friends list can check out the seats you had at the game, or the sushi you are about to eat for dinner.

And it works great on my iPhone.

Got BrightKite?