Steffan Antonas' Blog » Technology

Building A New Type Of Social Network: How “Glue” Is Using Semantic Technology To Change The Way People Connect On The Web

Steffan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:44:06 +0000

The web is evolving rapidly and it’s nice to see that social networking is evolving right along with it. If you frequent top tech sites like TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb, you’ve probably heard (or read) the term “Semantic Web” hundreds of times this year, but in this blogger’s humble opinion, all the hype and hoopla hasn’t produced much that most of us can actually use, especially not in the social networking arena. Until now. A New York-based tech startup called AdaptiveBlue has just released a FireFox browser add-on called Glue that just might turn traditional social networking on its head. In my estimation, Glue’s release represents a significant leap forward in social browsing and is likely the first of many semantic technologies that will begin changing the way people connect and have more meaningful interaction on the web. Here’s just a few reasons why Glue is a game-changer:

Semantic Technologies (Can) Put Our Networking Activities In Context

One of the key insights that Glue was built on is that the things we like and the content we consume say as much about us as anything else, and that connecting over things and content we love with others is meaningful and enjoyable. With Glue, AdaptiveBlue has built a contextual network that uses semantic technology across the web to automatically connect people around the everyday things they are interested in - books, music, movies, celebrities, artists, stocks, wine, restaurants and more. Here’s the awesome part…because the network is decentralized and distributed across popular sites using the AB Meta Markup, it doesn’t matter when or where the users visit things, Glue recognizes the object and connects people around it. For example, Glue recognizes a particular movie (like IronMan) as the same object on IMDB, Amazon, Netflix, RottenTomato, Fandango etc. and treats it the same way. If a friend on Glue interacts with that movie on any site using the AB Meta Markup, that interaction will show up on any other compliant site for that object in Glue. There is no destination site, the network is always in the user’s context anywhere they are interacting on the web. Here’s a quick video that illustrates exactly how Glue works and how it builds networks of people around objects:

Glue Overview from AdaptiveBlue on Vimeo.

Glue Blends Simplicity and Portability

If you’re an avid online social networker you’re aware of just how many social networking, tagging and microblogging platforms are out there. Most of us don’t have time to respond to voice mail and e-mail every day, let alone check our Twitter updates and Facebook accounts and Flickr friends. Simplicity is key. The beauty of Glue is that it doesn’t force you into a one-or-the other decision when it comes to the suite of services you use, and it doesn’t force you to build a new profile on a new site. Rather, it adds value to all your existing services by allowing you to dynamically build a portable profile as you browse the web that loads (for other Glue users) on all of the sites that you claim in Glue seamlessly. You don’t have to change your habits at all. The value here is that every Glue user that visits any of your sites (your blog, your Twitter stream, LinkedIn profile, Flickr strean etc) sees the Glue bar, adding variety, and context to every profile without you having to do anything but claim a page. For people who are into lifestreaming, this is a major value-add. Plus, it gives people an easy way to find all of your content on the web. The profile provides quick and easy hop links to all of your sites with just a few clicks. Here are a couple of screenshots of my various profiles around the web (you can see that the Glue bar shows on all of them)

Providing Meaningful Filters For People And Things

After spending a few months on Glue (in private beta), what I’ve found the most interesting is that I can use people as filters for (finding and analyzing) things and use things to help me filter and analyze people. The biggest problem I have when I interact with people I’ve never met on text-based platforms like Twitter or FriendFeed is that for the most part I’m doing so with very little personal context. The biggest frustration I have with social media in general when it comes to meeting new people is being able to answer one big question “What is this person like?”. Glue is awesome for giving someone’s suite of profiles “a common personality” because it rides on top of all of their profiles (as discussed above). Here’s what I mean…

Let’s say I find a guy named “JoeTweetalot” on twitter. All I know about Joe is that he’s got a short bio on his page that just says “I live in San Jose, I work at a software company and I’m awesome. DM me!”. Doesn’t really tell me much. BUT he’s on glue. Right on! So his profile drops down and I surf his stuff….now I know that Joe is interested in these things:

“Office Space, SuperBad, FightClub, Oceans 11, The Laws Of Simplicity, Click, Crowdsourcing, The Numerati, Radio Head, Hendrix, 24, Prison break, iPhone, Apple Laptop, and 5 Popular Sushi restaurants in Soho”….

The stuff I can see in his Glue Profile acts as a great filter for his personality - I already have an idea of what Joe’s sense of humor might be like, I can guess his approximate age, I know he’s interested in similar topics as me, and his music and food tastes are also similar to mine. It says instantly “do I have stuff in common with this person or not?” Which is the most frequent question I have that rarely gets answered on the social web. Being able to share a bit of ourselves in this way allows us to find more meaningful connections with others and allows us to connect over the things we love.

Final Thoughts

With any luck, we’re going to start seeing smarter technologies for social browsing and networking that provide better context and meaning to our interactions online. Glue is the most noteworthy of such smart technologies available to date. While still in its infancy, the service represents a significant advance in how people can use semantic technologies to pull their many services together (meaningfully) and find new ways to find each other and connect over shared interests. The novelty, simplicity and portability of Glue is a major plus in such a cluttered social networking world and shows us the way forward. But don’t take my word for it…try it yourself. Get Glue.

Post from: Steffan Antonas' Blog

First Verizon Phones Running Android - People Are Successfully Hacking Away

Steffan — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:04:28 +0000

Yesterday I posted a video of a Verizon phone running Android. Turns out, I got excited for good reason, because the video is legit - it’s a hack job, but it’s being done succesfully. Yesterday I wrote the owner of the Video to find out what the deal was, and I just got the reply (and I apparently I was so excited I didn’t even spell Android right!):

There you have it. If you want Android on a Verizon phone, and you’re too impatient to wait for the first official release, you might want to head over to the XDA Developer forums and contact DZO. ;-). It can be done.

Gotta love good hackers.

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Leaked: Video Of The Very First Android Device For Verizon?

Leaked: Video Of The Very First Android Device For Verizon?

Steffan — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:10:39 +0000

This just popped up on YouTube - only 80 views so far. Someone’s got Android running on a Verizon phone. Is this too good to be true? This definitely looks like the Verizon XV6800. I’ve already written the person who posted this video, who has yet to reply. Here’s a picture of the Verizon XV6800 so you can compare to the video. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for those of us on Verizon who are waiting for the Android….

—————————

Update: I heard from the owner of the video - just posted his reply. The hack is legit and the reply in the post has info on who’s doing it and how to contact them. If you can’t wait for Verizon to release a phone, check out the update post.

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Solving Information Overload With Good Design: Why Dashboards Will Be The Next Big Thing For Feeds

steffanantonas — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:40:54 +0000

Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with information, so I’ve started taking steps to trim some of the fat from my info-diet. Along with reducing the number of people I follow on Twitter, and using Facebook’s new feed features to help focus my news to people I care most about, I’ve also made one significant change in my feed reading habits by making a switch from my traditional feed reader to iGoogle’s new widgetized interface. Here’s why the new features in iGoogle rock my world…

Finally, A Dashboard That I Can Scan

I probably track around 100 blogs in my RSS reader, and by most measures, I think that’s a modeset number. Do I read every post from all of those blogs? Of course not. Nobody has that kind of time. Like everyone else, I’ve got 15-20 favorites that I track actively and the rest get lumped into the “You Have 687 unread posts” category. Still, with a traditional RSS feed reader, I’ve had to dig through my feeds on the left, expand them and scroll through posts.

No More. Now I use iGoogle’s dashboard (as my browser’s homepage) to keep up with my favorite blogs RSS feeds, friends, email, facebook…all of it. I now spend a fraction of the time reading that I did a week ago. Everything you add to iGoogle shows up as a draggable widget, so you can design your own layout, organize your stuff into tabs, and it’s all right there on your home page. The dashboard design makes keeping up a heckofa lot easier because it makes the content scannable (FINALLY!).

I won’t bore you with all the details of how to set it up, because it’s a snap, and besides, a picture’s worth a thousand words. Here’s my current iGoogle home page…

iGoogle Dashboard Widgets Add Extra Value For Social Networking

While adding tabs on my iGoogle Dashboard the other day, I stumbled on an awesome new feature. I created a tab called “Friends” and it automatically populated the tab with Facebook functionality, GoogleChat and Gmail widgets. I even added a twitter gadget. It’s nice to know that the good folks at Google are accurately anticipating their users wants and needs. Here’s another 1000-word screenshot. How useful is this??!!

The fact that Google is figuring out that people need a good agreggation service for all their feeds (beyond just RSS readers) is awesome, and I think the new iGoogle interface is an indicator of changes to come with how feeds are organized and presented. Here are some final thoughts…

Design Makes A Difference To How People Consume Information

I’m a big believer in the idea that design shapes behavior. The fact that design impacts reading behavior is the reason that magazines and newspapers invest so heavily in layout, typography and graphic design. This is a no brainer, right? I know I’m not saying anything innovative here…so why haven’t companies like FriendFeed and NewsGator innovated with the design of their layout to improve readability? It’s all so…linear. Linear design is fine (and even elegant) until you start pulling a lot of different types of content into one stream. FriendFeed in particular has gotten so useless to me, that I don’t even bother with it anymore - Tweets, photos, bookmarks, comments…it’s all there in one big no-context pile that you have to sort through. I quit trying a while ago because it’s just too overwhelming. I know I’m not alone in this. Why doesn’t every profile have a dashboard of all their stuff sparated out for readability? It’s all coming in separately, so why lump it all together ina long time line and make it less useful? In an asychronous world where people are creating lots of different kinds of content, do I really care that a tweet about lunch came right after a bookmark of a stock report? Time doesn’t add enough context to make it meaningful, especially when you add more and more users to a stream.

In short, the problem isn’t that there’s too much data…it’s that the current design and organization of the information presented by popular aggregation services lends itself to clutter. FriendFeed in particular should take note of iGoogle’s new widgetized dashboard and show us something fresh, new and organized. Just aggregating a ton of services isn’t enough. You have to help your users orgnize and make sense of it all. Services that do that well are going to win in the long term.

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The Win-Win Of Good Linking Etiquette

Steffan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:26:37 +0000

I link, you link, we all link. So why not do it the right way? Following a few simple rules when you create links helps search engines, helps your site rank, and boosts your credibility as a blogger. If you’re still creating links that look like this - “You can read more about linking by clicking HERE“ - you’re going to look like a noob, insult the intelligence of your readers, confuse search engines and lose any SEO benefit you might have gotten from creating a quality link. Bottom line, how you link is just as important as what you link to. Here’s a few quick tips for good linking etiquette:

Search Engines Are Dumb. Help Them Out.

Fortunately, Google’s systems haven’t become self-aware yet, and while spiders can recognize and assign relevance scores to your links based on the words you use, they aren’t smart enough to derive meaning from language the way a reader can.

Let’s say you’ve just written a life-changing post about how hot Margaret Thatcher is. To add value for your readers, you decide to link out to Margaret Thatcher’s Wikipedia page (so that people can see her photo and instantly agree with you). If you link like this…”Check out Margaret Thatcher’s smoldering pic here“, web crawlers see this -

Margaret_thatcher“> here

Any human can tell you that the relevance of the keyword “here” is ZIP, but the search engine’s can’t. So instead, you want the robot crawling your site to gobble up a nice keyword-rich link by using the most relevant keyword for what you’re pointing to like this -

“Check out this super-hot photo of Margaret Thatcher!”

Now the crawler sees this…

Margaret_thatcher“> Margaret Thatcher

Kudos to you. You just made the search engines a bit brighter by pointing them in the right direction. Same work, relevance = 100%.

Boost Your Rankings

If you link correctly, the quality and relevance of the links in your site can have a positive effect on SEO rankings. Search engines use algorithms to determine a site’s relevance and popularity in relation to what people are searching for. One of the factors affecting the site’s ranking for any given search term is how many relevant links are contained within the site.

There are two types of links - internal and external. Internal links are those which link one page of your site to another. Internal links show search engines the breadth and density of your site and highlight important sections for search terms people use. External links, by contrast, are those where your site links to another site, or when another site links to yours. Both types of links are important to search engines, but with rankings, relevant external links (both in-coming and out-going) matter more. In-coming links, of course, matter most, but relevant keyword-rich linking out definitely helps.

Readers Appreciate Good Linking Habits

Whenever I find a person using the phrase “click here” for a link, I cringe a little. Not only is it just a little too early 90’s, it insults my intelligence as a reader. Everyone gets how linking works. There’s no need to explicitly point a person to the link with your words. We all know what links look like. We all use them. Besides, when you change the flow of your sentences to include calls to action like “click here”, the whole thing just doesn’t flow as well.

Aside from not having their intelligence challenged, readers also appreciate being able to scan your posts for keywords. While it might be shocking to bloggers who are a liiiiittle bit too enamored with their own writing skills, not everyone reads every word. In fact, studies have shown that most people don’t read at all - they scan (I know, right? How dare they! pfff) - so making relevant keywords pop out of the text is a good thing because it allows visitors on your site to skip reading every word and find what they’re looking for fast.

Ok, netizens…go forth and link with style and purpose!

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5 Minutes With Woo: My Interview With A WordPress Rockstar

steffanantonas — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:59:20 +0000

I’m humbled and excited by all the positive attention that the redesign of my blog’s been getting these past few weeks and I’m honored by how well the new look has been received by the WordPress community.

After being featured on the WordPress Premiums Showcase, PJ’s Best Of August Picks, and Mark Forrester’s Blog my traffic has more than tripled and random people from all over the world have been sending me email, asking me about WordPress design and Premium Themes.

As many of you know, this blog’s proudly sporting a customized “Woo” Theme, so I was particularly psyched this weekend to have the new design included in the launch of the brand new WooThemes showcase. Of course, I was twice as psyched when Adii, one of the Web’s top WordPress theme designers, contacted me over the weekend to interview me and get some of my thoughts on the new design and Wordpress Premium themes. Among other things, we discussed blog design and why the choice to go Premium is an important blogging decision. I also shared some breif thoughts on blogging trends like lifestreaming. Adii posted a transcript of the interview this morning on the WooThemes blog.

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Praying for A Premium News Jackpot

The Web and TV, A Sibling Rivalry

Steffan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:23:58 +0000

I came across this over the weekend and thought it was worth sharing - it takes an interesting look at emerging media and tech history and includes some priceless footage from the 1960s. In this quick half hour presentation, Peter shares some important lessons from Silicon Valley and explains why the web is so much more than “better TV.”

Noteworthy are Peter’s comments on how tech folks “talk different” and how the almost (irrational) religious evangelizing of tech by participants in the tech movement moves us forward to the next thing.

For those of you who are curious, Peter Hirshberg is a Silicon Valley executive, entrepreneur and marketing specialist. He is a founder of Goodmail Systems, and a current board member of ICTV, and serves on the advisory boards of start-ups Technorati and Informative. Check out his blog on disruptive culture and technology - it’s worth a read.

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100+ Killer Wordpress Resources

Steffan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:32:58 +0000

Below is a list of links to the very best reading out there on Hacking Wordpress and building a better blog. I’ve also included a list of links to designers and others who are significantly advancing Wordpress through innovative theme development and plugins. If you know of a post or resource that I have not included yet, please add it in the comments! I’ll constantly update this list as I find more of the good stuff.

Improve Your Blog

Theme Hacks

Stylesheet Hacks

Post Hacks

Comment Hacks

Page Hacks

Categories/Archives Hacks

Best Wordpress Plugins

Using Wordpress As A CMS

The “Get Wordpressed” Blog (Added 9/5/2008)

Top Blogs On Wordpress

Premium Theme Designers And Others Who Contribute To Advancing Wordpress (Hat Tip To You, Gentlemen!)

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Appealing to the Next Generation of Tech Users - Thoughts on Maslow, Apple, and Identity

Steffan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:56:44 +0000

I’m not ashamed to admit that I spend an absurd amount of time tinkering in Apple stores with absolutely no shopping agenda. I feel bad for the sales reps, actually. I have a hopelessly expressive face and I must have the look of a kid in a candy store, constantly giving off a “dying to buy” signal that makes me a magnet for unsolicited customer service. If I had a dime for every time I’ve brushed off a friendly apple rep who was trying to be helpful, I could probably afford one of those new Macbook Pros I’ve been drooling over (apple reps, please accept my apologies).

The other day I was in the Apple store suffering through palpable inner turmoil, talking myself out of a $2500 impulse buy. After inventing a few “creative financing” scenarios for myself, the rational part of me (ever the deal breaker because it’s the part that looks at my bank statements) contributed a very direct “do you need this?”. The answer to that, of course, is no, which brought me back to earth pretty quickly. But then I looked around the store and was all at once keenly aware of the fact that none of the people in the packed store did. None of it. Any of these people (myself included) could hop online and find a perfectly good, meat-and-potatoes PC for hundreds less. Same goes for iPhones - the human race has managed for thousands of years without the internet in their hands - no one really needs these things and there are decent substitutes for all of them out there for a fraction of the price. So I started thinking…what’s driving the apple craze? Any consumer shopper could tell you that it’s definitely not price, and my personal gut reaction from my (regular) observation of crowds in the stores, which seem to be a veritable smorgasbord of ages and cultures, tells me that it’s not a particular target market that’s driving demand. The Mac has definitely gone mainstream. But why the shift? I have a few of theories -

The Apple Has Become A Symbol of Identity

Seen a Mac vs. PC ad lately? Brilliant marketing. Not ONCE since the inception of Apple’s Get A Mac campaign in 2006 has an actual computer been the center of attention in an ad. Instead the ads focus on differentiating the “hip” mac user’s image from the “not-so-hip” non-mac users (technically it’s a PC vs Mac ad, but realistically it’s mac and not mac). And subtle the comparison is not. Each commercial is an image war between a cool guy decked out in gear from Urban Outfitters, Levis and vans, and a dumpy, insecure Milton-esque guy wearing a 1970s polyester suit. For a year and a half now, millions of viewers have seen a very likable Mac guy win awards and talk about how great “his” OS is while PC guy goes to therapy, sings the vista blues and takes flack from pissed off yoga instructors (My recent favorite is the ad where PC guy introduces a host of stress-releiving herbal teas like “crashytime camomile” and “pomegranite patience”). Each ad asks viewers to question who they want to be (viewed as). I think people are responding to these ads (among other cultural signals) in ways that clearly show that your choice of computer says just as much about who you are as the car you drive or the clothes that you wear.

(image courtesy of mactropolis.com)

Geek Is Chic

It helps that the Apple logo has become synonymous with “geek”, because it’s allowed Apple to successfully align itself with (and no doubt amplify) a greater social trend that’s on the rise. The geek image has shifted from lame to cool, and likeable geeky characters like Ugly Betty have become pop-culture icons. Who know’s, maybe society at large has watched young entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg (Age 24, Founder of Facebook), David Karp (Age 21, Founder of Tumblr) and Daniel Ha (Age 22, Founder of Disqus) become tech celebrities and taken note? Geeks are becoming heros. I snagged this video of a session from Katie Couric’s Notebook on YouTube (Dec 07) that discusses the new trend towards Geek Chic.

Appealing to the Next Generation of Computer Users Through Esteem-Based Ads

So what can tomorrow’s marketers learn from Apple’s example? The message is loud and clear - brains are in and people are buying technology based on decisions they are making about their identities, not just functions and features…a quick side dish to illustrate:

Recognize this?

Transcendence: help others realize their potential
Self-actualization: creativity, morality, realize your own potential, self-fulfillment, peak experiences
Esteem: self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others/gain approval, independence, status
Love/Belonging: love, family, friends, sexual intimacy
Security: protection, safety, stability
Physical: hunger, thirst, bodily comfort

It’s Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and you probably remember it as a pyramid because it was originally thought of as a ladder, but research suggests that people pursue all of these needs simultaneously. The point here is that not many marketers these days go far beyond the physical, security and belonging layers - Apple, on the other hand, focuses almost all of its ads on the Esteem and Self-actualization layers (including promoting creativity) with it’s pro-geek chic. It’s simultaneously riding and reinforcing a social movement. And I think it’s why they’re gaining so much ground in the personal computing market. Marketers should take note. Tech isn’t just a tool for getting what you do done, it’s a statement of who you are….which is probably why this Geek has an existential crisis every time he sits down to type a blog post on his PC.

Any thoughts on this? Do you base your tech-purchasing decisions on both fashion and function?

Post from: Steffan Antonas' Blog

What’s The Right Amount Of Outsourcing?

Steffan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:17:06 +0000

Over on the AdaptiveBlue Blog Fraser’s posed this question that’s started a good exchange of thoughts:

As digital creeps into all forms of media, and companies adjust their structure and strategy, what’s the correct amount of “digital”, or “technology”, capacity that they should bring in-house?

I’ve thrown my two cents in. Come on over and join the conversation.

Post from: Steffan Antonas' Blog

Steffan Antonas' Blog » Technology

Building A New Type Of Social Network: How “Glue” Is Using Semantic Technology To Change The Way People Connect On The Web

Semantic Technologies (Can) Put Our Networking Activities In Context

Glue Blends Simplicity and Portability

Providing Meaningful Filters For People And Things

Final Thoughts

Related Posts

First Verizon Phones Running Android - People Are Successfully Hacking Away

Related Posts

Leaked: Video Of The Very First Android Device For Verizon?

Related Posts

Solving Information Overload With Good Design: Why Dashboards Will Be The Next Big Thing For Feeds

Finally, A Dashboard That I Can Scan

iGoogle Dashboard Widgets Add Extra Value For Social Networking

Design Makes A Difference To How People Consume Information

Related Posts

The Win-Win Of Good Linking Etiquette

Search Engines Are Dumb. Help Them Out.

Boost Your Rankings

Readers Appreciate Good Linking Habits

Most Commented Posts

5 Minutes With Woo: My Interview With A WordPress Rockstar

Related Posts

The Web and TV, A Sibling Rivalry

Related Posts

100+ Killer Wordpress Resources

Improve Your Blog

Theme Hacks

Stylesheet Hacks

Post Hacks

Comment Hacks

Page Hacks

Categories/Archives Hacks

Blogroll Hacks

Best Wordpress Plugins

Using Wordpress As A CMS

Top Blogs On Wordpress

Premium Theme Designers And Others Who Contribute To Advancing Wordpress (Hat Tip To You, Gentlemen!)

Related Posts

Appealing to the Next Generation of Tech Users - Thoughts on Maslow, Apple, and Identity

The Apple Has Become A Symbol of Identity

(image courtesy of mactropolis.com)

Geek Is Chic

Appealing to the Next Generation of Computer Users Through Esteem-Based Ads

Most Commented Posts

What’s The Right Amount Of Outsourcing?

Most Commented Posts