Posts Tagged ‘jaiku’

Facebook FTW?

// January 7th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // communication, Social Networks

When Facebook first came available for my college, it was a day to celebrate. Hours were wasted pruning my profile and scouring that of others. Since then (nearly 5 years, which is crazy), Facebook has added various features and capabilities, but never really grew past a way to waste time – until recently.

I don’t remember when, but Facebook now supports comments on my status updates. That means anyone that I’m friends with on Facebook can see, and interact with me there. Like on Jaiku. I’ve been using Ping.FM to update Jaiku, Facebook, and Twitter all at the same time, as somewhat of an experiment. I’ve found that, at least to a small extent, I get a new set of voices, and nearly as much interaction on Facebook as I do on Jaiku. I get nothing on Twitter, which doesn’t really surprise me at all. Whereas the vast majority of my online friends are on (and were made on) Jaiku, more of my real-life friends are on Facebook, and they’re joined there by most of my Jaiku friends.

Next up was Facebook Chat. This is by far the best feature of the service, really. Especially since I use Digsby to login on my PC, without having to have Facebook open. I have the chance to chat with people from all over the place, regardless of what IM client they normally use. There’s no hassle with screennames, buddy lists, or anything else. It’s just so easy, I’ve chatted with my parents, long lost friends, and family members on there.

I’m finding myself spending more and more time on Facebook, as a result. I’m still on Jaiku in a big way, and likely still will be for a long while. It’s a good source of news for me, and there are some stubborn friends on there who just won’t embrace Facebook. Also, compared to Jaiku, Facebook doesn’t have ‘downtime’, nor has it stopped growing. With photos, Facebook easily replaces Flickr or Share on Ovi as an online photo dump, too.

It feels to me like Facebook is somewhat of an underdog, quietly sneaking in and replacing my favorite services with promise of an integrated, never-down option. And I like it. My only complaint about Facebook is that they seem to be content merely offering an m.dot site, rather than mobile clients for the various platforms. Of course, that’s a bit of a biased view, since I only use S60-powered smartphones, but it’s still a factor.

Introducing Rejaw, Another Micro-blogging Service

// August 15th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // blogging, cool, Social Networks

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Ricky, dude, I’m already on Twitter/FriendFeed/Jaiku/whateverelse, why on *earth* would I want another one?” To be honest, it’s a great question. I’ve recently discovered Rejaw, and despite some initial skepticism (and a few notably lacking features), I’m really rather impressed overall. Here’s why…

First up, what is Rejaw? From their site: “Rejaw is a new way to communicate in real-time with friends, family, and co-workers. You can shout messages to your followers, or whisper to your friends. Monologue or dialogue, micro-blog or status update, soliloquy or dialectic – how you use Rejaw is up to you.”

So basically it’s a microblogging service without the feeds. It also has chat built-in, so that when you’re viewing a thread, if someone adds to it, that’s updated in real-time. This works *really* well, and is one of my favorite features already. There’s also a really great feature that automatically embeds any photo/video/music that you link to. Very slick.

Rejaw is obviously still pretty young, and as such, unfortunately, there’s only the website and an official Mac client. There is also a Firefox plugin, which should allow Linux and Windows users to get in on the fun, but it really only alerts you to new shouts/whispers, and doesn’t offer any additional functionality. Development is in place for a mobile-friendly version, as well, though not sure if that’s to be a client or simply mobile-friendly website.

You can check out more coverage at ReadWriteWeb and ArsTechnica, too.

Obviously I’m pretty firmly embedded in Jaiku, and have a great community built there, but it’s no secret that development seems to be at a complete standstill since the Google buy-out. If things keep moving along at Rejaw, you just may find me over there more.

Props To Apple’s MobileMe Team

// July 28th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // blogging, cool, Social Networks

Yeah, I know, you can’t believe I just said that, what with the issues that caused even Walt Mossberg to denounce the service as not ready. That’s not why I’m offering props (similar to kudos, or good job, for those wondering) to Apple’s MobileMe team. This post on the Apple MobileMe pages is why.

The post opens with this: “Steve Jobs has asked me to write a posting every other day or so to let everyone know what’s happening with MobileMe, and I’m working directly with the MobileMe group to ensure that we keep you really up to date.” Completely brilliant. Here’s the important things to pull from just that one statement:

1. Steve Jobs is aware of, and concerned about the MobileMe issues
2. Steve Jobs realizes that customers need to be informed, especially paying ones
3. Steve Jobs has tasked someone specific with keeping close tabs on the team

Wow, what if every company did this? My first thought is how different this approach is from Jaiku, my personal favorite microblogging/lifestream aggregating service. Since being purchased by Google, the service has experienced several announced and unannounced downtimes, API issues, and other stability issues. They’ve also posted on their blog 3 times, with one of those only serving to counter the numerous blogs pronouncing the death of the service.

Even the latest Jaiku downtime was announced via…a Jaiku, in a specific ‘channel’. Nothing on the official service blog, and nothing much in terms of conversation beyond the one post.

I wish more companies would take their customers into account, specifically where services are concerned, and at the very least, just keep us informed. A weekly post saying ‘Hey, we’re working on this, and getting closer’ or ‘We had some unforeseen issues arise, but we’re stomping them out one-by-one’ would make a WORLD of difference, I think.

How are you communicating with your customers?

JaikuInvites.com Invites You To Share

// March 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Social Networks

JaikuInvites.comI’m an avid user of Jaiku, and since they were purchased by Google a while back, it’s been an invite only service, sadly. The biggest problem with this is that we ‘old-timers’ have invites, but there’s no way for people who’re interested in the service to snag an invite, other than signing up and waiting for Jaiku.

Enter JaikuInvites.com, where current Jaikunauts (as we’re sometimes called) can log their email address and the number of invites they currently have available. Potential users can also log their email, and the system will match the two up. It’s a great way to share the wealth, and to get involved.

If you’re already a Jaikunaut, you can find out how many shares you have by clicking here (must be signed in to Jaiku). It will say how many invites you have available, and you then log in over at JaikuInvites.com with however many of those you’d like to share.

Easy peasy.