Watson, come here, I need you.

Gone Microbloggin'

Been pretty quiet around here lately.  Guess that last post was prescient.  Gone to Twitter. at least for the time being.

The five stages of Twitter Acceptance

Twitter as a business tool?

Got a question about whether Twitter could be useful in the corporate world.  On the one hand, it does seem like there are already so many channels that we don't really need another one.  But I do think the Twitter model can have business value as a corporate micro-blog.

An increasing number of businesses use blogs and RSS feeds at the personal and workgroup level to enhance communication and provide cross-pollination. But for some people -- myself included -- the open format of a blog entry means we want to make each entry perfect, so if we don't have time for a brilliant entry, we don't blog at all, or we blog in fits and starts.

Twitter's limited message length (140 characters) and fundamental question ("What are you doing?") doesn't demand much brainpower, yet it can provide interested followers with a quick sense of what's going on for you.

On one of Jerry Michalski's YiTan calls last May, there was a great discussion of Twitter and Dopplr. I'll check to see if the call has been posted on line yet and provide a link if it is. In the meantime, the first link below is an interesting take by Grant McCracken on the value of what he calls Twitter's "phatic" communication. The second is a link to somebody who seems to find Twitter useful for the business of politics.

http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2007/07/how-social-netw.html#
http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Joe Kraus Stays Smart: JotSpot acquired by Google

I've written about JotSpot before, and have been watching it grow with delight.  Jot is different from simple wikis and blog creation tools, in that it can keep the actual structure for the pages within the page itself, and can therefore allow a kind of meta-editing of content format, lookups, linking to other systems and web services, etc.  It's a tool that lets you start simple, and do more as you learn more. 

Joe told me once that he wanted to be to the web what Excel was to the PC -- a platform and application enabler with an easy learning curve but a rich feature set behind the scenes so applications could evolve.  Especially important was that you didn't need to consult a web developer to develop a web app, so you wouldn't be beholden to a specialist. 

For the last year, it's seemed like Google has been incorporating more and more Jot-like features -- especially with Google Page Creator, which feels very wiki-like, and Google Spreadsheets, which allow simultaneous editing of the same sheet by multiple users. 

Today's announcements here and here create a perfect blend, which I'd expect would add top flight infrastructure, and search and Ajax expertise to the visionary crew at JotSpot.  And it looks like the product will be free, which is always nice.

Can't wait to see what's next.

This is why I need broadband in the car: Presenting GNav!

At the risk of sounding like an "all things google" blog...  This is marvelous.  Apparently Google is working with Volkswagen's Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto to make what looks like a Google Earth / Google Maps / Yahoo Traffic / Weather Channel / in-car navigation mashup.   

The three-dimensional, photorealistic display of the surrounding area would make intuitive orientation easier for the driver and passengers.   Imagine a Google Earth style flyover of your route from within the car.  Net-linked cars could also do things like this:

• Self-report average velocity, giving *very* accurate reads on real-time traffic.  No need to rely on the limited number of traffic sensors currently in use.  Imagine if I knew the median speed of the last 20 cars going from my neighborhood to my work...
• Overlay the map with speed limits (so I'd know the limit for my area and could slow for the upcoming school zone)
• Overlay the map with known contruction zones, accidents, speed traps, red-light cameras
• Allow a google-style search of points of interest (POIs).  My current nav system forces me to browse a hierarchy (Restaurants, All Types, By Keyword, By Distance to Location) before I enter the name.  That's so Yahoo 1998.  With a google search, I could just type "Jackie's" and it would use page rank with my location and history to know I probably meant the nearby restaurant.
• Color code my POIs by whether they're open or not.  Show their phone number and automatically dial it from a bluetooth phone.

Throw in an API to let me create my own map overlays, and I'm one happy camper. 

I suppose there's no real need for this to be confined to a vehicle; the same tech could find its way onto cell phones or Origami devices.  But I am looking forward to the increased convenience.  If we're gonna live like we do, packed into cities, why not at least optimize the experience?

Impressed with Google Page Creator

Here's a sample site, sans content, thrown together in exactly ten minutes with Google Page Creator.

That's not bad considering I didn't even bother changing the default template.  The drag and drop features are nice as well, and I have to give Google kudos for simplicity and ease of use. 

Interested?  They seem to have turned free registration back on: try it here.

Google Page Creator: The inside brrreeport

Google has finally released their "Google Pages" -- basically a web-based WYSIWYG interface to page designing that will be perfectly familiar to Typepad or HTMLarea users.   They opened it yesterday, and promptly closed it again; whether that was due to server overload from Digg and Slashdot or just to create buzz is unclear.

The look of the finished product isn't that great yet.  http://cubrilovic.googlepages.com/ and http://bennych.googlepages.com/ and http://ignazio.googlepages.com/ and http://toprank.googlepages.com/home have some examples.  And I'm not sure how I feel about having the prefix of my site be my gmail address... won't that invite spammers?

No structure yet for the data, but I would expect some mashup with Google Base to include options for structured detail, in case all these new web designers want to create pages for their sites.  Several bloggers think Google will pull together a suite of tools for the average business that includes Adwords, Google Local, Froogle, and e-pay.  And maybe Maps.

Say, wouldn't it be interesting if behind the scenes, the whole thing is being done in Google Base?

Superhydrophobicity - coming to a ketchup bottle near you...

Superhydrophobicity.

Hooollly Cooowww! Somebody just registered brrreeeport.com!

Want to see how fast a new meme propagates?   Somebody just registered brrreeeport.com on Godaddy -- and they hid their details.  Not only that -- bar code scanner company MICROSCAN Systems even has brrreeeport as a key word on Google Adwords.  That's right, type brrreeeport into Google, and you see their ad on the right.

Quick: Register brrreeeport.org and brrreeeport.net before they're taken!!

The Blog search engine brrreeeport

Robert Scoble asks for participants to add the word "brrreeeport" to their blogs to see how long it takes till the term gets picked up by Google's Blog Search, IceRocket, Feedster, and Technorati.  He didn't mention Yahoo's blog search.

It's not really a controlled experiment, because people are adding articles all the time, and it may be the luck of the draw whether or not your blog update hits before a refresh.  Still, an interesting experiement.

Current scores: Google's blog search 87, IceRocket 24, Feedster none, Technorati 73, and Yahoo Blog search 9.

Goodbye Wonka Crack! Chantico off the menu

Every once in a while I get a chocolate jones, and head down to Starbucks for a liquid candy bar called Chantico.  It's a high-cal, high-fat chocolate drink that's only available in a 6 ounce size. 

Today was one of those days, but when I got down there, the barista said: "they're off the menu."  "What?  Just at your store, or globally?"  "Everywhere."

Granted, some people didn't like it.  "Chocolate lard in a cup," I'd heard it called.  And I'd always detected a slight reluctance of the baristas to make one.  But it was nice to get once in a while when my theobromine levels were low. 

So now I have to find an alternative.  There's a recipe here which looks promising, but then I'd have to make it myself.  Supposedly they'll come out with some new chocolate drinks in February.  Will have to stock up on Nibby Bars to tie me over.