Play

Am fascinated by this word. How can we build a product so that the user feels some of the above?

Filed under: WordPlay

Reading Upside Down

Web2.0 has changed my reading habits. I read the comments first, the article later. With so many sources of information and each trying to be more authentic than the other, comments enables me to

1 Speak My Mind
* Lots of times while reading the article, a vague idea about something appears but I cant point a finger at it. Chances are people have already asked and answered the questions you had in mind while reading the post.

2 Think Ahead
* Helps deciding the credibility of the author and whether I want to read more from this author again or not.

3 Know Interesting People, Events, Relationships
* Wisdom of the crowds- know great people who give sensible comments, references to other links
* When was the last comment posted on an item (if people are still commenting on an article/post written months ago, it definitely in news and worth a dekko)

4 Makes Me Perceptive and Objective
* Gives cultural insights and viewpoints

5 Saves time
* The number of comments can show if the post is popular or not and if the post is worth a look.

Of course, in the end the judgement lies with the reader alone. What makes sense to me is the most popular for me.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Spread the Fire

Nowadays they have a record for just about anything! So now Firefox is aiming to be the “most downloaded software in a day” for their new browser. They have not decided a release date yet but you can ‘pledge’ to download it on their site. At this moment the numbers are reaching close to a million.

For me, Firefox has worked pretty well for more than 3 years now. So I’m taking the plunge pledge. Spreading this type of fire leaves no carbon footprint.

Update: The D-Day is on June18.

Update: Firefox had more than 8 million downloads yesterday. I even got a certificate from Mozilla for downloading it! Get yours!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Twitter for the Masses?

Idea: What if Gtalk (or any other messenger) saves the status messages that we display, and then put it as a list like a twitter feed?

This way ‘twitter-ing’ could reach to a wider audience rather than just geeks/nerds. This page- lets call it “xxx’s Status Page”. As you change your status or put a new status, the page would update (see image). People following you will know what you were doing and you will be motivated to update your status more often.

Initial feedback for the idea was- “Why would anyone go to check your previous statuses?”.
Valid point. My point is- whats the need for twitter, then?

The motivation for the users would be-
1 No need spending extra on sms. People with gprs on their handsets can set their status on the mobile messenger and it can reflect on the page.
2 It works on the principle of “presence” on which twitter is based.
3 Some interesting link that you want to share with everyone can be displayed on your status page for later viewing.

Note: Oops! for the bad quality wireframe shot. But I think it conveys the idea.
Twitter Related

Filed under: Ideas

Learning the Alphabet..

Warning: Tech Jargon Ahead. Lots of it!

RSS readers help me updated with what I like or what I am currently working on. I have tried to use almost all that are on the web right now. But there’s a catch. How to Know Which Feeds are Worth Keeping?

The problem with feeds is- they keep piling up. As internet throws up new information everyday, I keep finding new blogs on interesting topics and hence, new feeds. Hell, there was a time when I had 170 feeds which was highly inefficient.

RSS readers today have lots of features like bookmarking, clipping, putting it in a blog, emailing or tagging it and they’re are all fine. But they’re not intuitive.

The quest for finding those blogs that constantly supplies the best and inspiring feeds finally ended with a small bloglines feature I came to see only after a long time.

The advantages of “Keep New” over other alternatives are
1 I dont have to go to a separate page to see what i saved (like a blog, my email page)
2 There are other things that I want to do to a post other than ‘clipping’ it. Like simply reading it later. This feature helps you in exactly that.
3 All posts that you “keep new” show after the latest posts. So it keeps reminding you each time to read it.
4 When you are done reading it, then you can uncheck it and if needed, blog/clip it.

The implication of all this does not hit you directly. But when you see the feed list, you can see how many posts you have kept new for each feed. After a few weeks, I get to know if I am really getting anything worthwhile from a blog or not. The essential ones are separated.
No other reader I know does that (if it does, please let me know).

Moral for me: Features in a product are like alphabets, but only when they are placed in a particular order, they become words.
Only great products have meaning, otherwise they remain a jumble of alphabets.

Filed under: Theories