Your Location Is Lame!

There is an ever growing popularity in location-based social networking sites like Brightkite, Foursquare, and Gowalla that allow users to tell their friends where they are. Twitter has even joined in on the fun and added geolocation, and there was an announcement today that Facebook would be unveiling location features next month.

These services can be useful for a variety of reasons such as sharing a bad experience at a local business or posting a photo of a beautifully plated entree at a nice restaurant. However, in my opinion, it seems what was a well intended means of dispensing useful information attached to a specific location has made a turn for the worse. The quality of content created has decreased as the popularity of location-based sites increases. Not to mention, most users sync their check-ins on Twitter and Facebook for an endless loop of annoyance.

Here is my list of the 3 most annoying people using location services:

1. Mayor Of Lame Locations. This type of user has no business using location services as they never go anywhere cool. They repetitively check into places like the gym everyday. You stick to your workout regimen, and while I commend you for it, I don't care when and where you work out. Other lame locations include fast food restaurants and the dentist office. Just stop abusing location services and your friends with your lameness.

2. Check-in Whore. This is the person who goes to a place for only 5 minutes just so he or she can tell the world they where there and then moves on to the next place so they can check in there too. They may also travel just so they can check-in at new locations trying to prove to the world how exciting their life is. Well guess what, it's not exciting; it's annoying. Thanks for flooding my Twitter homepage & Facebook news feed with dozens of locations a day and not inviting me to any of them.

3. TMI Locations. No location is too sacred for these users to keep private. They have no regard for the safety of themselves or their family. They have no issues posting their home address or the exact location of the elementary school they just checked into to post they were dropping their son or daughter off. Are you crazy? Please, use a little common sense and think before broadcasting your location to the world.

As more and more social networks jump on the location-based bandwagon, I'm curious what direction users will take it. Will something useful develop from the content or is location check-ins just going to be another thing I block in my Facebook news feed?

UPDATE: Poll Results 3/9/10 - 3/16/10

Does it annoy you when friends sync location-based sites to Twitter & Facebook?
25% Yes
25% No
50% Meh

Do You Use Your Real Name Online?

Recently I've been debating over using my real name over a pseudonym on social networks and my blogs. I see a 50/50 split between people who do one or the other. When I Google around on this subject, privacy, stalking, and hurting your chances of getting employment are reasons sited for not using your real name online. Advantages for displaying your full name include branding yourself and helping others relate to you on a more personal level.

I also have a family to look out for, and I wouldn't want to put them at risk just because I put too much information on the web, but I'm not sure something as simple as a name can put me or my family in danger. I feel we are more likely to run into bad guys in real life than dealing with some cyber stalker.

At first, I was uncomfortable with entering my full name on social networks because I didn't want anything to show up in Google search results if someone Googled my name, but I found out I can't hide from people who want to know information about me. For under $40 you can get all the dirt on anyone through various sites, and I was surprised just how much information was available for free, including: my age, my maiden name, people I'm related too, current city and past cities I've lived in including the zip codes. All of which could set me up for identity theft easier than anything I've ever posted on Twitter.

My conclusion: If I'm going to be part of the social world wide web, I might as well use my real name and make sure I maintain a positive value attached to that name. If someone Googles me, they can see all the greatness I have contributed through quality tweets such as:

@digitalAngel I could go for sushi or a bologna sandwich.

I'm curious, do you use your real name online or a pseudonym? Do you believe there are any implications of publicly displaying your full name, and if so, what are they?

UPDATE: Poll Results 2/23/10 - 3/2/10

What is your online name comfort level?
42% Full name
00% First name only
00% Pseudonym
57% Depends on the site

Updates Via Facebook iPhone App May Not Be Private.

As social networking gains in popularity so does concerns about privacy. One of the most widely adopted sites, Facebook, offers a lot of customization when it comes to who sees what on a member's profile. Recently, Facebook gave users the option to open up their profiles and allow any section to be visible by everyone on internet. They also added a publisher control so users could modify who is able and not able to see content published on their profiles.

On my Facebook profile, everything was set to either "Friends of Friends" or "Only Friends" except anything that had to do with promoting my blog. The website was visible by everyone who visited my profile as well as any announcements about new blog entries. My default publisher control setting was set to "Only Friends" and I selectively choose when something was supposed to be publicly available. Personal status updates that had nothing to do with my site had a tiny lock icon under the post indicating only friends were allowed to see it.

After I upgraded to the Facebook 3.0 iPhone app, I noticed that status updates via the app did not have the tiny lock under the post. At first, I figured these updates would follow my default publisher control setting and would only be viewable by friends. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I created a dummy account to see what my Facebook profile looked like to non-friends. To my surprise, every update made via the iPhone app was visible on my wall and did not follow my privacy settings. Since there are no privacy controls on the Facebook iPhone app, the most logical thing would be for any update to follow the default publisher control setting unless given the option to choose otherwise.

After my discovery, I felt my only option was to lock down my Facebook profile and make all my status updates visible by only friends until Facebook allows me to have more control over who sees posts made via my iPhone. I conclude with a word of caution for those using the Facebook iPhone app: If your profile privacy is set to "Everyone" yet you want to selectively control which updates are visible on your wall by non-friends, just keep in mind any updates made on the iPhone offer no privacy control and are all public.

UPDATE: 9/8/09 - According to TechCrunch, Facebook has resolved this bug with a server-side fix, although I have not tested it myself. The article also addresses other privacy bugs on the Facebook iPhone app.

UPDATE: Poll Results 9/2/09 - 9/9/09

How open is your Facebook profile?
00% Open to everyone
40% Visible to friends only
60% Customized privacy
00% I don't use Facebook

Social Networking Or Social Notworking?

Recently, there has been lot of coverage about a study by the University of Melbourne that states the casual usage of sites like Twitter and Facebook increases productivity at work. The study shows that short breaks allow the mind to rest and thus increase the total concentrate on the days' assignments. While this study makes me feel better about all the times my boss has caught me online, I'm curious what has happened to old fashioned water cooler talk at work?

Would we rather spend our escape from the daily grind catching up on tweets or playing a quick round of Mob Wars instead of having a little face to face conversation with the people we spend 8 hours a day with?

Personally, I enjoy chatting it up with coworkers, but in the age of the iPod, it's hard to find anyone who isn't pumping music into their ear at a ridiculous volume and virtually unable to hear the phone on their desk ring much less engage in idle conversation. Therefor, I get my mental break online as do a lot of employees who have a computer and Internet access. This raises another question: What will become of our social skills? Do we lose the ability to strike up conversation without being in front of a screen? Are we more or less social when our main form of communication with our friends is Facebook?

One factor may be more people these days are keeping their personal and business lives separate and not thinking of the workplace as a setting for making new friends. As I do, more people are eating their lunches at their desks and avoiding the break room in order to do personal browsing. While all this social networking may be good for productivity, is it the best thing for us?

UPDATE: Poll Results 4/6/09 - 4/13/09

Do you feel social networking makes you more productive at work?
55% Yes, it helps
11% No, it interferes with work
33% My job restricts sites
00% Meh

How does social networking affect our ability to communicate in real life?
11% Has no effect
22% People are more social
22% People are less social
44% Meh

Facebook's Facelift.

Now that Facebook has switched everyone's profiles over to the new interface, I'm curious how everyone feels about the changes.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, Facebook has implemented these changes to compete with the micro-blogging site Twitter. As a huge fan of Twitter, I see the changes to Facebook as a mild improvement but it's not going to make me dump Twitter and start using Facebook exclusively. Also, I have not heard many positive things from my friends on Facebook. It seems a lot of them are not too happy with these changes, as well as the chatter around the social networking circles has been predominately negative.

As far as I see it, Facebook is competing against a social networking site that most of their members don't care about, otherwise they would already be using sites like Twitter. I think both Facebook and Twitter serve a purpose and meet the needs of different breeds of social networking folks. For instance, Facebook members sign up mostly to keep in touch with close friends and family and find old classmates.

People on Twitter will continue to use Twitter because of what it is, and I highly doubt anyone will start using Facebook more because of these changes. Maybe Facebook should stick to what it's good at and not make such drastic changes that it upsets members who are there to just to communicate with their friends and family.

EDIT: 3/19/09

I'm actually taking back my statement that the changes to Facebook are an improvement. If the only items that showed up in the News Feed were status updates and maybe links, it would be fine. However, I do not care about who gave who a virtual hug or a virtual drink. There is no need to fill my News Feed with every little thing friends do in apps that I have ignored and do not use. I even tried blocking some apps but even that doesn't stop the flood of insignificant posts.

I'm giving Facebook a big FAIL in their attempt to win the social networking war. If you want to find me, I'll be on Twitter!

UPDATE: Poll Results 3/18/09 - 3/35/09

Do you like the new changes to Facebook?
00% Yes, it's an improvement
25% No, but I'll get used to it
25% No, change it back
50% Meh

Why Facebook Can't Compete With Twitter.

Today, Facebook held a press conference to discuss new products and changes to the social networking site. One of the items addressed at the press conference was how Facebook was going to compete with the growing popularity of Twitter. For those unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send and receive updates that are 140 character or less. As a huge fan of Twitter, I commend Facebook for trying but good luck competing with Twitter.

Even after reading about the changes Facebook is implementing, I don't think the site's developers get the reason why people like Twitter. It's all about simplicity. People are busy and need a quick way to create an account and start using a site. This is exactly what Twitter offers. New members create an user name and password and they're ready to roll. The only information Twitter asks for is an email address, and the only profile information Twitter asks for is optional and includes: name, location, website, and a short bio. This makes users more comfortable connecting with friends as well as new people beyond their circle of friends.

Facebook is much more complex and has tons of information it asks for in order to connect members with people. Which is fine for connecting only with people they know, but because of all the information on members' profiles on Facebook, many of them will continue to keep their profiles more closed. Then, once members find all their friends on a site like Facebook, the new wears off and they eventually move on to the next new social networking flavor of the month.

The beauty in Twitter's design is it creates a simple way to keep up with friends, meet new interesting people, and follow news stories as they happen all on one page. Although Facebook's new interface looks like a move in the right direction, I don't feel it can compete with Twitter.

Facebook has a banner up on their site saying "Changes to the Home page are coming soon" with a link to preview what the new home page will look like. I'm curious how other Facebook users feel about these changes. And if anyone uses Twitter as well, how does Facebook compare with Twitter? Please share your thoughts.

UPDATE: Poll Results 3/4/09 - 3/11/09

Do you like the new changes to Facebook?
25% Yes
00% No
75% Meh

What is your favorite social networking site?
25% Twitter
37% Facebook
00% Myspace
37% Brightkite
00% Other
00% Meh

Safety & Location-Based Social Networking Sites

I recently signed up for a BrightKite account. For those unfamiliar with BrightKite, it's a location-based social networking site that allows users to see where their friends are in real time, and users also have the opportunity to meet new people that are nearby. Users "check-in" to post their current location to BrightKite. This can be an exact location such as an address or name of a restaurant, store, etc., or the location can be more obscure such as just a city and state depending on how the user feels about privacy. There is also a toggle switch to flip back and forth between public and private modes. After checking-in, the user can post photos or notes associated with that location for others to see.

I use the BrightKite app on my iPhone, and the iPhone's location-based services makes checking-in a snap. I've only been using BrightKite for about a month now. Mostly, I keep my location set to my city and state unless I go out to eat or shopping and have something interesting to post. Today, I've been playing around in BrightKite to set placemarks and set privacy settings for each location to get more use out of the service. I start with the two places I'm at the most: home and work. Setting these two locations to private was a no brainer for me personally. Whatever others feel about giving out their home and work addresses online is their business, but I like to keep them private except to a very select group of trusted friends. Then, I turn my attention to other places I take my son to regularly like the park. I debate over whether the park should be public or private when I check-in there. I think, maybe there might be another cool mom there, BrightKite would alert us, and I might make a new friend. But then I feared, publicly giving out the location I was at with my son might lead to some creep stalking us. Risking my son's safety is something I'm not willing to do, so I set the park to private.

Location-based social networking is a very cool thing, but I think a certain amount of caution has to be used. I know BrightKite is just one of the many sites taking on this new frontier, and they have a fastly growing popularity. So, I'm curious who else fancies location-based social networking and who is opposed? What privacy settings do you feel most comfortable with? Any success stories meeting cool new people? Or just stalkers? Please share your stories.

UPDATE: Poll Results 11/18/08 - 11/25/08

Do you use any location-based social networking sites?
66% Yes
00% No
00% Thinking about it
34% Meh