the webthinking blog

I know, I’ve been missing in action for a while, business school keeps me busy. Anyhow, this can be an interesting case study: how can Google not get the social factor? Why would Google force me to change their own signature white homepage? Why shifting their core values?

Remember the mishap around Buzz? It’s been a few months since then. You’d think someone will learn something after all that buzz. As I was saying, this can be an interesting case study. According to Marissa’a post, the answer to the above question is “…art, the art of a homepage”. Noble idea to support the artists and their work, wrong strategy. And wrong execution. White page got “binged“.

The blog post reads “Due to a bug, the explanatory link did not appear for most users.” You’d think Google spent quite a bit of effort and money on this experiment. And all went wrong because of one single link ? Google cannot get one single link right on the homepage?

One thing is certain: Google is far from getting social. Even more, it makes you wonder what’s next? Your Gmail or your whole search history go public? Too bad.

Here’s my version of the homepage art. Back to my real case study.

I had the privilege of attending a business breakfast this week. The speaker? Patrick Pichette, Chief Financial Officer of Google.

What an amazing way to start a new day! I have summarized a few soundbites worth sharing:

• There are two types of economies: a regular one and a digital one.
• Facebook accounts for 5 per cent of all Internet traffic.
• Everything that was offline, will be online.
• Everything will be localized to you.
• Search is be personal. The focus is you. See my previous post - right on!
• If everything is in the cloud, Chrome OS should be fast. Not more going down for coffee until the computer reboots.
• Innovation is dirt cheap!
• The only bottleneck is …imagination!

A mind-blowing reality: Google has the power to change the world through innovation. That’s the power to Think Infinite.

A recent search [#pcto2010] revealed something new to me: Google quietly released a new search feature – S2 or Social Search. All of a sudden “search” becomes more centric, it feels like typing on a round keyboard. Yes, there is such a thing, but I prefer my qwerty keyboard.

The first two coordinates of this circle are me and …myself! It may be the BETA feature.

A few people have asked me what do I think about Google Buzz? Not much! For now, there seems to be more noise than buzz. Certainly Buzz does not have Twitter’s critical mass to make it valuable at this point.

In the long run, yes, it might steal some of Twitter’s chirp, however I see Buzz more of a Gmail add-on. And Gmail does not own the webmail space.

And chances are you’ll be busy emailing your friends on Facebook soon.

So think about this: if Buzz does not make it above a certain noise level, Google’s social credibility is gone. And that might just kill Wave too.

Brilliant strategy, Goog!
Happy tweeting my friends!

What do social media and economics have in common? Turns out all social network leaders got together in one room for a powerhouse panel in Davos to discuss how social software is changing society.

I have summarized a few sound bites from this session that went on for almost two hours.

George Colony, Forrester Research, on customers interactions:

• 1% of consumers consult a corporate blog
• 8% of consumers follow or fan companies

How will “social” change leadership? It creates an obligation to listen. You should be good, because in the future everyone will know about you.

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn, on social networking themes:

• How do you get robust connections between people?
• How do you get transparency of information?
• How to think about web 2.0? What happens when every person has an online identity and is a participant?

Owen Van Natta, MySpace:

• Distribution of content is happening much more through people, as opposed to a limited number of portals

Gina Bianchini, Ning:

• In 2009 people spent three times the amount of time on social sites than they had in the prior year

Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics:

• Young people are giving away their personal information too much
• Thousands of people will not get their dream job this year because their employer did the reference check on Facebook

Evan Williams, Twitter: Twitter is looking to do three things:

• filtering and discovering engine
• generating of content and having influence over others
• building relationships of all types

Tim Berners-Lee:

• We need to study web as a scientific discipline, we need people to study social networks
• It is fascinating how a meme spreads across Twitter.

…it is, indeed. Here’s the full session on YouTube:

This year I have the privilege of being one of the PodCamp Toronto 2010 co-organizers. Being a PodCamp junkie since 2007 I was more than happy to help! My role as a member of the web team? Making sure we have a brand new, shiny web site under the new domain name – podcamptoronto.com, that is.

Let me tell ya – working together with talented folks like Daniele Rossi, John Leschinski and Tommy Vallier has been an exciting, “open-source” experience!

Go check out the PodCamp Toronto 2010 site! Subscribe to our feed or grab the podcast.

I am looking forward to seeing you there on February 20 and 21. It will be fun! If you are new to PodCamp Toronto, here is the elevator pitch:

PodCamp Toronto 2010 is a FREE “unconference” bringing together professionals and hobbyists from Toronto and the surrounding area to explore the cutting edge of new and social media. If you are an online content creator – hobbist and professionals – who are building communities online in a variety of ways, then PodCamp Toronto 2010 is for you. Share ideas, discuss theories and learn lessons from an audience of experts. Network, network, network. All are welcome. Join us!

The official hash tag is #pcto2010

So I spot this advertisement today, on the subway. Wait a minute, that’s a strange place to spot a “TinyURL.com“! If you are not familiar with the concept, you can create, short memorable (or not) URLs, using a third party free service. All good, but how much would you trust such a service, in order to count on a URL you have no control over? Of all URL shortening services, TinyURL was ditched by Twitter a while ago.

Funny story: JobConnect is a government funded program offered by St. Stephen Community House. I have met some of the folks over at SSCH on my third day after moving to Canada, many years ago. Lots of good memories. Phillip my friend, where are you now?

Possible advice: pay attention to domain names, it’s not a joke. If you really need such a shortcut URL, it’s not too late to own one. Be creative. Here’s my own example which, of course, I love it: urllr.com/goog

Oh wow, it is definitely worth spending an hour and twenty minutes now to see how Google Wave will change the web, the way we think of it and use it. It also explains why GOOG did not buy Twitter or Facebook. They need the critical mass to embrace this new way of thinking.