Thursday - Dec 22, 2011
With Yuletide songs, Christmas cheer,
and Auld Lang Syne whispering at our ear,
traditional holidays wave goodbye,
as the Internet becomes their new ally.
But how has the Internet
changed all that we know?
Does holiday celebration
now have a new beau?
Sit right back
and read what I say,
as for better or for worse
things are different today!
1. Organize holiday events using self-organization and social media tools found online.
Online social tools like Meetup.com and Facebook.com have made it easier than ever to make plans for holiday celebrations like Southeast Asia’s Water Festival or New Zealand’s Waitangi Day. Letters and phone calls may have once been the norm’, but now Internet-connected people can schedule events and invite people with only a few clicks of the mouse. St. Patrick’s Day party? Labor Day camping? Send off a digital invite in advance and get a better idea of who’s attending.
Truth be told, a phone call to family to organize a holiday event will always be in style. Just don’t be surprised if that phone call takes place over the Internet.
2. Feel a little closer to loved ones far away by streaming video from your web camera or placing Internet-streamed video calls.
It happens all the time: a life experience takes a loved one far away from friends and family. For those used to spending time with loved ones on holidays, the distance can be difficult to deal with. A phone call was as close as one could get. But with advances in how bandwidth-hogging media is transported over the Internet, making a video call or streaming live webcam footage online is now all the rage. Making video calls is easier than ever these days, making long-distance communication more intimate and engaging, and holidays a little bit brighter for many.
3. Book travel and accommodations to see family and friends during holiday celebrations from an Internet-connected device.
Say you want to fly from Paris to Baltimore to see your family for Christmas, but you also want the comfort of a dockside hotel. It used to mean talking to a travel agent or placing phone calls to make bookings. Today things are quite different. Whether you’re at a café or at home, as long as there’s an Internet connection you can go online to compare hotel rates, book plane tickets, and — for those who want to skip out on dirtying the kitchen — reserve a table at a restaurant. With this new technology has come fierce competition in the travel industry, in many cases driving down prices for travelers going home for the holidays.
4. Buy holiday gifts online, saving time and hassles in the process.
Searching for the perfect Boxing Day gift? Sending flowers to your beau on Valentine’s Day? People are increasingly turning to the Internet to accomplish these tasks and more. Earlier this month I mentioned that online holiday spending is seeing big gains this year. It won’t be surprising to see that trend continue, even beyond the hectic end-of-year holidays that so heavily involve buying gifts for loved ones. With a wealth of low-cost shipping options and online price comparison tools like Google Shopping, it’s little surprise to see the process of gift shopping go online. Even something as traditional as a Parents’ Day card is occasionally being replaced by an online interactive greeting card. One has to wonder, though, if such a digitalization threatens to remove the intimacy of the act.
5. Notice how the holidays seem more commercialized than ever with the advent of the Internet age.
While I’m not offering any hard facts to back up this assertion, it sure seems like the Internet is just another extension of an already increasingly commercialized take on official holidays. With the Internet, a plethora of advertisements and purchasable products is at our fingertips. Sadly, now we can’t even escape our own homes without being assaulted by online ads that beckon us to buy flowers for our Valentine or order that hip Charlie Sheen Halloween mask. Now we even have online shopping days like Cyber Monday set aside for us with the intent to get us to buy more gifts (and personal items) before Christmas. Next I’m sure we’ll be seeing “official” corporate sponsors for holidays worldwide. Joy to the world.
Photo via The Sean & Lauren Spectacular, Flickr Creative Commons
Monday - Jul 11, 2011
I would say this is a paradox. (A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion; an assertion or sentiment seemingly contradictory, or opposed to common sense; that which in appearance or terms is absurd, but yet may be true in fact.) Hmm..many of you would surely agree with me on the ‘kind of paradox’ that I am talking about. Well this is about the new social forum Google+ and its ubiquitous features!
Hmm..again! Newspapers in India have been guarded with the way they would like to view Google’s foray ‘again’ into the social networking scene. This isn’t surprising given the psyche of the Indian media. They dither, they drool, they hedge but are never firm on their views. Why is it so scary for them to call a spade a spade I am not sure. But then some say it’s too early to call a spade a spade! It’s been just two weeks that Google+ launched flamboyantly its new features, challenging the other social networking site Facebook! Facebook responded by hurriedly making changes to many of its features and applications overnight.
Now what can you say of a giant taking on the Goliath! Google has been on the IT map for over 16 years and has entrenched its roots deep into the psyche of every being associated with the internet. A giant that leaped into the social networking scene with hopes of cashing in on the vast number of people resources and their ideas that Facebook has. It did so in the past with the launching of ‘Picasa ultimatum’ that wasn’t as successful as it disappointed its users who didn’t want to share their photos, hence stopped them from signing up. Facebook has not put such stoppers at all. In fact it has agreed to play to the hilt offering its users to change their privacy settings anytime and every time they felt the need to do so.
Mark Zuckerberg’s strategy to outwit the giant the moment it made its intentions clear drew a sigh of admirable gasps from its users. I leapt with joy the moment I saw the posting on my wall that I could now view, chat and speak to my friends for free just as we do in Skype! This sent a clear signal to Google that Mark was inching closer to its arch rival Microsoft by settling for a Facebook Skype tie-up. Some say that Mark’s trying to play the role of king maker between the two, but as users what could be more exciting than be loaded with free gifts as a result of the fight.
Some say Facebook can never be what Microsoft or Google really is. I say does it matter? In this world of dog-eat-dog, big businesses need to depend on the smaller ones to reign supreme. We all know that Google gets its revenue through Adsense while Microsoft through its software and Google have reigned supreme as an advertising mogul but Facebook has shown its mettle by opening its pages for a far superior platform of advertising. Reason for this is the profiling of its users. Facebook has taken the masses by storm.
In reality it is Google that needs the services of Facebook or come up with an equally powerful social networking platform that can attract the advertisers through its own version of ‘profiling’. Can it do that? Will Google stand up to the pressures of the wily Facebook? Only time can tell. But Google is aware that Facebook lacks the enterprise appeal, as it has no software or utility value as such. It is now a wait, watch and reap time for us users while the giants battle it out.
Monday - Jul 4, 2011
The moment I logged in to check my mail I was surprised to find messages from one of my friends with the Google logo on it. Google+??? Huh…Pinged him to discover that Google has finally jumped onto the social network bandwagon called the Google+ project.
On Tuesday, Google launched its restricted access of its new social networking site called Google+ pronounced Google plus. But by Wednesday night Google turned off the new signing up as it could not handle the huge inflow of users, who realized they could send unlimited number of invitations to other people by email. Suddenly there seemed to be an insane demand of users who had bombarded their contacts on Twitter and Facebook to sign them up.
I guess Google couldn’t resist but take a share of the huge social network pie that has supposedly made Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook a household name the world over. Mark has supposedly made a fortune that is estimated to be a whopping $13.5 billion!
Though the service is similar to that of Facebook, Google+ aims to make provisions to users who can share photos, links and updates to only a small section of friends and not an entire social network as in Facebook.
As I was updated about this service by my friend, my mind recoiled from the thought of, ‘another forum’? ‘Another round of checking status updates, notifications, messages?’ Oh no, not another one.
It is true we get to contact many of our friends and contacts through a site that allows us to post innumerable photos, links and other things that wouldn’t have been possible physically when people meet. But, where is the time for another social network? How do I make provisions in the limited time that I am left with on a daily basis to check into another social networking site? I started to reason that Google+ wouldn’t be able to catch on like its ally Facebook did. In fact I was wishing it wouldn’t.
I felt Google’s bitten more than it can chew. Can it hold the Facebook bull by its horns and steer it away and capture its place? Will it be able to carry it off with aplomb like Mark has done allowing people from everywhere to get in touch with anyone!
The difference between Facebook and Google+
Google+ is intended to be shared only with smaller, closely aligned sets of people unlike Facebook where anything and everything can be freely posted. The marked difference between the two being unlike Facebook where friendship rests on being two-way, in Google+ users create groups of other users or ‘Circles’ as it is termed in Google lingo.
The ‘Circle’ of friends in the group ares in no way connected to one another and one needn’t necessarily communicate with the other just because he/she is in that group and if needed a member in the group can also be ignored without his knowing. The ‘Circle’ is only for the convenience of the person who has initiated it so that he can share things with the rest of them or view their updates, as a group.
When sharing things on your wall, that resembles that of Facebook, Google+ initiates you to choose carefully the circle and groups that you would like to share the information with. This way one needn’t go through the arduous task of fine-tuning your customization settings, as it needs to be done in Facebook, in order to ensure who does or doesn’t view the postings.
In Facebook messages and notifications are generally reflected in the user’s mail box whereas in Google+ it uses the member’s email accounts that needn’t necessarily be the Gmail system. This ensures you aren’t saddled with another inbox. Also you can reply to those messages without having to log into Google+.
Besides these Google+ also has the following features:
- ‘Sparks’ a searchable news feed wherein one can share news within the circles or the groups.
- One can display ones personal interests without the same being visible to anyone in your Group or Circle.
- Hangouts are video chats that can happen between 10 people only.
- One can create ‘Huddle’ a group SMS chat within members whose mobile numbers are available.
As the forum is still in its beta stage, work is still in progress with loads of room for changes and improvement.
After all this my mind still reels with doubts and the foremost one being can I take to this forum as the hangover from the previous one persists?
For more information on Google+ and its features you can rely on this article from the New York Times.
