goblin cartoons

Just now, I tweeted: “Dear Google: Opt-in social networks are good. Opt-out social networks are bad. Please remember this.” I was speaking in regards to Google Buzz, the company’s latest social networking release. Buzz is a social aggregator, like FriendFeed, pulling your content from different sites into one stream, where your friends can comment on your content, as well as pulling your friends’ content into the same stream.

I was excited about Buzz and gave it a try as soon as Google bestowed it upon me. It didn’t take long for me to grow frustrated and annoyed with it, though, and I gave up on it after less than a day’s use. Reflecting on it more, I’ve come to see Buzz as a massive screw-up in terms of social networking. Because Buzz is opt-out social networking, not opt-in.

If you sign up for MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or a host of other social websites, you have to seek out friends. You can sometimes use your email contact list to find other people on those sites, or you have to find people one by one to friend. You also have to go to that site (or a desktop or mobile phone app) for access (and socializing).

Buzz, on the other hand, sits right there in your Gmail. By default, you get any and all updates to Buzz both in your Buzz inbox and in your Gmail inbox. (You can filter the emails out of your Gmail, but it’s not something you can really turn off.) Your Gmail contacts are automatically your Buzz contacts. Following contacts in Buzz automatically adds them to the people you follow in Google Reader (which increased my unread posts in Reader A LOT), even if you disconnect Reader from Buzz (and Reader is pulled into your Buzz stream by default, unless you choose to disconnect it). When you post straight to Buzz, you can choose to make a post private rather than public, but unless you disconnect everything from Buzz, your stream will continue to flow, allowing your friends to see posts and comment on them, even if you turn Buzz off (which you can only do by clicking on a tiny link at the bottom of your Gmail page).

In short, Google Buzz is opt-out social networking, not opt-in. If you don’t want to participate, you have to go through steps to turn it off, rather than going through steps to turn it on if you want to participate. Google has deployed Buzz to everyone with Gmail, causing a number of my friends to wonder what the hell it was and how to turn it off.

Opt-out social networking is a moronic and intrusive idea. Just because you use email doesn’t mean you want more social networking. Just because you emailed someone once or twice doesn’t mean you want to see everything they post to the internet (and it doesn’t mean you want them seeing everything you post to the internet). You might like fish and you might like salty food, but that doesn’t mean people should assume you want anchovies on your pizza, and you definitely shouldn’t have to ask to have to anchovies removed if you don’t want them.

Google Wave and Buzz are making me think Google Labs is some socially-isolated workshop where no usability studies are being done. It’s stunningly bad design. I’m going to be very wary of whatever Google releases next.

Most of the time, I think my optimism and enthusiasm is justified, because life regularly turns out to be at least as amazing as I expect and imagine it will be. But sometimes…not so much.

I was really, really excited about Google Wave when I first learned about it. I snagged an invite to start playing with it as soon as I could. And after two months of experimenting with Google Wave, I have to say…meh.

I’ve tried using it for conversation, but it doesn’t facilitate conversation any better than email, IM, Twitter or FriendFeed. I’ve tried using it for collaboration, but it doesn’t do that better than Google Docs. I appreciate that it’s in beta, and I’m prepared to believe that in a year or two or three, Google Wave will be where it’s at. But right now, it’s a lot like Second Life to me: flashy and interesting, but ultimately kind of boring and of little real use to me.

As much as I inherently cast a suspicious eye towards large companies, I have to say, Google regularly knocks my socks off. I’ve just learned more about their huge new project, Google Wave, and not only are my socks knocked off, my jaw is on the floor and my eyes are popping out of my skull. Google Wave is “email, if it were created today”–but it’s much more than that. It’s a groovy orgy of email, IM, wikis, collaborative documents (like Google Docs) and more. My gut instinct is to agree with Jason Griffey when he says “it’s the biggest revolution in communication online since the invention of email.” I think the implications and possibilities of this technology are astounding. But what makes it even more amazing in potential is that Google is making Wave open source and encouraging developers to create extensions and robots, but also to make of the platform and the protocol what they will. Seriously, this could he huge.

To get a better sense of how Google Wave will work and what the potential is, watch the video of the developer preview from Google I/O 2009. (Warning: the video is over an hour long and not always incredibly exciting. I watched it in chunks over 3 days.)

For a different perspective on Google Wave, check out “Five Reasons to Be Terrified of Google Wave.” Personally, I think the worrying sounds a bit shrill, but it’s good to look at all sides of the matter.

The future of library technology is here! SMS services? Facebook apps? iGoogle widgets? Bah! You may as well ask for a steam-powered velocipede! My place of work, the Johnson County Library, is premiering its new technology initiative for patrons: the brain chip!

Welcome to Tomorrow. It’s an exciting place.

I love new technologies, new tools and toys, new gadgets and widgets. I spend more time at a computer than pretty much anywhere. And yet, what technology do I keep promoting and marvelling over? Books.

Books are amazing tools. You don’t have to worry about incompatible operating systems. I’ve never had a book crash on me while using it. You can drop them in the bath and not worry about electricuting yourself or destroying the book. (Ask my wife. She drops books in the tub regularly. No, not on purpose.)

Which is why I was particularly amused by today’s Penny Arcade.

I just added the WPtouch plugin, so if anyone with an iPhone or Android phone could look at this blog and let me know if anything needs to be tweaked, I would greatly appreciate it.

Dorothea Salo explains once more why she doesn’t have comments on her blog. I think she makes an excellent point: it’s her web space, she can do with it as she pleases, and she doesn’t want comments on her blog.  I can’t think of a reasonable argument against that and I think it’s silly to expect her to treat her website any other way.

It got me thinking about why I do have comments on my blog. And the cold, hard truth of it is: I like getting attention, and when people leave comments here, my self-esteem is raised a little more. Yes, I like having conversations, and comments facilitate that. But mostly, I’m insecure and I like the attention. So, there you go.

This coming Monday, I will be a guest on The Walt Bodine Show at 10 a.m., on KCUR, our local NPR station. The topic will be “Libraries in the 21st Century,” which I’m always pretty excited to talk about. Not only can you listen to it on the radio, you can stream it live online and the show will be archived on KCUR’s website. So, there’s no excuse for not listening to me babble about libraries. Unless listening to me babble about libraries really isn’t your thing–but who in their right mind would cop to that?

This has not been the best year of my life, which is particularly bad as I was saying the same thing last year. It hasn’t been all sewage and shadows–I’ve had some really good times this year. But it feels like the bad has exceeded the good, in effect if not in actual instance. There’s been a whole lotta feh this year, is what I’m saying.

So I’ll gladly take this day to give thanks to all the good, to polish the sunlight and kick depression in the kneecaps.

I’m thankful that Julie and I found each other and continue to discover good things about each other. I’m thankful I get to be Morgan’s father and have her in my life. I’m thankful my parents (in-blood and in-law) are doing relatively well. I’m thankful my siblings (sister, brother and sister-in-law) and their beautiful children are doing well.

I’m also thankful this is the last Thanksgiving I’ll ever have with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their whole cabal in the White House. I will sing and dance when the Worst President Ever leaves Washington. These are bad, bad people, and I want them out of my life.

As my friend Steve Lawson says, I’m thankful for the internet and the World Wide Web. (I’ll throw in cell phones and other information-communication devices, too.) I’m not sure I would have made it through this year without the friendship of the amazing people I’ve met and grown to love online. I’ve also reconnected with old friends because of the internet. This is really a fantastic time to be alive, and I’m thankful that I am alive to live through this and enjoy it. To all of my friends, near and far: thank you.

The Huffington Post reports that when Barack Obama becomes President, he’ll do weekly fireside chats–but he’ll be posting them to YouTube.

The very idea of having a 21st century, wired, Web 2.0 President thrills the socks off of me. I’m already getting updates to the President-elect’s transition team’s blog in my aggregator. YouTube fireside chats just add to the awesomesauce.