Quick thoughts: web and grammar

I love a few things: the Internet and computers in general, grammar, language, and houses of bagels.

Leaving all things bagels aside, I want to show you something I just tweeted:

@winni3 At least you have a @gowalla app. I’m still waiting for one that’s supposed to be “coming soon.”

My head almost went all Scanners while typing the “a @gowalla.” Strunk and White, where are you when I need you the most? Is it “a @” or “an @”?

Frankly, I don’t care what it’s supposed to be, both look stupid.

And I will debate this issue in my mind, when I should be working, or sleeping, for weeks.

Leif talks Google Buzz and references himself in the third person in the title

Or was that too meta for you?

Anyways, I have some thoughts on thoughts on Google Buzz, and I promise there will be no Buzz puns. Promise.

As a lot of folks have touched upon the key features, how-tos, business or enterprise implications, and the like, I’ll try to add a fresh perspective. If you want to know more about Buzz, beyond what I have to say, Google it.

First, let’s talk about the noise in Buzz. There’s a lot of it. For your sake, don’t follow a popular person – every comment, threaded under his/her original post, gives you another unread buzz message and your screen will eventually get flooded.

Also, by default, new comments to your posts show up in your inbox. So, if you’re popular, I recommend a quick change of this setting.

This is all in stark contrast to the simplicity of Twitter. Google may have the pros of a large Gmail user base, or a widely understood UI, but with Buzz it loses the battle over simplicity. Twitter’s linear timeline and the philosophy behind mentions and retweets all act like a natural filter for a lot of noise. You either see a tweet, or you dont, and you move on.

All this makes Google Buzz feel like another email inbox. I don’t want more email.

And now, let’s have an adult conversation. All of us with a web presence need to openly discuss the whole opt-in vs opt-out thing. It’s becoming an issue, so gather ’round.

Originally, Facebook’s privacy controls were quite strict by default; you had to opt-in to sharing your information with people. And, well, they definitely effed it up from a PR standpoint when they moved towards an opt-out procedure. Why’d they even make the change? The average user just uses whatever the default controls are. This means a more open exchange of information on Facebook. More searching, more interacting, all lead to more (see: some) revenue for the social giant.

And Google, you messed up pretty bad too. Now that Buzz is out, you show at least a partial list of people’s contacts by default (in the Google profiles, if you’re looking to turn if off). I’m fine with Google doing all this. But they do it by default.

Solution? Either:

A) We become more savvy web users and learn when and where to opt-out of the services we don’t want. See: “unlikely,” “near impossible,” and “why they are making this stuff opt-out in the first place.”

Or

B) We flip our lids until these social purveyors protect the oblivious by defaulting privacy settings to a less vulnerable state. Hey Schmidt, privacy does exist. After all, you seem to want yours.

Well, folks, that’s pretty much all I have to say. I’m done. No fancy conclusion.

Move on.

Nothing to see here.

The boy that cried jerk

me:
have you tweeted at all in the past 3 hours?

Marisa:
you know
be a jerk
its fine

me:
it’s a serious question

Marisa:
im even tweeting interesting things

me:
no really
it’s really a serious question

Marisa:
and really
really
be a jerk
ill still be your friend
for reasons unknown

me:
answer the question
i haven’t received any tweets in 3 hours either through the twitter interface or through tweetdeck

Marisa:
oh

When Twitter goes down, we turn against one another. We become animals. We lose our humanity. We like being redundant?

My new favorite entity on Twitter that I refuse to follow

It’s @YourOrYoure.

From its profile:

Policing the English language by automagically shaming a handful of people every day.

Just beautiful. YourOrYoure provides a much needed public service. And if you’re one of my friends, chances are you need it.

But why won’t I follow? If I do, my head will certainly explode.

Twitter, I reject your attempt at a gender neutral pronoun

Dear Twitter:

An attempt at gender neutrality does not validate your decision to abandon simple rules of grammar.

Their? THEM?!

I forsake the singular ‘they’.