The Internet and Me

We have come a long way. I remember the first day I connected to the internet (was it 2002? Yes) using a dialup modem I just installed. The series of weird dialing tones you got when you pressed the connect button - and voila!!! You are connected. Dialups were so costly those days, had to keep a track of my internet usage (@56kbps :D ). I remember the first mail account I created - it was hotmail - and I still log into the mailbox every once in a while (not to mention the number of times it got deactivated coz of non-usage).

That was how I looked at internet some 8 years back - have a mailbox to receive and send mails - the only way to connect to friends. And then there was Yahoo chat. All my friends used that. And of course, Google was still there. Our online presence was limited to mails chats.

I guess, for me, it was Google's new services in 2005 which started changing how people used the web. Gmail came, with it came an integrated chat client. With the same google account, you could now use Picasa to share pics with friends (I remember the pain in attaching all the pics in mail and sending it to friends earlier), social networking revolution with the introduction of Orkut, blogs, YouTube etc etc.

I have noticed a shift in the trend from those early days of my internet usage. I used to write mails to friends, share pics with them. But now, its more about broadcasting "whats on your mind" to all the people you know at the same time (and sometimes, to people you haven't even met before) - thats what the social networking sites do. It all about "publishing" your thoughts. I hardly use my personal mailbox to send message to a friends asking how is he/she doing - now I just post a message on his online scrapbook/wall, open for anyone else to read!! With online services dedicated in broadcasting what you are doing (Twitter), to sharing interesting links online (Digg/ Delicious), to sharing your musical tastes (LastFM), we have a lot of services online these days to help you have your presence in the Internet. Everything seems to be shifting towards social networking.

Now, you are connected to the internet as soon as you start your computer, see which friends are online, and what are they doing these days. Truly, the Internet has brought the world a lot closer :)

Tweeting Away on Twitter

Yup, you have guessed right - I am lately bitten by the Twitter bug... If you don't know what I am talking about, feel free to go to my Twitter profile. Its fun, and unlike other social networking sites (aka Facebook/Orkut etc etc), this just needs one single piece of info - what you are currently doing... Also known as "micro-blogging" - it allows you to post anything within the 140 word limit - so that others can follow your tweets. 

So what are waiting for?

Keyboard(r) - A New Intuitive Way to Search

While surfing through the net yesterday, I stumbled into something interesting called "Keyboardr" - a search engine. Well , not exactly a search engine, but a meta-search for Google, Blogspot, Google Images, Youtube and Wikipedia on a single page. But that's not the the unique stuff I noticed. The best part is that it searches as you start typing, and displays results immediately, refining the search results as you proceed typing new keywords (something similar to many of the commonly used desktop search applications, like Copernicus for Windows, or Leopard's inbuilt Spotlight ). Also, as the name suggests, it provides full navigation using your keyboard (using just the arrow keys and the enter key). I was quite impressed...

The home page provides a plain interface, with a search box.

As you start typing, it starts displaying search results immediately. Navigate with the arrow keys, and press enter to go to the search page

Do check it out at www.keyboardr.com . Its worth a try!!! It works fine with Firefox and Safari browsers too.

The development team has its own blog at http://www.julius-eckert.com/blog/31 .

Facebook Status Messages "is"....

"Hey, whats wrong with your English now??"
"Why, what happened?"
"Well, don't you see an 'is' after message's'? Where did that come from? "
"Hmmm... good point!!!"

One interesting thing that I found lately, and constantly amuses me from time to time is the Facebook status, and how people use them (including me)... I have been using Facebook for more than 6 months now, but for the past few weeks (or maybe a month), I have started using Facebook more frequently than ever - especially when you are sitting idle in 5 AM in the morning and have nothing better to do.... There are applications etc which people continuously put (or should I call install) on their profile, but the status messages are the most interesting thing that I have started noticing....

I remember till last year, Facebook forced everyone to update their status messages starting with the word "is"... And I noticed a lot of funny usage of the word "is" - and, obviously, when you force something like that, they are bound to be grammatically incorrect in large numbers - but none the less, they were funny... Something like " 'Facebook user is' got really drunk last night and is now confused to why there is an "is" after my name before the text box." Even funnier: "Facebook user is' (ignore the 'is') got really drunk last night and is now confused to why there is an "is" after my name before the text box."

Take another example: "John Smith is wanting ice cream."

There have been a few groups which tried to voice their "concerns". A description of such a group:

Is it not totally bloody annoying that you have to be 'IS' every time you update you status? I don't want to say 'Joe IS thinking' or 'Joe IS wanting' or 'Joe IS feeling', or have to make that grammatical check in my head every time I update my status, thinking, oh no, I can't say it like it IS, because the 'IS' IS omnipresent.

Another good one:

For those of us who like updating our status on Facebook, there is always one obstacle: the word 'is'. What if you wanted to say:
"Jonathan hates snow"?
Unfortunately, you are forced to say:
"Jonathan is thinking he hates the snow"
What if you wanted to say "Mary ate your mom". OOPS! You can't do that! You have to say something like "Mary is currently eating your mom".

And finally, Facebook developers listened to the users' plea and made the notorious word "is" an optional thing. But, I still like to make use of the word whenever I update my status... It exercises my brain to figure out something which will go well with the word...

Also, people do put loads of funny status messages on their profile - take for example - a friend of mine has made it daily habit to write something exceedingly stupid, yet funny, everyday. Like, for example: " 'Facebook user'... Parachute for sale - used once, never opened, small stain". Well, Facebook developers did think of an innovative way to keep the users amused and busy :)

Delicious Bookmarks

Ever wondered how to keep an online list of all the sites you have bookmarked, so you can access it from anywhere in the Internet?? Well, there is something called "Delicious". Seriously, it is called delicious, and it indeed is!!! I have been using it for some months now, and I find it very very convenient all the time. Next time, I don't need to enter those keywords in Google and search for that great site I visited - I just log in to my free delicious account, and there it is - just a click away!!!

Try it. You can also look into other's public bookmarks. Ok, if you don't know what am I referring to - it simply means that you can categorize all your bookmarks into public and private. Public includes general info sites etc which you don't mind sharing with the whole world, and private.... well, as the name suggests, its "private" and confidential, so that you need to log in with your password to view those... Simple, right?? Yes, it is.... You can also create a network of delicious accounts with your friends, colleagues, to make bookmark sharing even more easier.

You can access my public bookmarks in delicious from here.

Please note: This is not an advertisement or anything. I am just posting a tool which I find useful everyday... Look for posts with tag as "tools" in my blog. I'll be adding new posts every now and then.

Orkut or Facebook?

I have been using Orkut for more than year, and came in touch with loads of friends - infact orkut was the first social-networking site I joined and enjoyed. Simple interface, nothing complicated - you add friends, view his/her profile, scrap/ message them, become their fans, write a testimonial etc etc - I mean how difficult can that be? Now, the limitation on the number of the photographs has also been removed, allowing people to share loads of photographs to the whole Orkut community. There have been loads of improvements every now and then, but the essence of Orkut has remained the same - keep in touch with friends.

Last month, after loads of invitations from loads of my friends to join Facebook, I finally signed-up (I hate those bulk invitations which many sites have - you just need to enter our email and password, and voila!!! It will then automatically send invitations to all your contacts). I was initially a bit skeptical about joining another social-networking site - I already have most of my friends in Orkut, so why join another one??? But, I was curious, why are so many people sending so many invitations to join Facebook??? I agree, it is too popular in US, but not that much here in India - I don't think it is possible to beat the popularity of Orkut in India. Whatever, I finally joined. Its not exactly like Orkut, or to that matter Hi5 or other social networking site. Its different. Ok, you have the usual make friends stuff, but there is something else too -Facebook apps. The great thing about these application is that you can add any number of applications in your profile page, and share them with your friends. There are games, just for fun applications etc etc already available in Facebook. Then, you can even change the position of all these apps in the page, and loads of other stuffs to keep you busy!!! There was one more thing which I liked - here, you can share your albums your friends only - public sharing is also available as an option.

So, what do you prefer, Orkut or Facebook? Frankly speaking, Facebook is different, provides you loads of things to pass your time with, and having many new and interesting features. But again, most of the groups/ networks are US oriented, so its not easy to find an Indian network that easily. Also, most people in Facebook (those I have in my friends list ) already are a part of the Orkut community, which is growing every day. And, somehow, I like the simple way of scrapping people in Orkut (it has become such a familiar interface by now). And. Orkut has been such a helpful tool to keep in touch with old schoolmates. So, I still love Orkut (even though I hate it when it says there is no donut available for me).

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Now playing: James - Alvida - Reprise