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Teach Me How to -Dougie- Viral Loop.

What you see here is a work of art for making viral loops.

The page leading up to this asked me to _confirm_ that someone had endorsed me.  I accepted the endorsement (adding it to my profile).

This page uses some decent semantic analysis to generate 'Skills you might Endorse', and a one-click way to generate a 4x viral loop (not to mention all the other mechanisms via 'see more' and loading up more endorsements.

Performing actions here also help improve the algorithms.  If one person tags a user with a skill then you can present the same tag once added to the profile to other users and have a high likelihood of success.

And at the end of the day LinkedIn will have a much better way of finding strong candidates with specific skills; users will have more profile content, etc etc.


https://plus.google.com/photos/107786897865850743842/albums/5795440289929294673/5795440287701076610






 

apropos to our discussion of what a +1 means...

apropos to our discussion of what a +1 means...

Originally shared by Google+

50 Things a +1 Can Mean

A +1 is simple. It’s one of the easiest ways on the web to take an action that endorses the content and says you saw something. But it can mean many different things. That’s the beauty of +1. You can +1 things you like. You can +1 bad news. You can +1 things you love. You can +1 casual status updates or items that change the world.

Often, we get asked what it means to +1. Here are some ideas. We’d love to see yours.

1. A +1 can say you agree with the post.

2. A +1 can say your photo is beautiful.

3. A +1 can say your joke was funny.

4. A +1 can mean you share in sympathy.

5. A +1 can mean you endorse content found on the web.

6. A +1 can say “thanks for sharing!”

7. A +1 can say “thanks for mentioning me!”

8. A +1 can say “Glad to see you hanging out!”

9. A +1 can say “Good to see you here!”

10. A +1 can say “Wow! That’s cool!”

11. A +1 can say your video was amazing.

12. A +1 can mean you’re excited about new features.

13. A +1 can mean your post was clever.

14. A +1 can say you like this brand.

15. A +1 can say you’re the biggest fan.

16. A +1 can mean you agree with the shared story.

17. A +1 can say “thanks for commenting!”

18. A +1 can say “I vote for this choice.”

19. A +1 can say “your high score is impressive”.

20. A +1 can say “thanks for playing!”

21. A +1 can say you’re with the band.

22. A +1 can say you love the band.

23. A +1 can mean your meme is hilarious.

24. A +1 can mean your child is adorable.

25. A +1 can mean your food looks delicious.

26. A +1 can mean that song is incredible.

27. A +1 can mean “You said what I was going to say!”

28. A +1 can say you saw the post, but have no comment.

29. A +1 can say that video is stunning.

30. A +1 can say you found the news interesting.

31. A +1 can say you sure do know how to recommend people.

32. A +1 can say “I’m rooting for you!”

33. A +1 can say “Congratulations!”

34. A +1 can mean this article is a must-read.

35. A +1 can mean “I have this product too.”

36. A +1 can mean “I love this book!”

37. A +1 can mean “I hear you.”

38. A +1 can mean “You rock.”

39. A +1 can mean “I love you.”

40. A +1 can mean “I + you.”

41. A +1 can say “I can’t wait!”

42. A +1 can say “You shouldn’t miss this!”

43. A +1 can be a smile.

44. A +1 can say “You look hot.”

45. A +1 can say “I’ve been there before, and I love it.”

46. A +1 can mean “I wish I were there.”

47. A +1 can mean “I am so proud of you.”

48. A +1 can mean “You took my breath away.”

49. A +1 can say “I’m on my phone and only have a second.”

50. A +1 can say anything.

 

A really well written, must-read article about Google's Authorship program.

A really well written, must-read article about Google's Authorship program.

And this applies to anything you author.  For example, if you're an open source developer you should definitely link your github profile.  Video and photo sites?  Same thing.

Most sites are supporting XFN these days so the more links to your Google+ profile, the more often your face will show up next to your content.

 

It's been a while since I've encountered geo-restricted content.   Man it sucks.  Take my money dammit!

Oh, and if anyone wants to help me buy something from the France iTunes store LMK before I go off and try to find gift cards from the far corners of the internet.
Happy to reciprocate too!









 

 

Do you have a Panoramio account?

Do you have a Panoramio account?

Consider adding a link your Google+ profile here http://www.panoramio.com/settings/

Then add your Panoramio account to your Google+ profile (in the Other Profiles section). When linked both ways it will enable people in your circles to find your Panoramio content in personalized search.

[Note: This works for most sites supporting authorship that include profile pages.]

 

Embeds United!

I'm somewhat alarmed that there really isn't a "Life of a Widget/Embed" that has best practices on how to embed Google Content on third party sites.

Has anyone tackled this before? Obviously +1, adsense, youtube, maps, analytics and others all use their own mechanisms.

Is it time to consider deploying common infrastructure for these use cases? Especially for systems that require the ability to identify a Google user?

So here's my proposal.

* Use oauth2 semantics everywhere: tokens and api requests.
* Use a single bootstrap system to identify js domain, collect API keys as needed.
* Generate two new types of OAuth tokens that do not contain user info.
- 'Anonymous-by-domain'
- 'Anonymous-by-domain-by-api-key'
* Allow an account widget that can move you from anonymous -> identified -> authorized. (including multilogin, signin and account registration)

If all the various embeds used this common system we'd have a way to enable personalization on third party sites more easily and provide a clear way to go beyond.

Am I barking up the wrong tree?









 

.. random ES thought on content-based circle classifications..

Imagine if we could infer the type of circle based on either the content you post there (via NLP), the linguistic name, or user specification?

We could:
-- boost/dampen the volume of a post based on circle matching:
I have you in my _Photos_ circle, you share to your _heavy_metal_ circle == dampen.
-- You post your high scores to _public_ + _chess_, I follow you in a circle named _games_ == boost.
-- My wife posts to _family_, I have her in _family_ == boost
-- My wife posts to _Tennis_ and public, I don't have her in a sports circle == dampen.


The reason I've been thinking about this is another what-if --
-- what if Apps had a one-to-one relationship with a plus page?
-- When I add an App, it can circle me back.
-- If I perform an action on the third party site the app can plus-mention me, or it can group together users into relavant circles to send updates.

-- I can put noisy apps in a circle and lower the volume.
Note that App could be a Game (like Angry Birds), an App (like Remember the Milk) or even a web site (like 8tracks or Soundcloud..)

Maybe this is stretching the model too much, but it's certainly fun to ponder!









 

Until everything in the world is in the cloud this works well for getting the bits from the linux file server in the...

Until everything in the world is in the cloud this works well for getting the bits from the linux file server in the garage to the Google TV in the living room.

Plus it uses freebase.com data to enhance your content in new and interesting ways.

 

Decided to dust of my Typepad Blog for a post on how to help make your Social Search experience even more awesome.

Decided to dust of my Typepad Blog for a post on how to help make your Social Search experience even more awesome.

For part 1 I focus on linking your accounts together. This is key to being able to personalize content that does not live in Google+.

If you have a deep link to a site settings page that offers a way to link to Google+ let me know here or over on the blog.

 

And we must give credit to Amit Singhal who shared this first!

And we must give credit to Amit Singhal who shared this first!

Stay tuned, I'll have some tips on how to make sure your content gets included in social search later today.

Originally shared by Amit Singhal

Today we are introducing Search plus Your World, a new Google search experience centered around people. For the first time ever, you will be able to find personal results from your world -- your photos, your friends, your stuff -- in search.

It's rolling out today and should be available in the US for all signed in Google users over the next few days.

 

 

Anyone want to help me fill out my DJ circle?

Anyone want to help me fill out my DJ circle? ... especially artists that share Youtube content. Google+ shared videos are a great feature on the new Youtube home page.

Thanks!

 

Want to find some great new music? Load up this URL:

Want to find some great new music? Load up this URL:

https://plus.google.com/s/remix/posts

Then click "Most Recent".

You'll find all sorts of interesting remixes scrolling by. There's enough content that you can't even listen to it all, so you can pick out the most interesting stuff.

(And feel free to substitute some suitable generic term if you're not really into DJs and electronic/pop music.)

 

Interesting article about how Peets, the progenitor of Starbucks, is becoming more and more like them.

Interesting article about how Peets, the progenitor of Starbucks, is becoming more and more like them.

Luckily there's a plenty of alternatives brewing around here. Oakland's Blue Bottle Coffee is still tops for me. How about you? Have you seen places like Blue Bottle spring up in your area?

 

A new future for Buzz?

Instead of getting rid of Buzz maybe we can turn it into what it's defacto become -- an echo of activity on the web.

Just as we have the games stream we can have the buzz stream -- the collection of imported content from you and your friends. Two simple changes are needed:

* Don't allow new posts to Buzz.
* Add +1 and share buttons to imported content -- allowing you to share the best stuff to your main stream.

Thoughts?









 

LOL - comment from a thread on consumer + :

*Darren Bounds* - I hope the day never comes where I'm able to import RSS, Atom, Twitter or Facebook content directly into +. Give a Hoot. Don't Pollute.









 

RT @google: We're releasing +1 buttons to the whole web, making it easier to recommend content to your friends & contacts http://goo.gl/ ...

 

Interesting bumping+unread side-effect.

When you add a new person to your circles you get all of their posts at the top of the stream. I like that, but it's a little jarring since you see older content on top of the newer stuff...









 

Cross posted from a buzz thread about implicit graph matching.



creepy/yuck factor? At one time organ transplants were considered frankenstein creepy. Street view was (and some say is) considered creepy. The facebook news feed was once considered creepy. People's views change over time, especially if there's an underlying value that one can understand. For all of the above I'd say that the value is there and folks have adjusted.


Having a benevolent trusted partner that can search all of your content and knows you better than you know yourself using heuristics and AI? That stuff is science fiction magic. We can make it happen, and it forms the basis for serendipitous search.


I'd say we're going to have a lot more moments like this where we surface stuff to the user that they didn't expect nor ask for. Making everything opt-in is not the answer -- there has to be a middle ground here where value is given before it is asked for.









 

Had a great lunch with @macduff@google.com and @rkhare@google.com ..

Based on our conversations I'm going to claim this idiom *social referer*

For a number of reasons it might make sense to send the originating social profile in an API request. For example a nytimes +1 could include an sgn URL with the API request.

POST /plusone/create
Content-Type: text/json
X-Social-Referer: sgn://nytimes.com?pk=12345

This would help with spam mitigation (we could throttle individual accounts at a third party instead of an entire site) It would also allow us to have a reciprocal relationship with our partners since they can see the profile information in one way only. Of course we should be willing to send social referers to sites we make API calls to as well.

POST /api/v2/contacts
Host: api.yahoo.com
X-Social-Referer: sgn://google.com?pk=OBFUSCATEDGAIAID

Stupid idea? Good idea? Sound off in the comments!









 

July Update of InApps Plaform Imminent

Hi folks, just a quick note to let you know that we're about to refresh the InApps platform with some new features and fixes. I'm sure Taylor's probably let you know this already, but some things to be aware of:

* isOwner, isViewer in json-rpc requests are not present unless true. This reduces the size of the rpc responses significantly.
* Data-Pipelining and Opensocial templates have much greater functionality.
* content-rewrite feature is available and can be used to consolidate css/javascript in your gadget.

More info to come...

Paul

 

Skins, Updates, More

Just caught up 10 days worth of Neighborhood posts.  I now have Vox fatigue combined with Vox guilt.  I didn't even read comments, for shame :(  After this post I'll need to check on the 'ol LiveJournal Friends page.  Don't even ask about the umpteem BlogLines blogs stuck at 200 posts...

Hi5 has a new Skins system that actually can make profile pages look good.  I had some input early on and made sure Vox and the SixApart styles were part of the inspiration.  It's coming out really well and we've received over 200 submissions.  Check out the snazzy new profile page?  Designers can check out the specs page.

Embeds are evil.  They mess up divs and tables and are often pasted in haphazardly.  Amit  came up with an amazing solution.  Use JTidy to clean up the user submitted content.  Tags match and broken html goes bye-bye!

Now back to the super-secret Hi5 Project Funk.

 

 

 

Luxxury - "Sweet and Vicious"

Baron von Luxxury is an old co-worker of mine from the Red Hat days selling ads for redhat.com.  Check out the cute kitty in the youtube vid above.

I can't forget the time we accidentally ran run-of-network ads and you found banner ads for Dennys and some online Hair-Net website running next to Linux content.

Or the wonderful partnership with Keen.com to provide amateur linux support over the phone.  I hear that they're mostly psychics and phone sex these days.

In any case check out Luxxury when you can get the chance.  They play all over the Bay Area at times.

 

Thursday Tech Talk - Are You Cachable?

 

Join me this thursday at 4pm for yet another Six Apart engineering talk entitled:

 

ARE YOU CACHABLE?


Explore the fun and tortuous journey of a web request. Starting from the click on a link across the net to the deepest backend server and back to a page displayed on your screen.

We'll look at the latest state of the art in Cache control headers, caching proxies, accelerators, content distribution networks (like Akamai), Keynote metrics and more!

Included in this weeks presentation is a short film clip about how the Internet resembles the six-sigma quality dabbawallas of Mumbai.