Just got an email that Plaxo is discontinuing bare OpenId support and only allowing Google/Yahoo/Hotmail/Facebook for login. Despite OpenId's shortcomings it's sad to see things regress.

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Hello from Plaxo,

In an effort to improve our login experience for users, Plaxo.com is simplifying and standardizing our sign in options. As such, Plaxo will discontinue support of generic OpenID logins as of 08/23/2011. Instead we're offering login via Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, or Facebook oAuth -- or you can, of course, create a Plaxo specific account.

How will this affect me?

If you use a Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or Facebook openid to login, just click the appropriate button when signing in. Plaxo will ask for permission to use your account credentials; click accept/grant and then go on using Plaxo as you normally would.

If you use any other openid to login, please visit our Forgot Password and follow the instructions for Reset Password, which will create you a Plaxo specific password.

#gplus

Don't forget Doctor Who this weekend. I'll be buying it off Amazon and watching on the Google TV instead of suffering through Comcast's SD and BBC America's commercial interruptions...

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This is pretty cool.

The images marked for 7th & Howard match some of the photographs currently hanging in Lighthouse Lofts.

Originally shared by Dan Vanderkam

Raven Keller and I just launched oldsf.org. Check it out! 13,000 historical photos of San Francisco on a Google Map.

A few fun ones:

- Dolores Park as a refugee camp: http://bit.ly/rbJxl2

- The second Cliff House: http://bit.ly/r29Dlh

- Woodward's Gardens: http://bit.ly/r9RdMA

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I just linked my MySpace account. Hadn't logged in there for a while. Found out I qualify for the Old School badge, plus I can see Tom Anderson over there too!

Link your account in the usual place:

https://plus.google.com/settings/connectedaccounts

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Hi current/former hi5ers -- what do you think of the new Google+ games?

Of course anil dharni had a hand in one game, and justin kruger is working for another partner.

Small world!

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private to you.

I am not engaging in RN discussions in public and probably won't be doing much of it inside Google due to the mischaracterization of my views on this subject which are not as black and white as some people might think.

Thread hijackiing is pretty rude too you know.

#gplus

Big props to Andrew Davis, Mark W. and the rest of the Opensocial community for getting this done! Major accomplishment.

Originally shared by Evan Prodromou

Voting has started for the new OpenSocial 2.0 specification. If you're not already involved, and you're interested in open apps, this is a great time to get activated. The steps:

1. Sign up here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?key=0Aki8A6bvOtZNcGNXZXY1cUtjMk9DQXhvUjNBYlpjWl... Participation in OpenSocial is free and open to all.

2. When you receive notification that you've been added, vote on this revision: http://code.google.com/p/opensocial-resources/source/detail?r=1520

OpenSocial 2.0 is a huge step forward for the specification, incorporating many of the systems (like ActivityStreams and OAuth) that we use on the modern social web. I'm excited by this push -- let's get it released!

#gplus

More weird Dr Who stuff found via Sparks...

Google has life-size Tardis too, however I couldn't find it last time I looked. (Maybe it dematerialized??)

#gplus

Crazy stuff here at Google...

Originally shared by Frances Haugen

And I thought my heart couldn't be melted by Google magic anymore... Today the Google+ team was surprised at our weekly All Hands meeting to find out we were having a surprise beach party right outside our building! Check out the wave pool they installed in the parking lot and various Googlers surfing!

#gplus

I've always loved naming machines. Starting out as a sysadmin it was one way you could have fun, especially when setting up large clusters. Here's my fun names through the years:

A Sun 3/80 lab named after japanese authors - kimitake, mishima, yukio, (can't remember the rest)

30 X Terminals named after creatures in the B52s Rock Lobster song. (Sea-Robin, Bikini-Whale)

I'm sure some people can guess what this set of NeXT machines were named after: hafnhaf, ashpool, mrfrosty, tessier.

Prod backend hosts at hi5 were named after the Simpsons (moe, bart, etc.) We ended up having so many we had to name machines after the guest-stars. ssh'ing into lindaronstandt or michellepfeiffer at 3am was a real spelling test.

Currently at Google I have machines named arcwelder and huskerdu for my dev purposes. Other musical acts that have had the honor of their own machine name over my career include mudhoney, danzig, and even... anthrax.

Originally shared by Paul Lindner

#qotd

What's the most creative name you've ever give to your computer?

#qotd is my occasional "Question of the Day" non-feature feature. At some point it will become a way for people to connect on diverse topics across their circles. Reshare or comment, just use #qotd

#gplus

Have an Address Book? Want to invite some friends? We have the solution for you. You can now upload contacts on the Find and Invite page by clicking on the Upload address book button :

https://plus.google.com/circles/find

You'll need an address book file on your computer. Get one by performing any of the following actions:

Outlook -

Select File > Import/Export > Export from the main menu

Choose Comma Separated Values (Windows) > Select "Contacts" > Save exported file

Outlook Express -

Select File > Export > Address Book from the main menu.

Select Text File (Comma Separated Values).

Click Export.

Your Other Gmail account -

See https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=24911

Apple Address Book -

Open the Address Book application on your Mac. Click on the 'all group' of your contacts. Select File > Export Vcards.

Thunderbird -

Click Addressbook, Select Personal Address Book. Click Tools, then Export. Save as *.csv.

Others -

Most other contact managers or email systems support contact export in VCard/VCF/CSV format. Consult your local help system to find out how. Leave a comment if you want to share you exporting experience.

-- If you have problems please feel free to click on the 'Send Feedback' link in the lower right.

Happy Inviting!

#gplus

A totally different type of Gopher than what I'm known for :)

Going to have to pick one of these up tomorrow at the Google Store...

Originally shared by Peng Ying

I wish this wasn't 11.95.. what the crap man

#gplus

Welcome aboard!

[sharing private to only you..]

Google+ is the crazy project I'm working on. Would love to hear your opinions on how you and your friends use the product. My eventual goal is to get the entire family signed up and do a 10-way video hangout.

Paul

#gplus

I feel compelled to post something to counteract the dozen reshares of Christian's Google+ for business post..

I hope this season of Torchwood is decent. It can be pretty hit or miss, but when it hits it's pretty darn good.

#gplus

Remember Vox? I had the good fortune to be at Six Apart for it's development and launch. A lot of amazing work went into it and sadly it is no more. Vox was ahead of it's time and I feel that Google+ has much of what I liked about it.

You see back then Six Apart acquired Livejournal for it's amazing technology and it's foothold into the social space beyond blogging. There was a hitch though, LJ code was open sourced and GPL'd. It would be hard to sell a rebranded LJ to people like NTT, or other Typepad partners.. Also as a service LJ had developed it's own culture that might not benefit from a wave of mommy bloggers, nor would said bloggers be comfortable with the cutters and goths over at LJ.

Thus Comet was born and launched as Vox. You could follow with Friends/Family groups. Each post could be as private and public as you liked. You could cross-post to LJ, apply stylish themes to your blog and there was the #qotd (question of the day) which sparked up some great conversations and helped build a sense of community.

Some of the features found their way into Typepad, and Typepad's profiles. Sadly, many did not.

What do you think Six Aparters? What features do you miss that you'd like to see here?

#gplus

Spent some time mapping the shortcuts my neighborhood using Google Mapmaker. Luckily I was able to get most of my data from the Oakland Urban Paths database.

My mapmaker profile is here:

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=216375860650465931580

The crazy thing is despite being a tech lead for Google+ Connected Sites I didn't have this in our node mapper system. I'll have to get right on that :-)

#gplus

Picked up one of these this weekend at Peets. It makes great iced coffee!

(Obligatory Google+ tip: This was shared directly from http://shopping.google.com/ which uses http://schema.org markup to help make sharing easier!)

#gplus

Pseudo invite to Google+

Hi Oren,

Senidng on behalf of Byrne Reese.. I'm pretty sure this post will send you a Google+ invite. If not please email me at [email protected] and I'll get you when the next window cracks open.

Paul

#gplus

Help your friends find you! - another Google+ tip...

Add and verify all of your email addresses to your Google Account here:

https://plus.google.com/settings/general

This makes it easier for your friends to find you now and in the future! I've found that I don't know the gmail address of many people, but I do know their corp email or another alias. Plus if you lose your password you can send a recovery email to your alternate address.

Be aware that you can only associate one email per Google account and you can't add another gmail address to another account. If you want to associate email addresses to your primary account you can visit this page:

https://www.google.com/accounts/EditUserInfo

1) If the email is listed as a secondary address, remove it on the old account and add to the primary.

2) If the email is primary you can change the email address of the unused account and replace it with something like [email protected]. Then add the renamed email to the primary account.

Cheers.

#gplus

Hi current and former Six Apart folks..

Hope you're enjoying your foray's into Google+.. Sending this out so some of you might receive invites. (It's somewhat non-deterministic, so I'm not sure if it'll go out..)

Feel free to hit the send feedback link in the lower right or ping me. Also I'm happy to work with anyone on driving deeper connectivity to Six Apart or other properties. (My main focus is on connecting sites, contacts, activities, all that..)

#gplus

Here's a good article on what I've been working on lately including an inside look at what goes on at Google..

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social/

#gplus

A couple of people have asked about importing facebook contacts. Sadly we cannot do that, however there is a workaround:

* Import Your facebook friends via Yahoo:

http://www.ymailblog.com/blog/2010/03/facebook-friends-meet-yahoo-contacts/

* Then connect your yahoo account to Google+ here:

http://plus.google.com/circles/find

#gplus

A whole new class of Google+ jokes has sprung up....

Originally shared by Anil Dash

Your moms so fat, she huddle all by herself.

#gplus

Welcome aboard Google+!

Invites are still flowing out, so pay attention to your inbox (and hopefully not your spam folder!)

#gplus

Hope you'll take the plunge into Google+ -- It has a lot of the Vox vibe that I miss so much!

Also I'm doing connected sites work (try connecting your yahoo/live account!) there's a lot of cool stuff we can do together. Just let me know at [email protected]

#gplus