GMail, the Web OS client. Again.

Earlier today I talked about file-sharing and its relation to IM and Social Networking. I finished the post pointing out that Google was way ahead of the game with IM integration in GMail.

Just breaking is this post mentioning that Google Docs will support PDFs.

If it’s not obvious, I’ll reiterate it.

GMail, in combination with other Google Apps, is the read-write-web client of the future (or present).

It is the cloud client that’s being called for around Twitter and blogs. No worries, there is still room for smaller companies to innovate on niche markets.

Amyloo’s Widget

Twitter vs. Pownce: The Great Debate

Latest Gangbuster: Twitter vs. Pownce

The (open) future of news

Fromg the aforementioned gangbuster blog : with a little price of breaking news intermixed.

new paradigm (and blog)

Will be hashing out some thoughts over at http://gangbuster.org/blog in case any of y’all care to join that conversation.

Social Database Twit.io

Embryonic but working:

Twit.io

Sexcond Life Depression Hits!

The global economic crisis is happening everywhere, including Second Life.

Microsoft finds good use for MSN.com

Today, Microsoft turned the home page of MSN.com into an ad for Office 2007. Oh, the irony.

The metacommunity concept as a framework for OPML based communities (part 3)

part one
part two

The web has its own desire.
That gravitational pull is towards pure conversation.
This blog is actually predicated (think about the title) on the fact that the web will one day disintermediate everything that does not add value.
Only those adding to the conversation will endure.
Some might ask, “Well, didn’t AOL chat rooms provide pure conversation?”
The answer is no.
Chat rooms were akin to a hundred people shouting in a room. Hardly a conversation.
I hate to use a bar analogy (I have been in a few), but a bar room is not a hundred people shouting, and hopefully the person at the other end of the bar is not talking so loud that they are disruptive.
In a real social environment of mass, we move in and out of conversations. We overhear something of interest, yes, and join that conversation, but our ability to do that is controlled by us, hopefully.
Chat rooms did not allow that.
Likewise, blogging doesn’t give us the real ability to target another individual, despite the link gesture, which is useful but not direct enough.
IM is pure, but lacks the community aspect.
In nature, this ability to move in and out of ecosystems is not only permissible, but necessary for sustenance.
The microblogging phenomenon has taken the first step toward this global community, with a dash of direct conversation. It may not be the end, but it is a means toward that end.
It takes the best of email, usenet, forums, blogging, and IM and rolls them into an easy to use format. ease of use is a key component. Blogging is too much work for some people.
Microblogging has one aspect missing. A distributed nature. Once it has that, it will take over.
Identity, VRM, RSS, and RPC (APIs) will allow us to achieve the next needed step toward “pure conversation.”
And microblogging will be at its core.

IM is dead

I’ve had my share of “* is dead” (here, here, here, here, here. here and here) posts (I’ am a dead head, I guess) and I’ve agreed with Stowe Boyd on IM before, but his post today about IM being a commodity in the face of Twitter etc. really rings true.

We are on the cusp of a new level of online communication that is all about flow or “river of news” as Dave Winer coins it and it is becoming so ubiquitous that it will be a commodity.

Usenet for the web anyone?

That has some negative connotations, but this time the user is in charge, not the system, right?