Josh Benner

Category: Technology

  • Facebook changes are good – take a deep breath and let me explain


    Listening to people talk about the changes to Facebook is a lot like listening to people talk about politics; it’s a lot of angry comments from the clueless.

    I have been on Facebook for nearly seven years, and about once a year, the site undergoes major changes. The changes are always (and I mean always) met with anger and criticism. The way how some people react, you would think that their lives were going to be irrevocably impacted. If people got as outraged over famine as they do to changes to Facebook, no one in this world would ever starve.
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  • Qualms With Gender Selection – a Pro-Choice Paradox

    Note: this post discusses what I see as a logical paradox in the current debate about abortion as a means of gender selection. Pro-choice advocates who are of a utilitarian persuasion may disagree. This is more aimed towards pro choice libertarians. Full disclosure: I am personally pro life.
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  • Myspace sold, Justin Timberlake part of buying group

    I wonder how many people were unaware that this is the current logo for Myspace

    The former king of social networking, Myspace is going to be sold to advertising firm – Specific Media.

    The cost? $35 million.

    To appreciate that cost, there are a few things that must be known:
    -News Corp. boutht the site in 2005 for $580 million (News Corp owns the likes of Fox, Fox News, Fox Sports, Hulu, 49% of the Big Ten Network, and a lot of other stations, websites, etc).
    -In 2006, MySpace was projected at being worth 10-20 billion by the year 2009.
    -In 2006, MySpace reached 100 million accounts. At the time, Facebook had just 10 million users.
    -Over the last several months, News Corp. had been trying to sell the site for a $100 million price tag, and yesterday, they parted with it at the bargain price of $35 million. But there’s a problem.

    While $35 million is a far cry from its previous evaluations and while it may appear to be a steal relative to the asking price, I tihnk News Corp is getting the better end of the deal.

    Why? Because Myspace is irrelevant. The site has about as much action as the Chernobyl power grid. For News Corp, it is no longer their headache. $35 million may seem relativly cheap in the tech world, but it’s $35 million for a website that has not been viable in three years.

    One of the key players in the deal is actor and pop star, Justin Timberlake. He is going to be one of the major creative forces behind the rebranding of MySpace.

    I’m sure Timberlake is an inteligent guy, but if he were serious about getting into social networking, I think a better route into the business would have been creating something new. Not getting involved with something that has already has the stygma for being a site that no one uses, save for indie bands that no one has ever heard of.

    Timberlake will be a creative influence on the site’s efforts to rebrand. Again, that may sound well and good, but Myspace has tried to rebrand multiple times over the past couple of years, and they have kept failing. I also think a website admitting that they are rebranding is not a good strategy. I feel like it’s basically saying, “We’re not relevant, but we’re working to fix that.”

    What’s this rebrand going to be anyway? A platform where you can control your online social network, share music, photos, and video with your friends while connecting with new people?

    That’s basically the jist of their last couple of rebranding efforts, and I feel that the site is going to inevitably try to recreate itself as what it already is.

    I’ve written about Myspace before. I think the reason why it is such an interesting topic for me is the fact that it is an amazing example of how nothing on the internet is invincible. It’s not just that Myspace isn’t as popular as it used to be. It’s the fact that this site is no longer even relevant.

    Also, I could not help but note the irony in the fact that Timberlake played the founder of Napster, sean Parker in “The Social Network,” which was about Facebook. Parker was heavily critizied by the music industry, but was played by a musician, and now that same musician is one of the top men in a company which used to be even bigger than Facebook.

    jrb

  • Write now, Tweet later: with Buffer

    Came across a new site today for a service called Buffer. And so far, I like it.

    Buffer is a site that allows you to Tweet, and then add a timestamp to the Tweet so that it doesn’t necessarily have to post right when you create it.

    Why would anyone care to do this?

    Well because there are some people who might have several good ideas for Tweets at once, and if they string a bunch of random updates together simultaneously, it can just be white noise to your followers. With Buffer, you can create all of those brilliant Tweets now, but then use the service to space out when they actually post to Twitter.

    That way, you’re not overwhelming your followers. Or, if you’re on death row, you can send Buffer tweets right before they strap you down to the lethal injection table and be like:

    12:05am: “Wow, that was another great episode of Conan. lmao”

    and then

    12:35am: “jk, I was already dead by then, LoLz”

    Part of the idea is that if you can space your Tweets out, ideally you can post at times where the Tweets will have a higher impact.

    At 5pm, it automatically updates by posting to Twitter. Simple.

    The service runs on a freemium model. For no cost, you can do two Tweets a day (or have 5 tweets in your buffer). There are monthly rates of $5 and $20, each giving different premium services.

    Constructive criticisms:

    1. No smartphone app. I realize that the entire point of Buffer is so you can produce Tweets at a computer and then set them to post later, but if that’s useful, I don’t see why the idea to post Tweets to an Android or iPhone app that will post to Twitter later is also useful. It’s not a deal breaker, but I hope an app is forthcoming (although I do expect basically any site that offers any service that has ever been created to have its own app).

    2. This is a little bit more of an issue. Once you’ve logged in to Buffer, You type your Tweets in the “My buffer” section, however to change the time that the Tweet posts, you go to the “account”section. I don’t understand why you can’t just look at the Tweet in the “My buffer” section, where it SHOWS you the time, and change it through that page. #imjustsaying

    3. Unless I missed something, I don’t see a place where you can set a date for a different Tweet to post. Everything is set to post within a 24 hour period. I feel like if you’re going to have advanced Tweet writing, then the functionality to do stuff, days, weeks, centuries in advance is necessary.

    Buffer, I bestow you with probably the greatest offer I can give to a webstie: I am adding the Buffer blog to my rss reader.

    for more information on Buffer, visit their website: http://bufferapp.com

    I learned about this website from Hacker News. Thanks Hacker News.

    Here’s their website: http://news.ycombinator.com/

  • Why 2011 is Groupon’s year

    Groupon is already a popular web service with over 35 million members worldwide. Since its founding in 2008, the site’s growth has occurred at a remarkable rate, and while there are millions of people who already use Groupon, I think that this is the year the site truly explodes and becomes ubiquitous within our society.

    I realize social networking is different than Groupon, but it is interesting as the popularity of Facebook and Twitter have grown, that

    As an example, there are lots of people who know about Twitter but who don’t use Twitter and who have never had Twitter accounts. With Groupon, I believe that 2011 will be the year where it trul

    The reasons why Groupon will explode so dramatically this year:

    1. While people have obviously known about Groupon before now, I feel like this will be the year where the stie truly breaks through the fabric of popular culture and becomes ubiquitous within our society. As more people start to realize the idea is about saving money and how easy Groupon is to use, the numbers of registered users will continue to shoot. Think of it like Facebook’s expansion, but coupons instead of social networking.

    2. More and more people are going to have access to the site. In the U.S., Groupon is available in over 150 cities and can be found globally in 27 countries (both figures according to Wikipedia).

    3. Their advertisements are going to tighten up this year. Earlier this month, it was announced that people are going to have more customization options in terms of which groupon offers are sent to them. I feel like the fact that this hasn’t happened already is in large part due to the phenomenol success of the site so far, and difficulties in keeping up with huge demand from businesses to partner with Groupon.

    It only makes sense to send Groupon offers where there is a higher likelihood the person will use them. For instance, where I live (Columbus, OH), my January 3 Gruopon offer was this:

    WOW!

    An 86% discount on spider vein removal treatments. That’s a great deal.

    However: I don’t have spider veins (at least I don’t think I do, but that seems like one of those medical conditions where: if you think there is a possibility you might have it, then, you have it).

    Smarter advertising will add even more street cred to the already popular site. And it will help to..

    4. Get more men signed up. Over three quarters of Groupon users are women. It will be important as the site utilizes more targeted coupon offers to start having “manlier” things.

    I love Groupon but I feel like some of their offers are things that men would have absolutely no interest in such as: spa treatments and cheap Justin Bieber t-shirts.

    5. Grocery stores and other retailers are starting to catch on to the idea of people using their phones as the actual coupon instead of physically printing or cutting something out. This will work well with Groupon.

    6. For any social site to work, it needs to have a cool factor. Groupon has it. As U.S. News and World Report mentioned this fall, a lot of people who use Groupon are not necessarily the common “coupon clipping” percentage of the population. A lot of Groupon users are younger and the site is going to continue getting more and more popular with older users as they hear about it from their younger children, coworkers, and great grandchildren.

    In many ways, the growth potential of this site reminds me of Facebook. In its first year, it went from 0 to around 1.5 million users. Now – a year after that – the site is over 35 million users. I think it is very much within the realm of possibility that the site could be over 150 million users by the end of this year.

    1.5 million to 35 million

    In March, the site was available in 40 cities and the goal of founder Andrew Mason was to be in 100 cities by the end of last year (they ended up being in over 150).

    In case you are unfamiliar: Groupon is a site that offers a daily deal, a coupon to a local business. The deal is always at least 1/2 off on a good or service. There are a minimum number of people who must signup for that day’s offer in order to activate the Groupon. In short: the consumer is saving money and learning about new stores/places/things, and the small business is making money.

    jrb