Year: 2011
Goodbye, Blogger. Hello, Bloggers! Google To Rebrand Picasa and Blogger.com
Eagle-eyed reader Joey the C sent me a link with the news that the Picasa and Blogger brands are going bye-byes. I said the other day that Google+ is a great way to make Picasa relevant, and the shift to Google Photo and Google Blogs makes total sense as Google positions itself for the widespread rollout of Google+. They need a unified front, afterall. And before we compare them too much to the old AOL fishbowl (which Facebook is trying to become), the seams between Google’s products feel…nimbler…to me. With Google+ and the overall Google account experience, I still feel like I’m out on the web, whereas with Facebook, I feel very much like I’m on one site or in one social network. Thoughts?
I, for one, will be glad to see the Blogger name retired. We’re all bloggers, and most of us use WordPress =).
Related articles
- Google To Rebrand Blogger and Picasa in Google+ Push (jobcontax.wordpress.com)
- Blogger and Picassa to Be Retired by Google (accesscomptech.wordpress.com)
- EXCLUSIVE: Google to Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google+ Push (mashable.com)
Allentown Football In the 1960’s
I scanned these from my dad’s scrapbook. Pictured here are Trexler Middle School teams from 1966 and 1967, including a triumphant shot of the team as the ’66 champs!
To Boldly Go Where No Beard has Gone Before
This is from 2011. I’ve had about 37 beards since then.
I’ve been getting f Zach Galifianakis love lately. Random teenagers at Rita’s. Kids at a fair. Entire weddings.
A new claimant to Beard Twin has entered the fray, and this one is nothing short of amazing.
The text simply read: “I didn’t know you were in Star Trek?!”
In case you don’t know, I enjoy Star Trek. I don’t dress up or go to conventions or anything, but I appreciate the franchise. Maybe I comment on message boards from time to time. Maybe I wanted to be James T. Kirk when I was a kid. Maybe I have strong feelings about why he was the best captain and why Voyager isn’t as bad as people say it is. Big deal. I like narratives and monomyths, remember? I’m in it for the craft, see?
These images look like they’re from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), but it’s been a good 15 years since I’ve seen that film. Can anyone confirm? And yes, they were snapped with a smart phone from a television broadcast. V’ger would be proud.
Onto the images themselves. I just have to say: not only does this guy have my exact beard style, but he also actually really looks like me. Perhaps my future self went to the past and filmed this scene? I’ll find out soon. He can’t be much older than I am now in these shots. Who is this bearded fellow? What is his destiny? Memory Alpha, what say you?
Dear Google: Keep It Simple So We’ll Stay
Over the last few weeks I’ve had quite a few posts up about comics. Over the last two days, I’ve been hitting the Google+ meme. Now, finally, I shall combine them. Or two other people will.
Seriously, Google. Do not bring games and pokes and all of that stuff onto Google+. That’s what Facebook is for, and if you want to succeed at being a better Facebook and making current Facebook the new My___, then keep things simple. More Berkshire Hathaway (yes, that is their real website), than, well, whatever the oppo WHAT? WARREN BUFFET OWNS DAIRY QUEEN? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?
Did Google Just Find a Way to Make GoogleBuzz Usable?
Yes, I think they did, and those sneaky sneakersons did it with Google+. They also snuck relevance into Picasa while you weren’t looking. 
Within Google+, GoogleBuzz is like a separate feed of whatever you’ve set to automatically go to Buzz (since no one, ever, uses Buzz on purpose). So if your Twitter is set to go to Buzz, it now also goes to your feed on Google+. The same is true for whatever you Buzz on the web. There’s also a +1 feed for whatever you +1. Both of these are separate from what you post “in” Google+ I think this is convenient. I haven’t figured out all of the privacy issues, but +1’s are public by nature. The Photos stream integrates Picasa, which, by the way, can receive automatic uploads (set to private by default) whenever you take a picture on your smart phone.
Google, you are sly. Very, very sly.
I Just Got Google+ and These Are My Thoughts About What It Might Be. Also, if You Want an Invite, Let Me Know.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m excited.
Two days ago, I did a 15 minute video blog about why I thought Google may have finally found a way to do social and to drive a wedge in the Facebook monolith. The video quality wasn’t great, so I’ll summarize here:
The Circle:
From all the previews I’ve seen, the Circles feature looks really promising. I’ve always wanted an easy, intuitive, built-in way to share certain things to specific groups, and I feel like Facebook’s lists and groups are too cumbersome, mostly because they were an afterthought. By all accounts, Google+ was built around the Circles concept.
Nativism:
Google users don’t need to opt into Google+ or rebuild their entire social graph. Google+ is a social layer, the big picture of all the other services combined (see black bar). If you’re already on Google, you’re already on Google+ (once it rolls out to you). Because so many of us who work in creative fields or freelance use Gmail as a professional address, Google+ is a natural place to begin drawing circles around what we want to share privately, with friends only, with family, and with bosses, coworkers, and clients. This may mean that adults who are already using Gmail will be the early Google+ adopters and will use it for easy sharing to their professional and social graphs. Which leads me to the next piece:
Grown-ups:
If creatives and other professionals in their 20s-40s make Plus their own, the Facebook demographic might get much, much younger This is what happened to MySpace. Maybe it sounds far-fetched, but Facebook was built for college kids and has been retrofitting for adult use ever since. Google+ was designed the managing of adult relationships (business, personal, and so on) as a core concern. It’s different by design. I’m going to hop on soon and see if I am right.
Chris Cocca 