Flickr

Flickr had a mobile website that worked well because it was developed for all mobile devices. As a result I was getting into the habit of taking pictures, amending the title and adding comments whilst on the move. Recently though, the mobile developers at Flickr decided to do what every narrow minded developer of mobile websites likes to do. Develop something for the iphone and ipod touch. This is theoreticaly a great idea but in practice it’s a nightmare for anyone using a normal phone. it’s a nightmare because all of the mobile functionality of websites disappears. As a result of this the website is all but unusable. And no I’m not going to get an iphone. It’s a shame that the mobile web developing community are doing this more and more. I hope that flickr will do their best to rectify this most annoying of situations.

I’m active on more social networks than I have time to go through in a day and that’s where Socialthing comes in. It allows me to follow news from facebook, twitter, pownce, tumblr, flickr, vimeo and livejournal. What I like about this site is how easy it is to see everything that goes on. Whereas friendfeed is nothing more than a few lines of text this version of a social feed aggregator is the visual aspect. At a glance I can see which social network is giving the content and I can post accordingly. If I see a status update on facebook for example I can view the profile and add a comment. There’s that option with twitter too. I can see everyone’s tweet and I can reply to any friend’s post quickly and easily. As a positive sidenote I can follow what’s going on on pownce without logging in. I’ve often felt that the limitations of that site is the lack of people outside of California using it. At least this way I may find my interest growing. If I’m in a rush or there’s an important message to get out I can simply select to “post” a message to all these social networks at once. That saves a lot of time although as expected this should not be used too frequently as it adds a lot of “noise”. I’m looking forward to more services being included

Today I’ve been playing with Photophlow, a photo sharing and chat website that allows you to easily discuss and share pictures with friends within the interface as well as on tumblr and twitter. Among the features that I find interesting are the ability to create personal rooms and invite flicks friends in. once this is done you can look at their personal photographs, favourite pictures and more. It’s a great way for photo buffs to share photographs without having to give hyperlinks all the time. What I like about this photo sharing method is that it makes the entire process much easier. Much as you would pull out a photo album and start showing photographs and commenting on them you may do the same via this website.

I have been studying and discussing media tech and society. I have also been listening to the podcasts from the SXSW event on interactivity and my view of technology and daily life has changed. That’s reflected by what I was going to post as an answer to a comment on flickr. The iphone will sell because it’s what people want. People have accounts on flickr, they’re part of myspace and they’re on facebook. There friends are as well. Recently I’ve been going out with a camera and taking up to 180 pictures in one night. I upload them to facebook, controlling who can see them and they’re popular. People get round to requesting more pictures so I need to take more. With my mobile phone comes a one gig mini sd card therefore I can store thousands of pictures. I show people the pictures and if they want to see them online then at least I’ve got a practical way of getting people to approve them. What was SXSW about? Interactivity. Why? because social networking websites encourage the free sharing of all the media you’re creating.

The idea that people expose their lives for everyone to read on sites like Flickr, blogger, and many others is a strange one. How often have you seen people partying with their friends yet not knowing a single one of them? It’s a voyeur’s paradise at the moment. I was listening to Net a night with Leo Laporte and Amber McArthur speaking with the creator of blogger, Odeo, and Twitter. Le was talking about how addictive it is and how it’s a mini-blog. It also reminds me of the Facebook status bar. That’s because twitter is about short messages. The messages may originate as easily from a mobile phone as Instant Messenger or the web interface. There are several hundred people who are saying what they’re up to at that moment in time. Examples are “I’m in the queue, third person to the left or “I’m doing housework” and “just got up and it’s a beautiful day. They’re short, instants in time which individuals decide to share. Individuals are not the only ones using this technology. I’ve noticed that google news, BBC world service, and news, CNN, and others are using twitter to share news on upcoming events and current affairs. It’s an interesting way of keeping informed on current goings-on around the world. Due to the nature of the communications, the messages are usually short, to the point, and with Tiny URL. This is because a normal URL would take up all the characters. Another naming convention is the @name concept. When you’re sending a message to a particular friend and you want them to know that it’s to them that it’s addressed @name seems to work. I’ve only been trying it for a little over twelve hours so far though