Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

 
Nov
05
2012

Why I Still Write A Blog

Monday, November 5th, 2012

I just posted an entry with six fall photos. If I would have put them on Facebook more people would have seen them. It wasn’t that way when I began.

My blog started 7/4/03. There was no Facebook. Social media was hatching, but slowly.

Few think about blogging anymore.

The problem with Facebook and the advantage of this blog is my ability to search and recover. All 5,638 (including this one) blog posts are known to Google.

Many times someone will ask a question and I’ll remember I wrote about it and send a link. That’s tough to do on Facebook.

Yes, Facebook has a timeline and you can go back, but it’s cumbersome to use.

Is everything Facebook has really accessible? Is there the ability to search old entries by text? I don’t see it.

So, I continue to post in my blog and hope to attract readers as best I can. Times have changed.

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Sep
26
2012

Those Facebook Notifications

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

My Facebook friends run the gamut from tech savvy to “Where’s the ‘Any’ key?” Some should probably have their clicking privileges revoked! Another story for another day.

With a gazillion Facebook friends I see every annoyance and problem possible! I see my friends complain about them every day.

Really people??! I do not want any requests for games and all this crap! Please respect my wish and back off! Not intersted!

One of my Facebook friends posted that last night. It sucks, but that’s how Facebook makes a living. There is some good news.

After one spammy message, you can turn it off!

When you get notification move your mouse cursor to the upper right corner of the message. Mysteriously an “X” will appear.

Click it!

You’ll be asked to verify you want to stop this specific app from emailing you. “Yes.” Done!

Each app will require separate permission. There are many similarly named apps. In the beginning you’ll think you’re not making headway. You are.

You’ll never be fully rid of them. The pace can be slowed.

You’re welcome.

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Jun
26
2012

Facebook’s Email Land Grab

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Most people misunderstand our place within the business of Facebook. If Facebook was a restaurant selling chicken dinners we would be the chicken! Facebook’s real customers are advertisers. We’re the product.

It’s no surprise Facebook’s recent email change wasn’t implemented to make your life better. Facebook’s goal is to make Facebook more ubiquitous… more deeply a part of your life. Anything they can do to become indispensable is literally and figuratively money in the bank.

If you haven’t heard, Facebook has replaced your publicly viewable email address(es) with your username@facebook.com. Facebook wants you to use Facebook as your email provider.

I don’t want to use Facebook for my email. I like the unified mailbox I’ve set up through Google. As I’ve recently found, having all my email in one easily searched place is very powerful (more powerful and useful than I can explain right now).

Even Facebook understands this really isn’t a good idea for their users. After all, they will continue to contact you via the email address you originally provided them.

In the past I have found email addresses for people I want to reach through their Faceook “About” page. That will now be much more hit and miss.

Here’s PC Magazine’s guide to your switching your viewable address back

Go to your Facebook Timeline or page (get there by clicking on your name at the top left).

Click About. It’s on the left side beneath your profile picture and short information about you.

Look for Contact Info, and select Edit. Next to each of your email addresses are two settings: a) The first one controls who can see each email address: public, friends, only you, or some customized setting, which can include special groups of friends, if you’ve created any. b) The second setting controls whether the email address appears on your Timeline.

Will Facebook relent? If they don’t in the next 72 hours my guess is, no.

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Feb
20
2012

Less And Less Email

Monday, February 20th, 2012

Is it just me or is there less and less email arriving every day? Maybe I’ve framed that incorrectly. Is there less and less email arriving in your email account? That’s been my experience.

Nowadays I’m much more likely to get email inside Facebook. Good for Facebook, but not good for me.

It is much easier to keep up with email using programs (or systems) designed for email. Facebook’s messaging isn’t.

There is no simple solution. I’m certainly not going to stop reading Facebook messages.

The power of Facebook is immense right now. The power of Geoff is minimal.

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Oct
22
2011

Whatever Happened To Email?

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

I used to wake up to dozens of email messages every day. Now I get very few. People have chosen to communicate via social networks like Facebook and Twitter rather than ‘actual’ email. That’s a problem.

I am a pack rat as far as email is concerned. I try not to throw any messages away.

A few years ago I ran up against Gmail’s storage limit and just bought some more! Problem solved.

Facebook and Twitter both lack the ability to easily look back in an organized fashion. With Gmail (and even my geofffox.com email address is served by Gmail) everything is fully indexed. Everything is easily to find.

I can’t tell you how often I’ve looked for a shred of information contained in an email years old. A few keystrokes entered and it’s there!

I am a very disorganized person. This was the most organized facet of my life!

It’s tough to fight the tide. More-and-more people ask questions or make comments by posting on my Facebook wall, sending me a Facebook message or tweeting. There’s really nothing I can do.

I miss the good old days.

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Jul
10
2011

Will Google+ Eat Facebook’s Lunch?

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

This has not been a good week to be Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook has a competitor… a well done competitor… a well done competitor from a company with very deep pockets. Google has gone on offense!

We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project:

The new Facebook threat is called Google+. It is well integrated into Google’s pre-existing menagerie of websites and services. That means it’s already well positioned with video (Youtube), text and video chatting (Google Talk), photos (Picasa) and search enhanced features.

I suspect Google+’s biggest selling point will be the idea of “Circles.” In Facebook you’re my friend or not. With Google+ you’re part of a group or groups. It’s set up to easily control who sees what. I can post something for work friends or weather friends or viewers or everyone. This lack of compartmentalization is one of Facebook’s real weaknesses.

Earlier this afternoon I opened a video chat (called a hangout) within Goolge+ and invited any of my few dozen friends to check-in. There were four of us with reasonably good video. There’s a feature that’s shifts the focus in a larger window to the participant who’s talking! I like that.

Google+ isn’t as much a new product as it is an improvement of an older one: Facebook!

Will it eat Facebook’s lunch? I don’t know. At first glance it seems better. The pages are cleanly laid out and the photos are larger.

Is there room for two social media sites? Probably not. A large draw for Facebook is there is only one Facebook (as MySpace discovered)!

Here’s the upside for users: Competition will bring out features and functionality faster. Maybe you’ll even begin to be treated like you’re important to Facebook… because as of now you really are.

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May
28
2011

Ants!

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

My first indication something was up came last night as I walked into the family room. Ants! There weren’t that many… though how many do you need before it’s “that many?” I went after them with a vengeance… and paper towels.

By the time I went to bed I figured it was “Mission Accomplished.” That phrase never works!

We’ve got carpenter ants. They’re big and black and can move fast. The extension service at the University of Minnesota says:

Carpenter ants DO NOT eat wood. They remove wood as they create galleries and tunnels.

How is that better?

This morning Helaine woke up to an ant convention! Mostly they were in the sun room, but they were spilling over into the family room as well.

Here’s the problem. Tuesday we’re getting our floors refinished.

“They’ll be fossilized,” Helaine noted. The idea of ants embedded in polyurethane was not appealing.

We needed an exterminator and pronto! Of course it is a holiday weekend. I went to Facebook.

Anyone know of an exterminator who can solve a problem today in Hamden? Please be in touch.

A number of my Facebook friends sent names and suggestions, but one stood out. He actually is an exterminator!

Geoff, call me at 203-803-7273. I am the branch manager for Braman Pest Elimination and I am on call today.

That note came from Will Carney, as of today my hero. I’ve left his number up because one good deed deserves another. If you need an exterminator there he is!

Within a few minutes Will had found the nest and smote the beasts. The weekend can continue; the floors can be renewed.

Mission accomplished? I hope so.

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May
15
2011

Seriously Facebook… This Again?

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

With nearly 5,000 Facebook friends I am a spam magnet! Unfortunately for me my goal is keeping my Facebook account accessible to all which makes me vulnerable to everything! The spams started coming early Saturday.

OMG! Its unbeliveable now you can get to know who views your facebook profile.. i can see my top profile visitors and i am so shocked that my EX is still creeping my profile every hour. click below

I have received that automated message at least a half dozen times in the last two days. Each time its posted on my Facebook wall. It is the worm on the end of the hook! It is trolling for fish.

The first one I received came from a friend with an EX. Trust me, she doesn’t care to stalk his Facebook account.

Facebook claims and I believe you can’t do any of the things these spammy scams promise and yet they continue to promulgate week-after-week-after-week. Even worse they’re sent through Facebook’s internal mail system. Is there no filtering?

If Facebook isn’t equipped to fight off this tiny and easily identified threat how will they perform against something big?

Facebook wants us to trust them with nearly everything personal and private in our lives. They’re a long way from getting my trust.

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Apr
06
2011

More Facebook Scamming And Spamming

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Now I feel bad! I thought I was savvy about all the Facebook scams and spams. Guess not. Here’s a screengrap from my friend Wayne in Hong Kong. All these women want to meet him.

Obviously these are phony accounts set up to try and extract something from poor Wayne and the rest of us!

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Apr
06
2011

Facebook Scamming And Spamming!

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

I’ve written before about how Facebook is becoming a spammer and scammer’s paradise. Obviously they’re not reading my blog. It continues to get worse. That’s worrisome as Facebook becomes more our virtual town square every day.

You just got spammed on your Wall, by someone simply tagging you in a photo. Interesting way to do it.

That was a message from my friend Peter. He saw how another friend seemingly tagged all me and all her other friends inside a graphic that was really an ad. She says she didn’t do it.

OKAY….i did not sent anyone a message or poke you….DO NOT OPEN ANYTHING….IT IS A VIRUS…..

Maybe she didn’t do it directly, but by giving permissions to a Facebook app provider she was the enabler. Most of us have grown used to clicking approval or permission without looking at what we’re doing. That is always the case with these attacks.

Facebook approves these scummy apps automatically. That’s got to stop! Facebook is a famously profitable enterprise worth billions. It’s time they took responsibility for what goes on within their virtual walls.

And then there’s this:

C’mon Facebook. Really?

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