Skeptic Geek - Latest Comments

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Divya Divya — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:46:10 -0000

Things have changed so much over the years. The apps that are being created by these tech giants are becoming a great marketing tool.

Divya Bhaskar
MyGrahak.com

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Shailendrasingh4mk — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:25:09 -0000

happy new year

love sms

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

AwkwardEngineer — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:50:53 -0000

since the google reader "like" integration into google+, I have indeed noticed a change in the number of +1's a post gets. it's a little early to tell, but I like where this is headed.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:09:45 -0000

I had written about this problem in 2009: http://www.skepticgeek.com/soc...

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Carl-Johan Sveningsson — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:19:39 -0000

Thanks for your deep analysis, I will certainly dig through it properly soon enough. Maybe you care to comment or reshare my attempt to figure out the current situation, as I too have been a very avid Reader user... https://plus.google.com/u/0/10...

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

mcored — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:20:37 -0000

Your point brought forward is logical. This reminds me of a Google+ posts where an author said you should be creating circles based on content, not by people. So in your instance, if you want tech news to be shared, then you have a Tech circle, just like you described. With Google+ with circles, one could avoid the requirement of having multiple Twitter accounts for different topics.

However, Google+ still is not the solution for your request of the core problem of online identity. This is essentially multiple personalities. It is not achievable in real life. You look the same wherever you present yourself. Representing yourself differently could be even a crime. Anyway, the only common piece of information I could see that is presented for all circles is the Profile Picture. Everything else in Google+ you can limit per circle basis. Therefore, as long as you are happy with your current profile picture, Google+ does solve the problem better than any other service.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

AwkwardEngineer — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:16:04 -0000

Yep! I have faced a similar problem myself. I had my blog hooked up to google buzz, where my friends (my only buzz followers) would comment and like the post. Some people would leave comments on the blog itself. Other times, people would "like" the post and share it from the RSS feed in google reader. People would comment on facebook as well. The whole thing was a giant boondogle.

I'm glad google is killing buzz and integrating reader with plus to make an overall more cohesive platform.

Also, I made a blog post about this very fact:

http://www.awkwardengineer.com...

I really wish commenting, liking, and sharing had a sort of unified structure across the web. My email works with any email client I send it to, I wish there was a better parallel across facebook / twitter / tumblr / etc.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:25:48 -0000

Thanks for sharing that, Mark. Some of them are insightful while others simply confuse the issue with the related issue of identity vs. anonymity.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mark Essel — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:37:43 -0000

I was intrigued by the reappearance of the identity debate enough to read the RWW post on Chris Poole: http://m.readwriteweb.com/arch...
The comments there are well thought and highly valuable perspectives.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 03:34:02 -0000

Ah! That's more like the Mark I know :)

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mark Essel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:45:28 -0000

As long as there are multiple networks, we can maintain multiple identities. A few very good friends have multiple aliases which cater to specific communities.

We exhibit diverse social customs in alternative subgroups. My work identity is different than my gaming personas, is different than my social web presence on a variety of networks.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:35:50 -0000

Mark, as someone who takes the idea of distributed social networking/computing seriously, I'd have thought you'd put more serious thought into the problem of multiple personas. Thanks for your comment, maybe I was not clear enough in my post.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:33:37 -0000

Thanks, Dave - your comment is spot on as well!

I initially had the "no RSS feed" point listed under negatives, as I do think and agree that there are multiple ways in which you can use it constructively and positively as you describe.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Todd Lyden — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:17:42 -0000

How is this any different now?

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mark Essel — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:58:31 -0000

The "from the hip" reaction is that sharing to different audiences is a privilege I'd prefer to maintain. Let's see what Google delivers next?

I have used Google reader as a web OPML file feeding into other services (Flipboard) for review. My sharing is usually fairly broad to my twitter and Google+ circles/public. But on occasion I'll narrow the share to a specific sub group (although it's hard if not impossible to know who will be interested in a given share apriori).

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:36:38 -0000

Thanks, Patrix - exactly!

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:36:20 -0000

My exact thoughts! :)

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Dave Hill — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:03:00 -0000

Overall, a spot-on analysis. We present different personae on different platforms, for intentional reasons. My Reader shares tend to not only be more numerous than my Plus posts, but much more political. I suspect my Plus followers will not be amused if I choose to reroute my Reader work there -- but Google is offering me no real alternative here.

I disagree with "No way to get an RSS feed of your Google Reader shares" as a Positive, as I do route those (with the notes) to my blog at present (as an archive of stuff I want to share, plus I know a number of people who simply don't do Reader). I do have Reader2Twitter turned on, but to a different Twitter account than my main one (and I don't think there's anyone who follows both). I understand your point about being essentially a bot in such spamming of content around -- but when done selectively it's a useful tool, and it also recognizes that not everyone follows every social platform (or the same folks on all platforms).

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Patrix — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:12:37 -0000

Excellent analysis. I couldn't agree more. It is like, Google is trying to please everyone under the same roof (Google+). There is a reason I post different content on Facebook and Twitter and Tim Carmody's quote perfectly encapsulates that.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Phil Ashman — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:27:17 -0000

Well written.

Louis' response bodes well..;). Can't wait for us to continue the discussion once the changes have been released and we get a better feel for where Google are heading with this.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:48:15 -0000

Thank you!

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:47:08 -0000

For a tech news hound, there's no better source than Google Reader. Read my posts tagged "Google Reader" (you can find tags beneath the sharing buttons at the bottom of the post above) to find more about how and why I use it. For what needs to be fixed (some of which may be outdated with the upcoming changes) see response on Quora: http://www.quora.com/How-can-G...

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

vruz — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:10:03 -0000

Greetings, Mahendra. You got me thinking... I've really tried to use Google Reader seriously for while, but it hasn't grown on me for some reason.
I'm surprised to see you consider it such an indispensable tool.
(Granted, my last attempt was around the time Reader didn't yet have a serious *integrated search* function... absolutely dreadful and unpresentable for the king of search)

Which do you think are the best Google Reader features that make you love it so much?Which are the worst which you think are in sore need of improvement?

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Sanat Gersappa — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:48:36 -0000

Nails it.

Re: Google Reader+ And Identity vs. Personas

Mahendra — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:45:18 -0000

Ah, had not noticed the lack of +1 buttons - now corrected! :)

Thanks, Louis - being remembered when this was being hatched is quite an honor. I am looking forward to what's coming, appreciate your quick response.