Comments on: Game Changer: Why Google bought Aardvark for $50 million

By: A cough man

A cough man — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:03:12 +0000

this is way more interesting than any track and field event:
http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/olympics/2006/writer...
http://www.pinedaleonline.com/news/2007/03/thb-...

and hockey is basketball for men with testicles.

By: A cough man

A cough man — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:03:12 +0000

this is way more interesting than any track and field event:
http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/olympics/2006/writer...
http://www.pinedaleonline.com/news/2007/03/thb-...

and hockey is basketball for men with testicles.

By: amitklein

amitklein — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:10:02 +0000

I love the aardvark chat bot, it's awesome. You're right about privacy being the biggest concern and the mobile usage for Aardvark could be incredible.

By: amitklein

amitklein — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:08:51 +0000

Google does make it easy to link up the other services, but they key for them will be getting integration with FB. Google has 176 mil gmail users, FB has 400 mil users, half of whom login every day. That's ridiculous.

No one uses Google ID, Facebook connect is spreading much quicker. I think FB will eventually become your defacto identity on the web, there is already too much built up (all the photos you're tagged in, all the connections you've made). A few caveats though, they are being pushed hard to open up and let you export all this data, and like you rightfully mentioned privacy concerns being huge. Some more big blunders and people could hit the kill switch. I also think there will be a counter movement of people (mid 20's hipsters) leaving this social networks in droves in a few years. We'll see…

By: amitklein

amitklein — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:05:10 +0000

also, i will be headin to SF sometime soonish… finally the winter olympics are stupid except for the biathlon – ski ski shoot shoot ski shoot

By: amitklein

amitklein — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:03:00 +0000

It's not just gonna be some random/anonymous person answering your questions (the current google static search model – random blog posts), it will be someone you either directly have a connection with, friend of a friend, or someone who the community rates as really knowledgeable in the area (high reputation within that niche). If one of my friends answers your questions, you can ask me, hey does this guy know what he's talking about. You will get multiple answers also, so you dont have to trust one person. It's also not about always getting the “right” answer, but getting the resources to help you find the right answer.

I remember a long time ago Google said their goal was to show you just one answer for your search query… that to me seems really scary, isn't this better?

By: A cough man

A cough man — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:00:00 +0000

I think product recommendations are exactly why I want expert opinions. I don't necessarily need an Olympic gold medalist to tell me what ski gloves to buy, but I don't want to hear from some guy who fancies himself a skier just because he had fun hitting on divorces in Aspen last winter. There is actually an outdoor gear website that offers this service along side selling the goods (though I can't remember which one at the moment). It's probably just REI employees chatting online, but at least I have some assurance of their authority on the subject, even if it is slightly biased. I'm sure Aardvark is more interesting than I'm imagining it. I'll never sign up for it though.

Get your ass out to the west coast one of these years. San Fran 2012-ish.

Off to the opening ceremonies. They got these Olympics on.

By: Ankit

Ankit — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:47:25 +0000

If i one looks at a product integration standpoint Buzz + Wave + Aardvark makes great sense. However Aardvark needs to be much better in design – I have subscribed to them and interaction is very limited. Privacy for me still continues to be a huge issue for Social Engines – Google has introduced changes in Buzz however I believe they need further modification. A service like Aardvark on the mobile in India will be huge. It can completely change consumers use mobile

By: Elroy Serrao

Elroy Serrao — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:40:24 +0000

Actually IMO success/ failure depends more on how Google measures them rather than how you and me perceive it. That being said, yeah I'd agree that some of the stuff they launched didn't really take off as we expected.
I don't really see FB surviving in its current avatar say 5 years down the line (I may be wrong though). It's still very much a social networking site more than anything else. And if history teaches us anything, the public is fickle...they might just abandon FB for the next big thing - like indian users did to orkut when FB hit Indian shores big time. At its core, it basically keeps track of your identity and your connections and any conversations you may have with them. But importantly it does so within its own closed garden.
Google if you really look at it offers pretty much the same, but in a significantly less polished interface. But it goes beyond that, thanks to its many acquisitions. I was amazed seeing how easily I could link up youtube, google reader, maps, feedburner, flickr etc with Buzz or how easily normal chat connections, email connections and my orkut profile linked together.
FB isn't as connected. Don't know if its possible to chat with my facebook connections when they are online, from outside of facebook for example – say through pidgin.
Besides this Google uses Open ID, making integration with Google a lot easier as opposed to using Facebook connect IMO. Still some areas like Facebook Pages don't have an equivalent in the google world as yet, nor do games like Zynga's monster hit Farmville. But if Facebook moves to the desktop in a form like tweetdeck in the long run, then don't think these factors may matter as much.
End of the day I'd say the jury's still out on Facebook (both for or against). Time will tell. And it will certainly be interesting to see how Facebook evolves over the years.

By: amitklein

amitklein — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:08:30 +0000

I mean Lively failed, Youtube/Wave are arguable the others we're not really sure what Goog did. I'm very bullish on Facebook, the reason being they will eventually be everywhere on the web. You will no longer have to go to Facebook, Facebook will be on every site. The next big play by FB is their currency system. This will make it dead simple for you to make payments on any site on the web, goodbye paypal and google checkout.

I agree with your desktop theory of aggregation, but if FB can be the underlying social glue tying it together they will succeed. Their biggest concern, as you rightfully mentioned, is privacy issues.