Google Wave: Now in Beta!
Google Wave now in Beta
Google released it’s newest (and most ambitious) product to beta testing this week to 100,000 lucky participants. Google wave is an online collaboration medium that incorporates email, wikis, blogging, and everything “web 2.0″ into a single UI. Reviews are starting to emerge, and it looks like for us “techy” folk, this could change the way we work and communicate online. Some reviewers, however, have criticized that with the overwhelming number of features and a complicated UI could be a detriment to it’s success to the every day consumer.
“There is so much that it can do, but past 100,000 users, if you want grandma to use it, Google needs a clear adoption path and to be able to communicate why people would want to use it.”
One thing is for sure: this product is one of the most anticipated releases of a Google product we can remember. It’s features have many people foaming at the mouth just to get a sneak peek. Could it change the way we communicate and collaborate online? Time will tell.
Reddit attacked by comment bomb…just kidding.
Last Sunday, Mashable reported that an apparent attacker has figured out how to use Javascript to use your account to put comments onto Reddit. The XSS (cross site scripting) reportedly spread itself by adding rogue comments using your account when you hover over a comment containing the hacked code. Users were warned to turn off Javascript before entering the website while the exploit was present.
Mashable.com later reported that the site was NOT attacked: and the exploit had been fixed:
“As it turns out, the hack in question is due to Reddit not stripping certain pieces of code from its comment boxes, which can be used to execute a malicious script using an XSS (cross-site scripting) vulnerability.” … “Some Redditers decided to have some fun by pasting code in the comments, but Reddit was quick to fix this problem, and now the code is replaced – in typical Reddit fashion – with the words “i am a terrible person”
Google adds “Hot Trends” OneBox to search results
Danny Sullivan reported this week that Google has added it’s Hot Trends feature as a OneBox to the bottom of search results when appropriate. The results can be seen for anything that is currently a hot search term and includes a graph of the trending topic.
RJ Pittman, director of product management for consumer search properties at Google, had this to say about the new OneBox feature:
“The idea behind the [Hot Trends] OneBox is to not only provide you with search results as you’d want but also extra meta data on how popular the search is and whether it has peaked in interest, plus the number of sites that are creating chatter and buzz about this particular topic or person, to give a relative hotness rating as well”
This move is not surprising as Google has taken a real interest in competing in the real-time search arena. This is only a small step in this area, however. It will likely take much more for Google to compete with Twitter’s real-time Search engine.
Google SideWiki – Another reason to allow comments on your blog?
Last week, google released another new product called SideWiki. The tool appears as a browser sidebar and allows you to read and contribute comments and/or information to any single web page. Google’s purpose for the application is to allow “you to contribute helpful information next to any web page”. But Mack Collier of SocialMediaToday.com suggests that its use is more likely to be a replacement for blogs and websites that do not allow comments. In his argument, he uses Seth Godin’s blog as an example; specifically the post relaying the release of Brands In Public which (if you remember) caused a bit of a stir in the blogosphere. Seth’s blog does not have comments enabled, and as a result, the SideWiki content for his post is full of negative comments about the product.
Looks like another product that Google had good intentions for, but is going to be used for an entirely different purpose. In any case, it’s just one more reason for bloggers and webmasters to allow comments on their sites so they can better control and manage potentially damaging opinions.
The lighter side of Social Media:
- Glen Beck forces the owner of glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com to come forward to defend the ownership of his website. If you’re in the mood for a good laugh, read the lawyer’s response to Mr. Beck’s copyright claim.
- Remove your site from Google or I’ll sue. This is a letter that must be read to believe! If you are an SEO by trade, or simply own a site where google rankings are important to you, this is a must read.
- Facebook doesn’t lie. Here’s just one more reason that letting people know what you’re up to can get you into trouble…especially if you try to lie about it.
- Last but not least: your cat picture of the week. For all you cat lovers.
