As Chris Messina points out in this post, the new Facebook global Like button and the Open Graph Protocol benefit Facebook more than anyone. But if you get to Page 3 of ReadWriteWeb’s Definitive Guide for Publishers, Users, and Competitors, Alex Iskold talks about the Semantic Web becoming a reality. I believe that this enhancement of the metadata made available by web site developers hoping to take advantage of the “Facebook Juice” is where developers can start to really open up the Open Graph Protocol and use it for a business/financial advantage.
I’m looking, here, at the kinds of things people have built on top of Twitter, and I have to think that as more sites embed metadata in their pages, there will be a great opportunity for new services to use that data. I haven’t come up with anything yet, but it’s only been, what, a week? The slow, wooden wheels of my mind are creaking as they attempt to churn out ideas.
Nels Facebook Facebook, Open Graph Protocol, Semantic Web
Zen Habits has a very good list of things that will help you simplify your work day.
Most of these I’ve seen before, but here’s a new one (which is sort of similar to other things I’ve seen, but different enough I thought it was worth quoting):
# Practice a focus ritual. Every hour or two, do a refocus ritual. This only takes a minute or two. You might start it by closing down your browser and maybe other open applications, and maybe even take a walk for a couple of minutes to clear your head and get your blood circulating. Then return to your list of Most Important Tasks and figure out what you need to accomplish next. Before you check email again or go back online, work on that important task for as long as you can. Repeat this refocus ritual throughout the day, to bring yourself back. It’s also nice to take some nice deep breaths to focus yourself back on the present.
Nels Getting Things Done, Personal Improvement, Productivity Getting Things Done, Personal Improvement, Productivity, Zen Habits
But none of the recently announced innovations are making my eyes light up like a kid first gazing on his Easter basket.
First, from the Gmail Blog: Nested Labels and Message Preview. The Nested Labels thing actually did have me excited as though it were a chocolate egg or perhaps a Peep. But then I read this:
Please note that this lab doesn’t play nicely with the “Hide Read Labels” lab. You might not get exactly what you expect if you have both labs enabled; for example, the collapse/expand icons won’t always appear when they should.
and all the twinkle in my eyes was snuffed out. I tried it out and found it to be true. It didn’t work.
Honestly, the “Hide Read Labels” lab experiment is more important to me than sub-labels ever could be. Since I make extensive use of the keyboard shortcuts, I can navigate to any label I want with a simple “g + l” or “/” and the name of the label. I use the “Hide Read Labels” so that I only see labels with unread messages, which gives me a visual indicator of what has been filtered out of my Inbox and placed under another label for later viewing. Thus instead of viewing 44 labels, I can collapse my chatterbox (which I don’t use anyway since I have Trillian) and see my Calendar Gadget. Viewing Unread Messages and Upcoming Events is easily of more value than being able to have labels under other labels. Of course, the whole labeling system was designed so that you don’t really need nested labels at all. I know there are people who have not given up the folder hierarchy mindset, but it’s too bad that they’ll have to give up their hidden read labels in order to get it.
Read more…
Nels Diatribes, Gmail, Google, Misc Tech android, Droid, Gmail, iPhone, Nexus One
ReadWriteWeb says it’s already common in Asia.
I told me wife when we got our iPhones last year that some day we’d be paying with our phones instead of credit cards. She wasn’t entirely convinced, but I think the only real argument she had was that if you lose your phone you lose not just your contacts, calendar, apps, etc, but you also lose your payment device. I don’t really see how that’s any more of a problem than losing your credit card… All you do is call your company and cancel it.
The argument I see is that if your credit card bill melds with your phone bill, we’ll probably stop getting the same kinds of rewards from credit cards. I’ve been able to save quite a bit of money for retirement simply by using cards that provide rewards with companies where I have my IRA accounts.
Of course, the RWW article doesn’t say if the charges on an NFC-enabled phone accrue to your phone bill, or if it can simply be used with an existing credit card account.
Nels Misc Tech iPhone, NFC, The Future is Coming
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