A real win for FourSquare (and other location based services)

As I was browsing the web, FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook, my email, my feedreader and countless other online repositories of information that interest me it struck me that many of these services are so far from being useful it's crazy.

The web (in other words, Google) knows what I like to browse in my free time.  They already show me ads that pertain to my searches but they should be offering me actual information around my history and even my future search requests.  Twitter and Facebook know who my friends are and what they're doing so I should get prompted to go to every tech and/or foodie event.  But what about services like FourSquare or Gowalla?  What can they offer that no one else does?

Sure, the obvious thing is connecting me to what's happening now.  Knowing that I'm visiting a certain area of a city means that I may want to check out the hippest networking event.  But using FourSquare to route (or terminate) my calls is pretty darn cool.  With the launch of OpenVBX from Twilio this is now possible and Andrew Watson has already made a plugin that does just that.

If you haven't heard of OpenVBX yet it's "a web-based open source phone system for business".  While I agree that it can be used by businesses to do some awesome things, the FourSquare plugin just makes so much sense for personal use.  I can now tell my phone number where I'm at, automagically, whenever I check in on FourSquare.  I can let it know that when I'm at the office I want my calls at my desk, when I check in at lunch I want my calls sent straight to voicemail and when I get home at night I'd like them to hit my house phone (if I owned one).

I guess that people will take this one step further by automatically adding their business partner's number to their call list when they are in close proximity to each other just in case their battery dies. Or send a text back to the caller if they're at a club letting the person at the other end know that they clearly can't hear them but a text would work.

While location based services are a great, fun tool to use to track your friends, earn badges and get free drinks (thanks PYT), it's these types of innovative ideas that will let them cross from the 1.5 million user mark to the 1.5 billion user mark (and the corporate world).  And that would be a real win for FourSquare or any other location service.

Why I'm not leaving Facebook

With all the hype about how terrible Facebook is and how their privacy policies are crap and how the world is coming to an end, I think that most people miss one part of this big pizza pie.  If you don't want your information shared, don't post it.

Coming from a network security background, I've always told my clients that the only safe computer is one that's turned off and unplugged from the network.  With that, there's still a slight chance that someone breaks in and steals the hardware so your information really isn't safe unless it was never created.  Strange, I know.

While I understand that people wish that Facebook was better at sharing their policy changes and that they cared more about what their users were saying, the sad fact is that they provide a service to millions of people for free (of cash that is).  You have opted into their service and you are paying with your information.  For those of you out there that didn't know -- Facebook makes their money from ads and partnerships.  Those partnerships pay to have access to your information and to make the world (wide web) go around.   It's how the ecosystem functions.

I understand if you want to quit Facebook.  It's a quick fix to a much larger problem.  Too many people over share information that they don't want out there.  I see it everyday on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, email, Yammer and more.  If you don't want to share it, then don't.  But please don't preach about how Facebook has done you wrong.  From the way I look at it, they've done you a favor -- They've connected you with all of your long lost friends and didn't make you open your wallet.  Isn't that what you always wanted?

Transparency = Good

I got an email this morning from a small company that we use and I have to say, I'm happy about it.

We use ZenDesk for a number of groups at work to track what and how we're doing when it comes to small projects and we find the tool immensly helpful.  It ties in with Active Directory for single sign on and it sends email alerts to all the parties involved to keep them updated on what's going on.

I'm obviously not thrilled with the hike in price (no one really would be) but I am thrilled that they were so transparent about this change.  The email was concise and the reasoning behind the price jump was made abundantly clear.  They even linked off to both their TOS (something Facebook might want to think about more often) and a quick FAQ.

Finally, they did two things that others need to learn to do.  They let me down gracefully and they shared their contact information right there in the email.  They weren't looking for user feedback as to whether or not the price should go up, they simply offered a way to slow down that jump while getting more customers to lock into the product.  It's both smart and friendly and that makes me a happy customer.

So for all of that, I say: Thank you ZenDesk.

The lowest common denominator theory (with technology)

I've been talking to a lot of people about a project that I'm working on (it's still sort of in stealth) and one thing that has come up time and time again is the idea of a lowest common denominator (LCD) when it comes to technology.  The idea is simple: Develop a product that requires the least amount of technology to succeed.  So many products ask too much of their potential market to gain massive adoption.  Make it simple for people but most importantly, make it usable without adding any additional overhead to what they already have or do.

Facebook, in its early years, wanted to reach the college student.  They required only internet and a .edu email address.  Five years prior, not everyone had a college email address and some people didn't even have internet in their dorm rooms (crazy, I know).  But Mark and team looked at their demographic and realized that their users had the tools necessary to join the network so they in turn are now one of the most popular sites in the world.

Google wanted to launch a search platform.  Back in the day (1998) people didn't have high speed internet as readily available as they do now, computers were slower and monitors were smaller (now my 24" screen is outdated).  Because their product didn't require massive amounts of processing power and kept the design simple, everyone was able to access the site and search the globe.  Because they offered a service that matched their LCD they too are one of the most visited sites on the web and they are making over twenty three billion dollars per year.

When you're working on your next project, make sure you think about who your target is.  Cater to them.  Make your product simple.  And most of all, think about that LCD.