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Newsapple
design, internet
June 29, 2004, 03:18 PM
I came across a video of the next version of Safari's news aggregator capabilities (via Andy, via Dave). I was struck by one thing; damn, but it looks a lot like Newsable! Right down to the sort and archive (or "recent articles") options. Of course, I can't really tell that much about its full feature repertoire from peering at the short and small video, but that's the impression I got about the core interaction, anyway.
I'll admit, it's improbable that Apple really got the idea from me (though it wouldn't be the first time ;), but it is encouraging to see that what I came up with was very similar to their design. Seems I must have been on the right track, at least.
On the other hand, this does cast Newsable's future into a certain amount of doubt, since I'm not sure I want to compete with the likes of Apple. Chad and I had some ideas for new directions we could take Newsable (not gonna tell you what they are; Apple might steal them), so maybe we'll have a chance to work on that someday. In the meantime, though, maybe it's time to start thinking about that WYSIWYG blogging tool I've been meaning to write...
Gmail and the Desirability of Scarcity
internet, society & sociology
June 28, 2004, 12:23 PM
I haven't made a big deal out of it, but I've had a Gmail account since around the time Google publicly announced the service (thanks to Kevin). It's a great little webapp, perhaps the best email client I've ever used, but that's not the point of this post.
Since April, Google has given current users of the service the ability to invite a limited number (2 or 3) of their friends into the fold. This has had the effect of introducing an artificial scarcity of Gmail accounts. I'm guessing that it's also had the effect of making them much more desirable than they otherwise would have been.
When Kevin first sent me the invite, my first thought was "ho hum, another webmail service". But then I got curious, largely because I felt rather privileged. I was cool enough to know Kevin and get early access to this new service. So I signed up, and wound up moving all my email to a webmail client (something I'd never expected I'd do).
Granted, Gmail's superior design and storage capacity were critical factors in this decision. Had Gmail failed to differentiate itself from its competition, I would have taken a look but turned away and gone back to Entourage. But the invite system was enough to convince me to take that first look. Often the weakness of good human-centered design is that it isn't always apparent at first glance, so people may never buy the product even if it would turn out to benefit them greatly. The invite served to make that jump, at least for me.
And it seemed to work for other people as well. During the first round of invites Gmail accounts were going for upwards of $50 on Ebay (now that they're much less scarce, their price has dropped dramatically, of course). The website Gmail Swap was created for people looking to trade things in exchange for Gmail accounts.
I don't know whether this was intentional on Google's part; there are certainly other reasons they might have done it. After all, handing out limited invites makes it easier to control how quickly the application scales so that Google's server admins don't get deluged with an unexpectedly high numbers of new users. But the marketing angle is more interesting; one wonders whether it would apply to other products. Perhaps this is a form of computer-based social networking that 1) doesn't rely on colored bubbles and lines and 2) is actually practically useful.
While we're on the subject, it has been brought to my attention that Google is branching out in new directions. Their next project involves producing a tangy, cheese-based cracker spread. When released, it'll be called "G-Whiz".
Ok, that was bad.
Posted by Robert on October 12, 2004 at 01:16 PM
Some good insight and analysis of Gmail. I've enjoyed the move to the new e-mail service, too.
Of course, now it is not scarce and I'm wondering what is in store when they roll it out for everyone to use.
On another note, I'm curious, what blog software are you using? It appears to be Serendipity in functions/layout. The template/style looks like a modded Serendipity template.
Just wondering what your experience has been with it. I've experimented with many blogging packages. I was wondering what your evaluation is i.e., functionality, etc. I moved from Serendipity (but liked it a lot). I couldn't effectively moderate/control the 'comment spamming' thing.
But, i see that you've effectively incorporated a 'number' fill-in function. I'd love to know if it is available as a plugin.
Nice site!
Thanks.
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