Facebook is still superior…for now.
Basically, Buzz doesn’t make it as easy to connect with people you’re not already connected with, and it doesn’t allow you to communicate in the same ways that have made Facebook fun and popular.
One of the advantages to Facebook is you can ask a person a question or share something with them that is viewable publicly, and then the responses gets communicated publicly as well. It’s far more fun that way, and it allows everyone who can see the post to keep in the loop with what’s going on with your life. It’s sort of analogous with listening in to a conversation at a party. You can follow what’s going on, and even start new topics if you want, but either way you get that feeling of inclusion.
With Google Buzz, the only way to start a conversation is to send someone an email. If you get an email from someone you’re most likely to respond via email as well, so its more like a private phone call. I can’t go into the Buzz feed, find Kevin or Lisa (names changed to protect the innocent), and ask them something via Buzz that anyone that follows them can get in on.
One other thing that is odd about Buzz, is that it’s not easy to find people to follow if you don’t have their email address to begin with. I can’t just search for people by name, because a search for followers only searches through my contacts. My search for Kevin didn’t return anything. I had to wait until he started following Lisa, and then I could follow Kevin. On Facebook I can browse through lists of people that my friends know as a way of finding people that I know as well. I can browse through my mom’s list of Facebook friends, and even though I may not want to add her friends as my friends, I may want to add some of their children as my friends since we grew up together.
Buzz blocks access to those lists until they are followers of the people I’m following or create a public profile. Right now on Lisa’s list, I can see 5 followers, including names, but she’s following 12 people. I may know some of those people (not likely, but it’s possible), and I won’t be able to follow them until they make their profile public or they start following Lisa in return.
Facebook has had years to get these basic things working for them, and Google is just starting out. I’d expect things to change in the future!
It’s been a bit since we posted… Disneyland was a blast, but I came home with a fairly significant sinus infection that had me coughing like crazy. It’s still hanging around but the doctor gave me some antibiotics, and I’m on the mend.
But that’s old news. The new news? We have a visitor in our midst!
His name is Ranger, and he’s a shelter dog from the humane society. He’s SO CUTE! We’re fostering him – on our own terms. After consulting my local experts (namely, my parents and my boss at the doggy daycare), we think he’s about 7 months old, and he’s an American Bull Dog/Lab/? mix. Truly a mystery. The shelter said he was a pit bull, but his head isn’t the right shape for it. We’ll see how he turns out.
I say we’re fostering him on our own terms, because I’m going to train him into a little model citizen before I even start considering finding him a home. Because bully breeds get a bad rap (or even worse, get used a fight dogs!), I’ve made it my mission to make it impossible for people to fear him. I’ve even considered looking into getting him into service dog training.
Even though he’s still very young, so his adult temperament hasn’t come out yet, he’s VERY gentle playing with other dogs and people. He doesn’t bark very often – mostly when he sees a cat (or catlike critter! He barked at my parents’ Westie), or when he’s trying to get another dog to play. He responds well to correction, and is already well on his way to mastering ‘Sit’ and ‘Heel.’ He goes outside and goes potty whenever we let Boris out, but we haven’t worked out a signal with him for when he needs to go out. He’s only had one potty accident since we got him… and he was all drugged up from getting neutered at the time, so we can’t really fault him. He’s got a pretty good idea that we don’t want him on the furniture (but he tries to climb halfway into your lap, or chases Boris up onto the furniture when they’re playing), and we’re working on crate training. He hasn’t been the LEAST bit people shy yet, or dog shy, so we’re going to work hard to keep him that way.
Oh yeah, did I mention that he’s already 50 pounds? Boris is 23 pounds…
So, for those of you who are completely unaware…and I’m not sure who those people would be I’m sure they’re out there…Jessie and I are heading to Disneyland tomorrow morning. Boris will be staying with our friend Richard, and Kegan will be watching the house for us. I’m taking the rest of the month off work, so I’ll have a nice, long period of time when I can simply sleep in and relax.
Jessie and I are bringing enough electronic gadgetry to let us document our trip, so don’t be too surprised if you see updates from on on our twitter feed/facebook pages or perhaps even some photos posted here! Stay tuned…
Stranger than Fiction starring Will Ferrel is still my favorite movie. I haven’t watched it for a while, and I’m watching it now. It’s awesome. If you haven’t seen it, go rent it, borrow it, watch it. Right now. Go. Why are you sill reading this? Didn’t I tell you to go get this movie?