angry tapir writes “Apparently the age of ‘superpoking’ social network friends and throwing sheep at them is coming to a close. Google plans to shut down the social applications developed by Slide, a company it acquired a year ago for US$182 million. Slide products include SuperPoke, and photo management and decorating tools like Slideshow and FunPix. Slide’s applications like Slideshow were very popular on MySpace during its heyday, and found success on other social networking sites, including Facebook, where the sheep-throwing feature of SuperPoke caught on, entertaining and annoying many.”
Ex-Google UX guy Paul Adams is perhaps most known for his slideshow “The Real Life Social Network,” which highlighted the perils of having one default group for sharing and emphasized that the ideal social networking service would be designed for multiple groups. The slideshow illustrated the flaws in Facebook’s lump sum friend model and called for a social network where users could set sharing levels to correspond to the 4-6 separate relationship groups that people tend to have.
Sound familiar? Well, if this reminds you a little of Google+ Social Circles, its because Adams was a User Experience Researcher on Google social/Google+ until he left Google in December 2010. The first version of his famous “The Real Life Social Network” deck was published in April 2010, at least two months before the project started (with an even earlier version published two years ago).
While designer Andy Hertzfeld and team have been lauded for the (granted) amazing design, it’s less discussed that Hertzfeld inherited the Circles model from Adams, and simply designed the front-end user experience for it.
Poetically enough, Adams, who is now at Facebook, was asked by current Googler Chris Messina on Google+ what he thought about the service. He responded by elaborating on a tweet where he likened the experience of the Google+ launch to seeing an ex-girlfriend in public.
Adams wrote, “It was like when you first see her you have a moment where you have a niggle of regret and wonder for a split second, but that quickly passes when you remember why you broke up with her.”
Adams directed me to Facebook PR when asked for further comment on his opinion and involvement on Social Circles. I’m sure their response will be fascinating. While we wait, you can flip through the slideshow that started it all, below.
adeelarshad82 writes “Switzerland and Australia already feel that violent video games are an issue, and in June the US Supreme Court will also take matters in its own hands. Revisiting some of the most violent video games made over the last couple of decades shows exactly why this is such a huge concern.” Warning: this slideshow contains imaginary violence.
Earlier today Google User Experience Lead Paul Adams, whose much discussed slideshow revealed the gaps in the way Facebook’s social graph represented human relationships, announced he will be heading to Facebook in January. Adams had worked on the Google UX team for over four years.
Adam’s impressive “Real Life Social Network” slideshow, which got over 400K views, 1799 Facebook shares and was the subject of ample press coverage, hinted at how Google could successfully foray into the social market by taking advantage of the fact that humans are a part of multiple social groups.
Aside from foreshadowing Facebook’s own revamp of its own group product three months later, the presentation gave many the impression that Google was finally serious about social.
According to his tweet, Adams will be joining Facebook in the New Year. I’ve contacted both Adams and Facebook for more information and have no word yet on what his official Facebook title will be. His LinkedIn profile still reads “Senior User Experience Researcher at Google.”
Kilrah_il writes “Google’s Creative Labs came out with a slideshow of interesting things on the web. In the slideshow you will find ‘a lot of interesting HTML5 apps, iPhone apps, visualization tools, 3D projections, art projects, creative YouTube videos, crowdsourcing services and many other interesting things.’ It’s basically a collection of fascinating little projects people have made and then distributed to the internet at large. Guaranteed to ruin your productivity for today. You can view it with Google Docs.”
Scientists at the University of British Columbia have found that looking at someone who appears sick boosts your immune system. Subjects had blood taken before and after watching a 10-minute slide show that contained disturbing images including people who appeared sick. Results of the blood tests showed people who had seen the sick people had a stronger immune system. From the article: “In the study, young adults were asked to watch a 10-minute slide show containing a series of unpleasant photographs. Some pictures included people who looked obviously ill in some way. The subjects’ blood samples were then tested for levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a substance produced by the immune system that indicates your immune system is ramping up to more aggressively fight infection. As a control, pictures of people brandishing guns were also used on some participants—and they barely resulted in a significant increase in IL-6 production, signifying that IL-6 production is not simply a reaction to stress.”
loose electron submitted a (sigh) slideshow page documenting 10 of the worst products from CES this year. Includes a baseball hat with a TV in the brim, vibrating earbuds, an android powered microwave, and what appears to be the next generation of Teddy Ruxpin.
