Google Open Social I’m Disappointed I Think
Posted on November 2nd, 2007by Michael Gray in Google
So am I the only one confused/let down/disappointed by Google open social? I mean like I actually thought Google/it was going to do something other than being a bunch of incoherent technical gobbeldy gook? Umm Google I know I’ve said this before but when you guys release something, it really needs to be written in non-programming speak. I’m not a programmer by trade, but I can write code and if you’ve confused the hell out of me most people are never going to get it.
Please don’t tell me to watch a 57 minute video, explaining it. It just goes to show that you don’t have to be Robert Scoble to produce incredibly long, boring, tedious and unwatchable videos. We live in sound bite world, you need give people what they are looking for in a quick, easy to understand uncluttered format, not bog them down with TMI or information overload (that’s why full RSS feed are great and partial feeds suck).
So c’mon Google I come to the page under “where do I start” and I still don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to do …
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November 2nd, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Amen. I was totally confused. I’m not a programmer either, but I thought Google was going to enter the Social Media field. They didn’t. The created a mashaup. Total puss out.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Start watching the video at the 10 minute mark, where they build an app in four steps in just 2-3 minutes.
Or watch starting at 55 minutes in for one minute, where iLike built an application that plugs into MySpace in ~24 hours.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
so why make me site through 10/55 minutes of stuff to get what’s important? I see counter hit 57 minutes I’m bailing without even watching one minute, I don’t have an hour to wade through something hoping there might be something good. You know what I mean …
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 pm
You don’t get it because you’re not the target market. Software developers are.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I’m just guessing (it’s not my area), but I think that they wanted to be as open and inclusive as possible. This way, Google can say “Hey, you get to see the entire presentation that visitors to the Googleplex did!”
Put another way, if they only showed a five-minute highlight video, someone would have written an article with the headline “OpenSocial isn’t open at all! Google gives secret briefing to attendees; everyone else gets the abridged version!” I tend to stay away from breathless headlines, but I know how that flavor of linkbait works.
Given the choice of open but with some boring spots or short/exciting but not everyone gets all the info, I’m glad they posted the full hour. Once you get past the first 10 minutes of introduction and context, the demos are interesting; I ended up watching the whole thing this morning, even though I almost never watch hour-long videos.
Here’s my quick summary. This framework lets you write an app that will run on lots of different platforms (MySpace, Orkut, Ning). The APIs let you get people info (my info, my friends), activities info (stuff that people did), and store persistent data. The persistent data is fun because you can store key-value pairs of data on a per-user, per-gadget-instance, or global level.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I suppose then, the happy medium (no pun intended) would be to have a series of videos?
Small tasters that serve as introductions to key parts with more loaded longer videos for developers…
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:36 pm
@wayne exactly 57 minutes is huge time investment, give me the best in less then 5 minutes, even better less then 2 or 3 minutes, and link me to the extended version.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Well, I am a programmer, so after glancing through the API it seems easy enough (not any more complicated than doing an AJAX project). I was planning on reading through the API completely over the next week or so. I have two sites that would benefit from taking the time to make a php module and adding open social SPI to.
I’m sure as time goes along there will be some GPL’d or PD code relating to Open Social that will pop up and make things easier for everyone.
(BTW. The long version of the video was really boring. Like an extended infomercial. But it did clue you into a few things you might be able to do with the API. I mainly just listened to the audio as I was working.)
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I’m a busy man being semi-retired. So nowadays I let the blogs distill, filter, and bubble to the top the do-not-read-the-instructions-just-do-this short courses. I’ve noticed that it’s usually the professionally funded/staffed blogzines who end up investing the time to develop and post what I need, I might add. Take that fwiw.
The assorted headlines flowing by on my various reading lists (I still don’t use a reader, Michael –unless you count bumpzee.) just keep me informed of what’s out there and what *might* be of interest. The sheer number of blog headlines gives me an idea of what needs to be on my radar.
Fwiw2, I never watch instructional videos, 1 minute or 57 minutes makes no difference, both are worthless. I use other sites’ text keystrokes to assemble my own instruction manual.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
>sheer number of blog headlines gives me an idea
I should mention that you’ll have to develop you’re own fanboy filter. Anything Google or Apple, for instance, is going to be wildly overblown in the sheer numbers category.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:12 pm
If it helps, here’s where some example code is:
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/gs.html#GGE
(Definitely helps me. The first thing I want to see when I go to a new project site is the “simple” example code. The docs and the API can wait till after that.)
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:59 pm
R. C. Jordan makes a good point, but should we really be having to wait for the community to respond?
That said, all of this could be a little previous; maybe Google are working on more videos.
But then again, you’d have thought Google would have prepared any / all resources (video or otherwise) before releasing Open Social into the wild…
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
>wait for the community to respond?
In my case, yes, I’ll wait …it’s proven to be worthwhile to do so, both time-wise and -perhaps more importantly, IDEA-wise. For example, I might want to know how this can be used specifically for seo and I’m more likely to see that perspective during my heavily vertical-ized reading. I’m not likely to get the insight I need from the in-house resources.
November 5th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I run into the exact same problem every time I try to explain something to a client so that they won’t ever bug me with inane questions again.
And you know what happens? My wife (and company Admin) has to go through it and peel out all the sh*t that the client won’t understand.
My argument is the same as Matt Cutts’ in that I just don’t want them claiming that I never told them.
And her argument is always the same: Overkill will ensure that they definitely lose whatever answer they were looking for.
There’s merits to both sides, but you can surely guess which one gets implemented… heh.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:07 am
As Rico points out, this tool was designed for developers not users of social networks or SEO’s.
This post is an example of a common problem in the IT Industry.
In any IT business there’s the math and science heavy developers and theres everyone else; customers, executives, marketing, support, etc.
There is a huge demand for the middle man. The Project Manager that understands development and developers and can translate it to something everyone else can use and understand. Most developers have no interest in this job because its removes them from development and most project managers have no interest in this job because its a PAIN to be caught in the middle trying to make both sides understand.
November 5th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Well, don’t know about opensocial’s usability, but you make a good point about Scoble’s videos!
November 11th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
followup: Tim O’Reilly, a few days after this thread, expressed disappointment. Why didn’t Big G come whisper promises in your ear, Michael? hhh.
[1]“While I’m a huge fan of the idea of an open social networking platform, I’m bemused by all the enthusiasm over Google OpenSocial. As I sit with what I learn, the mild skepticism I expressed the other day has turned into full blown disappointment.”
[2]“FWIW, there’s lots of backchannel telling me that Google is far from hostile to the points of view I express here, and in fact, is thinking very much along the lines that I am hoping for. So if this posting is being taken as negative, take it as negative as to this first step being insufficient, not to the ultimate direction. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.”
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/11/opensocial_social_mashups.html