Yet another Newfoundland classic guaranteed to get everybody in the pub singing along…
Head Tale
Yet Another Librarian's Blog
A Few Thoughts on Google+
At the end of June, Google released Google+, their latest attempt at creating a social networking site to compete with Facebook and Twitter.
After the failures of Google Wave and Google Buzz, some saw Google+ as a potential “three strikes and you’re out” last ditch attempt by Google to finally gain traction in the social space (though when you have the resources – financial and talent-wise – of a Google, baseball analogies probably don’t work too well. I mean, what would that make Orkut – a foul ball caught by a spectator from Brazil?)
Anyhow, as happened with the limited initial release of Gmail invites (when people were buying them for hundreds of dollars on E-bay!), I was able to get an invite soon after the site launched. This time, my invite came via the generosity of an ex-Googler who was sharing his thoughts about the new service in a MetaFilter thread.
Since then, Shea and I have been on holidays which has given me more time than usual to follow the growth of Google+, read reactions from across the web and play around with the site myself. And the consensus seems to be that Google has finally gotten it right and that Google+ is a potential Facebook-killer as well as a mortal wound to Twitter.
I’m going to reserve judgment on that for now but what I’ve seen so far has impressed me. The granularity of the control given to how you classify and share with your contacts via the use of “Circles” is one of the biggest attractions but there are others – from Google’s respect for your content compared to Facebook to defaulting to secure settings for all transmissions.
There are negatives too of course – from malware filled add-ons that sprung up almost immediately claiming they could help people transition from Facebook to Google+ to censorship of any and all nudity instead of some type of ratings system for photos and video.
Reddit’s /r/googleplus sub-reddit has been one of my main sources of information so I encourage you to check it out. Some of what I’ve gotten from there include:
- Google+ cheat sheet
- 25 Tips to Enhance Your Google+ Experience
- Google User Statistics (a great place to fish for Google+ people to follow)
I used up my initial allotment of invites fairly quickly but have had some more appear recently so if you’d like an invite, you can either post a comment, send me an e-mail or, if you like irony, you can also contact me on Facebook!
Friday Fun Link – Newfoundland vs. Saskatchewan
We head for home tomorrow and after 10 days in Newfoundland, I’ve managed to confirm my long-held belief that Newfoundland and Saskatchewan are two of the most unexpectedly similar provinces in Canada.
- In Saskatchewan, we farm the land. In Newfoundland, they farm the sea.
- Both provinces have reputations for extremely friendly, welcoming people.
- To be honest, both provinces also have reputations for having citizens who are slow or rubes (which might connect to that last point?)
- Both provinces were long-time “have not” provinces.
- Both provinces are now leading the country in economic growth with Sask as #1 and Newfoundland #2.
- For both provinces, this nation-leading position is mostly due to oil and mining-related activity.
- In Saskatchewan, you may see a majestic bison by the road. In Newfoundland, you may see a majestic moose.
- In Saskatchewan, a big chunk of the population drinks Pilsner as a “unique” local brew even though it’s brewed by one of the country’s largest brewers. In Newfoundland, a big chunk of the population drinks Black Horse as a “unique” local brew even though it’s brewed by one of the country’s largest brewers.
- Newfoundlanders have dealt with (and continue to deal with) the cod moratorium. Saskatchewanites have dealt with the BSE Mad Cow outbreak (though I freely admit these are in no way comparable unless Saskatchewan was required by the government to all but completely abandon its beef industry for 15 years.)
- Saskatchewan had Tommy Douglas. Newfoundland had Joey Smallwood – both of whom had a massive impact on the country, much beyond the size of the provinces they led.
There are some differences too…
- Saskatchewan’s lifestyle and culture are heavily influenced by Eastern European immigrants. Newfoundland’s lifestyle and culture are heavily influenced by Irish immigrants.
- As I’ve written about before, they have a musical culture that I think we lack in Saskatchewan.
- I notice stupid things like how, in Saskatchewan, stop signs at an angled cross-road will have a piece of tin along the edge so there’s no chance that the driver with the right-of-way will think the stop sign is for them. They don’t have that in Newfoundland.
- Related, our roads are basically straight lines as our our city streets. Here, not so much.
- We have gophers. They have seagulls.
- Newfoundland is about as far from Hawaii as it gets yet somehow they have Pineapple Crush soda pop and Saskatchewan doesn’t???
I’m sure there’s lots more I’m missing. I’ll add others as I think of them.
Newfoundland Trip – Music Monday – “To wake in the early morn/To the sound of the old fog horn/And wait for the men to return/With their boats in the bay”
Last Monday, I wrote about the musical cultures of the various provinces. Now that I’m here in Newfoundland, the musicality of this province is overwhelming. I couldn’t name a single folk song that unifies the people of Saskatchewan (does “Last Saskatchewan Pirate” count?) whereas I’ve heard the song below probably half a dozen times in the three days we’ve been here, in pubs and at the wedding reception, by buskers on the street and on the radio with it never failing to start a sing-a-long:
Newfoundland Trip – Ferryland Picnic
And how’s your day going? 😉
