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June 21, 2013 - Comments Off on Inside Digg’s Race to Build the New Google Reader

Inside Digg’s Race to Build the New Google Reader

Look, the Internet is made of fast. You go fast or you die. But lost in the Clouds of bullshit and hype there’s this true thing: The internet is a technology that can connect us instantaneously to all sorts of information. That instant access lets us learn and connect and transact in entirely new ways. It’s what drives everything online–from I need to know about the Peloponnesian War right now to who is nearby that will take a couple of bucks for a spot in their back seat, sharing economy, #YOLO. It’s just impossibly fast. Even so, few things move faster than they do at the new Digg. This is the team who, in just six weeks, took a dying brand that collapsed under the weight of its own spam and made it something vibrant and vital: a place you wanted to go.

 

So in April, when Google announced it was shutting down Google Reader on July 1, it was almost unsurprising that Digg replied–that same day–We’ve got this.

 

This is the story of how a tiny team took 90 days to pull off the impossible.

 

via Inside Digg's Race to Build the New Google Reader: Wired.com.

That is but a taste of the fantastic article by Mat Honan for Wired. A true behind-the-scenes of what modern day development is like, you should check out the whole thing. It reminds me of the famous Marcel Proust quote "The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains.'

 

 

Published by: antonioortiz in The Thinking Mechanism
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November 30, 2012 - Comments Off on The MechCast 207: What Podcasting Wants

The MechCast 207: What Podcasting Wants

We finally convene for the Sandy-delayed recording of the podcast to discuss Kevin Kelly's book What Technology Wants. Ben, Dave and I do our best to remember what our notes mean since they were written down two months ago when we read the book. Despite the delay we end up having a lively conversation about technology, the future, and human nature.

 

Published by: antonioortiz in The Mechcast
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July 1, 2011 - Comments Off on The Thinking Mechanism – 7/1/11

The Thinking Mechanism – 7/1/11

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients.

Right before we all have a holiday weekend to spend time face to face with our circle of friends Google makes several announcements concerning the social web:

Google+, their next foray into social networking after Orkut and Buzz, has a distinctly micro-social approach and user-friendly privacy settings. The fact that you can easily download any content you input into it and can easily delete your account with one click, if you chose to do so, proves that Google intends to compete with Facebook by providing ease of use. Click here to see the introductory videos. Click here to read a comprehensive look at the launch by Steven Levy of Wired Magazine.

• Google Analytics now features Social Interaction Tracking. Update your Analytics code and get full activity reports on all your social media buttons, including +1, Like, Tweet.

Google Takeout allows you to download a copy of your data stored within Google products.

Google Swiffy is not directly related to social networking, instead it lets you upload a swf file and convert it to HTML5. More HTML5 sites means access to the web in more mobile devices and more content to share on Google+.

• Let's not forget about Google search, they've also announced a collaboration with the Getty Museum to allow visual searches of artworks.

What Do You Love? A new page that shows you the results of your search across all Google products in one location.

• On the other side of the social spectrum, Facebook is quietly testing their first major redesign in over a year. The new design, which some of us are already experiencing live, feature an additional "What's Happening Now" Twitter-like stream besides the News Feed and will have navigation and advertising elements remain static on the page as you scroll down.

• And lastly, in honor of the Fourth of July: how fireworks and sparklers are made.