January 19, 2012
More than a few folks are wondering what a Google hangout is. Let’s clear up the mystery – it’s everything to do with online conference-type video calling and nothing (at all) to do with the Google Inc chiefs chilling out in a Silicon Valley style tree house.
In essence, participating in a Google hangout is pretty much like MSN Messenger of old used to be – remember the chat room days? Fast forward 10 or more years and it’s all about seeing who you’re talking to, as well as being able to respond to them much the same way as you would in any normal conversation.
Basically Google Inc have developed a free (yes free … is this going to become Google’s new Google Earth? I do hope so) software app that enables users from around the world to get together, to ‘hangout’. And truth be known it’s cool, it works and you can have a lot of fun with it.
The hangout app uses Google’s voice and video software, which has been kicking around the internet for quite some time. However, Google decided to stack a little incentive behind the using of it, by way of tying it in with the all new Google + social networking system. Which, I have to say, is pretty cool in its own right.
How does it work? Like this:
- make sure that you’re signed into your Google + account
- go to the Google + homepage
- click on the ‘start hangout’ icon, found down the right side of screen
- then, like it says – make sure you’re presentable and simply click ‘hangout’
That’s it. Now you either invite people to talk to or wait until someone in your circle sees that you’re available for chat and joins the conversation – supposing that you’re already having one.
Yay ... go you, you're hanging out!
Having used the voice and video app, it’s fair to say that it does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a lot of fun, especially when someone joins the conversation that you weren’t expecting (which is easy to do – you just leave the hangout ‘door’ wide open) and once those in your circle (or not – be warned!) get the hang of it, you’ll be transported back to the MSN chat-room heyday … only with a bit more class and self control.
Ok we’ve got Skype, we already have Google voice and video, we’ve even (still) got MSN, albeit in a much reduced form, and yet Google hangout has definitely got a place in the world of online communication. For a start – who doesn’t have a Gmail account? Who doesn’t surf the internet using Google as Point A? Who doesn’t know what Google is? Let’s face it … if Muppets can get a hangout going …
There’s also the fact that the hangout app doesn’t lag up and cause those irritating computer crashes that you can get when you’re using the equivalent (let’s say) Facebook feature. Plus you can download the Google hangout app to your cell phone – a really cool little app that allows you to talk with your Google + circle wherever you may be.
What’s more the mobile app version is also free, and will work on pretty much any android cell phone, providing that it’s the minimum Android 2.3 and over. All in all, the Google + hangout is little more than a new and improved MSN chatroom but it’s definitely slicker, a lot more fun (because you can control who joins the conversation) and did I mention that it’s also free?
Want it for your cell phone? The click here!
January 3, 2012
It’s almost here. Facebook Timeline is about to hit your screen (presuming that you’re an FB user) and as of anytime soon your Facebook experience is going to feel as though someone fiddled around with your well ordered and very familiar FB interface.
That and the fact that pretty much everyone who’s anyone (read: not internet savvy) is going to fall apart at the seams the minute they hit their Facebook accounts and discover that something incredibly horrible has happened to their homepage.
If you’re one of those people, be still your beating hearts. It was meant to happen. Facebook fully intend for you to wake up and collapse in shock, partly due to the impact of finding your FB account so damn messed up (that you thought your kids had gotten into your account and played around) and … and … in part due to the flashbacks you’re absolutely going to suffer from the last time the FB powers-that-be decided to mess around with your virtual world.
Remember when they decided to change your news feed? Recovered from that little débâcle yet?
Thought not.
Welcome (then) to the world of online evolution. Because, in a nutshell, that’s what the Facebook Timeline feature is all about. It’s (honestly) not so much about upsetting the entire virtual world so much as it’s about defining what Facebook always wanted itself to be – an accessible online space that’s all about … you.
You you you you … you.
Timeline is supposed to represent the good, the cool, the fun and the happening, all the stuff that you want to share with the rest of the world. And, if you’re that way minded, all the stuff you’d rather not share too. Think of Timeline as you would a resume. Only you include the stuff that would normally put a prospective employer off.
Which leads me away from you internet noobs and right around to the internet savvy – the hardcore (and not so hardcore) IM’ers – or Internet Marketers (to the uninitiated). Some appear to think that being able to get Facebook Timeline up and running is like being offered some kind of back door access to social networking heaven.
In truth it’s not. First of all you need to keep it current. Second of all you need to remember that every time you post something onto your feed, something else gets knocked off below it. That leaves your ‘subscribers’ *smiles* with the need to do a bit of donkey-work – if they’re interested enough to know what you did last night. Yesterday. Last summer.
Personally I think it’s all good fun. It is a bit hard to acclimatize to at first glance. Hell even a weeks worth of glancing at it makes it look a bit too in-your-face for my liking. However, it is happening and every user is going to find themselves faced with a whole new history-related interface (if not their own, someone elses) as of the weeks ahead. And you have one of two choices – dive right in and learn what it’s all about and have fun with yours, or go and find something else to do. Like … I don’t know … interact with real people.
Instead of whiling away your time on the social network site of the century or, even worse … decorating your Facebook Timeline ’til the cows come home.