600 groups...
More tech talk for you non-techies out there. So today I get an email from flickr, a new contact has subscribed to your photostream, i think woohoo, lets check'm out. Sure I check out thier pics but then im always curious, groups... how many groups does this person belong to... the browser scrolls and scrolls and scrolls.. i dunno how many off hand, but id say 600 just cause i cant believe it.
I have a hard enough time keeping up with three email accounts and my bloglines service. Theres something about social networks the encourages you to sign up for as many groups as possible, all with the intent that at somepoint you may interact with them, i bet people lean on the side of non-interaction though. So collect to show it all off, or collect just to collect, but its like net clutter. Let me wow you with my net clutter, some 600 groups that i never check out any more but i got them, ha!
I've been enduring five 13hr days of usability testing lately. Taking notes, and seeing all there is to see for taxation websites. After 10 people or so, ya know what the problem is, but lets get more and more and more!
Sometimes between the ahhhhhhhs and ummmmms i break off into firefox and read my bloglines, i see all these feeds..... 200, 64. 12, i got for the small numbers first, to read and get that sense of acomplishment, yes im up to date on terra nova, sweet, next mashable, 36, ha, got it, engadaget...200.. ok we can do this i tell myself, and bam i bang it out.
So much net clutter out there, that and the endless sign up for an experience. Gone are the days of seeing a site that could show you something groovy, nope, these days ya gotta sign up to see anything. Generation beta has been on our doorstep for quite awhile and now, we have idea that anything,yes anything can be signed up for first before ever showing people what it is.... I HAVE AN AMAZING CONCEPT... but first.. sign up.
Corporate types love that sign up too, lets net the email address, trap the user first, then oh ya.,.. show them the goods of signing up, which is usually paying to be solicated for stuff. So many sites off the mashable posts i read today, looked interesting, but the sign up first before showing me anything bugs the crap outa me. I feel like web 2.0, needs a master beta account access, so instead of giving 400 betas a massive selection of possible logins and ids and whatnots, lets just keep it simple, im d183d/183d login and pass, there thats it, thats all i need for this year, expires in 2008.
SAve me some time, hassle, allow me to really explore with taxing my brain to the point of identity overload.
Speaking of identity, the other day i overheard some ladies down on the 3rd floor go on and on and on about being ripped off for ID theft, last thing i heard was 700,000 accounts stolen, geeeze.... and then my folks just the other day told me that the veterans database, like everyone whos been in the military since oh ww2, gone, stolen.
My best identity is right in front of ya, dont trust anything else. ID theft just drains me when i think about it. Sooooooo much crap out there needs a piece of you these days, netflix, bank, taxes, blockbuster, that beta you signed up for, google, msn, the pizza guy, taco bell, hell everyone wants a piece of you. I hate being asked my email at stupid places, like at big and tall for men, i always get asked the email, pretty soon i start making them up cause they give me that look or better yet that smirk when i say "no thanks" i get told ill miss out on deals that save me money, and i say, lets save me money right now, i have $300 bucks to blow right here, now yer tellin me you dont want it? Or then i make up email addys, snakeydave318alpha@bigdog.floppy.net, sometimes i wonder when they type that in, maybe their database can only hold a certain number of characters, maybe i can break the system.
Oh well theres my cue to get back to testing.. cya...