grishick's comments

LinkedIn, unlike other social networks is actually useful

I disagree. I think it varies depending on profession. An offline analogy would be framing all the little awards and recommendation letters you ever received and hanging them on the walls of your office. If I see something like that in an engineers office, it is a bad sign, because it is not a good measure of an engineers quality of work. However, when I am in a doctors office, I expect that, because I want to see that this doctor has been certified, re-certified and recommended by a thousand other people. When I am interviewing a marketing or a PR professional, I expect them to have a baggage of flashy nominations and awards that they got for their previous jobs/clients, because that's a fair measure of the quality of their work, because I will want them to do the same for my business. Recommendations by clients is a good thing to have for direct sales reps, it shows that their clients are happy with them, are willing to spend a few extra minutes on a paragraph of good words and are likely to become clients again.

Great article! Thanks!

The only times when I wish for a microwave are when I am staying in a hotel room without one. Maybe tablets will replace the hotel brochure, the room service menu and the bible in the hotel rooms at some point?

I think it applies to tablets in general rather then to the iPad

Good analogy. To add to the analogy - I don't have an iPad and I very rarely use a microwave, because freshly prepared food tastes better then microwaved food, movies look better on the HD projector, and it is much more convenient to read and type on a macbook pro then on an iPad (with or without a wireless keyboard). And yet, at some point everyone will have an iPad, when it is cheap enough to replace the magazine basket.

Got tired of AT&T's BS with iPhone plans, bought a Samsung Captivate, flashed it with Phoenix ROM and now have free tethering.

Partially responsible for the situation is the fact that many (if not most) of us (nerdy geeks) are to some extend autistic, or rather "aspergerish". Go read about Asperger Syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome) and tell me that you don't recognize your own traits. Not only we enjoy being abrupt and critical, but we are also better fit for being around people who are like us and so we don't mind it as much as other people do. That said, it wouldn't hurt to learn some human interaction skills.

This quote sounds funny today: "Unlike other social networking sites, Lycos Circles focuses on helping users to stay connected, share content and manage relationships with people they already know as well as find new people who share their interests."

I like the point about hands being in the way. That was the first thing that turned me away from iPad when I tried typing an email. I still think tablets are best for information consumption such as browsing internet and simple tasks such as making an order at a restaurant. The best uses of an iPad I've seen are mounted in the dashboard of a car, back of the car seat, table in a restaurant, and magazine basket.

Most important is that by doing so Google is taking another step towards reinforcing the idea that Google is the door through which we access information. As typing in long URLs becomes less common (thanks to URL shorteners), shortening of the URL bar becomes less inconvenient. Furthermore, Google reinforces the idea that you should always type what you are looking for and then click on a link that Google finds for you.