I'm keeping the account (so I can continue to stalk people) but I'm shutting off my "wall" and ceasing to use the photo albums. Why?I already use publicly accessible web services for all of the things that Facebook does. I don't really care for how Facebook uses its data to control behavior.Critics will note that I'm just switching everything over to yet another company that hordes data; namely, Google. I'll counter that Google does a much better job of allowing its users to leave whenever they want to and it's extremely transparent about communicating what it shares. (Small font disclaimer: I work for Google, so I have an obvious bias.) So it's about privacy?No. Oddly enough, I think Facebook is too private by default. (Well, sometimes they really screw up, but that's not my rationale.) I want most of my photos in public albums, visible to the Internet without a special account. I think status updates (for whatever they're worth) should be public. I prefer a real, public email address to a Facebook inbox. I dislike Facebook because it encourages everyone to centralize all their data and activity on Facebook, which then coerces everybody they know to join Facebook if they want interact with it. And it's all based on an illusion of real privacy; do you really think your information is private when you're freely sharing it with 400 "friends"? It's like trying to keep something secret by telling everyone you've ever met. I don't want to contribute to an Internet where the majority of content and interaction is only visible to people with a Facebook user account. Instead of Facebook...If you still want to keep up with me, for whatever twisted reason, you can do so as follows. Status Updates and Reader CommentsAll short "status updates" will be available via Google Buzz. These are currently cross-posted from my Twitter account, mostly, but Buzz is probably the best place to comment in a threaded fashion, similar to Facebook.More importantly, most of my online activity is via comments and "shared items" via Google Reader. If you've never used Reader before, you are totally missing out. It's the coolest thing on the Internet. You can follow me on both Buzz and Reader by visiting my Google profile and clicking "Follow ..." in the upper right. (You'll need a Google account to do this, and you'll need to be signed into it.) PhotosI put lots of pictures on my Picasaweb photo account.To see my pics, visit my web albums. New pictures will be automatically shared via Buzz. (See above to follow me on Buzz.) VideosMy YouTube account is where all my Flipcam shenanigans get posted. New videos will be automatically shared via Buzz. (See above to follow me on Buzz.)Other StuffOne or twice a year, I blog. |