The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images • Hacker News Board

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#91

Post by dandelany » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:03 PM UTC

gcb wrote: post #70

swalsh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sir I challenge you to a bet, $100 to our respective favorite charities. In my opinion Google Glass is set to be a game changer from the start. I wager that when google glass is launched, it will be a cultural icon no more than 1.5 years later. It's clear WHY google needs glass. Owning the channel between my eyes and the world is a huge potential pot of money. Targeted ads have a lot of potential to disrupt the ad sp…

1. i don't believe in paying third party charity 2. you think all that for the same reason I also think all that: Wishful thinking... but deep inside i can see the truth. we are the hippies-yuppies who will buy it :) put yourself on the shoes of people hearing about the newton back then: handwriting recognition!! how wouldn't want that instead of a 3x4 phone keyboard? Turned out 99.9% prefered T9. it's all the same.…

So wait, you're morally against giving money to a charity but you're perfectly okay with betting his charity against your free money? Honestly curious.

Also - implementation and day-to-day use don't have to be perfect for it to be a game-changer/overnight success/cultural icon. As evidenced by... Well, pretty much every piece of successful consumer electronics ever made that has gone through multiple generations/revisions.

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#92

Post by ececconi » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:05 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #42

51Cards wrote: post #33

"Google is getting good, really good, at building things that see the world around them and actually understand what they’re seeing." That statement spells it for me. With Google I see research, I see pushing tech boundaries and hardware experiments, I see new ways to interpret the world. With Facebook I see a huge lump of data but nothing really too groundbreaking. I don't deny Facebook's momentum... it's huge and i…

There's a lot of truth to this (though I'm generally a big skeptic when people talk about "research" in the abstract; and I remain genunienly "WTF are they thinking!?" about Glass). Google tries stuff, fails a lot, and stumbles on as many successes as they engineer. Facebook has executed really well on their core stuff, but... what else? I mean, they've been on a huge hiring binge now for four years. What do they hav…

Connecting people and giving them a new way to communicate with each other is a big waste to society? Facebook has fundamentally changed the idea of the weak tie for many people. If that's a waste, then I don't really know what else is meaningful in life.

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#93

Post by vibrunazo » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:10 PM UTC

robinsloan wrote: post #72

51Cards wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one little thought I would add to that is that when Google first started working on a self driving car everyone went "WTF is a search company doing..". Now, X years later... it's a different story. People have started to really think about self-driving vehicles and autonomous travel. I don't see Glass at this point... but I didn't see practical self driving cars 6 years ago either, let alone states licensing them…

Author here: I'm with you. The steady success of the self-driving cars has made me take some of these other projects much, much more seriously. Maybe it's simply the Thrun factor?

> Maybe it's simply the Thrun factor?

That man's track record of amazing projects is really jaw dropping. Self driving cars, udacity and glass? I want a planet with more people like that in it.

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#94

Post by Karunamon » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:12 PM UTC

tomkarlo wrote: post #85

grandalf wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A camera that takes images comparable to a picture taken on a current iPhone? For every frame (such as in a video) the amount of work involved to reduce boredom increases. Raw video of people's lives is utterly, unimaginably boring, even if the person is a celebrity. Still photos work b/c they capture a whole moment, with just enough detail to inspire the imagination and to ground the imaginings in reality. My person…

That may be the first time I've ever heard anyone wax nostalgic for the Blackberry camera. Wonder if there's already an iPhone app for that.

Instagram?

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#95

Post by sureshv » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:13 PM UTC

tomkarlo wrote: post #85

grandalf wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A camera that takes images comparable to a picture taken on a current iPhone? For every frame (such as in a video) the amount of work involved to reduce boredom increases. Raw video of people's lives is utterly, unimaginably boring, even if the person is a celebrity. Still photos work b/c they capture a whole moment, with just enough detail to inspire the imagination and to ground the imaginings in reality. My person…

That may be the first time I've ever heard anyone wax nostalgic for the Blackberry camera. Wonder if there's already an iPhone app for that.

Instagram ;-)

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#96

Post by Karunamon » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:16 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #21

dfxm12 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate how a picture taken with a camera you wear like glasses "devalues humanity and values voyeurism and narcissism over family" compared to a picture taken with a more (I guess) traditional camera?

A camera is alienating, and a camera that you constantly wear is even more alienating; like a locked cell is more imprisoning than a locked country. Recommendation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror_%28TV_series%29#3...

I'm confused as to what a set of glasses has to do with an implanted camera that caused issues for a fictional group of people who were cheating on each other?

Any examples that aren't absurd from the get go?

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#97

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:16 PM UTC

dkarl wrote: post #63

Facebook as a photo sharing app is a fascinating example of the service being generic and the context for the service being the main focus of competition. A bar sells drinks, but providing a competitive lineup of drinks is much easier than providing a competitive context in which to consume them. Coffee shops sell coffee and wifi, but they compete against each other as contexts within which to consume coffee and wifi…

>a small advantage that can't make up for the fact that it isn't as universal as e-mail or texting

Well, I'm a teenager, and sadly Facebook is far more universal as a means of contact than texting or e-mail, personally. I don't have the email addresses or phone numbers of most of the people I know (often because I don't know them well enough), but I do have them friended on Facebook.

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#98

Post by Ineffable » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:19 PM UTC

Splines wrote: post #29

stesch wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Apple will bring out a cool version in 2020.

How do you make wearing a headpiece cool? I wear glasses and imagine some teeny tiny thing embedded in one of the arms. What could 20/20 people do that would be socially acceptable? Maybe a bluetooth headset looking thing?

Simple. You put them in some hipster frames. BAM, instant success.

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#99

Post by dxbydt » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:19 PM UTC

to gauge marginal positive externalities, invert the principal component & see what remains.

as an example - suppose you wake up tomorrow and google search stops working. never mind why - some random bug impossible to figure out, so it just stops working. Then what are the positive externalities that remain ? Well, gmail. youtube. android. gdrive. maps. picasa. blogger. reader. googledocs. googlecheckout. etc etc etc... and that's not counting a single api / framework / language( gwt, go , dart, chromium, etc etc...)

now suppose you wake up tomorrow and facebok stops working. Then what are the positive externalities that remain ? Well, ???

Re: The futures of Facebook and Google are embedded in these two images

#100

Post by laconian » Wed, May 30, 2012, 10:20 PM UTC

ececconi wrote: post #92

ajross wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of truth to this (though I'm generally a big skeptic when people talk about "research" in the abstract; and I remain genunienly "WTF are they thinking!?" about Glass). Google tries stuff, fails a lot, and stumbles on as many successes as they engineer. Facebook has executed really well on their core stuff, but... what else? I mean, they've been on a huge hiring binge now for four years. What do they hav…

Connecting people and giving them a new way to communicate with each other is a big waste to society? Facebook has fundamentally changed the idea of the weak tie for many people. If that's a waste, then I don't really know what else is meaningful in life.

Sometimes those weak ties are weak for a reason.