Joe Hackman

Joe Hackman

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Nurph vs Chatroulette battle for top web handshake

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Ok there is quite a bit of buzz over the infamous Chatroulette, a site where random people are placed in a video chat session together. I personally don’t have the stomach to even try it since I’ve heard “found mostly depressed looking guys and naked men (about 1 in 5 shuffles was a guy’s bits)” source: Chris Brogan. Not my idea of a fun or practical application. Nurph on the other hand is exceptionally cool for several reasons:

  • It’s easy to setup
  • It works with most websites
  • Easy authentication
  • Realtime text chat, no video or audio

Easy Setup
The setup is very simple, you go to Nurph’s website and type in the url you wish to add a chat to. You can then use that URL in the future to access chat at that site or you can even create a link on the website to that url. For example if you click this link, you should be connected to the chat on this blog. If you see me online be sure to say hello.

Compatibility
I tested Nurph with Chrome, Mozilla and Internet Explorer. The only issue I had was a flash component (my cumulus tag cloud) overlaid the chat window. I was able to resolve that by enlarging the browser window. There may even be a setting to change the “always on top” aspect of Flash components. Please comment on this post if you are familiar with a way to do that. Websites that require authentication such as Facebook do not currently work with Nurph. No doubt that will improve with time as the product matures.

Authentication
In the battle for authentication dominance, I always find Twitter to be the most comfortable. Fortunately while Nurph is in beta you can only use Twitter to access it unless you are part of the beta program. Just use the connect with Twitter button, but make sure you are logged in to Twitter first.

Text Chat
My comments about Chatroulette were largely in jest, but plain old text chat is a good handshake medium. Rather than investing in voice or video chat via the anonymous web you have a simple medium by which to say hello and assess your new contacts before taking that step. For that reason Nurph is a great way to “shake hands” without committing too much. Since it is multiple user you can also see how the participants behave with groups.

Video
I am a screen-cast addict, if I need to explain how to do something a lot of times I just record a quick screen-cast and send that. Here is a Youtube video I created where I talk about Nurph and demonstrate how simple it is to use.

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Resources for Amplify.com Users

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This is for my growing group of friends at Amplify.com or anyone curious to check out a fast growing and innovative social networking site. Many great ideas have come up and we’ve had some amazing discussions as a result. For the people who are just joining us, here are a few things that are available to make the experience better:

Twitter

Joe’s Amplify List on Listorious – if you’re not on the list @hackmanj on Twitter, comment on this post, or use the recommend someone on Listorious. Here is the original post that started the ball rolling on this, thanks to @socialsprouts if you see anyone that is not representing good netiquette that is on this list, please let me know so I can either warn or remove them.

LinkedIn

It would be great if more of our fellow Amplify.com users joined us via the LinkedIn group.

Podcasts

Amplify’s CEO Eric Goldstein was gracious enough to be interviewed on my podcast 3 times since I joined. We have also recently setup a monthly feature where the community meet monthly for a podcast with Eric. These episodes will be the third Thursday of every month at 2PM Pacific/5PM Eastern time.

  1. A good introduction to Amplify – aired 1/27/2010
  2. An introduction to the 3/3/2010 changes to Amplify.com – aired 3/3/2010
  3. Eric Goldstein CEO of Amplify.com and the Amplify Community – aired 4/21/2010
  4. Scheduled monthly chat 6/7/2010 on Blog Talk Radio
  5. Eric Goldsten and Louis Gray on the Mobile App and Amplify.com – aired 6/16/2010
  6. Eric Goldstein and the Amplify Community on Email Posting – aired 7/22/2010
  7. Community chat w/ Eric Goldstein 8/16/2010
  8. There is going to be a Ampalooza on December 22, 2010.

Youtube Videos

The night I started using Amplify it was an instant hit with me so I created a screencast and blog article about the site. Here is the playlist I have assembled of the amplify.com related videos on Youtube.

Articles

I need some help with this list, I know several people have done some nice write-ups and would like to add them all to this post.

  1. Here is the Amplify category on this blog.
  2. Diane Rayfield did a fantastic “Feature” article on Amplify
  3. Check out this great description of Amplify.com by Maggie Greyson
  4. Great post by Paul Simbeck-Hampson “Sparking Conversation Naturally“
  5. A fantastic post in response to a question by Louis Gray about Amplify.com’
  6. A nice article about How to Create an Effective Amplify Page by Eric Miltsch.
  7. Added 8/11/2010 – Power tip by Svartling on using the news feed.
  8. Added 8/11/2010 – How to use Amplify for your Social Network by Russ Jackson.
  9. A an example of using Amplify.com for Crowd Sourcing by Paul Simbeck-Hampson.
  10. New 10/8/2010 A great resource about the new Amplify button for blogs and websites by Diane Corriette.
  11. A nice post about Google Analytics, Facebook Page Support, and Scheduling by at Basicblogtips by @Ileane.

Not on Amplify?

Join us, it is a thriving and exciting community that operates on a extremely useful and feature rich social networking platform. I’ve met some incredibly intelligent and passionate people on the site and you will too. If you do join, be sure to send me a note so I can make sure to add you to the Twitter list, etc. Here is the link to my Amplog.

Have something to share?

Please share the link as a comment! I want to grow these resources.

With an Abundance of tools my Internet use evolves (podcast)

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Today while exchanging some tweets with @simbeckhampson I recognized that my social media and web footprint has evolved over time and in the process different tools have been useful for different things:

  1. Facebook is where most of my real life friends are. I also find it more personal interaction wise.
  2. I get news from Twitter, share news and interesting info. More informal interaction wise.
  3. Blogtalkradio has opened up a nice niche for conversations with interesting people.
  4. Cinchcast – I love to call in and get ideas out while driving then I share it later.
  5. Youtube – I am big on screencasts and moving towards more personal messages (videos of me mixed in)
  6. Amplify – I am making new friends, sharing more what I am reading more and selectively share to FB, Twitter, etc.

These aren’t all the tools I use, for me the key is really the data that comes in via Email. I need to re-evaluate my use of Google Reader and RSS also for incoming information. Here is the podcast that was inspired by my conversations with Paul:

Allow me to introduce Amplify my new Favorite Internet App (Video)

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Today I discovered an app that I can confidently say is one of the most under-hyped web 2.0 apps I’ve come across. I happened to be searching for something on google and one of the results was at amplify.com. When I got to the content I was very interested in what I saw, it was like Friend Feed meets Alltop. For best results I recommend using this with Mozilla Firefox.

Why is this a Killer Web 2.0 App?

  1. You can easily share entire pages or snippets of pages via a number of channels.
  2. It does all of the heavy lifting including tagging your content, yes it generates suggested tags!
  3. Includes a social component and feed similar to Friendfeed.
  4. Provides the ability to include categories to better organize your content.

Sharing snippets or pages via a number of channels

By allowing you to configure Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and a number of other services you have the ability to share the message with the audience that you think it is most appropriate for by simply checking or unchecking the box next to that service. You can uncheck the twitter option for example if you want to add some hashtags you can come back and share with Twitter after you post it. It also has integration with bit.ly that allows you to track the URL’s that it parses and shares with the various sites you choose. For me the flexibility here is really helpful. If I’ve been busy on Facebook for example I might give those users a break and share it with Twitter. I don’t send everything everywhere, that is a decision we all must decide fits our needs best.

Check out my Amplify Page.

Heavy Lifting and Tagging Content

So many of us out here in internet land are lazy, we don’t always want to think about brands, messages and SEO. Sometimes we just want to post something and share it with our friends without consideration of how it will play out strategically for the next 90 days. For some of us tagging articles is the web 2.0 equivalent of heavy lifting. Someone was wise enough to figure this out and there are suggested tags generated automatically for each article or snippet you amplify. Yes!

Social Components and Friendfeed Like UI

I’ve noticed a lot of people on Friendfeed say not so nice things about Twitter. I can understand it, Twitter is like the wild west of the internet. It can be chaotic, it is very fluid and loose. Friendfeed is very structured and user friendly. Most importantly Friendfeed offers the right mix of features to make it very comfortable for social media savvy people to communicate. Amplify delivers this level of comfort and familiarity to the novice or pro alike.

Categories Better Organize Your Content

I discovered this option after I recorded the screencast for this post. I am definitely not about perfection and my screencasts, podcasts and writing will indicate that if you’ve followed me very long. So lacking the retention of a perfectionist I did not go back and add the category information to the video but it really is great to have it.

You will be cooler than all your friends

You can be cooler than all your friends, I cannot imagine how this site will not catch on. It has the most important criteria:

  • Ease of use – it doesn’t get much easier
  • Social – Check!
  • More features – Check!
  • Tags – Check!
  • Categories – Check!
  • URL Shortening/Tracking – Check!

Welcome to my favorite new Web 2.0 App: