Who Are We Talking To?

New beta on the block, WhoIsLive aims to make every webpage a “real-life” social experience by allowing you to see who else is looking at the website you are currently on. You then get to chat with them, whoever they may be. I find this idea equal parts thrilling and anxiety-inducing. Can’t we just surf alone?

Call me agoraphobic, but isn’t one of the nice things about the Internet not having to talk to strangers? Now, I like social media as much as the next guy (a statement that only holds because I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the next guy is likely to be a social media guru of some sort), but I am concerned that socializing is becoming the focus of our Internet experience rather than a sidebar. Reading an article should be about the article, not about the other strangers staring at the article elsewhere in the world.

Ironically, WhoIsLive is literally a sidebar, but it represents our increasing obsession with sharing. Actually, it goes beyond sharing. WhoIsLive represents our obsession with creating communities, even (or especially) amongst strangers. This is an understandably human and probably an anodyne predilection, but it raises some questions. Chief among them, who are we talking to?

There is a reason that chat rooms are not as popular as they once were. Mainly, it’s because we have better ways of talking to people online, be they more civil, less anonymous, better organized or more exclusive. Unfortunately, I get more than a whiff of “chat room” when I explore WhoIsLive. I’m not sure what is gained other than immediate, unfiltered conversation, which was the chat room’s main draw, and with that comes a lot of noise. Imagine looking at the front page of The Huffington Post with every other viewer voicing their opinions in your sidebar. Would you rather that or tweet your savviest friend for his or her opinion?

Between the noise and the over-socialization, WhoIsLive seems like it will be more distracting than it is helpful. Ultimately, I think WhoIsLive will find its audience and do well. I suspect that audience will be comprised of those with dilettantish tendencies and Internet sociologists, but there will be an audience none the less. I also suspect I won’t be anywhere to be found.

- Jason Oberholtzer

Tags: Chat, Chatroom, Chats and Forums, Huffington Post, Internet, Middle East, social media, Web page, Web-Based, Webcam, WhoIsLive

Running out of stuff, now, not later

A chilling graphic on the natural resources that the earth, you know the place we live on currently, is running out of. Set your alarm clock, we gotta wake up.  CLICK HERE.

Tags: Earth, globla warming, renewable resources

Making online auctions more real-time – Auctionopia

So we thought we would showcase another start up we like – and this is interesting and might be a good character defination of the collective soul of Tattletech. We like the company because of two main reason 1) their CEO’s attitude and 2) the overall nature of the start up itself (can it work, does it have mass market (aka the normal people out side of the tech bubble) appeal. So without delay, here is a company we are keeping an eye on.

Auctionopia - Fresh (mostly) out of college and starting up in a location that clearly is NOT known for start ups, Virginia Beach, Virginia is the feisty start up that wants to change how you interact with the seller in online auctions.  eBay is too slow and you gotta wait around for that pesky auction to end and there is no real-time interaction with the seller. Auctionopia says, whose got time for that when you can be out living life (and surfing in Virginia Beach) talk to the other party via IM and get the show on the road. But it is more than that, you have more control of price, when you want to bid and you can have a direct dialog with the seller. Sure it’s not eBay but I bet you forgot about all the folks that said, ‘why would we buy something in an auction online?’  Plus, I like the CEO, smart, savvy, not afraid to admit when he makes a mistake – a real thinker, that’s sexy.

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• EBay apologizes for Web site glitch (cnn.com)
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Tags: auctionopia