Lazyfeed Real-time Topical RSS Preps Multi-Column Revamp

Lazyfeed's real-time discovery engine for following topics has been among my favorite services to debut this year. The service has made following terms I am interested in, and getting live updates as they pour in, very simple - helping me to further populate my Google Reader and other services with new blogs that I can discover as I see their stories on terms I've hand-selected as my favorites. Early next week, the service will see its most-dramatic overhaul thus far, branching out from a single column interface to one that can take up your entire browser window, with a cascading of news, making the experience feel much more visually rich and watchable, like a TV screen.


The New Lazyfeed: Click to See Full Size


One Corner of the New Lazyfeed as Two Panels Update

In addition to the revamp, Lazyfeed has introduced a new character, Mr. Lazy, who can prompt you to provide more information about popular topics you may be following, such as your favorite director, if you are tracking Movies or the genre of music you like best, if you are following tunes. When you answer, that answer becomes a new tracked topic, further enhancing your stream.


Mr. Lazy Helps Me Populate More Topics. Lazy!

The new experience of Lazyfeed is one that will make you want to avoid blinking. Instead of a passive "3 new updates" type of approach common to many social networking sites (including Facebook and Twitter), the new Lazyfeed's updates cascade in from the top, by topic, prioritizing headlines and showing featured photos. It's an entrancing visual not unlike the first time one experiences TweetDeck and sees the multi-column format come to life.


I've included a quick little silent film to show the new Lazyfeed in action. Until it debuts, you can still get to all your updates at http://www.lazyfeed.com.

Still Waiting for An Evil Google? It's Not Going to Happen.

Like many other early adopter technology watchers did today, I tweaked my computer settings to utilize Google's new Public DNS system - letting my Internet usage flow through Mountain View instead of through my cable Internet provider, Comcast. I did so for a few reasons - namely the promise of improved speed during Web surfing and because I trust Google implicitly, almost to the point of unbridled naivete. Google is very publicly working to improve the Web experience for everyone - which has their own best interests in mind, yes, but for the right reasons that extend beyond simple commerce.

While others such as Threat Level and CenterNetworks expressed concern about Google's increasing knowledge base, which now includes the totality of your Web activity, I tend to believe, as Jesse Stay does, that this is just yet another move to prepare the way for the growth of Chrome OS and more Web apps from Mountain View, which will demand greater speeds, reduced load times, and fewer barriers - barriers which other gateways to the Internet have used to block specific application types, Web sites, or protocols, and Google promises not to do.

The more programs and services that Google introduces, the more I see people start talking about Google the way they once talked about Microsoft. Google's mantra to "Don't Be Evil" is seen as a target for detractors who are waiting for the company to slip and become distrusted or hated, the way Redmond, Washington was during their battles with Apple, Netscape and others in the 1990s. But unlike Microsoft, Google has been above board. After a slow start when it came to blogging and transparency, the company is doing, in my opinion, a fantastic job of keeping people updated, and letting its developers be visible to explain away any questions. (See also: The Era of the Faceless Giant Corporation Is Over and Could A Real Apple Fan Completely "Go Google"?)

Google may be creating an incredible ecosystem of interoperating applications, and is setting up connections that set the stage for the way computing is going to be done over the next decade, but just because they have unprecedented resources and remarkable forethought doesn't make them evil. Today, on FriendFeed, as one commenter suggested Google could be sharing this information with the government or other entities, Google engineer DeWitt Clinton answered with clarity, "half the company would quit in protest on the spot if Google even contemplated doing something like that. Including our own founders."

While other services and companies are becoming less trusted over time, be it due to unclear approaches to openness, or inconsistent rejections of third party applications, Google is actually getting better. The company whose name you see on top of new protocols that are setting the standards of tomorrow, like HTML5, potential replacements for OAuth, PubSubHubbub, WebFinger, Salmon, and others, time and again is Google.

One doesn't need to ask Jeff Jarvis "What Would Google Do?" to figure if the company is going to lie to customers and act in an uncompetitive fashion - because they have established a track record of doing the right thing. Introducing a better product than existing services and competing on features is to be respected, not feared. It's when you see companies like Microsoft making inferior products and trying to create side deals to force customers' hands that you see the very definition of evil. And that is why Microsoft is a much smaller presence now than it once was - because it lost the war of trust and is now fighting a battle on its legacy, rather than in a leadership role.

Google is not going to be evil because it hasn't been built to be evil. Will they work to speed up browsers and Web sites to give them more traffic on their search engine and more ads in more places? Sure. But that's just good business, not trickery. For people to think Google would change overnight and start diving into a dark world of privacy violations simply because they launched a new public DNS is silly. Even if Google were to have the #1 Web browser in the world, the #1 OS in the world and #1 mobile handset in the world, they have a track record of establishing trust with their customers, continually working to make their products more accessible to more people. So for the wingnuts wearing the tinfoil hats waiting for the roof to cave in, it's not happening today, and will never happen.

Meg Whitman's eBay Resume a Target In CA Governor Race

Although there is a full month left before the calendar flips to 2010, candidates for next year's gubernatorial candidacy in California are already lining up to take the state's top spot when Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves office. Among them is Silicon Valley notable Meg Whitman, whose years at the helm of eBay are being made the centerpiece for much of her promotional advertising, including radio spots and a good part of her online presence. Early polls have her tied with repeat runner Jerry Brown at 41% in a hypothetical matchup. But as great a story as eBay has been, the company's focus just lends itself to creative opponents and speechwriters.

Start with the tagline... Will Meg Put Your Children's Future Up for Auction?

Of course, replacing "your children's future" with "your business" or "your home" or whatever your favorite buzzword is still works.

And don't forget what auctions are all about... Selling out to the Highest Bidder. Without saying I think Meg is any better or any worse than Brown, in a world of politics where lobbyists are frowned upon and outside influence is distrusted, one could spin Meg's approach to politics or issues as doing just that.

After all, can't you just name a "Buy It Now" price at eBay? What is the price for a politician?

Whitman's bio, an impressive record including her education at Princeton and a Harvard MBA, floats through her work with Bain & Co., Stride Rite, Procter and Gamble, FTD, Hasbro and Disney - talking about her taking what ended up bring a dream job, when she joined eBay in 1998, and delivered an "unparalleled business success story", saying she "revolutionized the way goods are bought, sold and paid-for on line."

There is no question eBay changed the game online - managing to fight off competition from Amazon, Yahoo! and others - an unquestioned success. But if I were in politics, I would highlight the fact that eBay is the place to take old junk you don't want any more, or a place to find last year's models today. Meg Whitman's audio ads are talking about "change", just like every other politician talks about change to elicit voter interest, even as eBay's current campaign says things like "This season's shows still look great on last season's HD TV."

While it's easy to anticipate GOP opposition targeting Brown, who served from 1975-83 in the role of governor, as recycling old ideas, being tied so much to a company that champions this very thing doesn't exactly put Whitman in the driver's seat in terms of next generation forward-looking thinking.

Additionally, during Whitman's tenure at eBay, at 2005, the company very visibly purchased Skype for $3.1 billion. While the company also purchased PayPal on her watch, which has been a fantastic success, the majority of Skype was sold from eBay earlier this year, with a valuation well under that mark, after the deal never really made sense after years of stalling. Brown and other opponents' handlers could see the Skype buy as a costly billion dollar gamble that distracted eBay from its core business. With California being in such budget peril these days, it's a story that almost writes itself.

Regardless of your political leanings, it is clear these kinds of comparisons are going to come up. And lest you think we have moved on in politics away from soundbites and taglines, we haven't. If Whitman becomes the GOP candidate, or a front-runner, eBay could be as much a hindrance as it ever was a benefit. Her opponents should be dreaming of fun taglines, and her team should be getting ready to respond when they do.

Cinch Enables Embedding of Simple Podcasts

About five weeks ago, I told you about CinchCast, an iPhone application that lets you record audio and post it directly to social networks. As I have used the application a number of times since, my most-awaited feature has been the ability to embed these podcasts, so I can later make them available to you here on the blog. Today, they made the move, meaning I can, as with YouTube videos and other media, simply post the code and have it display in any posts.

Now, any CinchCast that you make, or those you see on CinchCast.com, can be embedded.

Here are a few recent ones from me:

Nov. 30th: The news that TechCrunch's CrunchPad is dead is quite disappointing.Nov. 12th: Apple should have provided clarity and priority support to FaceBook's iPhone app.Oct. 27th: Being a journalist is about using all your resources to get the story right - not about being uncaring.Oct. 26th: Is social media wasting companies both time and money?
Although I use Cinch via the iPhone, you can also call in your podcasts by using their 800 number. But that would be more boring. I like this new feature a lot.