OneTrueFan Adds Personalized Hot News From Your Friends

OneTrueFan is looking to be more than a badge-creating Web surfer tracking toolbar gimmick. The site, already extremely compelling to me due to the ability to discover new networks and stories from my social connections on Twitter, is adding an intriguing feature today that essentially brings each user their own Hacker News-like top stories summary, pulling from shared pages by one's friends in the network. The concept, a social newspaper, is one used by other sites including Paper.li, but in this case, taps into the power of the toolbar which follows registered users around the Web, and surfaces the most shared stuff in an effort to be sure you don't miss a thing.

Quietly launched at the end of last week and being publicly unveiled today, OneTrueFan has added a "Your Hot News" tab to every user's profile, showing items that are popping throughout your network of connections. Interestingly, not only do the items display the avatars of the people who distributed the shares in their network, but it gives each avatar a weight, as evidenced by size, to show how much downstream impact the sharer had. The bigger, the better.

The Hot News Story On My OneTrueFan Page

OneTrueFan gives site users 'points' for sharing items to Twitter and Facebook, and tracks the number of clickthroughs to their URL shortner, otf.me. One recent share I made of Micah Baldwin's "It All Changes When the Founder Drives a Porsche" article gained more than 1,000 clickthroughs, passing the points to me and making me the OneTrueFan of Micah's blog - which I was already, but now is confirmed by irrefutable science. This clickthrough data contributes to the Hot News section, but in the event other URL shorteners are used, ones Twitter reach comes into play.

Another Top Story Shared By Many Folks In My OneTrueFan Stream

In the days I've tracked my Hot News on OneTrueFan, I've found it to accurately find top stories of the day that are frequently shared. It's not personalized based on my interests, but does a solid job of becoming a more personal Techmeme or Hacker News. Of course, seeing just who shared an article gives me more data to choose whether I want to engage in the item as well.

Like Blippy, I believe OneTrueFan's full potential has yet to be discovered. If I look at what the team is developing, essentially it is a horizontal social network that you can take from site to site with you around the Web, without requiring a centralized login. In fact, you just log in with your Twitter account. I believe in the model of sharing and discovery, and Hot News will make OneTrueFan (or OTF) an even bigger player as a destination site. If you're not on OneTrueFan already, you haven't been listening to me and should go register now.

Gawker's Password Compromise Has Significant Aftershocks

Gawker Media's security breach, exposing user e-mails and passwords for the network's many sites, is a mess. Not only were users' accounts uncovered, but the full database was later posted to the Web for anyone to dive through, for better or for worse, gaining the ability to find out affected users who had been exposed. Assuming that users often adopt the same password across multiple Web services, it is a safe guess many folks are on the list whose accounts elsewhere are now at risk.

It just so happens my e-mail address was included in this breach.

Using a public hashtable lookup and decoder, I found that my louisgray@mac.com e-mail address, and its corresponding Gawker password, was exposed in the attack. Not a good thing. But the good news is that after the late summer's issues of dealing with a fraudster, and changing all my passwords in many places, I'd already protected myself against this particular password escaping.

LinkedIn Forced a Password Reboot

But my work seems to have been in vain in some respects. First, my LinkedIn account was disabled. It turns out in a proactive move, the company forced all users who had accounts that matched the unveiled e-mail addresses to redo their passwords. In parallel, my Mac.com e-mail, used on Gawker, was disabled by Apple. This story hasn't been revealed in the press, so far as I have seen, and it's quite possible Apple similarly proactively disabled accounts named in Gawker's documents.

Apple Reset My Password As Well, Even Though it Was New

So, once again, I found myself changing my password on my main account with Apple, after proving through a set of online hoops that I was actually me. And again, for the second time in a few months, I am reconsidering my password strategy, and wondering if the time has really come to use services like OpenID and OAuth to avoid the obvious problem of creating unique IDs for every site.

I have no clue how many times I've left comments on Gawker sites. I'd bet it's less than five times. And in exchange for this small number of posts, my LinkedIn account and my MobileMe account are sporting new passwords, while I think in my head of other places the old password may still be alive, susceptible to open hackers who want to take over my digital IDs.

From the tech coverage of the breach I have seen, it looks like Gawker got sloppy and they paid for it. More specifically, all of us impacted have paid for it with greater levels of annoyance and needing to reconsider how we approach our online permissions. I've given my user name and password pairs out to so many sites by this point, it's practically guaranteed the bad data is out there somewhere, on servers owned by companies much less aware and proactive than LinkedIn and Apple.

Gawker screwed up and it's a very major, visible mistake which can't happen too often before site users start to turn a blind eye to registrations, and move on to alternatives. If I can't sign in with my Google or Twitter ID at this point, I don't think I want to add yet another ID that may just fall victim to smarter hackers in the future.

Flipboard CEO Mike McCue (@mmccue) Has An Amazing Day

One would think that being named to the board of directors of one of the hottest private companies on the Web on the same day they announced a raise of a rumored $200 million would be an incredible achievement in itself. But if this announcement was simply the first part of a 1-2 punch, followed by a major update to the company's signature award-winning application, that's quite a day. That's how Wednesday looked for Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, who ends the day as one of the two newest members on Twitter's Board of Directors, as well as the owner of an increasingly fun to use iPad app that pulls in content from your social streams and RSS subscriptions in an extremely appealing way.

When Flipboard debuted in July of this year, the application brought an immersive magazine-like approach to consuming Facebook and Twitter streams on the iPad. The simplicity and beauty of the app has spawned many competitors to try and bring the look and feel of Flipboard to their apps. New startups emerged calling their products "Flipboard-like" and others were referred to by press as "Flipboard killers". Of course, usually when someone says you're going to be killed, you're actually doing quite well. Such is the case for Flipboard.

Flipboard Adds Google Reader and Flickr

I had the opportunity to sit in a session beside Mike at the Newsfoo conference in Phoenix two weeks ago, and he clearly explained the casual nature of many of the app's users, who flip pages and enjoy the content served up by their friends. While many apps (including my6sense) are aiming for a "less is more" strategy, he relayed that in fact, for this particular experience, "more is more", as users pushed for the addition of Twitter list support and new services. Tonight's addition saw the pull of new services that should impact adoption even more - including that of Google Reader (my personal favorite) and Flickr.

My Google Reader In Flipboard

Now, instead of quirky work-arounds (apologies to Rick Klau) to get to one's feeds, you can add Google Reader and Flickr to Flipboard, making the product more of a great-looking aggregator (albeit service by service one at a time). The application also delivered a much-requested feature to share items out to social networks, alongside a custom URL, making it a more compelling experience.

Links from My Facebook News Feed in Flipboard

Robert Scoble, arguably the loudest evangelist for Flipboard since its launch, says tonight's introduction isn't the one he is waiting for, as he continues to look for intelligence in the app, promised from the company's acquisition of Ellerdale. Obviously, I am eager to see that develop also, but for those folks looking to put their feet up and consume their feeds in a nice way, the addition of these new services is welcome.

As for Mike, that's a pretty good Wednesday. Being named to the board of directors for Twitter and launching a new version of the app isn't half bad. It's pretty close to the 1-2 punch I pulled off with announcing the VP of Marketing role at my6sense on August 23rd and Braden being born on August 24th. But I can see how Flipboard is Mike's baby. What's planned for Thursday? (You can download Flipboard from iTunes here)

Disclosure: I am VP of Marketing for my6sense, which theoretically can be seen as competition for some aspects of Flipboard and Ellerdale.

Online Phone Number Revelation Prompts Calls, Texts

One of the more amusing byproducts of CNN's article Monday around what they called the "End of Privacy" was that by the author's listing my phone number in the article and prompting readers to "Give him a ring", many people actually did. Lots of people. Starting early morning Monday, and continuing throughout the day and yesterday, I got phone calls and text messages every few minutes. Many people were incredulous that the phone number in the story belonged to a real person who might pick up the phone, while others warned me that I had been listed on the site - fearing I had been the target of an overzealous reporter out to reveal my dirty laundry without my explicitly granted permissions.

While I have had a full meeting schedule this week, and couldn't pick up the phone to talk with every stranger, I did answer every random text message, and listened to the dozens of voice mails I received from all over the country. You'd think most of America had never seen anybody be so brazen as to make themselves easily available to contact. The episode was fun, and further exhibits the bubble that some of us trying to push the envelope of transparency are in when many others continue being extremely cautious.


   Monday Morning Had My Phone Ringing Off the Hook

Many of the calls I got were from numbers listed as "Restricted", where Caller ID was no help. Often, when I answered, people hung up, not sure what to do when a real voice picked up, as they hadn't gotten that far ahead in their mind when they dialed. I had quick debates with people who thought I was crazy, and in many other cases, reassured them that CNN had done nothing wrong, simply aggregating content I (or my wife) had previously chosen to make public.


    People Felt Compelled To Text Me, Curious

Of all the things in the article, from my kids' information to our filtered purchasing history and other personal details, it was the openness of the phone number that had people thinking I was insane. Early texts warned my that CNN had posted my data, and suggested I change my number. Others wanted to let me know, in the event I hadn't already found out. Some people just wanted to send a text and get a response. But when I tried to explain that putting a phone number on the Web wasn't all that different from having one's personal number in the local yellow pages, it didn't always compute - even after years of having my number publicly posted on my blog, in my e-mail signature, and even in the footer of my RSS feed, so anybody can call for any reason they like.


   I Was Warned My Phone Number Was Online

Despite the number being so visible for the better part of five years, it's never really been an issue. Being easily accessible has made it simpler for PR people or company execs to reach out on announcements, or for peers to use me as a sounding board. But with very few exceptions, the choice to be available has been extremely beneficial. (See from Monday: Solving Privacy On the Web: Be Smart, Not Scared)

Not everyone understands this yet, clearly. So when CNN put the number online and said "give him a ring", the combination gave people a level of curiosity that needed to be satiated. Could somebody (me) really be this dumb? Of course. Happy to play the role of the fool if for no other reason than to help people think more about how they approach the big world of the Web.

For more background, you can be sure CNN did not have any intentions to make my life difficult in their story. I participated and provided the reporter with the appropriate links to help flesh out his story. He even did me a favor to clear the opening paragraphs to confirm my approval, and I think the discussion is a great one, even if there are clearly opposing views.

And yes, in case you're curious, I put the phone on vibrate overnight the last few days so my kids didn't wake up. It seemed like a good idea.