Devin Reams Blog

Facebook is announcing something today. It’s some form of location-based blah social media stuff blah blah social graph blah blah thing. In short, everyone says Foursquare and Gowalla will be dead because FACEBOOK SMASH and the entire developed world will use Facebook’s offering over theirs. I doubt it. Put simply:

Facebook Places will compete with Google Buzz, not Foursquare. It will work the same way that Twitter Locations works.

Your identity lives with Facebook. Things like Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. push structured data to Facebook. It just needs a way to organize location-based data (Places). Google is trying to come at the same space from the other direction: Maps, Latitude, Buzz.

Agree with my prediction? Please help me out by recommending my blog.

“Why _____ (popular company) should ____ (buy|destroy) ____ (other cool thing or company)” articles are so trite. They’re really:

“Why _____ (my name) wants _____ (edge case) in ____ (other cool thing or company) magically fixed with no economic sense by ____ (popular company)”

It’s like a really topical MadLib populated with keywords from Techmeme:

• “Why Apple should buy Skype”
• “Why Google should buy Gowalla”

I click on these articles all the time. Those titles always look so appealing and savvy. They’re not.

They work the same way as “Top 10 (reasons|ways) _____ (popular thing) (should|could) ____ (sexy verb or name or service)” articles.

• “Top 10 reasons Apple should buy Palm”
• “Top 10 ways Facebook could rule the world”

I’m think I’m starting to figure this whole tech writing thing out.

This is such a first world problem I thought about not posting it. But, I feel there’s an opportunity to make some money and make people happy. I hope I’m not the first to think of this…

How often do you come home to a “missed delivery” notice? I often get it once a month because I forgot to change the shipping address to my office. I’m one of the lucky ones: many people can’t have things shipped to them at work. Consultants are in a different location every week. Where is the delivery service that can drop off my package at my house between the hours of 6 and 10 PM?

Do you hear horror stories of trying to schedule a doctor’s appointment? Not only do they not answer the phone between 12 - 1 (because that’s their lunch break, coincidentally the only time some of us have a chance to make personal calls). Some of us have to take a half-day from work just to get there, sit and wait, meet with the doctor, and then go back to work. What about an oil change? Most of us go to our jobs somewhere between the hours of 7 AM - 7 PM. Oh, and you’re closed on Sundays? How convenient, that’s a day of rest…

Is there no demand for an “after hours” delivery service to make sure I don’t have to drive 10 miles out of my way to get that package I missed? Are there really no doctors willing to work evenings (after we all get off of work) so they can spend the day with their kids? And you’re telling me nobody at Jiffy Lube will work on evenings or Sundays? Let’s be real…

Services like UberCab are headed in the right direction. They are geared toward people willing to spend a few extra bucks for regained time and service on our schedules.

Most people will argue that your signature should not include your email address. It’s overkill; it’s redundant. Sure, for one-on-one conversations it makes make no sense: you just emailed them.

But, if you’re forwarding an email or get involved in a thread later, your email client usually does not include full email addresses in the quoted reply/forward content.

Thus, you see “Jim Smith” was looped in early on but don’t have his email address to loop him back in. Or you are forwarded a message that needs follow up but all it says down below is “From: Mark Johnson (Acme Co).” What now, Mark?

Plus, you may have a dozen different accounts that end up at the same inbox. Adding your email address in your signature helps you communicate your preferred address and avoid misdirection in the future.

Ensuring your email address is somewhere in your initial message avoids these situations. No matter how much we use it, email is hard sometimes… let’s make it a little easier for each other.

There has been plenty of coverage of 23andme, lately¹. Like any self-respecting nerd (I took three years of biology in high school) I had my own DNA analyzed. If you’re not aware: you send a spit sample which is reviewed for known DNA markers to help identify traits, your propensity towards certain diseases and ancestry.

While I agree the ability to learn more about diseases (as an individual and the scientific community at-large) is an amazing step, I’m also interested in learning what was previously dismissed as un-knowable. Having been adopted at birth, I’ve only had a superficial understanding of my ancestry. Not knowing my biological family, I’ve had no insight into any history of diseases or traits, either.

For many people, they can say “grandma had Parkinson’s, and her sister did, too” and understand there is a chance they’re pre-disposed to this disease. Or people can look at their father and say “well that’s where these freckles came from.” Though incidental, these are experiences and conversations I’ve never had throughout my life.

It’s interesting to me how 23andme has closed a gap that some might not even be aware of. It’s helped shift knowledge back to the individual.