television set, there's hope for you yet

Was reading an article about Google TV. Google TV will allow us to surf the web and watch video via our televisions through a device that we will buy and attach to our sets.

So we went from group television watching - sitting around the tube with our friends/family sharing a bowl of popcorn to watching solo via laptops and Hulu. For many, television via web has become the preferred method of access to our favorite shows. It lets us watch when we want and with limited commercials.  However, it's made what used to be a shared experience into a lonely activity. Head-phones on, sitting in front of a 13 inch screen doesn't leave a lot of room for companions.

I think the opportunity in Google TV is that it can introduce group watching to Hulu-watching. It will allow us to marry the shared experience of watching television with the benefits of online-show watching. Welcome back to the age of social television.

will wave be the new twitter?

Twitter has been overrun by spammer crap. Meaning that users will get fed up and head elsewhere. Another problem that I've been having with Twitter is that I can't converse/reply to Tweets unless I have direct messaging open with someone. I don't want to bug those who follow me with short replies to friends. Lists have helped us find Tweets that are most useful/catered to a particular purpose.

But with Wave I can have conversations with friends and the convos are as private or open as I want them to be. All of my Waves are saved and quickly accessible so the convo can start/stop whenever I feel like adding to it. I can write notes to friends for them to read at a later time (yeah, like an email) and it's all within the same Wave.

I kind of see public Waves as a combo of old aol-style chat rooms and Twitter-lists. They can be catered to a specific interest - I'm in the "planner wave" and anyone in the world can join. But with the use of profiles and the links that people post to their multi-faceted web-presence, it's less creepy than a chat room.

Could Wave some day replace Twitter? Seems unlikely, but then again...

I have a few invites to the Wave, if you'd like one leave me your gmail address.

would you like the red kool-aid or the blue?

I wonder if Googlers (people who work at Google) marry others Googlers and make babies who they dress in onesies that say Google on them?

On Friday, Google paid a visit to the VCU Brandcenter to give demonstrations and speeches to the students and Martin Agency folk. The highlight of the visit was a speech by Sketch Up specialist (and author of "Sketch Up for Dummies") Aidan Chopra. Great speaker, absolutely hilarious guy. It was a fun Google-themed event.

I just read a bit about the Google campus and find it wild how damn self-sustaining the place is. They have bikes for transportation around the campus, free food, a free gym, volley-ball courts, field hockey games, special speakers, you can even continue your work while on the toilet at Google. One day they will build dormitories on the campus and a bubble over-head to maintain the highest air quality and optimal temperature. In another 2000 years, they will be the only ones still alive. But they'll all be brilliant and gloriously healthy.