Google is one of the companies that had and have to take rather much criticism. Everything started when Google launched their new e-mail service Gmail in 2004. Privacy protectors were much worried – as Google uses contents of the messages that users send and receive to display personally customized advertisements.

Google has to read my e-mail to guess my interests and to be able to display matching ads in Gmail. But exactly this collides with the secrecy of the post, according to privacy advocates and the U.S. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Concerning Gmail, this is not a real problem in my opinion, as it is not employees reading my e-mail, but automatic programs – in fractions of a second, and completely anonymous. Here the displayed ads help to ensure that Google can continue to offer its e-mail service for free. I find: That’s totally okay.

In the meantime, Google has the reputation of a data hydra. Maybe not totally incorrectly. In any case, Google knows what I am watching on Youtube, where I am at the moment (Google Maps location service, for example on iPhone), what my house looks like (Street View), who my friends are (Android cell phones and Gmail contact list), which web sites I like to surf (Google Chrome browser), what I like to read (Google eBookstore), and which things I am shopping for on the Web (Google Shopping search).

But why the current discussion around Google Analytics? It is a statistics service used by website operators, bloggers and shop owners to get more information about their visitors. Therefore, data about your browser, your screen resolution and your operating system are sent to Google as soon as you open any website making use of Google Analytics.

The total collected data are not suitable for an exact location detection or definition who I am as visitor of the website. Plus, the collected user information is made available to the site owner only in anonymized form, for example: “50% of your visitors use 1024 times 768 pixels as screen resolution.” Here I see clear advantages for the owners – and finally for me, the visitor, as well. Finally it is me drawing advantage from the website knowing me well, being optimized for my needs and browser features. This is why mynetx.net uses Google Analytics as well.

Collecting these anonymous data – yes, my IP address belongs to them as well, as it changes once per day anyways – does not appear to be a big problem for me. I think it does not collide with privacy guidelines. And I am sure that if there is a test court case, it is going to have a similar judgment. After all, I live in Europe, and I should be allowed to make use of tech to my advantage. And Google belongs to tech as well.

We have a really large number of international users, so now you should also see the support of about 30 languages including: Polish, Chinese, German, Hebrew, and more! You can create and open docs in any of these languages and if you can type in any of them on your computer then you can also type in them on Docs.com, including mixing multiple languages in one doc.

The update also introduces spell checking for the new languages. To use this feature, you have to set the document’s language. Docs.com is an Office Web Apps version that you can use to share and collaborate on documents with Facebook. To make use of the service, you have to sign in with your Facebook account.

Today, we are going to take a look at the first half of 2010, that is, from January to June.

• January 2010
  • Details and first photos about Messenger Wave 4 emerge.
  • You can now connect SkyDrive to Windows Explorer — using CloudStorageExplorer.
  • Hotmail Wave 4 will add Conversation view for messages.
• February 2010
  • The cloud system Windows Azure launches officially.
  • The social network Facebook launches its new home page layout.
  • Windows Live ID has an outage, causing that customers cannot sign in anywhere.
  • The Windows Live Messenger extension Messenger Plus! becomes silent at Yuna Software, its new owner, but eventually the silence is broken and we can move on to new pastures.
  • The Chinese website cnbeta.com discovers the design of Windows Live Writer 2011.
• March 2010
  • Google acquires the online image editor startup company Picnik.
  • The IT trade fair CeBIT 2010 takes place in Hanover, Germany.
  • The release roadmap for Windows Live Wave 4 surfaces.

• April 2010
  • Live.com changes to be Windows Live Home.
  • Office 2010 reaches RTM status, its development is finished.
  • Chris Jones talks about the future of Windows Live.
• May 2010
  • The search engine Google overhauls its interface.
  • Angus Logan showcases the Windows Live Messenger App for Apples iPhone smartphone.
  • mynetx.net takes an in-depth look at the new features in Hotmail Wave 4.
  • Messenger 2011 retires the existing “View webcam” feature and instead relies on Video calls, which are easier to maintain. Users’ reactions are overly negative and loud.
  • The complete feature list of Windows Live 2011 is published. Remarkable new features include Messenger’s Facebook Chat module as well as Photo Fuse and facial recognition in Photo Gallery.
  • On May 31, Windows Live Events is closing.
• June 2010
  • Office 2010 and Office Web Apps are released to the public. Office Web Apps allow to edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations right in your web browser.
  • The Windows Live Wave 4 public beta launches in 7 languages.

What was your personal highlight in the first half of 2010? I am curious to know!

My guest for today is Harrison Hoffman. As Evangelism Product Manager at Microsoft, he likes Windows Live a lot. Why not take a seat and listen to his thoughts?

Klaus: Harrison, it is a pleasure for me to have you here talking with me about you and your relation to Windows Live!

Harrison: Hi Klaus, I’m excited to have the opportunity!

Klaus: Let’s start right away with the first question.
Which sentence would describe you best?

Harrison: In terms of my job at Microsoft, I would say that I am focused on helping people discover all of the amazing things that you can do with Windows Live, as well as trying to make sure that our products reflect what people want. Outside of my job, I would say that I am a recent college grad, living in Seattle, who loves music, traveling, and Chicago sports.

Klaus: You were one of the co-founders of LiveSide.net, a news site talking about Windows Live. What motivated you to engage in this, back in January 2006?

Harrison: Prior to January, 2006, I was involved with beta testing for a variety of Microsoft products, which included various MSN products. I got to know a few other beta testers pretty well, so when we saw Microsoft starting to roll out this rebranding and new set of products called Windows Live, we saw a great opportunity to get out in front of it and provide information on it. So, in January, myself, Chris Overd, and Matthew Weyer started LiveSide, with Kip Kniskern (the current Managing Editor) joining just a few days after we launched.

Klaus: Would you have imagined Windows Live to become one of the main Microsoft products for Windows? Why so?

Harrison: I definitely knew that Microsoft had something special on their hands with Windows Live and that’s why I decided to do LiveSide at that time. From the outside, it was really obvious that there was a lot of momentum building internally around the new set of products, so I had a lot of faith in it. Even back then, when we were seeing some of the concepts for what we now call PC + Cloud services, you could tell that there was a lot of potential there.

Klaus: When you first got the chance to use Windows Live Messenger, what did you think?

Harrison: The first time that I used Messenger was back when it was still called MSN Messenger (version 6 I think). Since it wasn’t really popular in the U.S. then, my initial impression was, “Why don’t more of my friends use this? This product is clearly better than what AIM is bringing to the table.” My impression was that it was a really solid product, with a very useful feature set.

Klaus: Now, after moving your viewpoint from outside to inside MS, how did this affect your relation to Windows Live? Does it make you feel differently?

Harrison: It’s obviously different being on the inside than the outside, when looking at Windows Live, but I can’t say that my opinions have changed greatly. I still stand by what I have always thought about the set of products. When you use all of the Windows Live products together, they provide a value that is greater than what any other company offers. This is truly a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Klaus: Most folks are starting to accommodate with Windows Live 2011 (Wave 4). What do you like most in it?

Harrison: I think that we have a really strong set of products across the board, but if I had to pick one thing, it would probably be Facial Recognition/People Tags in Photo Gallery, combined with the Upload to Facebook feature. The fact that you can take your photos off of your camera after a party, have Photo Gallery import and organize them, as well as recognize your friends for batch tagging, and then upload them to Facebook with the tags is amazing. I think that it is a hugely powerful scenario and one that I personally find very useful. This process is so simple, especially in contrast to the painful experience of tagging photos one by one, person by person on Facebook’s site.

Klaus: Over the past 2 years, focus has drifted away from Instant Messaging, towards Social Networking. How might this trend continue? Will Messenger eventually become super fluent?

Harrison: I wouldn’t really say that we have drifted away from Instant Messaging because we still think that IM is hugely important and that a lot of people love chatting with their friends, but we have definitely placed an additional focus on social content in Messenger 2011. It’s really about completing the idea of staying in touch with the people that you care about and today, sites like Facebook are a big part of that. I’m not sure that I see Messenger becoming superfluous in the near future, but I think that it is safe to say that it will continue to evolve, as every product does.

Klaus: What is your biggest wish for Windows Live Wave 5—and will it come true?

Harrison: As far as the future goes, I am a big fan of the web, especially the social aspects of it. It’s a very fast moving space with a lot of exciting possibilities, so I would like to see Windows Live continue to work with more web services to build in deep integration, like we’ve done with Active Views in Hotmail or Facebook in Photo Gallery/Movie Maker and Messenger. That’s the kind of stuff that really shines for me. As for whether that will come true, I guess we’re going to have to wait and see!

Klaus: We’re looking forward to it! I appreciate you took the time to talk with me about what you think about Windows Live. =)

Harrison: Thanks for having me Klaus!

If you’re interested in checking out what Harrison is doing with Windows Live, you can follow him on Twitter: @harrisonhoffman.

The basic Web technologies that individuals and companies need to develop powerful services must be available for free, with no royalties. Amazon.com, for example, grew into a huge online bookstore, then music store, then store for all kinds of goods because it had open, free access to the technical standards on which the Web operates.

On the contrary, sites like Facebook or LinkedIn are just the opposite. They care about getting loads of data from their users, which in turn “becomes a central platform—a closed silo of content, and one that does not give you full control over your information in it.”

Apple’s iTunes software drives a similar path. “Not using open standards creates closed worlds,” Tim Berners-Lee explains. iTunes “identifies songs and videos using URIs that are open. But instead of ‘http:’ the addresses begin with ‘itunes:,’ which is proprietary. You can access an ‘itunes:’ link only using Apple’s proprietary iTunes program.”

Truly there is a point in Tim’s opinion. You cannot bookmark content in a Smartphone app. You cannot tweet a Skype call (‘skype:call…’) — simply because you are no longer on the Web, but in a closed communication universe.

In my opinion too, a disturbing fact.

“Facebook Messages is not a Gmail killer”, Mark Zuckerberg stressed while presenting the service. Users can select which communication channels to use, whether SMS, chat, e-mail or Facebook private messages. Messages reach the recipient on the way he has chosen, so the sender does not have to think about which is the recipient’s preferred way.

In conjunction with the new service, Facebook also offers its users an e-mail address following the username@facebook.com scheme. However, Facebook does deliberately not offer classic e-mails: Messages don’t have subjects and cannot be sent to multiple recipients using CC or BCC. And you submit them with pressing the Enter key.

Facebook is grouping the whole communication by people, regardless of which way you used to send the message.

In order to prevent messages from good friends to get lost among invoices and other e-mails, only messages from friends are displayed directly in your inbox. Messages from other people are stored in a second folder that you are able to look through easily. If a friend is not active on Facebook, their e-mail will get stored in a separate folder for first, but can be moved to the inbox. Thereafter, all subsequent messages from this sender will reach your inbox directly.

If you want to, you can limit which people can message you in your inbox by declining e-mails from people that do not originate from your own friends circle.

Facebook Messages is launching in the coming months and will gradually be made available to users. At facebook.com/about/messages/, you can request an invite for the new system. After receiving an invite, you can also invite your friends to Facebook Messages.

Until now, Facebook is quite dependent on other big players, such as Gmail or Hotmail. At the moment, you can only send chat messages (IM) and private messages to other Facebook members. For quite a while, Facebook has been working on an e-mail system of their own, code-named “Project Titan”.

This e-mail system would address common issues within Facebook’s current messaging system, such as these:

• You cannot forward messages without copy-and-paste.
• You cannot mark messages read in batches.
• There is no external access (such as IMAP or POP) to your messages within Facebook, except for API-wise.
• People who don’t use Facebook cannot send you a message, as there is no e-mail address they could use, like yourname@facebook.com.

Back in February already, the Techcrunch blog judged:

Email is all about identity. And Facebook is ahead of everyone else in the identity game via Facebook Connect. Facebook says more than 60 million people log in to 80,000 third party websites each month via Facebook Connect.

Tacking a real webmail product on top of those vanity URLs and Facebook connect is something even Google may shudder at. Gmail killer? I don’t think so. But a strong product move nonetheless.

Taking into account the recent fight of Google vs. Facebook due to their contact im- and export, this may appear to become a smart move by Facebook. Whether it will succeed is a question of how well Project Titan is integrated into the social network’s platform. Do you think it will?

According to All Things Digital, a Wall Street Journal blog, Facebook and Skype have agreed on a far-reaching cooperation. The two networks had already worked together on importing tools for friend lists. With the cooperation, Facebook aims at offering more communication ways to its 600 million users. Skype has some 124 million active users per month, with a total user base of 560 million people.

Facebook users will be able to send SMS and call their friends, as well as making use of video chat. These new integration features would become available with Skype 5.0. Within the next weeks, the software will leave the Beta status.

Skype 5.0 Beta 2 supports video calls with up to ten participants. Skype has already added extended social platform features, like reading status messages by contacts, or setting your own status message and profile picture. You can send instant messages while you’re offline, and you can search for contacts easier.

With its Facebook cooperation, Skype could integrate better with Social Networking. Skype has many non-U.S. users, which could speed up Facebook’s global expansion. It is unknown which mobile features are going to be integrated.

1. Browse to http://profile.live.com/Services/Add.aspx?appid=1140906031.
2. Activate the check box Chat with my Facebook friends in Messenger.
3. Scroll down and click Connect with Facebook.
4. Grant Windows Live permission to access Facebook Chat on your behalf.
5. Sign out and back in to Messenger. Your Facebook friends should now appear in the “Facebook” category.

This revamped Facebook Chat system will run more stable, compared to the current system used since Facebook Chat was launched some two years ago. Rodrigo Schmidt, Software Engineer at Facebook, states:

Many of you have told us that sometimes your Chat session comes and goes or even stops completely. [...] We know you want Chat to be hassle-free and uninterrupted. In the coming weeks, we will be making important improvements in the way connections are established and messages are sent, so that Chat will be much more stable for you and your friends. The biggest improvements come from changes that aren’t supported on older web browsers.

So, if you are still surfing the web with IE6, you have now one more reason to upgrade. By the way – just on September 15, the Internet Explorer 9 Public Beta is launching… why not give it a try?

Not a single week is passing without talks about privacy problems at Facebook. Not surprising, as the problems happening don’t have to be big ones — privacy problems can arise even when everything works smoothly, from Facebook’s viewpoint. Worldwide, more than 400 million people are registered at Facebook. And all of them deliver data 24/7 to the U.S.-based social network — sometimes even without wanting to, and sometimes even data about friends or relatives that do not know about it and do not want it to happen.

Facebook for mobile phones

For a while, Facebook has been spreading on cell phones, too. On the Facebook homepage, using it on your mobile phone is recommended, regardless which model you are using. On modern mobiles, Facebook does look really good — and is fun. You can reach nearly all important features and keep in touch with your Facebook friends while you aren’t at home. Generally, contacting Facebook or other social networks while being on the way is okay. It can even be fun.

Comfortable, yet not harmless

The problem is: Your mobile phone might send more data to Facebook than you want to — and than you are aware of. This is because Facebook offers a “Synchronize” feature. Sounds comfortable: You can link all contacts, that is, all names, addresses and phone numbers stored in your cell phone, with your Facebook account and thus make them available everywhere. But that is where you might run into problems: By doing this, you transmit the phone numbers and names of all your friends, colleagues and relatives to Facebook. And Facebook will store these data, regardless whether the people are registered or not.

Watch out while “synchronizing”

Take a closer look: You will find a note in your display informing you that you should only use this feature if all contacts, that is, all your friends, have agreed. To be honest: I don’t know anybody calling all friends stored in their mobile phone to get to know whether they want it and agree. But Facebook moves the responsibility towards us. So: Watch out while using the “synchronize” feature with your cell phone — or just don’t use it at all. Once the names, mail addresses and phone number data are submitted, you are not in control of them anymore.

Data collection mania at Facebook

However, you have to be watchful even if you are not using Facebook on your mobile. Facebook promises to help you find your friends. Sounds tempting. So, many people accept the offer to get their contacts uploaded. Facebook is interested in everything: may it be e-mail addresses or instant messaging, Facebook takes everything. Thus: be on the look out here as well.

Potential new members — free delivery

That is how Facebook’s address database continues to grow. Facebook gets to know more and more people, even those that have never registered at Facebook before. The network grows and grows … Facebook increases its knowledge about who knows whom, who is in contact with whom, and can suggest friends. This way, tons of data are sent to Facebook — with free delivery for the company. Doesn’t have to be like that, in my opinion.

Check your profile

You want to check which contacts are stored within your own profile: Click “Edit Friends”, then “Phonebook”. A list of all so-called friends is displayed, including contacts from your mobile phone’s address book. And if you want to view if Facebook has already sent invitations on your behalf: You can check that too, with the feature “View all invitations”.

User data without consent

Privacy advocates consider it problematic when a Web service like Facebook gets hold of user data without having their consent. Primarily, Facebook should make everything more transparent. And everybody who does not want to register at Facebook should get a way to remove his or her data from the database permanently. This feature does not exist. Yet.

Use privacy settings

It is useful to check your privacy settings in Facebook. They exist for contacts as well. Here, you can control in detail what friends or strangers can get to know about you. It is worth the efforts to check every single setting — and edit it, if needed. You can take a close look at what should be visible, and what shouldn’t. You can even control which details about you are displayed in a search result.

I like to share news with friends, colleages and other people in social networks. What I do not like is the missing transparency and the self-service mentality regarding personal data. This is where something has to happen as soon as possible.

Honestly: Do you regret which username you chose?  You get a second chance.  Here is how:

How-to: Change your username in Facebook

1. Head over to your Facebook Account area.
2. In the Username section, click the Change link.
3. Enter your corrected username choice, and click Check availability.
4. Remember!  You can only change your username ONCE.
5. Finally, click Change.

Whether Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn or Twitter, one thing is common to all of them: Registering is very easy.  Just choose an account name, enter an e-mail address, and you’re done and now a member.  It is only later that social networks ask for more data.  Registering is quickly done and without any hassle.  But sure: Each social network wants as many members as possible, that is why the registration is as simple as possible.

Touching your feelings when deleting your account

It gets more complicated if you want to unregister from a social network.  First of all, the deletion feature is mostly well-hidden, you even have to search for it.  And after your found the feature, for example in Facebook, your feelings are touched: All your dear virtual friends look at you, Kip will miss you, Keiji will miss you, Joshua will miss you, do you really want to disconnect — or will you think about it once again?  You will have a hard decision… and you must be strong enough to execute what you want to do.

Deleting your data manually

In general: If you want to unregister from a social network, you have to have a good sight to find the feature.  Mostly, the disabling link is hidden somewhere in your account area.  Thus, you have to log in first, then look around.  Twitter’s delete option for example is just at the bottom of the page, and somewhat small too.  Of course, there is a security confirmation.  And — very important: I recommend deleting all data, photos and videos prior to closing your account.  Manually.  That is the only way of being sure that photos, videos and information are really disappearing from the network completely, also on your friend’s and contact’s profile pages.

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

Thus, it takes really effort and time to disconnect from social networks.  Furthermore, most users are registered with multiple networks, your time to invest will double or multiply if you want to unregister everywhere.  It could come in handy to have kind of a butler that can do the job for you.  But wait: Such butler really exists.  For example there is the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, a Web service that is able to unregister you with several big social networks, like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Saved time: several hours, according to its creator.

Automatic data deletion

The Suicide Machine takes over the annoying deletion and disconnection tasks.  You just have to enter your login credentials for the networks and Web services, the rest is done automatically.  If you’re not concerned by the somewhat cruel name, the Suicide Machine might be a useful service.  If you want to unregister e.g. from Twitter, you get worthy help here.  The service doesn’t only close the Twitter account, but also tries to delete all tweets, that is, your messages sent via Twitter.

Disconnection made hard

Other accounts, like Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace can be closed via the Suicide Machine as well.  However, Facebook denies access therewhile.  Official reason: The service is a violation of the Terms of Use.  In reality though, Facebook just wants to make the disconnection harder.  A Web service or social network that makes disconnection hard is somewhat strange to me… That’s not the right decision for sure.

More information

• Web 2.0 Suicide Machine (www.suicidemachine.org)
• Facebook (www.facebook.com)
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
• “What’s happening?” (www.twitter.com)

Google Buzz is the name of the new service, integrated into Gmail and going with the social community trend. Currently everybody wants to connect, create friendships online, upload and comment photos, exchange among each other, communicate and much more. E-mail isn’t quite the right way for that. Twitter is only suitable partially either. The optimum is a combination of everything — that’s why Facebook is so popular.

For a rather long time, Google has watched things happen and done few things to make use of the growing popularity of social communities. The last presented thing was Google Wave, tending a bit into this direction, but being ignored by most people.

That could be different with Google Buzz: Google combines everything that online users today like. You can follow your friends directly from your Google account, you can chat and share videos, you can integrate your flickr photo album, publish photos and comment on photos by your friends. The same is possible with Youtube videos. You can read Twitter messages and much more.

Google Buzz wants to become your communication center — and is thus a direct attack to Facebook, Twitter etc. The need is there to share things with others, even live, that’s innegotiable.

The question arising is: Will Google succeed in convincing the people of Google Buzz and distract them from other social community services, like Facebook. Google might well succeed, as Google as much power on the Web and many possibilities to advertise the own services.

A further question is how well Google can compete with their promises, as Google Buzz is by far done, but now integrated into Gmail step by step. You can use Google Buzz also on your cell phone. Sure, the “Mobile” web is the future.

If everything is solved well, easy to use, and fast (you can usually count on that at Google), Google Buzz has interesting chances to become successful. Privacy advocates however can start to clean their red markers, as new privacy problems arise with Google Buzz: Many things you publish at Google Buzz are readable by everybody, by the complete public Web — unless you choose to share them privately. Misunderstandings and difficulties are already waiting.

The social network Facebook has rolled out a new home page layout.  The top navigation as well as the sidebar and footer have been changed.  Facebook Engineer Jing Chen said:

We hope the simplified design of the home page will make it easy for you to stay connected with the people, applications and activities that matter the most to you.

To introduce you to the most important changes, I have published a screen-cast highlighting them.

What’s new on the Facebook home page

• Near the Facebook logo, you will find icons for your newest notifications, requests and messages.
• The side menu displays your applications, games and friends.  From there, you can access Facebook Chat.
• The top-right area provides you with everything related to you and your account.  Log-out is located in the Account menu, too.

What do you think about this new layout?