Facebook Logo

I like to quickly and easily share news or blog articles I come across while surfing the web, just like thousands of others. ust about every website now has a share button of some kind, with Facebook, Twitter, and Email being the most popular choices offered.

Another *standard* is the ShareThis box offered by sharethis.com. Anyone who spends anytime surfing the web is familiar with this icon.

With all that sharing, you’d think all the bases are covered. Alas, not so…

For a very long time I have ended up posting articles to Facebook and Twitter, not because that’s where I really want to share the articles, but because it was the easiest way to go about it.

Where I really want to aggregate all this sharing is on my own self-hosted WordPress blog. But there’s just no Easy button for that. Or is there? In doing some research, I came across a workaround to get back on the easy button sharing bandwagon. It’s not as elegant as I’d like, but it works seamlessly nonetheless.

Remember the ShareThis option I referred to above? Well, there’s the familiar Blogger button. So what I finally ended up doing is creating a Blogger blog. Then I went to the Admin interface of my WordPress blog, and went to Tools >> Import >> Blogger. I then entered the information and presto… within seconds my blogger posts were seamlessly imported into my WordPress blog.

I can now surf the web and use the Blogger button to share articles of interest and have it automatically imported into my WordPress blog.

As I mentioned, this isn’t the best solution since I will now have two blogs in two different locations with identical content. A definite Google search engine listing no-no. But I cannot seem to come up with a better way to do this. Any suggestions?

Google logo

Well, I have to admit, I was a little surprised at Google’s announcement today regarding the release of their Public DNS system. My initial thoughts were:

1) WOW! This is very interesting in an exciting where will technology take us next sort of way!

2) YIKES! This is scary in a huge monopoly, big brother  we’re all going to become Google minions and be sucked into the Matrix sort of way.

3) How soon can I implement this to see if it works?!

Now, I know there are many people who are smacking their foreheads right now saying, You silly girl. You’re playing right into their hands. Your privacy has been stripped from you and you are already a minion! Shame on you!

To that I say simply, I know. By choosing to live on the grid in an industrialized nation I have traded my privacy for the conveniences of living a life with all the 1984 trappings.

Let’s be real here… by choosing to connect to the internet, create a Facebook account, own a cell phone, a credit card, and a bank account I assume I am being watched (no, not in a paranoid they’re out to get me sort of way – just in a practical you’re on the grid sort of way… … .. .the argument of what’s the difference is fodder for several more blog entries so I’ll leave it for now).

In reference to this quote from David Coursey in his PC World article, “Google Public DNS: Wonderful Freebie or Big New Menace,”

“The downside is that Google’s Public DNS will also give the Internet giant an unparalleled look what people are doing on the Internet. It will, for example, be able to log every DNS request made by every user of its system. If that doesn’t frighten you at least a little, it perhaps ought to.”

I would argue that if you’ve been using Google as a search engine over the past few years, every DNS request you’ve ever made has already been logged.

Further, if  you are one of the anti-Google purists who refuses to use Google for anything and instead use Yahoo!, Bing, AOL, or some other search engine I would argue that the same is true, every site you  have visited has been itemized and catalogued in a neat cyber-file with your name on it.

Folks, when I step out the front door of my house into the public domain of my city, I can see all the cameras at every intersection watching what I do.

Likewise, the internet is public. When a DNS request leaves the door of my router out into the public domain of 1s and 0s, I assume that everything I do is being watched.

Reasonable expectation of privacy as defined by law states that if someone is walking down the sidewalk in front of my house and my blinds are wide open, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that if that person glances over and looks in my window he will see whatever is going on and so what? Don’t cry about it later.

It is not, however, reasonable to assume that said person will climb the nearest tree with binoculars and peer into my second floor windows whether the blinds are drawn or not.

Similarly, the debate between technological advances vs reasonable expectation of privacy will continue. Some time ago, my friend Michael Jones posted this question on Facebook:

“Do you think a business and/or colleges should be allowed to check a person’s facebook site before admission/hiring???“

This was my reply:

“Whether they should or shouldn’t is irrelevant, because the fact is they do. Further, there are some occupations where one is inherently held to a higher standard such as various law enforcement professions and teachers.

Yes, what you do in your spare time IS your business, but if you’re engaging in certain behaviors and choose to make it public on FB, MySpace, Twitter etc., then be prepared for the consequences.

Law enforcement, colleges, and prospective employers are all very active on social networking sites, and that’s not likely to change.

Net neutrality means we have the freedom to post just about anything we want, but it also means others are allowed to view the public forum and formulate opinions about our character.“

We can argue forever if what we do in public should be watched and catalogued, or  not. But the bottom line is, you can assume that it is. And if this makes you uncomfortable, you know what to do…. Unplug.

So I started doing some research on the integration of social options for you loyal readers of my blog and I was presented with two salient choices. Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect.

Obviously, I looked at Facebook Connect first since I spend so much time on Facebook. Most all articles were unanimous in saying that if you can actually get through the setup, Facebook Connect is beautiful and seamless… BUT… (that’s an enormous BUT *giggle*) it’s geared toward developers and code junkies.

Here are some of the articles I read, if you are interested:

Facebook Connect vs Google Friend Connect: Fight! December 5th, 2008 | by Stan Schroeder

Google Friend Connect vs Facebook Connect video

Easy Does It: Google Friend Connect One-Ups Facebook Connect’s Install Wizard by Jason Kincaid on October 2, 2009

So, I’m not going to shy away from a challenge, but I started looking more closely at Google Friend Connect to see what they had to offer. Here we have a situation typical of Google… just push the big red easy button, as Jason Kincaid eluded to. Okay… it wasn’t quite THAT easy. But within five minutes I had my Google Friend Connect box implemented and tested on my blog.

To get started I went to http://www.google.com/friendconnect and clicked on the big blue Get Started button.

Google Friend Connect sign up page

From there, I entered in the required information and followed the instructions to create the html code for my site. Once that was completed, I was ready to insert the code into my blog.

Signing up for Google Friend Connect

This presented somewhat of a glitch, as I’m using a different theme than the default (shocking I know) so I didn’t want to do anything that was going to break the theme code. Conveniently, I came across this blog that explained the easiest way to achieve my goal was to simply create a new text widget and then place the widget wherever I wanted my Google Friend Connect box to appear. Thank you to Don Campbell for providing that helpful hint!

Success! =)

Now after all that, please feel free to join my blog community by using this nifty Google friend connect widget! =)

If you prefer to wait for Facebook connect, that’s okay also. I’ll be adding that soon. Personally right now, I figure options are always good.

So yesterday, I finally got my invite to Google Wave. Yippppeeeeee!!!!

I spent most of today watching all the *Getting Started Videos* and playing around with the functionality.

What IS Google Wave? Only the next biggest thing EVER… as far as the internet is concerned. Web 3.0 is cresting and about to hit shore in a big way!

Ever since I’ve had this blog I’ve been searching for a way to easily share various pages and news stories I see out on the web as I’m surfing around. Even though there is a built in, easy way to *share* if you use Blogger or a WordPress blog on WordPress.com, there is really no easy way to share if you are hosting your own WP blog on your own domain.

Another issue I’ve had is the tedious API setup between Facebook and WordPress. Yes, it can be done. I am able to integrate my Facebook and WordPress blog. But the answers out there are not for the faint of heart. Or should I say, faint of code…

Not to mention, there seems to be a slant toward being able to embed WordPress blog posts into your Facebook newsfeed, but not so much the other way around. What I’m looking for is the ability to be able to have true sharing between my blog and my Facebook account. The truth is, most everything I post on Facebook, I’d rather post on my own blog, but Facebook makes it easier. Until now…

Google Wave may just be the answer I have been searching for. I don’t know if Google Wave will end up being the demise of Facebook. I’d be perfectly content if my Facebook account and my Google account could have a symbiotic relationship. Google already has a significant following on their Fan Page on Facebook.

Development is already underway for integrating Google Wave into Drupal-based websites.

And Mashable has done a (s)mashing job of providing a Complete Google Wave User Guide.

All I really know for sure, is I want to have a simple way to build MY internet the way I want to!!! Will Google Wave make this possible? Well, I’ve decided to grab my surfboard and find out. =)