Google Friend Connect Widget Disappears!

Google Friend Connect has been down since May 26th. No official word when the service will go back up. Although there has been questions as to if WordPress 3.13 update knocked the widget offline, we can verify that this service is offline across all blog platforms including Blogger.

For example, by signing into the admin area for Google Friend Connect, all widgets show an empty box. There are still many reports of users experiencing the problem through Twitter and Google Support Forums.

Time Warner plans to split AOL into two factions, an advertisement unit and a dial-up unit. The plan will be to sell off each unit to potential buyers.

Dial-up users do not make up the majority on AOL so giving them away won’t be such a big deal. Plus this means that AOL will finally have no use for India call centers, although they still might work as online tech support.

The advertising unit also known as Platform A, accounts for the whole AOL community, but mainly focuses on Ad.com. Platform A consists of tons of websites and brands all across the internet. Its a very lucrative spot to potential buyers as they will have ad spots in tons of areas including the massive AIM user base.

I am a Dial-up User, Where do I go?

Earthlink has been in talks to take over dial-up subscribers. I believe dial-up users will be switched over to an entirely new Earthlink email address, Their AOL account will automatically be switched over to free and they will be encouraged to use both emails. This is just purely speculation.

I am a Broadband User, Where do I go?

As for the advertisement unit, it looks like we’ll end up joining Microsoft or Yahoo, or hopefully someone else who wants to step up to the plate.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The most interesting part of this merger is the drama between each of the major companies. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are battling it out to gain the largest footprint over internet advertisement revenue. If AOL merges with Yahoo, Microsoft gets upset. If AOL merges with Microsoft, Google gets upset. Added to this problem includes the recent deal Yahoo and Google are making to share advertisement plans. Microsoft isn’t so happy about that either and wants the decision blocked. I’m hoping neither of these companies buy AOL. As you can see its already a tangled mess. Joining forces with AOL will only complicate matters.

If Microsoft or Yahoo does indeed buy AOL, interoperability will finally be on the table. Whoever buys AOL will now have to integrate all AOL screennames together with the buyer’s IM service. For the first time we may finally have AIM with the ability to add Microsoft and Yahoo subscribers to the buddy list. I know many have have been clamoring for that.

The other great feature is advertisement revenue. Now Yahoo or Microsoft will have an even larger audience to host advertisements, including non-AOL owned websites that Ad.com serves.

The Buzz Around the Internets

There seems to be no agreement as to who should buy AOL. One thought is that If Microsoft buys AOL, it could allow Yahoo to prove themselves to investors that they can run independent of Microsoft. Another speculates that AOL won’t be able to save the Microsoft brand. We may find ourselves watching the same thing happen years from now when Microsoft announces it will try to sell off AOL.

During this battle, users are always the victims. If I were to choose a company that could attempt to save the AOL community to bring them back together, I would choose Yahoo. Yahoo has proven its expertise in this aspect with sites such as Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Answers.

What do you think will happen to AOL?

Post a comment on your ideas and thoughts as to what might happen to AOL. You’ll have to wait until 2009 its announced what plans AOL will be forced to make.

This year’s theme is sending email back through time. Your only limited to 10 emails per user. Unfortunately they did not add this button on the compose mail page making this joke a mere failure.

Now if only the subject heading said “Happy Wedding Anniversary”

Color Schemes

It could use some colors. white and blue reminds me of the old days of the web. At least the quote bubble is curvy.

Flash Embed Option

It needs a Flash version. iFrames are too exploitable, and I’d even advocate for web browsers to ask whether to load content in an IFrame just to reduce javascript attacks by a considerable amount. Since its iFrame, there is no anyway to put this on your Myspace page, so people please don’t ask about it.

Badge Saving For Later Use

Currently, it just generates a code everytime you visit the page, which defaults to your real first and last name, or whatever name you set up in your Google Account. If you had previously set up a nickname, it will get lost if you need it again for whatever reason. You’ll have to retype the nickname again to generate the code.

Guest Names For Each Person

Guests should be able to set their nickname and each Guest should be assigned a unique number. Currently all Guests respond as Guest, making it confusing at times.

Thats about it. Knowing Google, these suggestions, if they do consider them, will get added quietly.

Googling answers for this question come from the keywords "Karl Lehmann", "2000", and "suggest".

The answer to this question is Pope John Paul II.

Lets Play the Google Hot Trends Quiz Show!

Question 1: What part of the graduate’s costume gave the Cordon Bleu Cooking School its name.

Answer: It was named after the "Blue Ribbon" that hung from the Cross of the Holy Spirit! Graduates would wear a blue ribbon signifying their completion of the school.  

Question 2: What Sports League was Born in 1949 when the BAA absorbed the remains of the NBL?
Answer: Its the NBA!

Question 3: Who won the Bachelor?
Answer: The answer may surprise you. Tessa won!!

Question 4: What did the body of water Balboa named El Mar de Sur or “the south sea ” come to be called?
Answer: Its the Pacific Ocean!!

Question 5: How does a kangaroo keep cool?
Answer: Thats an excellent question! A double blind scientific study supports that relicore provides less body fat for kangaroos. Kangaroos have recently spoken up about their greivances about heat exhaustion. They will inform the public through a PSA which shows kangaroos jump roping while shouting, "O-N-E-L-E-S-S! I want to be One Less One Less!"

Question 6: What public figure’s retirement did german bishop karl lehmann dare to suggest in 2000?
Answer: Pope John Paul II

Aside from those, some of the other wierd search terms are strange. Apparently there’s a demand  for (21) rosiglitazone, a diabetes drug that won’t cure (31) paula abdul broken nose. (54) How to stop an exploding man? Well you’ll have to watch (10) heroes season 2. Apparently there are too many (52) shrunken heads from all that (24) helmet boxing you find at (36) adam4adam.com . <- Ooh Double entendre 

AOL, Google, and Windows Live, have been the biggest players in providing websites for your cell. In the world of WAP, there is limited amount of space and bandwith. Its essential to create sites that are easy to use with quick load times.  We’ll divulge into each one of these as well as others suggested by you.

AOL Mobile: Had a strong hold on WAP in the beginning, but it has gotten weaker since its competitors have been pretty much doing the same thing. AOL Mobile has provided an easy to use set of links to its various services. The news area is its worst, providing the least amount of news compared to the other networks. It features only major stories in whichever catergory you choose. The news articles are short and don’t provide much reading entertainment. Its Mail feature is pretty much the highlight of the whole thing. Your able to read mail very easily and switch to another place. The new AOL Feed Reader, is a wonderfull suggestion, unfotunately it doesn’t work as well. Its major problem is that it doesn’t remember what feeds you add, and this could seriously be fixed if they made you login to view your feeds. Your better off using this for a quick read for those hard to reach sites. AOL search which was the pioneer before google to format pages with images to your phone, is a little on the heavy side. I quickly run out of memory and recieve Page can not be displayed messages. Mapquest provides the best directions as always, but their maps are a little too detailed for mobile phones. The rest of the WAP portal isn’t really worth your time. Score: 75%

Google Mobile: After AOL held the market long enough, Google’s main focus was to launch its own search page that formatted webpages with images to your phone. Google offers a better way of doing it since it breaks up a webpage into small chunks. Sometimes the chunks are so small that you’ll end up with 17 pages with pure nonsesense on it before you finally reach something good. Google puts up a good fight in its other services such as Google Maps. Its first a little tricky since a radio button must be selected and you have to type in something for it to search. You’ll usually get annoyed by it thinking you should type in a city and state. What it actually does is put your search box in the "WHAT" catergory, and then you type the location in the WHERE catergory. Driving directions are good and the maps are somewhat blurry but still they load quite fast. Gmail is another feature that isn’t much things going on in it. The biggest thing to do is be able to view pictures in email. You can also download a picture formatted to your phone. Google’s biggest drawback is its Google News area. Its loaded with HUGE TEXT for the catergories, making it annoying to search through. The news seems to be preselected with certain sites and because of this some news items are outdated. Trying to find news through the catergories is pretty dull. You’ll get a few news stories and then it mysteriously ends as if there isn’t any more news on that subject.  Score: 70%

Yahoo Mobile: The news section takes over as its biggest and well designed area. First all news catergories lead to sub-catergories. You’ll easily find the news you want to read and also since there is one pic per news story, pages load very fast. The news listings are compareable to digg. You’ll find lots of interesting stories by date. The back and next buttons are convieniently numbered so you can easily reach to the pages you want. Unfortunately there is no way of going back from a sub-catergory, meaning you’ll have to retype the site if you’d like to choose another subcatergory. The site saves your location for movies and weather. An easy saved list of your most recent locations are stored on the site. There is also a Y2Go! service which doesn’t support my phone. Score: 80%

Windows Live Mobile: Another portal site with basically the same features as the others. The biggest let down is the news section where huge new headlines dominate the screen. You must first scroll accross these huge headlines before you reach down to the catergories.  Every news article has a picture similar to Yahoo’s however they chose  a bigger maximized picture which takes some time to load. Another annoying thing is at the top, where a grey MSN logo appears. Due to this, my phone freezes a bit as it passes by. The weather section is nice but it closes the browser as it redirects itself to someplace else. Other features such as lottery makes it  much easier to view scores instead of going to the state’s horribly confusing lottery website. In my network they even included a chatroom/message board area. Even though its a totally seperate company, Windows Live mobile has more advanced communication tools than the rest.  Score: 60%