Category Archives: Web Development

Thoughts on web development; sometimes helpful tips other times questioning ideas.

Google+ and the alleged Photo Search feature

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I really hope this isn’t for real. For the first time in my professional life I actually hope that an account has been hacked. The Google Plus Page on Facebook posted a status on its wall that has left me (and a lot of others) very concerned.

Google+, Google’s latest foray into Social Media, has announced on Facebook that it has a new upcoming feature, “Google Plus Search by Image”. The new feature is allegedly designed to allow users of the service to search for people to follow/befriend by nothing more than their picture! If that’s not scary enough, take a look at how the new feature was broadcast:

Google+ Advert for alleged photo search feature on Facebook Wall

The Facebook Notification

There’s no denying that this sort of facial recognition technology is amazing! It really is breath taking. The feat of engineering required to complete this is astounding. If Google can actually pull this off on a massive scale (Google+ already has more than 10 million active accounts) then it is something for them to be really proud of.

Unfortunately, it is also the biggest mistake Google could possible make with its new fledgling network. Google has, in the past, struggled with social networking and privacy issues. This latest feature would add a massive strain to the ability of users to maintain privacy of any sort.

This new supposed feature is a great example of innovation for innovation’s sake. It will add little to the actual usability of the service but may prove to be a major negative impact on the continued uptake of it. Innovation that drives customer satisfaction is great, but when it exists as an end in itself it can be a wasteful use of resources or worst detrimental to your offering.

I really do hope that this is not real.

Beware “Business Solutions” which lack foresight

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A friend of @RachaelStott proudly launched her new site at the end of last week. She’s a florist, and a great one too, she specializes in wedding floristry and has ran a successful side business for a number of years using Facebook Pages and word of mouth referrals. So this new site is a big move for her, it symbolises her business’ growth and it really does look great!

So what’s my issue? The mobile redirect built in by the website’s developers redirects to a “Get Flash” place holder!!! RAAAARRR

I know Flash has it’s place, and I don’t want to be a Flash basher, but the site in question can just as easily (if not more easily) be developed in web standards. That aside, with great javascript libraries like jQuery Mobile, I cannot understand why a company would not build a mobile redirect to a HTML/CSS based page using the XML data it has already generated for the Flash page.

It’s not Rachael’s friend’s fault, I place the blame here solely on the companies who offer “Business Solutions” which lack foresight! In a world where consumption of information happens in a fragmented environment we cannot take non-standard formats for granted.