Ping is a kind of Steam, Xbox Live or PSN, I think that people that thinks that it will compete with Facebook are misunderstanding the situation (I did before trying to use it).
"at this point, the Social Networking thing has pretty much played itself out, picked its winners, and we've all moved on."
Statements like these would have been music to MySpace's ears at one point. People are finicky about social networks and another generation is being born. I don't think we are at the end of the evolution.
Because when I'm tired of looking at the iTunes Top 10/100 list and I want new music I tweet, "Any new music recommendations? I need something new!" Now I follow quite a few people that I follow on Twitter and can immediately see what they are enjoying. I would love to see this migrate into applications as well.
It's a social network for products. Help me find the good stuff in an oversaturated world.
The genius recommendation engine is a start, but I've already gone through those and got what I want and now there's nothing new. Also, it only tells me about categories of apps that I already know I like and will use, such as photography apps and games. What if there's a whole new category of apps that I would find useful? Ping would be great for me to find those new categories.
I too will shamelessly plug my site (yet again). Try out http://like.fm. Still very, very new and I'm only plugging it because.. well.. lots of press about Ping right now. You can follow blogs as well as people, and you can embed your profile in Facebook. (It's also free, and works across iTunes, Winamp, Pandora, and YouTube).
Yea somebody requested Amarok today. I'm going to start that soon. I have to setup a linux desktop first though in order to test it (if any Last.fm client developers are reading this, Like.fm uses an identical scrobbling API. You can email me at chris@like.fm if you'd like to help).
Do you think the gender is intrusive? At the moment I don't really do anything with gender except personalize pronouns (he/she) in emails. I know it seems a bit out of place... I guess I can make it optional. However I'm planning to do stats and analytics and gender would be useful in the future (like what girls listen to vs what boys listen to, etc).
"(if any Last.fm client developers are reading this, Like.fm uses an identical scrobbling API. You can email me at chris@like.fm if you'd like to help)."
Hmm. Can I just tell (if possible) amarok to use a Like.fm URL in place of last.fm?
Also, the gender thing is not a big deal, but feels like a big sign saying "We're going to use your data for marketing purposes".
If you think it actually adds to the quality of the user's experience (via some analytics and such), then that's a good thing. But my initial reaction is that all a site needs is a unique way to identify me; past a name and password, everything else I'm made to enter isn't done for for my benefit.
Maybe I've been thinking about form usability too much lately for my own sites ...
I say leave it there. It's innocuous enough, and it'll be valuable demographic data later on. If you stop asking for it now, and then need to start later then people will be suspicious, and you'll have holes in the data from when you didn't ask.
Of course, with all user submitted input, don't ever assume it to be right. ;-)
<shameless plug>
Try rdio. It lets you follow your twitter friends, facebook friends, and others, and you don't need to pay $10 for the music you find. Works with your iPhone too ;).
</shameless plug>
I listen to Pandora a lot and I've only hit the 40 hour limit twice, in which case you can also just pay 99 cents. So it's anywhere from $0 to $12 per year, $36 is to get rid of the ads (which aren't too obnoxious either).
Perhaps if iTunes didn't suck, and if I could use it in my browser of choice, I'd like it more. But as it stands I won't ever use it. Last.fm does everything I need and more, doesn't take up yet another spot in the in iTunes.
I've never understood why the iTunes store couldn't just be a website. Browse and preview when and where you want, and the iTunes app invisibly starts downloading purchases as soon as it's able.
The bizarre part is that most of the store actually is a website (CSS/HTML), and iTunes renders it with Webkit, but it can only be viewed from within iTunes...
It's a weird mix of the worst of both worlds. It feels very much like a Web site (i.e. slow), yet I cannot do useful Web stuff, such as open links in new tabs so as to not lose my place when browsing around.
There are still a lot of bands on Myspace for which it is only a matter of time before they make a switch because Myspace doesn't connect them with their fans anymore. Given this it makes a lot of sense for Apple to at least attempt this.
Really though I don't see why Facebook couldn't give better support for bands so they could go where the fans are more easily.
What's with all those hideous google ads scattered all over OSNews all the sudden? I don't know about other people, but seeing that many ads will keep me away from a site.
