Industry Talk

BuZZ:Publish Just About Anything

The buzz about Google’s new product that has been inbuilt into the popular Gmail necessitates that we take a sneak peak at Buzz. Apart from the obvious fact that Google has finally managed to create a social networking product to compete with Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed, Buzz is a perfect way to keep in touch with friends and family on the go!

While stalwarts of the industry have agreed about its social implications notwithstanding the minor glitch (posing issues of personal information being leaked), by integrating Buzz, Google has actually made Gmail the undisputed email giant of the world. Google Talk was a great way of catching up with dear ones online but Buzz is not just about dropping a one liner but letting everyone know what you are up to.

Besides what Buzz offers, the big take away for Google is the user base. Known for its technical brilliance, Google did not launch Buzz separately like Google Talk and Orkut of which Google Talk was later integrated. Perhaps Google used Talk as a precedence which overshadowed Yahoo Messenger after being integrated into Gmail. Buzz has an astounding 31 million users since its recent launch.

Like all other social networking sites, Buzz too allows users to publish pictures, posts, updates and almost everything! Here too the web designers of Google albeit sighed a relief because the widget did not have to wear an all new garb and satiate the visual appetite of social network users.

For those who panicked after the rumour of security flaws in Buzz, the engineers immediately introduced:

“Confirm your Buzz setup. Please double-check that Buzz is set up just the way you like it. And if you missed it, check out the Buzz video.”

Like Talk, here too netizens have complete control, they can ‘Turn Off Buzz’, if need be.
These steps have for the time being eradicated the issue of Buzz not being an Opt-in service.

John Sculley ex-CEO of Apple recently compared the concept product ‘Knowledge Navigator’ with the new age innovative technical device, iPad. This unique invention was conceived by Apple in 1987 and videos of the product were circulated in the market. Sculley in his book Odyssey makes special mention of this technological genius that was described as working with the help of a bulk database of hypertext information. But what set this concept apart was the use of virtual software agents who were deployed to garner the information searched for.

The tablet system that Apple demonstrated through the vignettes was like, fairytale equipment.  Unlike the iPhone which was previously compared to the Knowledge Navigator, it did not have a touch-screen interface. Rather it was designed with a powerful text-to-speech system and a speech comprehending system which enabled the user to converse with the virtual butler (software agent).  In fact if the device was built it would completely alter the outlook of publishing solutions and re-inchoate the entire dimension of desktop publishing.

Knowledge Navigator: The Future of Information Publishing

Anyone who did hear or see the videos of the Knowledge Navigator definitely thought that it was a piece of equipment right out of a science fiction. It was never launched in the market but products like Newton MessagePad 100, ARM6 processor core with Acorn Computers, PowerBook Duo-based tablet and the PenLite, were built incorporating many technical facets of the Navigator. Finally the iPad took shape which in Sculley’s words ‘is the most brilliant product’ and of the same brilliance as the first Mac and desktop publishing software.

PageMaker 7 is Adobe’s latest gift to desktop publishing. QuarkXpress and Adobe InDesign were the first choice of most desktop publishing professionals but with the advent of the user friendly and easy to navigate PageMaker version 7, there is an obvious possibility that the trend may change. In this new desktop publishing avatar, users can import files from their oft used systems and customize the version 7 to suit their needs.

Adobe PageMaker 7.0 - Desktop Publishing Software

The text and image data from a database or spreadsheet can be imported in either .csv (comma separated values) or .txt format which can be merged into a PageMaker template. Again, Photoshop (.psd) files no longer need to be converted to “flattened” files before being imported to PageMaker. This makes the desktop publishing work hassle free allowing last-minute corrections and edits, and those changes are directly reflected in the final output.
Retaining its basic features the PageMaker has been upgraded to include tools integral for an ideal page layout software. PageMaker version 7.0 has a converter for QuarkXPress documents that enables migration from this complex program to PageMaker files less cumbersome. It can also open files that are created with Microsoft Publisher 97, 98, and 2000. The PageMaker also offers a range of 57 font families with 207 Adobe typefaces, a huge collection of design templates, and a large library of clip art and stock photo images for ready use.
Professionals who have already used this desktop publishing software package are especially gaga over the fact that it can convert documents to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files with ease. All index entries and page links are automatically exported, creating a fully indexed PDF in just a single step. Further, the documents can be protected with a128-bit password encryption. In addition, this desktop publishing software can even embed advanced PDF tags that permit text wrapping within the PDF. This definitely calls for celebration for all e-book designers.

Picture Palette for Windows: Desktop Publishing Solutions from Adobe

For the Windows user the PageMaker 7.0 has added benefits. The Windows version contains a Picture Palette for browsing and managing all illustrations, clip art, and photographs saved in industry-standard formats. Users can browse the palette by categories, thumbnails, or keywords. Even adding or deleting graphics and creating new categories is possible. Windows users have a Template Browser which helps in searching and managing PageMaker-formatted templates. Adobe would upgrade the software soon for the Mac users.

Bebo is not a new age lingo doing the rounds in schools and colleges but another interface for social networking on the go. To compete with the big brothers like MySpace, Facebook, Orkut and Twitter, AOL had purchased Bebo a social networking site for $850 m on March 13, 2008. Bebo which literally stands for “Blog early, blog often” was an independent site published online. Before AOL had officially taken Bebo under its folds, this social networking site had made a mark in the English US, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Italy, France and Poland. However in the South East Asian countries it failed to compete with the giants ruling the web – namely Facebook and Orkut. Like all other networking sites Bebo too consists of a profile page, a comment exchange interface for interaction, video and image upload options and obviously as its name suggests a blog space. But before Bebo could transform the face of social networking it was crawling into oblivion.

Bebo: The Social Networking Site that was Published in 2005

While each of the networking sites updated their look and feel with web design professionals working day in day out to improve its skin to suit the varied masses, no matter what Bebo web designers did, the site failed to accede to the position of mind boggling popularity. However with the launch of the Bebo Band, a stage for the novice bands to create an online fan following, the social networking site did gain some loyal followers. Again, the Bebo Authors gave an opportunity to the bookworms to discuss their interests online. But even as the web designing and web development professionals incorporated these new facets edging forward the site’s fame, there were certain issues that had completely been overlooked. Driving to keep up with the changing trend in social networking, web design experts planning new contemporary templates and leaving scope for amateurs to try their hand at custom designing their personal profiles – the Bebo team did not heed that security issues of their fervent followers would spell doom. Initially the security measures were stringent giving the profile holders complete control over who can and who cannot access their accounts. But the web developers during experimentation gave a handful of the Bebo-users access to others’ accounts.

Unluckily, the initiative backfired and when users logged in with their own id’s they were surprised to be seeing the profile of another user. This experimentation on May 21, 2008 cost the site dearly. Within this meteoric time some users had complete access to more than 20 accounts at a go! AOL and Bebo could tide over this temporary lag but miscreants uploaded pornographic and obscene content on others’ profiles. Bebo network engineers stunned at this technological snag traced the issue to a misconfigured proxy server in an Internet service provider (ISP) in New Zealand. This ISP used dynamic IP addresses and so it interfered with the cache accounting for the users being able to receive cached cookies containing details of other users.

Make Your Own Skin: A New Web Designing Trend that gives Social Networking users a Hand at Creativity

Though this ISP was rectified, the error was like the last nail in the coffin for Bebo. Unable to cope with the huge number of followers who changed their social networking preferences overnight, AOL on 7th of April 2010 finally publicly declared its intent on either shutting down or selling it. But the fate of Bebo remains unsure.