Claude Ritter » Cool Stuff

Facebook, Wolfram|Alpha, StealthStartup. Will the next Google Killer stand up please.

claude — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:46:09 +0000

Exciting times we are living in. Technology and the web are evolving at a speed never seen before and we can’t even imagine which tools and services will be available to us in a couple of years time.

Anyway, today I simply wanted to link to two blog posts, both announcing the next Google Killer. First, we have my friend Julius who is proclaiming that Facebook is soon going to eat Google’s lunch. And then there is Stephen Wolfram and his team who apparently came up with something that “could be as important as Google“, a computing machine called Wolfram|Alpha.

Personally I think that neither of those is going to be THE Google Killer, but that we are in a transition to a completely new way we interact with the internet and our social circle using technology. If you look at numbers such as the fact that around 20% of all servers that are sold each year are bought by Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft (add Facebook to that list soon) tell you that we’re onto something big. And it’s certainly not just about desktop apps like Word to the cloud.

With all that uncertainty, I’m happy that there is still one constant: Sex sells!

The Borg are coming

claude — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:17:25 +0000

Watch CBS Videos Online

This is amazing! And a bit scary…

Show me your friends, social graph visualization

claude — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:52:02 +0000

Creative visualization of data has always been something I was very interested. There are several examples on the web, which take interesting approaches to data visualization. One of the areas I am most interested in is the visualization of graphs, specifically the graphs of friends or related people (friend graph). Some developers or companies already worked on friend graph implementations but most of them just look good but aren’t really helpful. As we are currently working on a social networking website we wanted to have a look into this and see whether we could find a way to combine eye-candy with something useful.

Below, I’ve embedded a short video of our current version of the friend graph. Be aware that this is not a release version that contains debug output with test data.

Our graph currently features:
- Friends and friends of friends (FOAF)
- Connections between friends and friends of friends
- Filters (in development)
- Browsing history

(Sorry for the crappy quality)

This is the current status but we’re busy working on more features and a revamped interface (buttons etc.). We are currently focusing on the visualization of the friend graph within our network but due to Google’s Social Graph API and other initiatives there are almost endless possibilities when it comes to the visualization of friends or the complete social graph around a person.I will post updates as we progress.