Dogpatcher TaskRabbit Teams Up With Google

Another Dogpatch Labs update: recent graduate TaskRabbit is teaming up with Google to provide employees with free task "runners". Googlers can then use TaskRabbit to do everything from routine tasks ("walk a dog") to the creative & bizarre ("dispose of Ikea bead"). Business Insider has a full write up, including an interview with founder Leah Busque, who describes such partnerships as an opportunity for companies to attract and retain talent:

"We are working with other companies to roll out the deal to their employees as well. The perks are obvious - employees get the extra help they need and some work life balance, while companies get happy and loyal employees that are more focused on their work (without the stresses of the "little" stuff)."

"Read the full article here.

Google TV: Hands On with Sony Blu Ray

So my hiatus was brief... but I will keep this short to stay in spirit!

Today I got the Google TV (Sony's Blu Ray product). It's remarkable. Quick thoughts:

1. Set up is very, very easy.

2. This is truly a merging of internet and television. The 'picture-in-picture' functionality is the most clear example.

3. The UI is super intuitive. No instructions needed - I am sure there are tons of things to discover, but usage is obvious.

4. The ability to integrate with all providers AND use it without changing TV inputs is game-changing.

5. The Sony remote looks clunky... but it isn't. It is intuitive, easy to hold and great to for browsing / content input.

6. It's bad news for universal remotes (like Logitech): this is bluetooth and controls television, cable and Google TV. Unless you buy Logitech's Google TV product, there isn't a need for an expensive supplemental remote.

7. It's a ton of fun. Can't overstate this.

Welcoming Dillon Jacob Spoon

This weekend, my wife Anette and I welcomed Dillon Jacob Spoon - all 7.5 pounds and 20.5 inches of him. We thank everyone for the well wishes and notes... we were truly overwhelmed by everyone's kindness and generosity. Though only a couple days into the journey, we have loved every moment =) A few pictures are below and I will be taking a short hiatus from email, the blog, and so forth. Please understand if there is a delay in returning emails / calls!

But before I go (!), three geeky thoughts:

1. Apple's Facetime is made for experiences like this... in fact, it is why Anette, my parents and I all got the new iPhone. Facetime has allowed family and friends outside of San Francisco to 'spend time' with Anette, Dillon and I. It really is life changing.

2. Thank god for Amazon (and Amazon Prime).

3. Facebook too: with its ability to easily share updates, photographs and so forth with all of our friends and family. Everyone's feedback has been touching!

Facebook Begins Promoting "Recent Checkins"

Facebook often uses their sidebar to promote other products and features:- Image labeling - The friend finder tool - Facebook job openings ... etc Today was the first time I spotted integration of Facebook Places - specifically with "recent checkins". The unit shows checkins by your Facebook friends with timestamps and links to the locations / hubs.

I personally hope that this is the beginning of a larger location feed / map... interestingly you will notice that there is not a 'see more' link. Hopefully that is to come.

Facebook Rolling Out Commenting System

Earlier today, Facebook announced their Bing integration and the post on Facebook included a new Facebook commenting system. TechCrunch has since covered and confirmed that a larger commenting upgrade / system is coming.

A couple very quick thoughts:

1. It is a no-brainer that Facebook would apply their graph to commenting... it fits nicely alongside the like button (which also includes expanding comments).

2. It is a no-brainer that Facebook will gain distribution rather quickly since: A. The integration should be relatively simple (as the Like button is) B. It could tie-in very nicely to the already-existing FB widgets, buttons, etc C. It could drive significant traffic to the publishers via on-Facebook promotion

3. It again represents Facebook's ability to build social search. Prior thoughts here.

4. It potentially represents a rethinking of on-Facebook commenting / threading as well.

I will try to have Facebook comments live on RyanSpoon.com once available.

The Impact of Facebook on Image Presentation?

Facebook has quickly become the largest sharing and storage platform for photos. It is in part because of the social desire to share, part because of the newsfeed and part because of the simple mobile integration. The below screenshots should look familiar. First is a newsfeed preview of a photo gallery and below is a gallery's homepage. Both layouts are tiled and offer very little content / description (only available after the click or within comments):

The phenomenon of big, colorful tiles as a navigational system isn't new... but it certainly is more prevalent and seems to be popularized by services like Facebook. Here are a few more examples of different types. Remember that for each of these, the prior convention was typically top-to-bottom content / navigation:

- For content (news, blogs, etc) the mainstays focus on title / text and often move north / south - For e-commerce, Amazon, eBay, etc move north/south (though are experimenting with new formats like the iPad)

Navigation

Here is Facebook's new navigation panel for Facebook Pages. Notice that it is entirely visual - there is no text or context (ie number of fans, description, etc)

Content Site

This is popular blog Good.is and, below that, a popular personal site HugsforMonsters.com. More and more blogging templates are moving this direction and it certainly redefines how you think about navigation on content sites.

E-commerce

Neither imagery nor horizontal browsing are new to e-commerce. But the trend seems to be larger, more interactive images with the content (description, ratings, etc) reserved for the product details page

Great Action Buttons in Mobile Apps (Instagram as Example)

Have a key action you want to highlight for users? You could takeover the application as Facebook did to promote Places. You could create a persistent notification bar as Quora does. Or you could make the key action button really stand out... as upcoming application Instagram does (read about Instagram on TechCrunch. They are a Dogpatch Labs company.)

Instagram is a photography / photo sharing application (download it in the iTunes App Store)... and the most important action is sharing photos. So while there are other important actions (which all get buttons across the footer: feed, favorites, profile, notifications) - the Share button prominently sits in the middle and is raised above the others. It also protrudes onto the body of the application... such that is is always visible and very clear as to what the application's focus is.

Also worth noting: Instagram has a very clever header. It is slightly transparent, contains the photographer's profile and image title, and it becomes persistent only when you scroll through a specific photograph and it's comments. Once you get to the next photo, the header changes. Great looking, unobtrusive and informative.

Sample picture from Instagram - just to give you a taste of the application. It is a picture from Lake Tahoe: