What is your favorite feature that they have?
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Remember Gowalla?
They were that “other” geolocation company that had set themselves apart by creating really cool high quality badges and a separate check-in experience from Foursquare. I began my geolocation journey began with Foursquare, transitioned to Gowalla for quite a while then found my way back to Foursquare after Gowalla changed and a few dabbling in Path and Sonar. I never jumped onto the Facebook Places check-in craze, other than to check into the Gap to get a free pair of jeans.
Near the end of 2011, Facebook purchased Gowalla for an “undisclosed amount”. Some of the team were folded into the Facebook offices and it was rumored that they pulled a number of the team into the Timeline team as they prepared to roll out this feature to users and eventually to brands. After these reports came out, it wasn’t long until your ability to use Gowalla disappeared and their offices in Austin, TX were closed (march 10, 2012 to be exact).
Remember Beluga?
Beluga was that app where you could hold group messaging conversations through SMS style. Belugua was not as widely known as Gowalla but in its short life, it made a strong impact with its technology around group conversations. It wasn’t too long after the acquisition that the messaging features on Facebook increased and then eventually the service was shut down.
Remember the Other Companies?
It is a pretty common move for companies to acquire other companies, keep the teams and technology, and then shut down the initially purchased company. You can see a list of the companies purchased and shut down by Facebook on this Wikipedia page.
So, now we get to Instagram
Today, reports came out that Instagram will be purchased by Facebook for $1,000,000,000 (yes that is 1 Billion Dollars). So what does this mean for Instagram? Will we see this app take on the same departure as the other companies? Will our photosharing experience be forever changed, which will cause us to seek out other sources? My prediction is that we will see Instagram get folded into a photo application built within the Facebook app. My other prediction is you will see Path take off further, as we see Instagram disappear into the Facebook family.
While this is a disappointment for avid Instagram users, this is part of the technology game. I have huge respect for Kevin Systrom (CEO of Instagram) as he followed his heart and intuition as they created Instagram. Now he is receiving a huge reward for his hard work, as well as the other 14 employees of the company. The people and companies who invested in Instagram will also receive a large payout for their belief in this little app. This is why they got into this business and handle some losses; all while celebrating the ones that reap a large ROI for their efforts in supporting this startup.
Congrats to the Instagram team! It has been a fun time being and avid user!
You have shaped how people build apps for photos and video sharing. Thanks!
This weekend has proven to be easier than I anticipated, but that largely has to do with the fact that I have not been attempting anything beyond Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and a small handful of other apps.
During the flight, I did use Textastic on The iPad as I was reading through the htmlandcss book.
The one thing that I did miss as we were visiting new areas was our DSLR camera that we chose not to travel with. While mobile photos are great for sharing, I like the functionality that I can accomplish with our Nikon.
On to enjoying St. Patty’s Day!!
Some call it flexibility. Some call it evolving. Some just call it annoying. Not matter how you look at it, Google isn’t sitting still. This video is pretty funny as it represents it!
This weekend has already started off in a couple amazing ways. The first being that on January 6th, it was 50 plus degrees in Detroit today! Secondly, Suburban Collection and Suburban Ford have put the keys to a 2012 Ford Edge into my hands for the weekend. They have done this a couple times with a few people and I am fortunate enough to be one of the people to partake in the #socialtestdrive.
Here is the big question.
We have the weekend in front of us, a great SUV in the driveway, and beautiful weather. So..
Where should I take the car?
Name some great Michigan locations and I will see if we can pull off a trip there and snap some shots; maybe even a video along the way!
Let me here it!!
We are closing this week’s TED Talk of the Day by bringing one fresh from the TEDGlobal that is taking place right now. This is a great talk about the mediation of the internet all over the world and how it is used to impact democracy.
Rebecca MacKinnon had a great quote in the midst of this talk “the only legitimate purpose of government is to serve citizens, the only legitimate of technology is to improve our lives not to manipulate or enslave us”
I don’t think I have ever done this before. I am linking my personal blog with my “professional” blog (and I use professional loosely), but yesterday I ran across some new tools that I find highly impressive and inspiring. So… I am leaving the TED talk by Deb Roy, of Bluefin Labs here on this blog, but I have a greater write up at Edooce.com regarding the analytical tools that Bluefin is creating and how it impacts marketing and advertising.
The last bit of the presentation was just as impressive, as he talked about having this for his son when he gets older. It is truly a passing of a legacy that his son will surely take on and expand upon.
