I was just browsing the web and thought I would stop by 43things to see what was going on that side of the internet. They have a nice little list set up which shows the top 10 New Year’s Resolutions of 2010. I guess a lot of people are planning on losing their virginity. Some of the other popular resolutions are “lose weight,” “fall in love,” and other things that most people will forget starting next week.

But wait, that’s not all. There are 1,277 people who want to “do this” and there is also an article on how to lose my virginity.

I don’t know, I just find these kind of things as “too much information.” Some things are just meant to be shared with people that are close to you, behind closed doors and not publicly on the web (maybe I am too “old school”). Whether you are using your real name or fake, you can be traced one way or the other. My only prediction in 2010 at this point is that, this year we will be seeing a lot of people getting divorced, fired and what not because of their Facebook updates, tweets, etc.

Compare this to the list above. It just goes to show people are getting comfortable sharing private and unnecessary information much easily than they were in the past. When it comes to social media, we are so used to hearing all the good stuff, but there’s a downside to it as well. We’ll be seeing the flip side of social media and transparency quite often this year, I am sure.

It’s hard to imagine a time when there was no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube, Wordpress and many other platforms that we find hard to live without. And it’s unbelievable to know than when we entered the 21st century, these services weren’t there. Yet, after 10 short years here we are, a society that can’t live without socializing with the unknown. I am quite active on many different platforms. My first choice is Facebook, second Twitter and all other platforms come after those two. My social participation mostly consists of links to articles and then at times my personal stuff. You know the kind where we all share what we did today, what we are going to do tomorrow and what we have plans for the next year and so on and on.

We are a society of attention whores. These different channels give us a chance to gain that 15 second fame which wasn’t possible a few years ago, few as in 5-7 years ago. When a home made video on YouTube hits a million views, when an article lands on the frontpage of digg, when your tweets are retweeted many times, we are asking for attention. Some use that attention solely for work and some use it to network and the worst are those that use it to fuel their ego.

The only thing we had yet to share publicly on the web could be our purchases. Well, that will soon be taken care of as Blippy comes out of private beta. All in all, although as harsh as it may sound, we have become a society of attention whores. When I tweet and update my Facebook status, I am asking for attention. When you update your blog, you are asking for attention. It’s hard to label ourselves as that but in a increasingly social web, that’s who we all are – attention whores. We have all become marketers, seeking attention of those that are willing to give and in some case going out of our way to seek from those who are not as willing.

2010 will be an interesting year to watch. It will be fun to see how we will turn out by the end of the year. Hopefully, we don’t sell ourselves so hard that by the end of the year the social web turns into traditional media, you know the one that we ignore. Let’s stay on track folks and let’s make sure while trying to garner this attention we don’t forget our roots, the roots that remind us to give first and not just ask.

I’ll admit that I am an attention whore. If I wasn’t I wouldn’t be on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, Scribd or anywhere else. What about you? Are you saying you are not?

1. News/Content : The first project is due for launch in January, most probably the very first week. It will be a place where people can come to satisfy their “info hunger.” Unlike many other news aggregators, this site will contain links that are hand picked and chosen by me and few others. It’s a niche based site so it might be something that you will find useful or something you have no use for at all. My bet is that you will find it useful . Will see.
2. Voting site : Not another voting site, right? Well, although this one is a voting site it is a lot different than what we are used to seeing. The concept is simple but I think it has a good chance to get noticed and hopefully grow. Once again, will see. Won’t know until you try.
3. Related to Real Estate : The third project will be a project that is based on real estate market. Could be for homeowner, could be for real estate agents, I can’t really give too much information at this point . This one is a much bigger of a project compared to the two above. A lot of planning has already been done, now I just need to lay it down and find a team to execute it. I am planning to have it running by the end of 2010. As I said, this won’t be a small undertaking so it is going to take some time.

Those are the three projects that I am planning on putting some time into and launching this year. I am looking forward to bringing them to you and see how you like it. At this point I think all three projects have a good chance of being successful, but even if they go nowhere, I am not the one to sit and say “I wish I had done that.” I am going to give it a shot.

Ohh and there are going to be many, many more ideas. Some will see the light of day and some will end up in the dead pool. Just got to keep on trying. Always remember,

a brilliant idea is a dumb one if you never execute it. If you have an idea that you think is good, go with your gut feeling and make it happen.

What are your plans for 2010?

Hold on a minute, let me quick crack my knuckles before I get ready to write.

I am ready, are you? Cool.

One thing that has become quite a phenomenon on the web is the desire to be known. This phenomenon has swept almost all social media platforms from Digg to Twitter to Facebook, you name it and there is a race to reach the top. I have myself been a slave to the number game and have surrendered myself to the numbers. However, after I changed my game and I find myself climbing the ladder faster than I thought I would. So how is it possible to hide and still be able to get your name out and make enough to make a living? I will share a few of my secrets, well they are not really a secret but you might want to try them out if you haven’t already.

Moderation Fellas, Moderation

Everything is good in moderation – this saying is as true as it can get. Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, whatever platform that you utilize, use it in moderation. I am an active twitter user but I don’t go out of my way to tweet. If I am working on the computer, I just have tweetdeck open and reply or catch a glimpse on anything that interests me. If I feel like taking a quick 5 minute interval during work, I might as well update my Facebook and quick digg a few links I find interesting. Besides that I have no desire to really be on top (don’t be a perv, you know what I meant).

So why even bother updating if being on top doesn’t really matter? Cause you need to be seen, but you don’t need to be seen as someone who is obsessively using a platform clearly giving an impression of what it is that you are trying to achieve. Make sure any platform that you use, you are active, but being active doesn’t mean you have to set 5 hours a day to get your name out. Do it in moderation and keep your name floating on different social sites so people get a glimpse of who you are, what you do and such. Remember moderation is the golden key to success. Work smart, not hard.

Filter Your Online Contacts

If you want to succeed online, your contacts are your golden gate to opportunity. Seriously, don’t ignore them and stay in touch. But there is a catch. I follow quite a few people on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. but are they all meaningful contacts? Not really. Some might even be bots, who the heck knows. So why do I follow them if they are not meaningful? Well, I don’t care about the numbers, but I do care about my smiling face being seen on as many people’s list as possible? Why? Well, it helps me get my name out to potential clients, it’s one of those sneaky ways that most people don’t think of. I am not shooting for the number game or the fame game, I am shooting for exposure by just being there without really having to put extra effort into communicating with everyone. Seriously, you think I could manage replying and talking to every contact that I have on different platforms? I have a life too you know.

Anyways, the key is to filter your contacts. If you know someone who can be helpful down the road, stay in touch. Please do not run out asking for help. Build a relationship as a friend and not as a beggar. Don’t go begging. Now give it a few months for this relationship to mature and bloom to spread it’s wealth your way. That’s what I have done over the years and the last time I went looking for a client was in December of 2007. Since then, every client, yes every client I have had have been referred to me. And whether or not you like it, nepotism exists on the internet just as it does in the real world. Filter your contacts. Figure out where you just want to exist and where you want to put the effort and then build your online contacts so you get to reap the benefits.

Your Shit Stinks Just Like Mine

The internet has made many grown up adults act like 14 year old boys. The web has turned men into boys and it is really sad (that goes for you too, you over bragging woman, I feel bad for your hubby). You know what people hate the most – people who can’t stop bragging about themselves. Many people, especially on the web seem to have forgotten the meaning of confidence. If you take a shit and say “My shit don’t stink cause it’s mine,” guess what? You might piss someone enough to throw your shit back at you. Be careful not to brag yourself. I am a power user on digg, active twitter user who gets mentioned quite a few times on many lists and what not but you know what? It doesn’t matter. All they do is fill up the ego gap, that’s it. And I am sure you know that filling ego gap doesn’t fill your pockets. So stop tooting your own horn. If someone is tweeting how awesome you are, have some freaking decency and say thank you to them rather than retweeting it. It just makes it worse.

Don’t brag about yourself, it’s no point. You want to show me or others how awesome you are, a tweet or a facebook update sure as hell won’t do it. Lay me the facts and the things and ohh yeah tons of referrals whose words I would believe in.

It’s been pretty frustrating seeing everyone tooting their own horn and bragging what they can do. Stop it. Just forget being on top for a minute and stay under the radar. Filter your contacts and use the ones that will prove to be valuable and trust me, you will see much more of the day light instead of the bright computer screen. Now go out grab a beer, wine or whatever it is that you drink and relax. Your updates, tweets, diggs, votes, thumbs up can all wait until later. Plan your future. Lay off the “web celeb” juice and think how you can fill your back account by using these platforms not your ego. If you are 14 year old, this post wasn’t meant for you cause no matter how much we tell you, you guys think your shit don’t stink. But that’s ok cause you are only 14.

note : I don’t proofread once I am done writing, not on this blog. This is my home and I write what’s on my mind. Think of it as sleeping on the couch with my shoes on cause I can . If you find typos , please grab some rock and throw them at me.

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I work from home and choose my hours and all that glorious stuff, but man I’ve been having hell of a time keeping up, especially on Mondays. I take one day off which usually is Saturday and I start my work day on a Sunday night cause I am a night owl. My productivity level is at its peak after midnight, don’t ask why cause I don’t have an answer. Now if I am working all night Sunday (extending it to early Monday), I should be able to take Mondays off, but I don’t, which to me is really weird.

So I have finally made a decision that Mondays should not exist. I am going to work through the weekend and take Mondays off. Why? Cause Mondays are evil and everyone seems to be in a shitty mood including me. Wife is cranky cause she is got thousand things to do, kids start school, obviously they are cranky as all hell and if I go anywhere to drop bills or make any phone calls everyone seems to be having a hell of a bad day. So here on out please do not ask me to work on Mondays and if you don’t find me on platforms I usually hang out on, I am ok…it’s just that week consists of 6 days for me. It starts on Tuesday and ends on Sunday and the day after Sunday is my official “point a finger and laugh at the world day,” cause I am grabbing a beer and enjoying that one day each week while everyone else is busting there ass. Why? Cause I can.

R.I.P Monday. I hate to say it but I never liked you.

We are spoiled silly. We want everything for free, if we have to pay five bucks a month for a service that we can’t live without, we whine and bitch like crazy. Each day I wake up and my day starts with using all these different wonderful services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, etc. etc. And I DON’T pay a dime for them. Why? Cause just like you I am a brat and I want everything for free. Today I just wanted to talk a bit about Facebook and one of their services that they should have made a paid feature.

I personally think that Facebook should have made the “Facebook Fan Page” a paid feature. I don’t see any reason for it to be free. All major brands are using these platforms for free, I think Facebook should get a piece of the pie, don’t you? If one of these brands would have to reach out to 250 million plus people through traditional media such magazines, television ads or newspaper they would pay thousands for one circulation, why not get a couple buck out of them? I don’t see a reason why they can’t pay and why Facebook can’t make them pay.

I was just talking to my wife the other day. There aren’t many sustainable business model on the internet anymore cause everything is FREE. A new service comes out and if they start charging people, everyone is against it. Everyone wants to use it, they think it’s a killer service but hell they want to use it for free. This forces these new awesome companies to charge nothing for their service, give everyone everything for free and pay any operating cost from their own pocket. Way to go webizens (including me).

I think Facebook fan page could have been a tremendous boost for them. Hell, if it was me I would lose a 100 million users if I had to and charge a buck for using Facebook. I mean seriously, I understand there is a long term goal and all but companies need to start charging us free loaders. We are already so spoiled and if they keep spoiling us, we will soon make them go out of business, trust me we have the power and we aren’t afraid to bitch and whine so we don’t have to pay a dime. And yes, if Facebook said pay 10 bucks a month to use Facebook I would freaking pay for it. 250 million users that you can network and push your shit and you don’t have to pay a penny?! Come on now.

Well that was my rant. But the case in point is that since Facebook pages are mostly utilized by big businesses, I think Facebook should have charged for this service. Am I over my head? Maybe. Do I care you disagree with me? Honestly, I don’t…..cause we have got to shell out some bucks to get things going on the web so more businesses can thrive and shit can happen. And here we are, talking about economy.

Get your rocks ready and throw them at me one more time. I am ready and no matter how hard you hit me, I am a firm believer that we need to pay to use services rather than being such freeloading, whining assholes.

By the way, join me on Facebook. If you are not on Facebook yet, make sure to open an account. Why? Cause it’s FREE.

Here is a quick warning for you : This is a major rant. Also, you won’t find me linking out to twitter and stuff on my post cause I am lazy like that.

As most of you already know I am quite an active twitter user. I use it as a marketing and networking tool and occasionally just blurt out whatever. I like Twitter, I think it’s amazing that we have a service that is so easy to use and allows us to connect in such a simple yet sophisticated ways. However, I am increasingly growing tired of all the twitter hype. It’s almost unbelievable how often I see links related to twitter (including this one). The only way I could differentiate my posts on Twitter is it seems like I write more about things that I grow uncomfortable with.

One of the things that has been bugging me lately is the influx of twitter apps. Hell, they are everywhere. Of course, without apps like Tweetdeck and Seesmic Twitter wouldn’t be what it is today, but there are plenty that are just useless. I haven’t done the research (may be I should) but I am sure almost 75% of twitter apps are just crap, or are built for pompous assholes to brag what their twitter rank is. Hell, I don’t give a crap if I am no. 1 or no. 2 million, if I tweet you and you tweet back, I am good.

The other thing that I don’t understand is why is everyone jumping on board on creating twitter app. I think it’s dumb to create apps that is solely based on someone elses model, especially twitter which at times seems to stay down more than it’s up. Besides, I think instead of structuring ones business (if that’s what you would call) on someone elses business these brainiacs should develop something that can run solely on its own. Of course twitter is huge and everyone wants a piece of the pie, but the hard fact is you don’t get to eat that pie. I mean what’s the point of having an app that everyone uses to trade followers or see where I rank on twitter? Seriously, is that what it’s all about. Hell, with all the bragging and crap Twitter has become almost unbearable. And thanks to all the apps out there they seem to suck these users even more into it.

This is a sincere request to stop making twitter apps that have no purpose whatsoever. Why? What’s the reasoning behind a stupid twitter app?

By the way, did I tell you I love Twitter….. I am ready, throw rocks at me, you die hard twitter user.

Most of you already know all about trending topics on Twitter. Whatever people seem to talk about the most gets on tending topic and goes viral. It’s a really good way to track what is going on especially when it’s news. But there needs to be a way to weed out some things to make trending topics more relevant, especially now that the homepage of twitter itself looks like a search engine and shows the trending topics. I was going through trending topics and I came across this tag #anoopdesai. Thought I would check it out to see what was going on and I couldn’t make a damn thing out. I had to actually google it and see what all the hype was about. Here is a screenshot,

You can see more result by going  here and I can assure you most of them are all spam to get #anoopdesai on top of all trending topics.

The worst part is that it is showing on the homepage of twitter (sign out from twitter to see) as well. Imagine new user coming to twitter and using it as a search engine. Clicking on trending topic that are full of spam may not make them want to use it again or sign up for the service for that matter. Something needs to be done on how trending topic becomes trending. I am sure a lot of times topics that should be on trending topics are dominated by these spam overload.

What do you think?

Now that Twitter has rolled out the much anticipated redesign, it’s time to talk. Before I even begin, I want to make sure that you understand (I am looking at you loyal, hardcore users and myself) that this is my personal opinion. For a moment I thought maybe I shouldn’t talk but what the heck, my opinion, my blog and whether anyone reads it or not, likes it or not I am going to drop it. So here I go.

Twitter’s new redesign certainly looks trendy and nice as compared to the 90s design it used to have. However, the main focus of the design has shifted from networking to searching. I use twitter for search, sure I do. But networking still beats my usage of twitter as a search engine. The new homepage kind of gives the feel like Twitter is a search engine rather than a social media, networking tool. Remember, although you and me know what twitter is all about, there are millions who have heard of it but have no clue what it’s about. When someone hears about it on CNN (they just can’t stop talking about it. When you watch Larry King Live watch for messages at the bottom of the screen such as “Follow @kingsthings, larry is the king of Twitter,” etc.) and decides to finally see what the hype is all about, their first impression of the site is going to be that it’s a search engine. And guess what? They use google for search.

My main point is, I agree that the redesign should focus on search capability and the need for real time information, however, that’s not the core model of Twitter. The core model of twitter is networking and that is nowhere to be seen on the new design. Think of it this way, everyone pretty much uses google to search the web but not everyone has an account with google. They use google as a search engine, that’s it. Google is fine with that because search is their core. If twitter wants search to be their core and not networking then this change is indeed effective but the whole being “pulse of the planet” and being the first one to land a billion users isn’t something that this new design is going to support.

If I were a new user and came to twitter to see what all the hoopla is about (there are many, many people who have no clue what it is although they have heard of it. Twitter needs those “many” people to hit the billion mark), I would simply think it was another search engine. I would certainly use it because it gives real time information and what not, but may be I will never sign up, why? Simply cause it may already fulfill my need which is search. Of course, search. twitter.com was there before but that is not what media talks about most of the time. That is not where people go. People go to Twitter.com not search.twitter.com and this redesign may pose a problem there. It might be seen as a search engine and now people like David Letterman who says Twitter is a waste of time, may think it’s useful as a search engine but it will be hard to change their perception in regards to it as a networking and social media platform. Maybe we’ll see a Twitter Redesign 101 soon.

I am ready. I have my helmet on. Start throwing rocks at me but I’ll stand to everything I said.

note : be sure to log out to see the changes if you are already using twitter.