Google Fail

So I live in College Park, Maryland; which is directly on the North Western side of the infamous Beltway…and let me tell you: traffic is a bitch right outside of DC.

For those of you unfamiliar with the DC area, there is a single, unifying highway that loops completely around the metropolitan area of Washington and it is absolutely plagued (daily) with traffic.  It is, with out a doubt, one of the most traffic-prone highways in the country, and it can take up to an hour and a half just to travel 15 miles to my hometown of Rockville, Maryland.

Anyways, if duty, family or friends call and I need to head back west towards Rockville, I have taken it upon myself to check Google Maps for the traffic.  Google recently started collecting location data from people who use smartphones and have Google Maps installed.  When this geo-location data is cross referenced with location change over time gives Google the unique opportunity to display live traffic on their maps…or so they say.

Whats that you say? That sounds awesome! Well it would be, if the damn data was correct.

Tonight I took a short trip back to the Rockville area for a meeting that was scheduled to begin at around 7:30pm.  I figured, given no traffic, I would be able to venture home in about 30min MAX.  So I open up my browser and head over to maps.google.com, only to discover at about 7:00pm (optimal time for departure from College Park under ideal circumstances) that the entire route back is shaded in red.  Red = slow (or sometimes danger or stop…but this is irrelevant to this discussion).

Since according to Google Maps the traffic was bad and I had no time to waste, I decided to head out west anyway. And guess what? NO TRAFFIC.

I was in a green situation, not a red catastrophe like I was expecting.  After about 5 minutes on the highway, traversing many more miles than Google Maps predicted, I checked Google Maps on my Palm Pre.  Still red! Even in the area I was currently in.

So no, Google Maps can’t possibly have “live” traffic reporting.  I even restarted my phone just to see if it was a caching problem…but no, Google was just flat out wrong.

Google, take off the “live traffic” label on your maps.  I really rely on that to planning my schedule in a hectic traffic are of the country. Could you (Google) or anyone else provide a legitimate excuse for a misrepresentation like this? I can’t see one…and I am part of the Google Generation.  My contemporaries, at the very least, need to feel like they can rely on Google…and usually they deliver.  But no on this one.

I’d really like more in depth idea of how Google’s Live Traffic feature truly works, or the “Live” aspect of the system needs to be revised or removed. Gracias.

</end rant>

After being on twitter for over a year now, I have finally started to follow mass amounts of people in search for some good inspiration, friendship, and conversation.  However, with all these new friends, I have to weed out the one’s who aren’t really contributing to the conversation-at-large.  The ‘tweeps’ I usually weed out are users that….

1. Only tweet links.
2. Talk about how their inbox has 1,000′s of unread emails that must be answered.
3. Constant @’s to my tweets that have nothing to do with what was said.
4. Only retweet other people’s tweets.  What, have you no thoughts of your own?
5. Celebrities or other famous-types who don’t interact with fans.
6. Celebrities or other famous-types who have someone else tweet for them.
7. Constant self promotion.
8. Ridiculous use of Adjix to gain money from links (it’s even worse if an ad is embedded into the tweet).
9. Tweet once in a blue moon. I will never see your tweets, so whats the point of following you?
10. Tweeting about completely useless information, like “I’m hungry”.  At least tell me what you are eating or going to eat; or even you inexplicable love for a particular cuisine.
11. Anyone who is rude in 140-characters or less.

What kinds of tweeple do you drop when weeding needs to be done?

Today I was having a very interesting conversation about the Palm Pre with Mobile tech enthusiast Jordan Sheckman.  I copy the conversation excerpts below…

Jordan Sheckman
the new bb facebook app is tight man
Evan Samek
you trying to grab a beer sometime soon?
Evan Samek
yeah man
Evan Samek
it is awesome
Evan Samek
downloaded everyones photos in my bb
Jordan Sheckman
right, thats tight shit
Jordan Sheckman
i really hate that about the iphone, that an app like that could never fly cause they restrict all the proprietary apps from third parties
Evan Samek
yeap
Jordan Sheckman
although i think third party apps can change address book photos
Evan Samek
why not?
Evan Samek
it will be better with iPhone 3.0
Evan Samek
its just apple needs to stop limiting shit
Evan Samek
in general
Jordan Sheckman
actually ya, i have an IMing app that links to the address book and changes the photos.. but not from facebook, from their buddy icon
Jordan Sheckman
oh, youd be proud of me.. i spent like a half hour defending the pre yesterday to a friend of mine
Jordan Sheckman
he read articles about how it’s not going to succeed and will tank palm
Evan Samek
ehhh
Evan Samek
yano who knows, but i dont think so
Evan Samek
i think it will be a success
Evan Samek
it kinda already is
Jordan Sheckman
and how the only buzz for it is among technophiles and the general public will never drop their iphones and blackberry
Jordan Sheckman
but i said i think there is a market for it… for people who want a fun smartphone (like the iphone) that does great productivity (like the blackberry)
Jordan Sheckman
a lot of people (at least people i know) have stayed away from the iphone solely because they need to write emails all the time and the blackberry is the best keyboard for the job
Evan Samek
exxactly
Evan Samek
i think the new iphoen will have a QWERTY tho
Evan Samek
if they were smart they would do it
Evan Samek
when can you grab a beer man to catch up?
Jordan Sheckman
ya but theyve been sooo insistent on how great their touchscreen is
Jordan Sheckman
adding a keyboard would make that look bad
Jordan Sheckman
i think palm’s biggest problem now is being confined to sprint… on one hand it will help because the tried-and-true sprint customers that cant leave will finally have their smartphone (like you!)… but on the other hand sprint is waning as a company, and it’ll be harder to get anyone to switch to sprint than it was for the iphone to get people to switch to at&t
Jordan Sheckman
haha… how bout we grab that beer when you buy the pre!
Evan Samek
haha
Evan Samek
that cuold be in a month or two
Jordan Sheckman
really whenever man… if you can make it into the city… just so hard for me to get to CP, especially during the week
Evan Samek
i can easily make it into the city
Evan Samek
your just busy with amanda all the time
Jordan Sheckman
just give me a day and we can meet after work
Evan Samek
k
Evan Samek
il ler you know
Jordan Sheckman
cool
5:16 PM
Evan Samek
the thing about the pre is this
Evan Samek
they need to release it soon
Evan Samek
very soon
Evan Samek
the longer they wait, the more it hurts them
Jordan Sheckman
absolutely
Evan Samek
unless its truly going to be PERFECT when it is released
Jordan Sheckman
and they need to start marketing!
Jordan Sheckman
all they have is that one tv ad that shows it at the end for a split second
Jordan Sheckman
the average joe wouldnt even know that was the pre
Jordan Sheckman
people all over the world know theres a new iphone coming in a couple months
Evan Samek
there is actually 3 tv spots now
Jordan Sheckman
most non-techies havent even heard of the pre
5:21 PM
Jordan Sheckman
but ya, their main hope is to get a leg up on the iphone before it comes out
Jordan Sheckman
and then they really need to get more phones out there running webOS
Jordan Sheckman
a company cannot survive on one phone alone
Jordan Sheckman
it worked for apple, but their not a phone company, they (were) a computer company
Evan Samek
well its definietly going to be on other phones
Jordan Sheckman
i know that, but that needs to happen soon if webOS will be popular
Jordan Sheckman
look at where androids at
Jordan Sheckman
people barely give a shit about it anymore
Evan Samek
i wouldnt be surpised if they added webOS to other phones within the month that the pre is released.
Jordan Sheckman
cause the g1 sucked, and nothing else ever came out
Evan Samek
yeah
Jordan Sheckman
i dunno about a month, SOMETHING would have leaked by now if that was the case
Jordan Sheckman
i’d say maybe by the holiday season
Evan Samek
but it will blow up this year too, because andriod is open, it is going to get huge and fast
Evan Samek
but PALM has been more secretive than apple!
Jordan Sheckman
android?
Evan Samek
yeah
Jordan Sheckman
it’s had like 8 months to get huge
Evan Samek
yeah but with only one handset
Evan Samek
as soon as 3 are available, it will start to grow
Evan Samek
no doubt
Evan Samek
i played with it once, and its really really sleek
Jordan Sheckman
thats their problem tho dude, they waited too long
Evan Samek
yeah
Evan Samek
and we dont want to see that happen to the Pre.
Jordan Sheckman
right now, developers want to develop for the iphone cause its hugely successful, and they want to develop for webOS cause its easy, exciting and new
Jordan Sheckman
who wants to develop for android right now?
Jordan Sheckman
they needed to capture those developers waaaaay early in the game, and because their single offering sucked, they didnt
Jordan Sheckman
ive been reading more and more how its the developers that make a platform successful
Jordan Sheckman
the app store is single-handedly responsible for the majority of the iphone’s revenue over the past years
Jordan Sheckman
*year
Jordan Sheckman
it was a revolution, that only now everyone has caught up to with their own stores
Jordan Sheckman
apple’s amazing man… they have such a great understanding of their market its uncanny

Jordan Sheckman
hardware and software aside, they know exactly the right models to employ to get everyone to play nice with each other, and to create a great end-user experience… itunes, app store, even their sdk

Awesome points made by Jordan.  Just thought I would share with you.

Info about Jordan Sheckman:

Jordan is a web developer/designer with Reingold Inc. based in Georgetown in Washington DC.  His website is http://portfolio.j2sheck.com/ and his twitter account is @j2sheck.  Always on top of wireless tech news, he is the ideal guy for strategy in regard to marketing for such products.

I have decided, after about 4 or so hours of usage, to do a quick critique of the new Tweetie for Mac app.  This is different than a review, in which I would outlined every aspect of the program with criticisms along the way.  In contrast, this post will only list my criticisms of the app.

Make direct message and ReTweet more accessible

Don’t make me right click to get this menu.  Make the menu appear when rolling over the picture or the ege like the reply icon as in Twhirl.  These functions are not secondary, they are primary to the twitter user.

Why are hashtag subjects (#) so gray against a gray background?

This just makes it hard to see the subject in a tweet.  Increase the contrast, it is not something that should be hidden with the background.

Everything else is pretty damn good.  Haha.  This was a shorter critique then I thought.