As if we've not already got not enough time...

The latest earthquake in Chile has cut our day down by another 1.26 millionth of a second.

image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

According to a report on National Geographic, the impact of the earthquake rocked the earth so hard that it shifted slightly on its axis, causing the shortening of the day.

I'm not a scientist, so I won't bother with the calculations. What bothers me is that the days are getting shorter. Time to focus on the most important things!

I think Google Buzz may finally be IT.

The buzz today is about Buzz. Google's, that is. The last greatly-hyped about Google experiment - Google Wave - didn't quite get the raving response we'd have expected and past social networking experiments - Orkut and the Open Social project - didn't quite scale up to the heights of Facebook and Twitter.

But check out Buzz...

...I think it's got it all. Here's why:

Gmail user base:

An old news story from the Financial Times I found puts Gmail's user base to be "more than 100 million". By comparison, Facebook's official page (as of time of writing) has its userbase at 400 million. But, I'd like to point out that having 100 million users (possibly) turned on in a very short period of time is miles ahead of having to grow organically one user at a time and presents a very real (instant) threat to Facebook.

The other point about having the Gmail user base is that Buzz intelligently identifies connections you've made (by looking at who you've emailed) and takes away the most painful part of setting up a social networking account - finding friends! In fact, if you've already been regularly emailing your friends, you'll soon be buzzing them too, I presume.

Mobile Apps:

Clearly, the next wave of social networking is going to be mobile. Apps that let you share where you are, update while standing in queue and generally be as little of a nuisance as possible while giving you meaningful connections with the people you love is what mobile is about. Checking-in on foursquare or posting a quick picture on Facebook via your mobile device means you won't forget to do it when you get home or be faced with the tedious task of uploading dozens of photos and organising them when you get home.

What's interesting is how Google has launched Buzz simultaneously into its mobile Google Maps app and taken advantage of the GPS feature on most phones to make geo-locating buzz(s?) something easy and contextual.

Simple and Natural

The third reason why I think Buzz will be a success is because of how elegant the system is. People have compared it to Twitter & FriendFeed - calling Buzz out on some very similar features. But there's nothing wrong with a little copying here and there, I say, especially if the system works.

And yet, the best thing is that Google's services help build a self-contained environment for all your content needs. Need photo uploading? Yes, Flickr will work, but so will Picasa. Video? Youtube then. BUt at the same time, it adopts open standards (thanks @paullmf for pointing out) so 3rd party developers get to use it in different ways.

Services built by others expand on Twitter's usability, but Buzz starts with them already - so that's one problem out of the way.

This is why I am not a social media guru...

... I'm a PR consultant.

Resolve to blog.

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Yes, if you say a new post popping up on your RSS reader, it's real. I'm going to make a comeback on this blog.

All because KY personally challenged me.



Stay tuned!

Sorry sir, we don't spin.

I guess it takes silly statements from government officials to rouse this blog from its comatose slumber.

Our Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim today said that our country needs better "Spin Doctors."

The Star says: "He also proposed that local public relations practitioners use blogs to compete with local bloggers who spin stories on all sorts of issues."

Alright, what does our dear Minister know about Public Relations? Our job is to compete with bloggers?

I'm sorry sir, you've got the whole point of having a public relations department all wrong. It's about being transparent and truthful. It's about authenticity and genuineness. If you think PR is spin-doctoring, and you're representative of our whole government's mentality, then it's no wonder the government is the way it is. Flash not substance, perception not reality.

PR's job is to correct misconceptions, not create wrong perceptions that deceive people. Sadly, yes, there are those who get this the other way around. They think PR is a tool to cover-up their mistakes, hype their shoddy products and misinform the public. Those people aren't PR practitioners.

Another quote that really riled me was:

“The more influential they are, the higher their paychecks. It’s time for Malaysia to have public relations practitioners who are well trained and knowledgable.”

Well, sir, actually we do. I've met people who are really good, skillful PR people. They know how to bring up issues, and correct misconceptions with some really brilliant communications campaigns. They know how to change sentiments and build communities.

Oh, did you mean "political" lobbyists? Err...which kind were you referring to? The kind that (does whatever it takes) to push through a favourable resolution for the client?