Driving late at night, I often listen to my local quiet storm radio station, hoping the perfect Luther Vandross will be on to guide me home in sonic safety. Unfortunately, while R&B’s soul runs deep, the themes run thin. Sometimes when I hear a new song of the “when I say goodbye, it doesn’t mean my Love has run out” variety — I say to myself, “I think Google could have done better.”

So I’m putting the challenge out there. Can the most powerful information company in the world create an R&B song? Can the engineers in Mountain View algorithmically dim the lights, pour the wine, and make our hearts slow down a beat? I know you can map the world and index every document, but can you make a song so that next time I come home late, I can quote it and get “to bed” and not just “in” bed?

Posted: October 2nd, 2010 under 2.0, culture.
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Have ever used Foursquare, and felt like it just didn’t have enough bite? Then what you probably need is Foursquare Urban. Urban street cred comes at a price, but keeping track of it can be time-consuming.  Did J.Q. pop Rockstar Eddy? How much time did Lil’ creeker do inside for ripping off that liquor store? When’s the last time you got pulled over by the local authorities? If Foursquare can help you remember how many coffees you drank, why not get a badge for first building tagged this month (and when I say “tagged,” I don’t mean virtually). Foursquare Urban opens up all the activities you do anyway (peeing in an alley, vomiting outside, running a red light) except now you get points and all your friends know you’re a bad-ass.

Posted: August 20th, 2010 under 2.0, culture.
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So in case you haven’t noticed, blogs are so 2007 (I mean, I can’t even believe you’re reading this, are you in a cave?) These days all the cool kids twitter. But even cool kids run out of things to say, and when all else fails, most people talk about what they had for Lunch. In fact, the latest round of Forrester Research tweets contained more references to tuna sandwiches than experience strategies and knowledge management combined. So if your twitter stream is bit heavy on the mayo, and you’re more interested in meat that’s not between two slices of bread, what you need is Peckish.

With Peckish you can auto-magically filter out all food-eating references in your twitter stream. Twinkees, gone. Mr. Pibb, gone. matzah-brei, gone. Decide your twitter appetite and put your tweet intake on a diet.

Posted: November 30th, 2008 under 2.0, control.
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Imagine a hard day at work is done, the fridge is full of beer, and you have a commitment free night ready for the taking … too bad all you have from Netflix are art films and documentaries. It seemed like a good idea at the time, a documentary about documentaries. If only you knew what your mood would be by the time the movies actually got to your doorstep.

Well, now you can. Part psychotherapy, part online scheduling, part new age luck, the Netflix mood ring actually predicts what your mood will be before and after watching movies in your queue. Adam Sandler movies have a right time and a right place – but only if you plan ahead.

Posted: May 15th, 2008 under 2.0, control, futureNow.
Comments: 2