Sharing Lives As Stories On the Web 30
blackbearnh writes "Jeff Holden spent a decade at Amazon, where he was involved as Senior Vice President of Consumer Websites with the recommendation engine, Amazon Prime, and the product review system. He's left now, and has started Pelago, a company that wants to help mobile users turn their lives into stories they can share on the web. Among the interesting effects he discusses in this interview for O'Reilly Radar is that users of their product, Whrrl, have talked about changing their lives to make more interesting stories. Holden also talks about some of the work he did at Amazon, privacy issues that arise when social networking starts to become ubiquitous, and why he thinks the Apple App Store review system is seriously broken. 'One of the things that happens with an iPhone is when you uninstall an app, it asks you to rate it. And it defaults to one-star. ... The problem is ... there's no kind of qualification. Anybody just downloads it and checks it out or doesn't check it out, right? And I think a number of people run it and they see that you have to sign in and they just delete it. And you get a one-star rating out of those experiences.'"
App Store - What? (Score:4, Informative)
Does he own an iPhone/iTouch?
When you uninstall the application, there's a large button right below the stars that says 'NO THANKS'.
It's very clear, and .. oh, useful -- when you uninstall an application but don't feel like rating it.
Maybe his eyes are broken.
Re: (Score:2)
It's very clear, and .. oh, useful -- when you uninstall an application but don't feel like rating it.
Shouldn't that be so much the default that you don't even need to ask? Uninstalling an application is not something you want to complicate. "Remove app? Y/N" and you're done. Anything more just leads to a bad user experience. Remember: at that point the user does not want to deal with your app anymore. Imposing yet another question on them is just rude.
They must have learned this from Windows, where a typical uninstall is a wizard, with 5 meaningless progress bars and windows popping in and out of focus at
Re:App Store - What? (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, it sounds like you don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch.
To uninstall an app on the device, you hold down icons until they get wiggly, then you touch the 'x'. The OS asks you two questions:
* do you really want to remove the app, and
* do you want to rate it
It's unobtrusive. Really.
This is a prime example of why direct experience trumps mental models/thought experiments. In real life, it's not a big deal. In the abstract world, it sounds like an unbelievably unwieldy thing. UI designers (and armchair quarterbacks) take note.
Re: (Score:2)
Note I said 'when you uninstall the application'.
I didn't feel it was necessary to point out the entire process, merely the portion TFA was referring to.
Also, in reference to another comment here - I'm fairly certain if you choose 'no thanks', it just isn't rated -- that doesn't result in a one star rate.
Re: (Score:2)
>Imposing yet another question on them is just rude.
Agreed - bit like asking the customer to feedback to help improve the service. Amounts to asking for free advice they can profit from. And on how to get further into your pocket, no less.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps he meant that touching 'No Thanks' results in one star when others view that app in the app store... If that's the way it works, oh well. Could be worse - some apps never get downloaded/installed.
More interesting life (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, because there isn't any service out there that lets people share the pointlessness of their lives. Otherwise, so many of its users would see marked improvements over "Going to take the dog to the vet" and spreading this banality to everyone stupid enough to click 'yes' and be added as a friend.
Re: (Score:2)
He's just feels rejected because after all that effort, still nobody notices he's a dog.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
My dog is offended. He worked hard to learn how to twitter.
Life's a bitch.
Or at least he hopes it is.
Hope the villagers in Englend don't read this..... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Who needs invisibility when they don't need to leave the house; they can just be more interesting on their cell phone.
Automatic coolness measurement (Score:4, Funny)
The next step may be something that reads your GPS tracking info, evaluates how interesting your life is, and feeds this into your social networking profile. [facebook.com]
Life, the Movie (Score:2)
Read Neil Gabler's "Life the Movie"; people have had a cinematic or storytelling view of their lives even before social networking sites. I guess social networking and the Internet are now giving people the chance to publish their lives as well.
Who cares? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It got posted because it mentions the iPhone.
Major disconnect (Score:3, Insightful)
I was very confused when I read the summary. The first half and second half seem to deal with totally different topics.
Life, stories and stories of lives are only interesting if they have good content. Content, content, content. Meet interesting people, visit interesting places, do interesting things.
If technology helps you improving your life/story content: nice. We could have an interesting discussion about how that could come about.
The second half of the story is about this dude's work at Amazon and boring technical details. When I glanced through TFA I saw that it is mostly about that, and the dude doing his best to distinguish his product from all those other web 2.0 products. This has nada nothing zero to do with an interesting life story.
Of course the blame is on the story submitter. The title fitting TFA should be something onionesque like 'area man stares at navel and creates his own special unique superior web2.0 niche'.
(And bad summaries are getting sort of the standard here on /., I should know better not be fooled by them anymore, maybe I am getting too old for this place.)
Now we know who's to blame for these stupid ideas (Score:2)
He's left now, and has started Pelago, a company that wants to help mobile users turn their lives into stories they can share on the web.
I have a solution that kills 2 birds with one stone, but it involves him meeting up with a bucket of tar, some feathers, and a very angry chicken!
obituraries versus "life stories" in our paper (Score:2)
"Seriously broken" (Score:2)
Someone is uninstalling his app without making it past the sign-in stage, and he's bitching about the 1-star rating he gets.
All apps get the same treatment, sounds fair to me.
Re: (Score:2)
That was my first thought. But I read the article, and it's more complicated than that.
Anonymous feedback has been a dumping ground for people clicking randomly or thoughtlessly, just to get the rating box to go away. Feedback attached to your username is going to increase the reviewer's investment in the accuracy of that rating. It won't solve the problem, but it will be better.
Also, being featured by the app store brings a different audience. I have often thought to myself, I don't like the genre or t
Credible professionals (Score:1)
Could you please visit http://mjr.in/ [mjr.in] and share endorsements and testimonials of extra-ordinary professionals you have met till date.
You will find more more about this site at http://www.killerstartups.com/Site-Reviews/mjr-in-endorsements-and-testimonials [killerstartups.com].
Thanks and Regards,
Jawahar Mundlapati
On a more serious note: (Score:1)