Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole

Remember the surreal feelings of despair and confusion whenever Facebook or Twitter were down?

Well, many users of the popular blogging service Tumblr went through that same social media melancholy after the site suffered a crippling blow and was down for over 24 hours (practically an eternity in Internet time).

Okay, I admit that may be a bit overdramatic. But the fact is that Tumblr was down for an inordinate amount of time and a lot of people took notice.

It seems that Tumblr may have been a victim of its own success, with the company stating it was heavy traffic that caused the meltdown. In some ways it's a good problem to have because it means you're growing, but there needs to be a solid infrastructure to support that growth.

Unfortunately for Tumblr, the wake-up call for those infrastructure repairs and growth support down the road have come at the cost of a lot of angry tweets and Facebook posts and a fairly substantial image backlash.

Were you affected by Tumblr's downtime? And do instances like this change the way you view different sites and networks?

Google's Billions Don't Sway Groupon

The rumor mill was churning last week, with most of the focus on Google's potential buyout of social buying site Groupon.

The blogosphere was buzzing with articles and posts pondering the impact the move would have and what it would mean for Groupon. However, all of the prognosticating and predictions were for nothing with the news over the weekend that Groupon turned down Google's $5.3 billion offer.

A lot of people couldn't comprehend Groupon's decision to turn down $5.3 billion for a startup reportedly bringing in $500 million annually. Financially, it's a valid argument...unless those earnings figures are wrong (and luckily for Groupon, they are). There have been reports coming out recently that Groupon is actually making $2 billion annually.

There are arguments to be made about possible non-monetary reasons behind Groupon saying no to Google, but I honestly think that this was simply Google making what would have been a nice offer for a company that was doing well (but not spectacular). Unfortunately for Google, the earnings numbers they probably based their offer on were off and Groupon is obviously looking to greener pastures.

Microsoft Shows No Dis-Kinect with Consumers

Way back in June, I questioned whether or not the gaming industry was on its deathbed after being pushed further and further into anonymity with the rise of smarthphones and social gaming.

In that post, I noted that Microsoft was going to unveil its controller-free game system at the E3 Conference. And while I didn't say how I felt about Microsoft's controller-free approach in the article, to be honest I felt it was fairly gimmicky.

Boy, was I wrong. Microsoft has announced that its Kinect system has sold 2.5-million units in the 25 days since its public launch. To put that number in perspective, the iPad (you know, the device that has been called the fastest-selling device of all time), took twice as long to surpass the 2 million mark.

In my opinion, their success boils down to two things. One, the much-lower price point compared to the iPad is always conducive to higher sales. Secondly, Microsoft has been very upfront with their support for developers hacking their Kinect for other purposes.

It was an ingenious move on Microsoft's part, because people have pondered the potential outside of gaming, and dreamed of Minority Report-like computer navigation and web-browsing since the system's unveiling.

I don't believe the Kinect will kill off the Nintendo Wii, although I wonder what effect it will have on the Playstation Move's sales. However, the public has obviously latched on to the idea of controller-free gaming and the Kinect's success should boost a struggling gaming industry.

Video Post: State of E-Reader Report

With the holiday shopping season in full swing and rumors of an upcoming e-bookstore from Google, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the current e-reader market to see what options are out there. Tablets also get looked at, on the heels of a recent report on the iPad's impact on the e-reader market.

The 140-Character Future of RSS Feeds

I admit it. I was a bit late to the Twitter party, just getting into the tweeting game a few months ago. And although I've fully embraced it now, it took me a month or so to figure out how to get the most out of it.

Starting out, I (like many others) used Twitter as a sort of RSS feed for news or sports. Apparently, the discussion forum Quora has latched on to the idea as well. Since it's early days, Quora has allowed users to follow topics on the site to view new or edited questions relevant to them as they appear.

But now, Quora has created Twitter accounts for nearly all of their topics. There are accounts for very broad topics like "social media" (@q_socialmedia) or "science" (@q_science) and brand specific accounts like "Nikon" (@q_nikon). If you already have a Quora account, the accounts for the topics you follow show up here.

Now it's not exactly a true Twitter account, because the @QuoraQuestions account tweets out any questions and, if the question is about the topic you subscribe to, retweets it to the topic-specific feed.

It may be a modified Twitter account or it may be a new form of RSS feed, but either way it's still an intriguing method of sending out data and good for Quora users who spend way more time on Twitter than in their email inboxes.