What's the next big thing?

Do you guys have any idea what happened to Friendster? It used to be the IT thing before Mark got bored and coded something in his dorm room. But now, Friendster is just a website of -- I really don't know what it is, but my closest guess is that it is a game site.

Used to be the best social network application online.

I keep on asking myself, what does FB have (well, at least initially) that Friendster lacks? They are both social networking sites and they are both embraced by many during their start-ups. Friendster is now -- well -- it is gone. While its founders probably are enjoying (looking for) discount acid cigars, Facebook is  now a giant company. It has gone public. Mark Zuckerberg became so wealthy and is worth at least 20 billion. And he is 28 years old.

FML.

Using Gmail to Update Facebook, Friendster, Multiply, Plurk, and Twitter

Reposting a short article I posted in a tech blog... baka may maitulong sa mga nakablock na Facebook, etc sa offices nyo. :-)

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In this Web 2.0 generation, social networks and microblogging platforms are almost as essential as telecommunications devices. But do you really have to login to all of your networks (Facebook, Friendster, Multiply, Plurk, and Twitter) just to say you are “in a meeting; will check my e-mails tonight”?

I found out a way how you can simultaneously update all these networks just by sending one message to a certain platform — through GMail chat. OK, fine, some of you are probably doing this already, but for those who doesn’t have any idea how to do this, please read on.

I will be assuming, at the very least that you have a Plurk and Gmail accounts. If not, create your own. The first step is to configure your Plurk account such that it can be updated through Gmail. How do you do that? See picture below:

Setting your Plurk Bot

Click the alert icon and a dialog box will pop up. Refer to the tip encircled in the picture above. Actually, you just have to click the link (Get started now) and everything is as easy as ABC. There will be an instruction for you to add the Plurk Bot to your list of friends, and as soon as it’s done, you can now update your Plurk page thorugh Gmail chat. You just have to open up a chat window with your Plurk bot, and send message to it. Your messages will be saved as a Plurk update.

So, once you are done with that, all you have to do is configure your Plurk account so that all your updates in Plurk will be reflected as a status updates in Facebook, Friendster, Multiply, and Twitter. See below:

Your Bot

Isn’t that a convenience?