While the part of me that’s getting old says, “why can’t we just do it like we did before,” the techie in me is excited. The move to mobile in use of the Internet marks a huge step toward the removal of the barriers between us and our connections to each other and information. The device itself is becoming more transparent and allowing us to interact more directly with content, in more ways, on our own terms. As a website designer and developer, I find this both a bit intimidating and a bit exhilarating. When I first started building websites, what drew me to it was the way we could take a few simple rules and build something greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Some aspects of this shift concern me – in particular the move from a more “open” Internet to one that’s walled off for the sake of security and proprietary experience. In a way it’s a return to the old days of CompuServe and AOL, where the producer of the device controlled the experience of the user. It falls to we developers to maintain the push toward stepping outside of the intended bounds of the new products and systems. Yet it’s easy to understand the drive behind this change. People are tired of spam and viruses, and a more protected environment is appealing.

Another effect this shift will have will be to make large-scale fancy website designs a bit irrelevant. (You know, the ones with all the flowing shapes and flowered patterns, with animated photos and fancy Flash.) For years now, many web designers and developers have pushed for content-based websites, where the design is more a subtle part of the whole, while the content is flexible to accommodate as many viewing/reading devices as possible. This trend will only increase, as the range of devices increases. I think this is a good thing.

If you haven’t jumped in and joined the ranks of the smart phone owners, don’t feel bad, as of the date of this posting I haven’t either. But it’s about time.

This policy came about because back in 2007 Facebook had intended to remove the profiles of some students at Virginia Tech who had been killed. Because of online protests and a letter-writing campaign by friends and other Facebook members who heard that the pages were to be removed, the company instead decided to memorialize them.

Facebook’s official memorializing explanation from the FAQ page is:

“When a user passes away, we memorialize their account to protect their privacy. Memorializing an account removes certain sensitive information (e.g., status updates and contact information) and sets privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. The Wall remains so that friends and family can leave posts in remembrance. Memorializing an account also prevents all login access to it.”

Alternately, you can also request that the profile be taken down completely. Either can be done by filling out this form. You will need to provide online proof, such as a link to an obituary, as well as some other details like the email address that was used for the account, birth date, etc.

No, it’s not a screen shot from an old Atari video game.

Google has sent out stickers to hundreds of thousands of businesses, with Google’s QR code encoded with the URL to Google’s Place page, along with a healthy dose of Google branding. The way it works is that a person with a cell phone can scan the image, whether it’s placed on a website or printed material, and be taken to a Google Place page featuring information on that particular business.

Why is this a big deal? It’s something that’s simple for people to implement, both businesses and customers will find immediate value in it, and Google benefits by increasing the worth of their “Place Page” service, which Google Maps has already been reinforcing. But aside from being good for Google, it’s actually kind of good for us too. It’s a step up on the actually useful ladder of technological coolness.

The QR code itself was actually created by Denso-Wave (a Japanese corporation) in 1994, and is very commonly used in Japan. While not having caught on in a huge way yet on our side of the pond, my guess is that due to the explosion social marketing and online involvement, this may very quickly change.

Never slow on the uptake, conspiracy theory folks have already started in… a Google search for “google qr code mark of the beast” at the time of this post indicated 3,270 results. The main commentary right now seems to be here. (Most of the rest of the results seem to be either derivative comments or not-quite-related hits. But you know someone had to put forth the idea.)

If there is a conspiracy at Google, however, it’s only in that they’ve not set up a way for any business with a Google Place page to have their code. Google has chosen “favorite” places and mailed them the stickers, featuring the Google branding very prominently. If you’d like to take matters into your own hands, rather than waiting for Google to think of you as a best friend, you can go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com and generate your own code. I don’t see any reason you couldn’t create a code for your Google Place URL, but you could also create it for your main business website, your Facebook page, or your cat’s website.

Some interesting related links:

• Facebook Kicks Off Implementation of QR Codes
• Google QR codes to appear in a store window near you

“This extraordinary book explains the engine that has catapulted the Internet from backwater to ubiquity—and reveals that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lockdown, ending its cycle of innovation—and facilitating unsettling new kinds of control.”  from futureoftheinternet.org

I haven’t read the book yet, just saw someone else tweet about it so checked it out – but I ordered me a copy at Amazon as it sounds like a very fascinating book. It’s the kind of thing I’ve thought about myself off and on the last few years, but never really took the time to pull into any kind of cohesiveness. Relying on the Web, as I do, for a living, the subject is important to me. But it’s important to you too, because there’s very few people who are not directly affected by the Internet in one way or another.

Should the Internet be “free” or commercialized? (I think it can and should actually be both.) At the heart of it, most really good ideas are based on ideals. Ideals don’t happen in nature. For example, “free health care”… eventually, somewhere down the line, someone has to pay for it. Should doctors not be compensated for their time and skills? Should researches not be compensated for the years of effort that go into new medicines? To make health care available for someone with no money, do we compel the doctor to perform medicine with no pay? Do we take money from someone else, in order to pay the doctor to give services to someone with no money? It’s not a simple situation. So something that is on the face a good thing is not necessarily practical. Likewise, while it seems to make perfect sense for the Internet to be freely available to all so we can share data and information, communicate and connect, how will the technology be paid for? Do Internet Service Providers have a moral obligation to provide service? Does Microsoft have an obligation to distribute computers with email and web software? There would seem to have to be an economic component for the thing to exist. Not having read the book, maybe my soap box routine is way off topic… but I look forward to reading it and will likely follow up with more afterward.

UPDATE (7/10/2010): The book is pretty interesting, I’m about half way through. However, if you’re not the “techie” type you’ll probably find it a bit boring. The author tends to drive his points home by repeating similar ideas in slightly different ways. For anyone in an Internet related business (and what isn’t these days?) I would recommend adding it to your list.

In marketing, being different is the way to stand out above the noise. Along those lines, I have to give give props to this Germany company who obviously succeeds in getting attention…

(The sound effects are obviously that, since any fly making that noise would have to weigh 10 pounds.)

We are by nature an imitative creature. It’s good to have the ability to learn from other successful people by imitating them. However, I think there’s more value in knowing when to break from the path that others have made. What you REALLY want to be is the person other people are wanting to imitate.