Defining the interface from which we manage all of our media is one of the greatest UX challenges facing designers today.  The Boxee beta is a great example of understanding the user’s goals, and making a complex task relatively painless.

I think there are still major challenges ahead for the media centers, but Plex, Boxee, and Hulu have a good handle on it, and are innovating.

Social CRM is coming

If web 2.0 has taught us anything, it’s that the web is the place for social networking.  But until there is one place that personal and business information can co-exist safely, it’s hard to keep track of everything that is happening out there on the web.  Social CRM is starting to gain momentum.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others are vying for your data, aka, your biography, friends, and status updates. But there is also a wealth of information in your day-to-day interaction spent in E-Mail, CRM, and on your smartphone.

Enter Gist.com.  A tool that is attempting to consolidate the various sources of information on the people & companies that are important to you.  It’s in beta stage, but the concept is compelling.

Gist will analyze your Facebook, Salesforce.com, LinkedIn, and Outlook data and more, to give you insight into your contacts.  The interface needs to mature, but with so many data sources, it’ll take some time before the dashboard is as simple to navigate as iTunes is for your media collection.

Until then, I’ll keep an eye on Gist.com.  This could be an especially important tool for the sales, researcher, human resources, marketing, or others looking for a consolidated view of a person or organization.

More at Brent’s Social CRM blog.

My public Gist profile, which has good privacy controls.

I’m excited to see the upcoming outcome of Intuit’s acquisition of Mint.com.  Mint is one of the best personal finance tools available on the web, and has a great iPhone app.

• Wesabe.com is also a good personal budgeting contender
• Let’s not forget about Cake Financial for research and brokerage insight
• I’ve yet to make a personal loan Prosper.com, but it looks like personal lending has made great progress
• I support Kiva: micro-loans for developing nations - philanthropy 2.0

What tools are you using to keep track of your personal finances? What blogs are giving you the best information for investment and financial management advice?

Thanks Bonnie!

bonniejarvie:

CNBC Original, Maria Bartiromo takes viewers Inside The Mind of Google for a rare look at the world’s most powerful technology company and its crown jewel, the Google Internet search engine. This is the fascinating story of how two grad students, in barely a decade, took a one-time research project and turned it into a global technology powerhouse…changing the way we interact with information, the Internet, and each other. See how Google came to dominate the search industry and turn it into a profit machine… and see where it’s taking its next step… and how the company plans to address arguably the biggest controversy in today’s digital age: privacy.

I really like how Google Living Stories is leveraging the ‘life’ of a news story by using the technology and visualizations that work best on the web and give us context.

It’s not just putting print online.

• One link for each story that doesn’t change, but aggregates sources
• Visual timeline gives you context, navigation
• It knows what you read the last time you visited
• It continually updates with new, related stories
• Weighted summaries
• Key Quotations, People,
• Subscribe to email updates
• All types of media: audio/video/images

Example: “The Politics of Global Warming”.

The project was developed by Google in collaboration The New York Times and The Washington Post.  Read more details over at the Google blog.

Google Goggles - Use pictures to search the web

We’re visual creatures; and I love how Google sees the future of search heading toward making visual connections.  We’re heading there soon, with fast internet connections and cameras on our mobile devices, this idea will give context and information about the real world.

Imagine snapping a picture of the spider in your bedroom to find out it’s species and threat level.   Not sure if that is a pimple on your skin, or the MRSA virus, snap a photo to find out!

In the business card example, our clumsy and complicated interaction with moving information from physical world to digital will disappear.

I’m looking forward to seeing this develop!

I use OpenDNS for my home internet/network.  Now that Google has announced a similar DNS offering, David Ulevish from OpenDNS shares some thoughts.

Personally, I think this is good news for OpenDNS. Competition breeds innovation, and as a Deluxe member of OpenDNS, I’m sure the service will continue to add features.

I’m not sure I want Google knowing every site I visit, which I a primary reason for not using the Google Chrome browser.

to the few people who wander this way, i’m moving my blog from wordpress to tumblr.  i’m also separating work and personal life, so we’ll see how that goes.

here is the new thinking:

work & work related:

blog.rox.org (you are here)
twitter.com/madwork

personal

stuff.rox.org - my digital scrapbook
twitter.com/mad - my lifecast
last.fm - the soundtrack of my life

thanks for stopping by, and i hope you come back soon.