Who’d of thunk a ThingLink?
Thinglink.org provides a nice place for Makers to register and publicize their products and/or designs. When you register an item on the site, a unique ThingLink code is created (like a SKU) . This code is registered in the ThingLink open database and is intended to “stick” to the item for life. This is a neat idea, and appears they’ve put a bit of thought into the format of the code.
A ThingLink is a 6 character code that is intended to uniquely identify an object for life. The code follows a particular format: The first 3 characters are numbers (0-9) and the next 3 characters are letters (a-z), case doesn’t matter. So you may end up with a code like 345JrD. In fact, you can generate your own code here. The format - numbers then letters - seem to make it a bit easier to remember. And for some reason, I don’t know why, but the URL for a ThinkLink, gives it a bit of cool factor: http://thinglink.org/thing:123Abc
What’s wrong with IM?
As the old saying goes - a picture’s worth a thousand words:
No the problem is not with Meebo. The problem is with four different networks and four different protocols. I have family that uses MSN, Friends and co-workers on AOL, and I personally prefer Jabber (GTalk). Fortunately, applications like GAIM and Meebo make it possible to bridge the gap, but I still need an account for each. Why does it have to be so complicated?
Now, imagine if the Web was built this way? Hey, my website is on the AOL network, you have to create an account to access it and download their browser. Where’s your site and what browser does it require?
Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be causing much of a problem as millions of people are chatting each day. But then high gas prices have yet to stop people from driving SUV tanks either. Sooner or later, something is gonna give.
Personally, I think you’ll see more web-based chat systems like campfire. Why? Mainly because we’re seeing advances on the web that prevented usable web-based chat in the past - mainly AJAX for a snappy interface and Comet ( event driven, server push ) to push chat messages to the browser. Add to that some of the benefits the web-based approach may have over normal IM and you have some compelling reasons to move away from proprietary networks.
Time will tell.
