Martin Weigert’s thoughts on the social web. And life.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it will simplify its privacy settings after weeks of protests and criticism. And I noticed something interesting:

In an interview with Inside Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social network, said this:

"If you asked me what I thought would be most likely thing that people would want to change, no one at the company thought it would have been simpler privacy controls. I actually don’t remember any conversations we had internally about this before [the changes and new features launched a few weeks ago]."

And now, read how Facebook is explaning the upcoming changes in a blog post published yesterday evening:

• Reduced the number of settings required to make all information private from nearly 50 to less than 15.
• Introduced presets that cover 18 individual settings for sharing with one single control—two clicks to control what had been more than 100 different options.
• Consolidated 10 settings on three separate pages into seven settings on one page.
• Reduced the number of separate pages in the privacy settings from 13 to eight.

More than 100 different sharing options and nearly 50 settings to make all information private, and Mark Zuckerberg tells us that no one at the company thought users would have wanted simpler privacy controls?! What does that say about how much Facebook actually understands its users?

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Over at the Twingly Blog I wrote about 8 really useful and in my eyes essential tools to enhance and improve the Twitter experience. Check it out if you are into Twitter, there might be a few apps in the list that you have never heard of.

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I love my iPhone 3G. Still, even after 1 1/2 years. For me it was and still is the best product I have ever bought, considering how it changed my life, made me more productive, connected, social and whatnot. In the lights of the launch of the Nexus One, I even saw it as a statement to own an iPhone, a statement for a competitive market and for a web/tech business with a variety of strong companies.

The weird thing though is that I don't really feel that I as an iPhone owner benefit from this competitive market. I realized this after seeing all the great new features the latest version of Android 2.2 offers. And this is what made me realize that I might give up on my "principle" of sticking to the iPhone.

So what is the key feature of Android 2.2 that convinced me?

I was about to buy a MiFi, such a nice little portable 3g router that you can carry with you wherever you go, and in case you ever need a WiFi signal you just put your 3g Sim card into the MiFi and there you go, a wireless network ready for you or others to connect. A MiFi costs 200+ Euro, some cheaper alternatives a little bit less.

Then I saw the Google I/O keynote and one of the features that was presented for the new Android edition was WiFi tethering. That's exactly what the MiFi does. So I could skip the MiFi and buy an Android instead.

Unlike the iPhone, each Android 2.2. device will let you create an ad hoc wireless network, which is perfect for accessing the web with another computer when you are on the go. Despite more than 150.000 iPhone apps, there is no app for WiFi tethering in the app store. The ones that existed have been removed. I assume Apple wants to keep good relationships with the operators, so that they could charge for USB tethering if they want to (as some operators in Germany do). I could jailbreak my iPhone, which would give me access to a WiFi tethering app. But in my eyes that should not be the way things work.

The possibility of WiFi tethering on Android and the lack of such a function on the iPhone made me realize that there is in fact something wrong with the Apple approach. As long as Android was an underdog, that didn't matter. But now with Android on the rise and a variety of smart phones with the Google OS on the market, it's getting more obvious. And it feels wrong for me to stick to a principle when this doesn't give me the benefits I would expect from it (competitive market should lead to more freedom for the customers).

But what if the next iPhone that will be launched in June comes with WiFi tethering? Or what if Apple is seeing the threat by Android and allows WiFi tethering apps to appear in the app store? Sure, that would make me think again about which phone/OS to go for. But then there is still another issue: I really want to buy a new phone this summer, and because of several reasons I want to get one without subscription and SIM lock. It's very unlikely that any of the operators here in Sweden will make that happen - at least not for a reasonable price.

The alternative is to get a Nexus One (or a HTC Desire) for about 500 Euro without subscription and without SIM lock...

I think it's pretty obvious why I suddenly have way more sympathy for Android.

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Since I pretty often speak with people about the success of Swedish web startups even on an international scale, a list of some players I could refer to would come handy. So now I am creating this list.

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If there is a second really big trend on the web right now besides location based services it is an e-commerce concept introduced by the US company Groupon. Groupon offers a single deal each day for a variety of cities. This deal is sold with a highly reduced price, often you get 50 percent off or more. Usually there is a minimum number that have to be sold before everyone can get it. You pay directly online and recieve a voucher into your mailbox that you can use during a specified period of time.

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...for Facebook.

I just went through the Shared Items of people I'm following in Google Reader and recent headlines like these were popping up:

10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account

Six reasons to hate Facebook's new anti-privacy system, "Connections"

We’re All Likers Now: How Facebook’s “Like” Is Just Awkward

That's not the kind of press any company would want. Well Zuck, blame yourself.

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Over at the Twingly blog I yesterday published an introduction to 6 web based tools everyone who likes the Cloud needs to know, containing Prezi, Pixlr, MindMeister, Google Docs, Lovely Charts and Myna (by Aviary). Go and read it!

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