Why Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect Suck So Far

I was scanning a few websites today looking for some information on the proper design for a Facebook type newsfeed for Vyoo, which is what I'm putting on our site right now. I came across a few articles about Facebook Connect. I realized that after all hullabaloo over the release of Google's Friend Connect and Facebook Connect and how great they were going to be, we haven't heard a word about them since. Wanna know why? Because they don't do what we all thought they'd do. It's not a way to bring your friends with you all across the web, seamlessly. Or a way to bring your profile with you to other sites. It's a way for you to basically import your contacts - like you can currently do with your email programs. Sure Facebook Connect trumps Google because you don't always have your "friends" as email contacts, but it still isn't that sweet. Or it's a way to authenticate - which may actually be the one big benefit of these offerings. I, like many others, thought this was going to be a way to bring your profile with you around the web. At least Facebook Connect seems more interested in integrating your site with Facebook - allowing you to share feeds, stories, or whatever. Not a way to make the user's life of managing their content any easier.

I also ran across some great discussions about how bad the documentation and implementation of Facebook's technology and API's are. Terrible documentation, non-working code, missing wiki's, pain in the ass Facebook employees. Read all about it (here) - click on the story title at the top! There are some totally fun comments to read too on that page.

What the Hell is Vyoo Anyway?

I've been sorta vague with what Vyoo is and does anyway. But since our alpha is live, our patents are filed, and our website says what we do, I might as well explain it.

Background
I'm an avid traveler. It's really what I live for. It all started when I was younger and my parents dragged me to dude ranches in Wyoming, a jungle retreat in Costa Rica, and a whirlwind tour of Europe. I wasn't a fan at the time, but it certainly created a place in my heart that would later burn with a strong desire to continue traveling.

Traveling, for me, is really about the new experiences, people, and cultures that I'm exposed to. It's the exhilaration of waking up in Burma and wondering if I'll be able to order breakfast. Or heading to Guilin, China, wondering if I'm on the right bus and whether I'll be able to find a place to bed down for the night. Or in Korea, trying Sannakji, and hoping the tentacles don't stick to my throat on the way down, suffocating me. It's getting Cheese Fondue in the Swiss Alps, diving in Panama, visiting Auschwitz. It's relaxing on the beaches in Croatia, hiking in Cinque Terra. It's eating with a family in Bagan, with no electricity or running water for miles. For me... this is living!

Part of the difficulty with traveling is planning your trip. Sure, there are lots of guides out there to give you a hand. Lonely Planet, Frommers, Let's Go, Timeout, etc. But these guides suffer the same problems that most recommendations in life suffer (books, movies, hotel rooms, whatever). They're hard to trust. They're hard to determine if they fit what you really want. A lot of it is just settling. And boy do I hate to settle.

Guide books are great for giving overviews of cities. They're great for pointing out well known places or a variety of activities to choose from. But what about personalization? That's where they are lacking. And that's why finding a hotel from guidebooks is tough. Or a restaurant. Or finding which activities or tours you would find worthwhile. It requires fact checking. Cross-referencing.

I moved to Thailand before business school for about 6 months. When I left, I spent lots of time, too much time, trying to find a place to live - a service apartment, hotel, or hostel where I could spend a few months. In the end, I wasn't happy with anything - not knowing what part of town to stay in, what type of place to stay at, where I'd feel at home? I thought a lot about how to improve the process. I decided to start writing a travel guide for Thailand - that was much more focused on people like me. It would list the hotspots I frequented, the places I liked to stay, the destinations in Thailand I enjoyed. And what I did there.

I soon realized that this was a thankless job. Not only was it incredibly difficult for someone who wasn't a writer to write a guidebook, but I realized that it would be difficult to put me in a box and brand this book with a specific style and target audience. So I shelved it.

Now
Fast forward to Las Vegas, 2007. I was sitting by the pool with my co-founder Rajiv during our Disorientation Week at Haas. We started talking about ways to improve travel services. And we started to work through it. And, I hit an epiphany, one night... why do we have to bucket people in groups - like adventure travelers or backpackers? Why not just match people together who share similar interests? But not interests like, "I like snowboarding". But the underlying traits that drive these interests? Thus...I began researching psychology, with the help of a good friend who is a psychologist. It turns out, psychology is a pretty good indicator for this type of stuff. And it works!

So that's what we've been working on. It's been a challenging process and I'm still not sure how the website will work... but I guess our users will tell us. For example, are we a destination site or do we just facilitate relationships? I'm not really sure.

There are a few more details that are under wraps. But that's essentially what we do.

Filing Taxes for your Startup - 1120, 1099, 940, 941, etc.

One of the downfalls of incorporating is having to actually follow all the tax codes and IRS guidelines. Fortunately, with no revenue, we get to file a few less forms. But since we paid contractors this year, we had to file some additional forms from last year. So I guess it all balances out.

Since I'm not really detail oriented. This menial task takes me quite a while. Getting social security numbers, addresses, federal tax ID's, etc. from all of your contractors takes time. I recommend doing this well in advance of the deadline (which passed a few weeks ago). It's also a pain in the butt to figure out what you actually have to file. I'm still not entirely sure! And you get dinged for late files... up to $100,000 if you're a small business. Nice.

The best way to accomplish this task is to efile. Find a good provider and fill out the forms online. One such provider that has been a pleasure to work with, is PayCycle. The 1099's were a breeze (for paying contractors). They cost about 39.00 for up to 50 forms...along with efiling. They also have a host of payroll services. But we have no use for that yet.

Other forms to note are 940's (annual unemployment tax return), 941's (quarterly federal tax return), and 944's (annual federal tax return). If you're e-filing, you need to also submit an 8453c form (income tax declaration for e-filing) with your 1120 (US Corp. income tax return - for corporations). If you have payroll, there are more forms - like W2's. These probably aren't all of them...but it should give you a good start.

If I get dinged for missing forms, I'll be sure to let you know.

UPDATE: I just spoke to a colleague who reminded me that for missing things like commas, you can get fined. They'll fine you for anything. So my recommendation is to file online! The error handling takes care fo that stuff.

GMail's New Status Bars

I love when Google silently updates my products, making them better. The nice thing about web applications is that they can be seamlessly updated without forcing users to download software patches. In the last few days, Google rolled out a status bar indicator when uploading files for GMail. This was sorely lacking, because GMail would just sit there, with a "Working" sign... or a "Still working..." sign if you had attached files it began taking a long time to upload. But you never really knew if there was any progress being made. Now we can rest assured that there is progress. Nice work.

Hope you like these short posts today.

Vyoo UI Delivery Date This Sunday!

So, as those who've signed up for our service have noticed, our UI right now is a bit bland. But that's all going to change. Our full color UI is set to be delivered on Sunday. Then we'll have to implement all of the changes (CSS/html, etc) - which will hopefully be done next week. This will be a big step. I've already noticed, a nice UI adds tremendous value to the final product. It makes the usability so much better. We are also stressing simple design. I can't stand clutter personally. Just smooth, easy, intuitive design. That's our goal.

My Ramblings... My Broken Samsung DLP HLN4365W TV

I finally got around to recycling my old television. Actually, it's not an old television. It was a relatively new Samsung DLP (model: HLN4365W) model, about 4 years old. But it was broken. And I just can't spend the money to get it fixed. And nobody wanted to buy it from Craigslist. So...

The brief history of the tv - and by the way, it never looked as good as the picture above! I bought it refurbished online. It arrived dead. The manufacturer had to repair it, so they finally came out and fixed the lamp and ballast. Pretty much most of the innards of the television. It worked for about a year. Then problems started happening again. But it was out of warranty. And I was moving out of town. So I stored it. When I took it out of storage a few months later, it was naturally still broken. I called Samsung and they said someone would have to look at it and the minimum charge was going to be around $250, not including parts. A lamp would be around $100. And a new ballast, color wheel, or whatnot would be several hundred. So I was looking at at around $500 to get this piece of crap working again. A television I had already spent $1200 on to purchase. And the picture was pretty crappy to begin with. And who knows if this thing would have kicked again in a few months. That seemed to be the pattern. Sure I bitched to them. But they weren't budging. And I was sick of the piece of crap tv anyway. I guess that's what I get for buying a tv with millions of moving parts or, as Texas Instruments likes to say, millions of tiny mirrors.

Maybe it was my fault for jumping on the DLP bandwagon early. I'm sure Samsung makes some better televisions these days. But it seems that plasma and LCD are the way to go now anyway. I just wish they hadn't used me as a guinea pig for testing their televisions. At my expense.

My First GTalk IM Virus

I just received an IM from a girl I haven't spoken to in ages. She works at Google, so I thought it a bit odd that she'd be the cause of a virus. Or really spam. But a few other online friends also received the same IM from her. After that global GMail outage this morning, I'm hoping things aren't about to run amok over there.

The IM was simple, it just said, "lol check this out" and on the next line http://tinyurl.com/dy73t7. Pretty lame. Apparently it goes to Viddyho.com. I made another friend test the link. Which he did. Thoughtful, huh? Anyway, don't fall for it.