I don’t want to write this post right now, but I have to. I damaged my wrist pretty badly yesterday and its in a splint. So here goes blogging with my non-dominant hand. I designed the website Jumpino.com. Recently me and my brother have been getting lots of comments on the similarities with Google+.

I care more about my wrist right now, honestly. Because I write with my right hand, I draw, I paint, I sew, I sketch, I type/use the mouse with it. I can’t even continue my lighting project without my right hand. And this is the crucial difference between me and Google – I am a creator. Google is a company. They pay people well to come up with ideas, to design them, to market them, and to monetize them.

I got paid nothing, I took a break from school, I didn’t work – I dedicated half a year of my life to creating something I thought at the time was revolutionary. Give me a break, I was a teenager. Two people. Zero funding. and a HELL of a lot of determination. More importantly, I gave all this up for a project that ultimately failed – and I’d do it again.

So did Google steal my idea? No.

Ideas are a dime a dozen and if you put 10 smart kids in a room and tell them to brainstorm on social networking ideas, the Jumpino idea (live discussion grouped in the construct of social circles) will be brought up much faster than you think. It’s a great idea, but not a genius one. I am no Tesla. In fact, I’m surprised I was the first person to use the term “Private Circles” in the context of live web discussions.

So did they steal the design? Maybe.

I think there is a good chance my design heavily inspired Google+

Here are four solid things that feel uncomfortably similar:

1. The terminology, specifically, “Private Circles.”
2. Hand drawn crayon style, specifically arrows and circles.
3. Circle Icon. You can make a circle a million different ways. The red, the edge thickness, the fact that it’s hollow. This was the first thing that struck me.
4. Multiply Color Effect.

I think all of these separately don’t mean much – but in the context of an app based on the similar idea of social circles, it raises a few flags. I’m still willing to believe it might be a huge coincidence or synchronicity.

I think watching our “ad” videos, looking at the graphics below and visiting the Jumpino site will help you make up your mind.

Crayon style design elements. Still on the live website today.

Similar terminology. Still on the site.

Circle icons. still live.

I don't think this is live anymore but it was on the about page for a while

an early icon for circle linking

About 90% of people I’ve asked that compare the graphics say that there was probably some inspiration going on. For one, I guarantee there is someone at Google who has the responsibility of scoping out competitor products. We did that and we were just two people. (Fun fact, there are lots of other startups based on the same concept, but only our’s has this design and only ours used the term circles pre-Google+)

So what is it that I want? Nothing, actually.

I don’t need the recognition. I already know what I made, what I’m capable of, what I will make and that I will figure this life out without a footnote in the commented code of some big corporation. I know my startup failed to get a huge following and the lessons I learned were priceless, which brings me to:
I don’t need compensation. I’m lucky enough to get freelance work here and there on top of having a loving family that gave me a roof and sustenance and a computer to start programming on at the exciting age of 7. I have enough – and I have the tools to create more.
and lastly,
I don’t want Google plus to fail. After all, I use Google Reader, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and much more.

I’ve already won – because I make stuff without caring about recognition and compensation. Google – How many of your Google+ employees would still work if you never paid them or gave them credit for their work? Maybe one, two?

Google can’t afford authenticity.

This is why real web innovation will still come from kids and young adults screwing around with code, people with or without degrees, of any gender(!), ethnicity, and class. I think alot of people get discouraged when they hear about what happened with Dodgeball and Google – but remember that we have the drive and the authenticity to move the web forward. Your competitor is not Google or Microsoft or Apple. You are competing against yourself and against time. Small time developers have this huge advantage of actually caring about what we program. We are 5 steps ahead of Google, all the time. How else did I come up with a similar idea to the circles in Google+ 2 years before they did? I’m not a genius, I’m just passionate.

I would say I’m off to make the next big thing but I’m really just going to google wrist injuries, elevate my arm, eat ice cream, and take a nap.

xoxo!

Noemi

This was super fun to make. The photos aren’t all Stevi’s yet – she’s setting it up and uploading as I’m posting this.
Check it out:

http://steviclackphotography.com/

This is my last straw with GoDaddy. There are cheaper services, but I used their’s out of convenience. Taking more than 4 hours to propagate a .com domain is totally unacceptable. I thought it was because it was first set up on the weekend, and weekends are always slower for GoDaddy, but the nameservers still have not propagated and it’s Monday.

I won’t be using them anymore nor will I tell my customers its okay to use GoDaddy. I’ve never had a domain take longer than 4 hours to propagate (even through my unfortunate ISP.)

If you’re here already, I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve added “Like” buttons above and below all my posts. There are wordpress plug-ins that do this, but I prefer to get down and dirty and add the code to the template files. Click here for the generator. You can use it with any CMS or a custom website.

For wordpress, put this in the URL area:

<?php echo urlencode(get_permalink($post->ID)); ?>

Say thanks if this link helped you. :)

It’s been taking me forever to do her website. I’m gonna hustle and try to get it done sooooooooon. In the meantime, here’s a preview.

Dynamically Adjusting Length Polling (DALP) was invented by David Titarenco to improve the performance of websites with live content. Long polling and short polling both have drawbacks – Long polling can cause an older browser to time out and short polling can create a heavy load on the browser and server. DALP changes the length of each poll depending on browser activity to decrease over time while the user is idle and increase when the user is active. It also dynamically changes depending on browser, connection speed, and how the server is feeling. (See VICTOR)

DALP is currently exclusively used on Jumpino.com

The openID movement is in full swing – and for good reason. It’s smart and saves time. It’s also great for start-ups like Jumpino. (we’re going to implement an OpenID type login on version 2.0) Basically – Users can sign in with their facebook or twitter accounts, instead of signing up all over again.

So what’s an easy way to use OpenID on your blog? Disqus! And I’m using it. Now, you can comment on my blog with your Facebook or Twitter account. I know, I still won’t get any comments, but a girl can dream…

Anywalnuts, I’ve wanted to use it on my blog for a long time, but all the cumbersome logos and links bugged me. I recently tried it out and discovered there’s a custom CSS area in your settings.

To hide all of the logos, I used this code there in the custom CSS section:

.dsq-brlink {display:none;}
.dsq-dc-logo {display:none !important;}
#dsq-content .dsq-login-button:first-child {display:none !important;}

They could go around it, but they don’t seem to care about it for now. Enjoy this snippet of code for removing the Disqus logos while it lasts. Of course, the first-child pseudo class only works in certain browsers, but I’ll take what I can get. Plus, that one is the least offensive of the logos to me.

This is what it looks like now:
You can do alot more with that custom CSS including clean up the entire commenting area.

PS. I installed it with the free wordpress plugin that’s available.

xoxo
Noemi

Part of me doesn’t.

And yet another part of me needs to get to work on promoting Jumpino. And that didn’t count.

Victor is an online robot that learns how to feel emotions from human interaction and response. This project is something me and my brother came up with and is near release. Here’s the current version of what VICTOR looks like.

I pretty much outdid myself here. Where’s my Nobel for web design? I’ll wait.