How Innovative Is Your Privacy Policy?

Internet privacy is a slippery slope. Despite our perception of a borderless web, legislation varies for each country. As Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others push the web to become more social, users’ privacy control wanes. And privacy is absolutely not dead. Privacy is now a method to create and manage your identity, explains my coworker Bud Caddell. 2010 is the year people share more, 2011 will be the year people regret their exhibitionism.

I am more concerned about our youth than adult users when it comes to privacy. Adults need to take personal responsibility and understand that if Facebook hints at changes in users’ privacy settings, then they must take action. I don’t expect my 10-year-old cousin on Facebook to understand this – and yes, despite Facebook’s 13-year-old age limit, he and several of his underage friends peruse the network each day. You can argue that parents are responsible for keeping their children away from the social web, but we all know that’s an unfair expectation.

Web giants need to start mimicking older media predecessors’ social responsibility. In 2007, Nickelodeon began prohibiting use of its characters on junk food products. Characters can only be licensed to “better for you” products that were determined by Nick’s marketing department and food advocacy groups. Comparatively, the Google Dashboard is a poor man’s excuse to bring privacy controls to the masses, let alone youngsters.

Some web applications are ahead of the curve. The mobile app Citysense grants users ownership over historical data. The app includes buttons to “delete any data acquired in the last 24 hours” and to “delete all historical data.” This is brilliant. This will be the future. More historical data may make an application smarter (what up, algorithm) and more appealing to marketers (what up, CRM), but users’ distrust will be on the rise as they start to see their digital thumbprints all over search engines and declined university and job applications. Platforms that exercise transparent user data management will soon be perceived as more innovative than those that do not.

Future Algorithm of the Social Web

I recently alluded that Facebook needs to implement smarter algorithms or my defriending fiesta begins tomorrow (David Armano held a similar argument this weekend). My coworker Mike Arauz helped me realize that my dilemma is much larger than Facebook, by asking what metrics would I like to see in a network’s algorithm. There’s no doubt that social’s main focus is soon to be content (and location) compared to individual connections. If current social powerhouses don’t filter the noise, they will quickly become less valuable.

A social algorithm needs two pillars: 1) That identifies your relationship with an individual (person, brand) and 2) That identifies your relationship with the content source. An individual and content source must be equally weighted because if content is social’s currency, it’s only valuable when you have individuals to exchange it with and vice versa. Most networks tend to only focus on the individual and ignore the fact that a significant part of our interactions occur with content. Whether a friend pushes out a status update, check-in or piece of content, his action needs a two-pillar combined score:

For the algorithm to be possible, the future social network would leverage APIs so your friends and data from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google Reader, Delicious, Last.FM, Netflix and so forth travel with you. On a more micro level, I would hope for the algorithm to reflect more personal connections: Do you listen to the same music as the individual? Watch similar films? Hang out in the same places? However, the crux of the algorithm is to recognize your relationship with content and the insights that come from it.

My Staple Eateries

A friend recently moved to my neighborhood (east village) and requested all my walking distance joints. Clearly, I eat out way too much. The list:

Sandwiches & Salads
Bite – www.bitenyc.com
Olives – olivesnyc.com
Porchetta – www.porchettanyc.com

Pizza (Jon’s recs)
Motorino pizza – www.motorinopizza.com/
Lombardi’s – www.firstpizza.com
Co – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/co/
Artichoke – www.artichokepizza.com

Brunch
Westville – www.westvillenyc.com
Jane – http://www.ctrnyc.com/JANE/index.html
The Smith – www.ctrnyc.com/THESMITH/index.html
Mud Spot – www.mudnyc.com/spots.html
Cafe Orlin – www.cafeorlin.com
Marquet – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/marquet-cafe/
Veselka – www.veselka.com
B&H – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/bandh/
Dojo – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/dojo02/
Angelina cafe – angelinacafenyc.com
Sunburnt cow – www.thesunburntcow.com
Five points – www.fivepointsrestaurant.com
Great jones cafe – www.greatjones.com
Clinton st bakery – www.clintonstreetbaking.com
7a – www.7acafe.com

Greek
Pylos – www.pylosrestaurant.com
Moustache – www.moustachepitza.com/
Snack – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/snack/

Mexican
La Esquina – www.esquinanyc.com
Pinche Taqueria – www.pinchetaqueria.us

Italian
Franks – www.frankrestaurant.com
Lil Frankies – www.lilfrankies.com
Supper – www.supperrestaurant.com
Max’s – http://www.max-ny.com/
lL Bagatto – www.ilbagattonyc.com
Emporio – emporiony.com
inoteca – www.inotecanyc.com
Frankie Spuntino – www.frankiesspuntino.com

(New) American
Jane – see above
The smith – see above
Spitzer’s – www.spitzerscorner.com
Schiller’s – www.schillersny.com
Ditch Plains – www.ditch-plains.com
Little Owl – www.thelittleowlnyc.com
10 Downing – www.10downingnyc.com
Market Table – www.markettablenyc.com
Back Forty – www.backfortynyc.com
Esperanto Cafe – www.esperantony.com
Prune – www.prunerestaurant.com
Elephant – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/the-elephant/
Cafe Select – www.cafeselectnyc.com
Elizabeth – www.elizabethny.com/
Mermaid Inn – http://www.themermaidnyc.com/
Mary’s Fish Camp – www.marysfishcamp.com
August – www.augustny.com/
dgbg – http://www.danielnyc.com/dbgb.html

Tapas
Boqueria – www.boquerianyc.com
Casa Mono – www.casamononyc.com
Pipa – www.pipa-nyc.com/
Caraca Arepas – www.caracasarepabar.com
Yuca Bar – www.yucabarnyc.com

Veggie
Quantum Leap – quantumleapeastvillage.com
Angelica Kitchen – www.angelicakitchen.com
Souen – souen.net
Spring Street Natural – www.springstreetnatural.com
Wild Ginger – www.wildginger.net

Chinese
Wo Hop – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/wo_hop/
Joe’s Shanghai – www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/
Peking Duck House – www.pekingduckhousenyc.com/
Hop Kee – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/hop-kee/

Falafel
Mamouns – mamouns.com
Taim – www.taimfalafel.com
Tahini – www.tahininyc.com

Sushi
Tomoe – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/tomoe-sushi/
Takahachi – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/takahachi/
Yamma – http://www.yamarestaurant.com/FoodDelivery/RestaurantLocations.m
Hiro – www.hironyc.com
Blue Ribbon – www.blueribbonrestaurants.com
Sushi UO – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/sushi-uo/
Cube 63 – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/cube-63/

Thai
Sticky rice – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/sticky-rice/
Spice – www.spicethainyc.com
Rice- www.riceny.com/

Noodles (Jon’s recs)
Rai Rai Ken – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/rai-rai-ken/
Momofuko Noodles – www.momofuku.com
Ippudo – www.ippudo.com/ny/

Burgers (Jon’s recs)
Back Forty – see above
Corner Bistro – http://nymag.com/listings/bar/corner_bistro/
Zaitzeff – www.zaitzeffnyc.com
Shake Shack – shakeshack.com (not walking distance)
Burger Joint – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/burger_joint00/ (not walking distance)
Stand – www.standburger.com

Coffee
Everyman Espresso – www.everymanespresso.com
Cafe Angelique – www.cafeangelique.com
9th street espresso – www.ninthstreetespresso.com
abraco – www.abraconyc.com
Mud Truck – see above
Stumptown – www.stumptowncoffee.com (not walking distance)
Gimme Coffee – www.gimmecoffee.com
joe the art of coffee – www.joetheartofcoffee.com
Grounded – www.groundedcoffee.com
La Colombe – www.lacolombe.com
Doma – http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/doma/
Puerto Rico Import – www.portorico.com

Facebook, You Ain’t My Everything

Facebook will do or die in the next few months. Expect it to not only turn into your main content platform, but for it also to become very location centric. We already witnessed the network’s power last week – A Facebook blog post encouraged users to create a “news” feed, fanning your favorite media outlets. As a result, Facebook was the #4 source of visits to media sites last week, only behind Google, Yahoo and MSN. Come on, that is insane how quickly Facebook can disrupt a paradigm.

More so, industry rumors hint that Facebook will soon institutionalize check-ins. This is obviously a major threat to location darlings Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp. But how public are Facebook users willing to become? On Foursquare, I have 25 friends who I interact with on a daily basis. On Facebook, I have 800 friends that I never talk to and see – do I really need those people to know where I hang out at night?

If Facebook is out there and listening, please take my advice that you need to step up your intelligence algorithms. If my news feed becomes flooded with content and location check-ins of people I never contact, get ready for me to unfriend hundreds of people. The value of my Facebook friends rely on whether 1) I hang out with them in real life 2) I can’t hang out with them in real life but want to stay in touch or 3) I find them voyeuristically interesting. Every time I click on a friend’s profile, read an article they liked or viewed a photo, I need you to track that data and provide me with smarter content recommendations and location check-ins upon my return. If you don’t become any smarter, you will start to resemble the black hole that is my email inbox.