Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

Rumor has it that iPhone 5 will be coming out this Summer/Fall and there’s a good chance that I’ll make the switch then from Android back to the iPhone. I’d owned every new iPhone up until iPhone 4 when I decided to make a switch to the Android operating system last Fall. I mostly made the change I think because I hated AT&T so much, but I’d also heard a lot of good things about Android and wanted to give it a try. After 9 months of Android now I think I’m ready to make the switch back. Here are the reasons why.

1. The iPhone 4 is now on Verizon and maybe iPhone5 will be on other carriers besides AT&T (whose network always sucked when I used it).

2. Updating the operating system on your Android phone is a huge pain in the ass. In order to update my Samsung Galaxy Vibrant from the Eclair operating system to the Froyo operating system (keep in mind that Google’s working on honeycomb now apparently, which is two operating updates ahead of what I just updated to), I had to go through hell to get it done. No OTA for Samsung. No iTunes for Samsung. No, I had to manually find the file somewhere on the web on a confusing website, download it to a Windows machine (yes Windows only), and update my phone through a long confusing process. And this was only *after* Samsung/TMobile were sued!

By contrast, I can trust Apple that any updates available for my iPhone will be easily available to me, making my phone better and better in the future.

3. The stupid little things matter. Apple is really, really, really good about making sure that their devices just work right. They just do what their supposed to do. They’re not wonky or contain little stupid glitches.

For example. Let’s say I’m walking to my office and I have a little battery life left. Presently my Android device automatically dims my display to an unreadable level. This is fine and I can certainly appreciate them wanting to look out for me in preserving what battery life I have left. But… since I’m 5 minutes from my office, where I know I can plug my device in again, I’d just as soon go ahead and use what little battery life I have left for a display that I can actually see. So I manually go into the settings and change the brightness slider to full strength. Then I go back to my phone and start using it again. It stays bright until I hit a web page and then it goes back to the super dim screen. That’s just dumb. My manual setting should stick. But it doesn’t.

Another example. I will plug my Android phone in to it’s charger and the screen comes on. I don’t know why. The screen doesn’t need to come on — but it does. So I hit the button to turn it off — only it won’t turn off, the screen is locked — so I have to unlock the screen, *then* push the screen off button and it goes off. Of course inexplicably the next morning the screen is back on again when I go to get my phone. Did I mention that I have screen burn on my Android phone now?

4. The battery life on this thing sucks ass. With my old iPhone I’d keep it plugged in all day at work. I’d then leave work, use it on the way home, use it at home and when I got up in the morning I always had enough charge to last me until I got to work again where I could plug it in and recharge. Not so with Android.

If I don’t plug my phone in to charge both at work *and* home, I will not have a charge enough for my morning commute the next morning. I don’t think that it’s the phone or the battery that are inferior. I think it’s that the stupid operating system uses power when it shouldn’t be. When I have the phone display off in the middle of the night, there is no reason at all why the screen should come back on (but it does, like to remind me that I have low battery, doh!). The phone should hibernate similarly to how Apple’s does so that when I want to use it again the next morning I can.

5. The fact that I can’t turn off the blaring tmobile dingle sound that goes off really loudly when I turn my phone on or off is terrible. Let’s say I’m at the movie theater. And I now want to turn off my phone. Why can’t I just turn it off without that loud sound? Why won’t Android/Tmobile allow me to disable that sound altogether? Why isn’t there an app for that?

6. Speaking of apps, Android still lags here. I miss using Hipstamtic. Yeah Android has Vignette and some other photo apps, but they aren’t as good. And I’m totally missing out on the whole Instagram thing, which is iPhone only.

7. TMobile started throttling me. When I first bought the Samsung/TMobile phone TMobile wasn’t throttling me. Now they are. It’s simply unbearable. The internet is so slow, I get bitchy and go after them on Twitter constantly and it’s no good for anyone all the way around. I’m not sure if Verizon is any better, but it can’t be any worse I’m guessing.

8. The music player on Android is terrible. I want my iTunes playlists back. It’s so much easier getting my playlists on an iPhone. It wouldn’t be so bad if that’s all it was, but it’s not. The music player on the Android phone is just downright awful. The only way I can make a playlist is to do it on the phone, one by one by one.

9. Contacts are borked. Supposedly people that I put in my Google contacts will autopopulate into my Android phone contact list. Like I said… “supposedly.”

10. The whole ease of use thing sucks. I’m not a phone genius. I shouldn’t have to be. The settings on my Android phone never seem to be where they are supposed to be. Finding things is hard. Navigating the interface takes work. I’m constantly having to set some thing called USB debugging on (which so counterintuitively is under the applications menu, under development, under USB debugging) just to transfer files between my hard drive and my phone’s memory card. It’s stuff like that that I learn to do, but are just a pain. Apple seems to care more about the non-phone developer getting around the iPhone. I shouldn’t have to be an Android developer to know how the settings work or where everything is at.

Two things I’ll probably miss with my Android phone. The GMail app is really good. Also the maps are really good, the way that they interact with Google Maps. Hopefully the new iPhone has a way that I can import my custom Google Maps into the iPhone maps interface. But maybe not. If it doesn’t, this may just have to be something that I have to live with. But a plus for the iPhone is also that I can use it as a remote control for my AppleTV.

“I can see that we’re a community divided about the Top 500. Change is coming. Big change. I don’t have a firm date, but we need something that’s far more inclusive. Is there any way that 500 photos a day could capture the breadth and depth of this wonderful community? I think not.

So, for those who are fed up with Explore, please be patient. Don’t let the tired old broken down Donkey change you into something that you’re not. And for those who currently feel blessed by the golden light the donkey sends your way. Well, I’m sorry if the changes that come upset you in that you’re going to have to share your spotlight with many more people.”

Heather Champ, Flickr Community Manager, June 2009

“One of the things we are looking to do this year is to really dramatically improve the user experience. If you remember, years ago Flickr’s mission was to appeal to more of the prosumer photographer — and it was really about surfacing high quality photos from a niche of photos, and we’ve changed that mission.

And the mission for Flickr today is to be the premier place for sharing photos with those people who you care about the most. So we are transitioning from the former mission to a new mission. We’re learning a lot about what people want.”

Steve Douty, Yahoo VP in charge of Flickr, May 2011

When Heather Champ said that Flickr’s Explore section was a “tired old broken down Donkey,” back in June of 2009 she was right. Unfortunately, however, the “tired old broken down Donkey” is even worse today and someone seriously needs to take it out back behind the barn and put it out of it’s misery for good.

Steve Douty, I hope you’re “that guy.”

In an article entitled “The Unfairness of Flickr’s Explore Page,” Dean Shanson at Photopreneur breaks down some of the basics about how the Flickr Explore algorithm works and why exactly it is unfair. In his article he quotes former Flickr engineer Serguei Mourachov on the unfairness of Explore:

“The algorithm that populates Explore pages is not fair by definition. It’s not created to judge, but to find something that could be interesting.”

The problem is that Explore is anything BUT interesting. It’s a total and complete waste of space on Flickr. Do you really, really, really love browsing through page after page of mediocre cliched photographs by complete strangers that have all been watermarked to hell? You do? Great! Then Flickr’s Explore is perfect for you. Each day through some magic lucky charms anti-transparency donkey (or so the myth goes) Flickr presents 500 photos by members of the site.

People like getting into Explore because it brings more traffic to their photos and attention. But really, except for that little feel good thingy when you get in there (and the that little feel bad thingy when they blacklist you), the collection of photos there really point to just how stupid Flickr’s secret sauce algorithm really is.

Maybe Explore was “cutting edge” when it was launched years and years ago. But today there are so many smarter ways to present me a list of recommended photos than some dumb algorithm that knows nothing about me.

So let’s talk about how Explore could be improved. To do that we have to think about what makes a photo interesting to me. Here are several *very relevant* factors that Yahoo/Flickr could use when presenting me my own personalized Explore page.

1. If someone is my friend. There is a super good chance that I am going to find their photographs more interesting than a complete strangers.

2. If someone is my contact. There is a super good chance that I’m going to find their photographs more interesting than a complete stranger, but maybe not as interesting as a friend.

3. If I fave photos with the tag “neon” on them. I just might like seeing photos of neon signs. Likewise, if I fave photos tagged “graffiti,” I might really like photos of graffiti.

4. If my friend faves a photo by another one of my friends, that might be more relevant than a fave by an absolute stranger.

5. If my friend is actually in a photo, I might want to see that photo.

6. If I search for a certain term frequently on Flickr maybe that’s a clue?

7. If I fave a very high proportion of a certain user’s photos, I may want to see more of them — again, especially if they are listed as my friend/contact.

8. If I fave shots in a certain geographical region, maybe I want to see more of those. If I live in San Francisco, and what goes on here is relevant to me, and I fave a lot of photos tagged San Francisco, then maybe it’s better to show me those than some dumb flower macro photo with a big bee and and even bigger watermark on it taken by someone in Guam (no offense if you live in Guam).

9. If a friend and I both tag the same event tag or unique tag. I might want to see those.

10. Finally, If I’m blocking someone I probably don’t want to see those photos. AT ALL!

It’s fine if flickr still wants to use some of the basic ways that explore works. Show me photos with lots of faves, comments, tags, notes, views, etc. But personalize it! Do you want engagement? Then give me photos I will engage with, not photos by total and complete strangers.

Imagine if you went to your TiVo’s recommendation section and it said, yes, we know you’ve been doing that thumbs up thumbs down thing for 2 years now, but screw it. Here are 500 television shows that complete strangers like that you might like too.

Or imagine if on Pandora, even though you’ve been giving the system input on what sort of music you like, it just said, who the hell cares what you like or think, alot of strangers like Sammy Hagar, so I’m sure you will too. Aren’t we cutting edge and hip?

Or imagine if you went to Amazon.com and down where they recommend products to you based on other people searching for the same product, they just put some dumb stuff that 500 strangers liked. Yes I know you’re searching for DSLR sensor cleaning swabs, but might we recommend this new brand of tampon?

What Explore lacks completely is personal relevancy.

And while we’re at it. If I’m an adult on Flickr. And I’m over 18. And I specifically go to the opt in settings and say, yes please, I’m sooooo ok with actually seeing naked breasts as art, please let me see it. When I go to Explore, I should actually be able to see photos of the adult human body (gasp).

And if you, on the other hand, are not 18 or you specifically don’t want to see boobies, then likewise you should be able to check that setting and Explore should be smart enough to not show them to you.

But to just filter out all moderate/restricted content out of Explore, another way the algorithm is stupid.

One of the things I like about the photosharing 500px by the way is that they don’t seem quite so scared of the naked human body as Flickr is. I actually have been spending a fair amount of time in their recommended photos and have found them soooooo much better than what Flickr serves up.

So Flickr do us a favor. Let’s kill that broken down tired old donkey. Let’s freshen up the Flickr image a bit and do something that’s actually innovative and just plain makes sense for once. The time to revamp Explore into something so much better is upon us.