I promise this will be my last post about this new application called Color which is taking the world by storm. If you missed my last one, which is actually more of a rant, here it is.
So, today……
“Wait, this thing really is cool.”
“This really IS a big idea.”
“You can get a date with the cute girl in your neighborhood with Color.”
“It is more about the data mining potential than it being a photo-sharing application.”
This is in essence what people are saying today. Business Insider is leading the coverage, including an interview with the founder of Color. In it, the founder basically says (I’m paraphrasing) that the application is about building spontaneous social networks and collecting massive amounts of anonymous data from its users. The difference in how they collect data versus, say, Facebook is that they are not collecting data like your name or log-in information (since it is open source) or anything else today’s social networks can collect.
At least they’re open about their intentions with data. I’m a marketer, I love data, so I get that piece of it and understand how that whole marketing chain could work. My biggest gripe is just that it is a stupid idea.
I’ll take two more examples that were cited today about how it could be used (copied and pasted from articles I read):
Example 1: Your Birthday Party
Its your birthday party. Your friends are there as well as some of their friends that they have brought along (you do not know these people but it’s cool because the party is awesome, etc.). Assuming everyone is using Color to take photos you will be able to see all photos taken at your party without making a connection between yourself and those attendees who you do not know. You will no longer have to ask that stranger to find you on Facebook and send you that awesome photo/video they took of you. It will just be there – automagically. (that’s not a typo)
Example 2: The Cute Girl Next Door
Not only can you view photos of those nearby but you can also communicate with them via comments. This is huge. Typically in the online world you are engaging with people you know in real life and have existing relationships with. Now with Color you can quickly view a photo of that cute girl next door, leave her a comment, and if you do it right go out to drinks later that night.
My responses:
In Example 1, let’s say that one of the people at your party who you don’t know has one too many drinks and decides to go to the bathroom and takes a picture of Lord-knows-what. Instantly, everyone at the party (using Color) gets this picture. Pretty cool, huh? Not so much.
In Example 2, the only response I have is “Stalkers can now rejoice!”
CONCLUSION: I still don’t “get” this and I will not be using it. FAIL.