The 'body language' of text chat

I think there's a certain 'body language' in text chat. It has to do with showing to the other person when you're typing something. In Skype you can deactivate that option but not in Yahoo Messenger. If you regularly chat with someone they develop a sense of how fast you type and think, therefore, someone can detect when you need time to think of something or whether you're re-typing/editing a text message.

For example if you answer 'yes that's great' to a proposal then depending on the amount of time it took you to write the message the other person could infer that you don't think it's that great. Usually you start typing something then change your mind and want to edit the text, that is a hidden body language that the other person can see. It's not a bad thing but it's something to be aware of.

If you want to avoid being detected that you needed time to think of something, then type in a separate notepad window and cut and paste when ready

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MySpace vs Facebook. Let the battle begin!

Facebook is adding a "username" to people's account to "easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile". Is my full name not enough to direct someone to my profile? I logged into MySpace account for the first time in a few weeks and I noticed they have a new bar at the bottom of the page...just like Facebook...with online friends and chat...just like Facebook. And yet Facebook is letting you choose a username...just like Myspace. We all know that Myspace is to Facebook like Yahoo is to Google. Tom and Jerry Zuckerberg. Mark your posts!

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I'm feeling lucky...

Is that a glimpse of the future Google is working on? I am talking about the "I'm feeling lucky" search button. Google revolutionized search because it gives you the most relevant results. If it can give you the exact thing you were looking for, that would be only 1 result you would need. That would be Google at its most efficient.

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How to make Google smarter

Google ranks the web by popularity. Wouldn't it be great if we could rank the web by intelligence or other attributes? People's IQ is measured in tests, why not measure the content of websites similarly and then filter search results accordingly?

Google probably has the brains and resources to offer such service in the future. For example, if I do a keyword search for 'subprime market tips', I want to filter the display of my search results so that I get the websites with most intelligent content only and not those with the most popular content. I know it sounds nice but people might say it's not possible to do. Google succeeded as a search engine because it was smarter due to the accuracy of its searches. Why not add intelligence or other attributes in the display of its searches?

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Sextimates

When I log into Skype to talk to my girlfriend with whom we are in a long-distance relationship I see that another 12 million people are online and probably chatting or talking to each other. I read in an article yesterday that online communication has helped people maintain long-distance relationships more than in the past. So I always wonder, what percentage of the 12 million people talking for free on Skype are having phone sex? If the percentage is too high, I suggest we introduce a new verb in the English language to describe the activity: ' Phonycate'

On another note, do you think all 12 million Skype users (and probably millions more that use other software or normal phone) experience phonycation once at some point in their lives? What's your guess?

Being hypothetical in my thinking here. What if Skype added to your status the following options:

"Phonycating - Feel Free to Join", or
"Phonycating - Do Not Disturb".

How many people do you think would take advantage of the 'Feel Free to Join' option?

PS: If you vote for my poll below, be honest. I am hoping that if everyone votes honestly, I can get a pretty good sextimate about how many out of the 12 million people or so I see online on Skype phonycate. I tried to ask Skype but they gave some phony reason not to release the data, it was privacy I think...:D:D:D

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