Facebook and Google come up with Emoji and Easter Egg to celebrate repeal of 1996 DOMA by US Supreme Court

Few people in the world other then United States may know this but California had banned gay marriages due to a 1996 Federal Law.  The Supreme Court of the United States of America on Wednesday struck down the 17 year old law called 'DOMA.'  The US Supreme Court overturned DOMA in a 5-4 vote. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy found the act violated the Fifth Amendment's due process clause.  Passed in 1996, DOMA defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal law essentially making a gay marriage illegal act under the provisions.  

Image courtesy www.newyorker.com

And the tech giants welcomed the repeal of DOMA in their own style.   Facebook now lets users can show their support for the decision by clicking on the a rainbow icon from the  smiley images that appear just below their status update box.  The rainbow is meant to denote gay pride and hence the emoji will indicate that the user is part of the growing world gay pride order.  According to the report, the rainbow icon as well as the words "feeling pride" will appear after selection next to a user's name. In some cases, the additions will appear next to the user’s status update message.

Google is also playing its part is showing off the gay pride but it is doing a bit more.  It lets you be the part of the occasion by dedicating a full fledged Easter Egg to support the DOMA decision.

To view the easter egg,  user will have  put in related keywords in the search bar, such as "gay marriage", "homosexuality", "domestic partnership" or even "gay"  and low and behold the  Google’s search box transforms and features the iconic LGBT rights movement’s rainbow colouring. 

You can also be part of the gay pride movement by showing solidarity to the cause.  Enter the rainbow emoji in your Facebook page every time you use it and check out the latest easter egg from google.com.

Just.me for iOS devices a all in one App for messaging, social networking and cloud storage

Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp just got a competitor in the form of Just.me.  Launched by a Silicon Valley veteran, Keith Teare, on Wednesday Just.me for iOS is a App which will combine email, multimedia messaging and cloud storage in a single iPhone app.

Just.me is backed by Google Inc's venture arm and True Ventures.  And if it plays its card right will be a headache for  Whatsapp, Kik, and Wechat and further dampen the already slowing usage of Facebook in the US.

Just.me's features include 

✔ provides you the best of texting, email and social networking apps all in one place 
✔ enables you in a single message together with text to include multiple photos, videos, and voice messages
✔ allows you to be unlimited – text as much as you want, add the media you choose, and message as often as you’d like, all for free
✔ gives you a choice of who to message – by integrating your iPhone address book into the app and enabling all of your contacts to receive messages – even if your contact does not have "just me" themselves
✔ recognizes that sometimes sharing is too much so "just me" lets you save messages as private, for your eyes only
✔ understands that sometimes sharing with contacts is not enough so "just me" lets you post publicly, including to Facebook and Twitter
✔ "just me" puts you in full control over who sees and uses your messages and media each time you save, send or publish a message

GETTING STARTED

You can start sending messages right away... Even if your contacts don’t have "just me", they can read your messages via email or SMS. They can choose to download "just me" to comment, like and reply using "just me". Replies create shared albums.

OTHER BENEFITS

All of what you do on "just me" is saved in your own private cloud that you alone control. Your messages, and all the media they contain, are available for you to look back to at any time. Over time your "just me" private cloud becomes an archive of your life, a little like an email archive, but with beautiful pictures, videos and audio recordings that can be enjoyed in their full glory.

✔ "just me" automatically remembers groups you message so you can easily use them again
✔ your private cloud on "just me" stores all of your media, you will be able to create slide shows and more
✔ there is no need for passwords - "just me" validates your existing email addresses and cell phone numbers

With good Privacy guidelines Just.me can be a handful to the other players in the already crowded market place.

If you have a iOS device and are interested in Just.me please download it from Apple Store.

You can also check out the latest iOS Apps here.

Please write in your comments on the same.

Vijay Prabhu

Are you willing to pay for being on a social platform, Path thinks so

Makers of Path, a social network think that you are willing to pay for being on the social network.  Path is designed have a more personal touch than Facebook, ad free and clutter free, will be launching a subscription service in the second quarter of this year.

Path co-founder and Chief Executive Dave Morin believes that a market exists for a premium paid version of social networking.  Path itself was launched in 2010 was marketed as a network just for your close family and friends putting a limit of maximum 150 friends per user.  As of now it has been unsuccessful in breaking the monopoly of Facebook but will the paid version do the trick for it, this only time will tell.  

One thing which Facebook ought to learn from Path is monetizing the concept of social networking.  The like and commenting system have become very easy to build upon as it is free and the friendship created on Facebook can't be held a real friendship, the type of blood friendship we find in our school, college and neighbour mates.  Another point where Facebook users face problems is privacy, Path hopes to give you complete privacy in your communications with your friends.

So if you consider being connected with a true friend with utter privacy, Path is on right path but will it be able to break the shackles of a billion or so Facebook users.  Path as of now has 7 million registered users out of which only around 800000 are active daily.  

Most of Path users  are joining it for a private messaging feature which it added last month.  So will Path open new revenue avenues even for Facebook will remain to be seen.

If you are interested in Path please visit its website and register yourself.  Please post your comments on the App.

Vijay Prabhu