June was really bleh, I actually did not take a single picture. But July was interesting. Here are some photographs:

Can you really archive time?

2007: On March | On April | On May | On June | On July | On August | On September | On October | On November | On December

2008: On January | On February | On March | On April | On May | On June | On August On September | On October | On November

2009: On July  | On August | On September | On October | On November | On December

2010: On January | On February | On March | On April | On May | On June | A Captioned July | An UnCaptioned August  | On September  | On October | On November | On December

2011: On January  |  On February   |   On March   |  On April  |  On May

As a Mac user, I’m well aware of how annoyingly expensive these gadgets are. Actually, before I got my current Macbook Pro, I spent around a year looking through Al-Waseet and Facebook Marketplace for used options in good condition. I never found anything, as most people in Jordan don’t deal with Apple.

Since I know many of you guys are Mac users, I thought that someone might end up loving me for hooking them up with a used laptop in great condition (not my own). My buddy is selling his Macbook Pro 2010 2.66GHz Core i7 15-inch for JOD 1299. If you are interested, just drop him a line (contact button on the side).

Overheard this week:

“Can you please like my brand’s fanpage?”

“I noticed that you liked that link, so I checked it out.”

“I have 15 likes on my photo!”

In a world of Facebook likes, preference is suddenly a currency of popularity, as opposed to a historically unquantifiable emotion.

A few years ago, the word “like” referred to an abstract emotion that expressed attraction or fondness towards a person, object, or activity. Today, thanks to the Facebook feature, “like” is an action, a verb, a publicly expressed fondness with the power to influence.How many likes do you have?

Although it seems like its been around forever, the Facebook like button was only introduced in 2009. It enabled users to show their appreciation for their friends’ status updates or photos with a click: no thinking, typing, or heavy user engagement required. Almost a year later, the company expanded the feature to allow any publisher to include the like button on their website, thus letting users share internet items that they enjoy, even when not on Facebook. For example, if you find a story on CNN interesting, you can click on the like button towards the end of the page to share the story’s headline, excerpt, and thumbnail on your Facebook profile. Meanwhile, if you have any Facebook friends who like that particular content, you can find that out too, without needing to check their Facebook profile.

The best news is that likes seem to translate into dollars. According to a research report carried out by Syncapse in 2010, users spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not fans. They are also 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a liked product to their friends.

Pretty cool, eh? If you’re a website owner, you should definitely be adding the button onto your website sooner than later. If you already have it added, it might be time to consider rethinking your social strategy. Facebook’s like button is an integral part of social marketing, and should be thought of as a focal point of design and functionality, rather than something pasted onto a finished product.

But sharing is not the only reason the like button is so awesome. Yeah sure, it does add steroids to the already quite viral concept of sharing, but the real long-term implication is the priceless data being collected. Facebook is gathering millions of valuable user-preference information from all over the web. For free. The potential for granular interest targeting for advertising purposes means that Facebook will probably end up with an extremely detailed preference graph for its 500 million users, possibly competing with Google’s AdSense product.

Internet domination? Definitely. Facebook is quickly becoming the sign-in mechanism and sharing engine for millions of websites. It’s not hard to see why Google, the Internet search giant, can’t sleep at night. After several failed attempts at entering the social web market, they recently launched Plus One, their answer to the ubiquitous like button. Appearing as a small icon next to each search result, logged-in Google users can share their recommendations with contacts through their Gmail address book, Google Reader, and Google Buzz. Web publishers can also integrate the button into their websites. Plus One will soon begin to influence the ranking of sites within search result listings.

Yet, Google has a long way to go to start catching up with Facebook. This April, Facebook celebrated the one-year birthday of its “Like” button by sharing usage statistics. And man, talk about conquering the web, one button at a time. Every day, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook. Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites. In the past year, more than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook.

Welcome to the FaceWeb. Now all we need is a dislike button.

ore Hyperlink articles:

It’s Time to Learn How to Surf
It’s Real Time
Start a Blog is NOT a Social Media Strategy
Advertising on the Information Highway
Social is the Word
The iPad Will Change the World
Does the Internet Now Speak Arabic?
Google You: Your Professional Brand Online
Left that Copy
Virtual Goods: A Dollar’s Worth of Pixels
Dial the Web
It’s a Wiki Wiki World
Tis the End of Software as We Know It
Revolution 2.0
Good Web Design is Invisible
How to Use Crowdsourcing to Change Your Business
The Age of Overwhelming Information

Pick plate up, use a clean knife to scoop a small portion of which ever appetizer you feel like having into the plate infront of you, and then eat it in whichever way you wish- as long as its off your own plate.

DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT, use your fork or spoon in the main dish that everyone is sharing because it is absolutely disgusting.

Mezza is an essential part of Levantine upbringing and it is the most unfortunate thing that a lot of people have absolutely no idea how to share it.

This is precisely why I refuse to let anyone share my kubeh nayeh!

While we’re on kubeh nayeh, I’m really amused at the fact that I’ve met a person who thinks chicken is disgusting and thus refuses to eat it while having absolutely no problem eating raw beef. And I thought I’m the only human on earth who feels the same way!

————–Originally published in November, 2005.
This post is a part of the “NotSoFar Archive Project”. After eight years of blogging, the project aims to help you rediscover old posts, as well as go back in time. Somehow.————–