Login with Friends

12:47 PM , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Social logins seem to be quite a divisive topic. Every now and then an article will pop up, and regardless of which way the author leans, the comments always seem to be almost always opposing the argument.


I think, by and large, we all agree that the login model on the web is kinda broken, and is continuing to become more and more fragmented with every new site gaining traction and offering their authentication API as a service.


To put it in fairly broad strokes, I think the main points for either side are:

Pro
  •     Simplifies login for your users — by offering one less username/password combo to remember it reduces the barrier to entry/conversion for your potential lead
  •     Outsources security — There are a lot of very smart people at Google/Facebook/etc that are working hard on authentication and security. Outsourcing your authentication process to them is surely better than trying to roll your own?
  •     Viral promotional channels — Authenticating with the likes of Facebook/Twitter will also offer you the possibility of easy integration with their social-sharing API

Cons
  •     Outsources security — the flipside of this is you are dependent on the third party getting security right. LinkedIn have been one of the high-profile victims of user account details hacking. If you were authenticating with LinkedIn, then your user accounts have also been compromised
  •     Reliant on third parties — should you ever try to build something that is reliant on the eco-system/infrastructure of another organisation? Will they always be around? Will they always be popular?
  •     Brand association — Especially with the recent Prism/NSA fallout, do you want to be associated with all these brands? Do you know that your users still trust these brands?
  •     Viral promotional channels — Many users are wary of apps that connect to third parties, and fear that if they sign up with Facebook then the application may try to share things with out their approval



Personally, I don’t like them. I generally don’t use them, but have done on occasion (yes, I know, medium is linked to my Twitter account).


I don’t like them for two reasons:

As a user it frustrates the hell out of me when I go to a site and I have to try and remember which registration mechanism I used — it normally goes something like this: 


“Did I sign up with email? Let me try my usual password”
[Username or password incorrect]
“Hmmm, maybe I did and have just put the wrong password in, let me try another password..”
[Username or password incorrect]
“Hmm, still no joy, I know, I will try password reset — that should send me an email if I have a password setup”
[Wait for email.. no show]
“Ok, must have signed in with Twitter”
[Click sign in with Twitter.. “This Twitter account is not linked to an account, please enter account details to link now”]
[close the tab]
[Later, receive a password reset email, confirming password is now a randomly generated password]
[sob quietly to myself]
 
From a product point of view, I don’t like them because I think they are ugly. I think littering your site with a myriad of other companies logos and brands is something of an eyesore, and provides suitable noise and clutter to distract from the key conversion goals of a page. Really, the only time I will sign up using these mechanisms is when they are the only option and I am already suitably sold on the product that I know I want to sign up (Medium being a good example — I would have signed up using a traditional mechanism given the choice, but I was already sold on the product so put up with the fact that I had to sign-up with Twitter).


By and large, I agree with MailChimp CEO, Ben Chestnut, and I am glad that in this case the evidence ended up being in his favor. However, I do appreciate that in other times, there is probably evidence showing them more favorably, and at times, I’m sure they can be pivotal in increasing a product’s viral coefficient or lead-conversion, rate — and in those cases, you have to go with the data.



But if I’m building something, until I see the evidence, I’m most likely going to avoid them.

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Essential Resources to Become a Life Long Learner (in tech)

6:37 PM , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Is one of your New Year Resolutions to re-skill? Thinking about re-training for a new career (or even just a new hobby) in tech? Then you're in luck! 

Today, more than ever, the barrier to entry for starting to learn a new technology or programming language is all but nonexistent, all you really need is a computer (or even a mobile device) and a web connection and you are pretty much good to go - just choose your preferred technology, an IDE and get started.  Almost everything is open source or at least free to use for a single developer just out to learn and there is a wealth of blogs, articles and Q'n'A sites ready to help you with tutorials, walk-through's and helpful advice - many of these backed with ready and running code bases on GitHub free for you to play with and generally work out what is going on.

However, with all these resources it can sometimes be a bit daunting with so much content. Once you have chosen a language how do you know where to start? Here are some of our favourite sites and resources that we have discovered and found useful in learning new skills:

  • iTunes U - a lesser known category on iTunes is their academic section, iTunes U(niversity) featuring loads of podcasts and lectures from a range of academic organisations, and some of this stuff is serious! Several large universities have uploaded full lecture series there, and by and large they are free to download (yes, you have to install iTunes, which sucks, we know).  Want to take the full term of Stanford university's iOS course? Its up there. Want to learn AI for chess playing from Cambridge uni? Yep, got that too. And for free.
  • MIT OpenWare - MIT have been one of the strongest advocates of open sourced education. A lot of there lecture series are online (can also be found on iTunes, but can be avoided).  Is it just us who thinks its amazing that anyone around the world with a web connection can get educated by the most prestigious academic organisations around?
  • Khan Academy - there is a lot of hype around this one, well funded with some pretty big names supporting it (jQuery creator John Resig is a Dean there), a not-for-profit aiming at providing free education for everyone. The academy provides lots of video based courses as well as interactive challenges and detailed stats on how you are doing.
  • Udacity - this is another recent, well-funded startup trying to tackle free higher education for all. Founded my three robotocists it is slowly building a very respectable catalogue of uni level courses ranging from CS101 to AI for robotics. As with the Khan academy, the lectures are purely for the web so the videos are clear and designed for remote learning (different from the filmed university lectures which are targeting classroom based learning).  We have recently created and Open Sourced the Spring-Social implementation of the Khan Academy API - so if you are working with the JVM and want to have a play with the Khan Academy API then check it out on GitHub
  • CodeAcademy - we have mentioned before we are fans of code academy, code academy is an in-browser development environment that walks you through programming exercises to help you learn with your hands - currently supporting JavaScript, HTML, Ruby and Python
  • Free eBooks - there are loads of great free eBooks available online, so many there is no point listing them, instead I will just point you here. Which leads nicely on to the next point..
  • StackOverflow - what really needs to be said about SO? It is the definitive q'n'a site for tech. If you are just starting learning head over and sign up, the help from the incredibly active community over there will be invaluable (although be sure to read the posting guides, they can be a little unforgiving at times!).
  • Coursera - Another massively popular online learning resource, this one recently generated a lot of interest with its recent Scala course taught by the original creator of the language!  We are currently working on some secret integration with Coursera at NerdAbility, and you will soon be able to integrate your Coursera account and show off which courses you have completed!

Hopefully the above resources help on your path to re-skilling.  In reality, getting your hands dirty with code and trying to solve problems and fix errors is the best way to learn, so don't forget to get stuck in - and maybe when you are more confident try answering questions on StackOverflow!

Of course, with these new found skills you will want to show them off, so we'd recommend heading to NerdAbility and registering (if you haven't as already) and update your skills, add your StackOverflow profile and even add a custom section talking about what you are learning (employers always love to know that candidates are proactive and motivated when it comes to learning new things and keeping up with technology). 

 Leave your comments with any other tools and resources you have found useful in your journey of becoming a life long learner.

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