Harsh Vardhan's Profile

Harsh Vardhan on 2009-12-02

It just sucks ... it just sucks. What the fuck's wrong with every internet based company. Does no one see this? Am I the only one out here. Maybe, because I use internet for about ten thousand hours in a day, it has to be me.

But it's not about me... it's about these companies and the imminent mass-confusion with so many broken identities on the internet.

If only the companies could uniformly agree on this idea. And that is - give out one unique id to every user on the internet, like a social security number. This can then be used to access any site's services. I think the primary reason why companies want people to sign-up (read - provide personal information) is to build a list - a user base that is trackable. In their attempt to build a userbase for themselves, they completely neglect the amount of confusion it causes for a web surfer. I will give you a good example.

I love social bookmarking ... but Diigo is not the only one I use. I use StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicios, and Google Bookmarks too. It is such a waste of time to track activities on different ids and managing bookmarks. Still I can't just shut the other accounts.. why? I have friends on other networks and frankly there are a few things that each service specializes in.

Same is the case with social networking ... right ?? Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LInked IN... only if there was a way to use any service you wanted without having to sacrifice using others.

I think the age of emails was great in its own way despite its lack of social features. It provided one id to reach you. Nowadays, blog, twitter, facebook, and so many other forms of social media are available and following what your contacts do is way more difficult.

So, what's my proposition ... all governments of the nations that use the internet should make it imperative for each internet user to provide an identity proof issued by the government ... okay that is only for the security bit ... and I know that's already implemented for security reasons in all Cyber Cafes in India. Wait ... and hear me out in full.