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Facebook transports us back in time with Rooms [T-break Tech (Middle East)](T-break Tech (Middle East) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Internet was a strange, mystical and almost feared place a couple os decades back. There was no Facebook or Twitter or Instagram and people hid behind handles they created, and hid well, since no personal information was generally needed to roam the web of that era. Chat rooms would pop up in the most obscure places, attracting users with handles such as "WonderWoman" or "TheKingIsAlive." Fast forward 20 years to the present, and those chat rooms have all but disappeared, with social messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook messenger dominating the scene. But what also dissapeared is something akin to the very soul of the Internet: Anonymity. Pretty much any website you sign-up for now now requires some form of identification, at the very least, your email. Most websites don't stop there, often burrowing deep for information about you; you're asked for your name, date of birth, nationality and address. While this is understandably necessary in the fight to prevent spam, many people have felt that they've been robbed of the one place where they could take any guise and be anyone. The chat rooms of the 1990s may have been hunted to extinction but Facebook seeks to revitalise that essential part of the internet with it's latest mobile app: Rooms. It's all in the name. Rooms allow users to create chat rooms for shared interests, such as pottery or cat cuddling, allowing users to post anonymously if they wish to. For example, if I were to join a room, I could very well be comfortable with using my name "Khalid Hussain," or if I felt a bit egotistical, users might find their chat room graced with the presence of "KingKhalidTheDragonTamer". Although anonymity isn’t the key focus of this app, it does seem to be its best feature. Even though it's a Facebook app, or more precisely an app designed by Creative Labs (A subsidiary of Facebook) it does not require you to have a Facebook username, in fact it is not connected to Facebook in the slightest: it's all about building an identity, outside of Facebook. All that's required from a potential user is an email, to be used in case you want to switch platforms. Once you join Rooms, you can create or join a chat room, though it's a bit more like message boards; each room has it's moderators that set out a few ground rules for that room. They can boot rude members out, pin messages to the top and basically ensure their law is upheld. Users meanwhile can share images, videos or engage in long, winding discussions about the creation of the universe. In a way, it's a bit like Reddit. To join a room, the creator or moderator of an existing room has to share that room's unique barcode or QR code. You can share it through Facebook, Twitter or even print it out on a piece of paper and paste it up on a nearby lamp post. Yes, imagine the countless ways in which you can interact with new people everyday through pieces of paper fluttering around with QR codes printed on them. You could be walking home from the bus stop when you spy a poster mentioning about active recruitment for the Illuminati and you could join the chat room by just taking a picture of the QR code (Rooms automatically scans your pictures every time you open it up to determine if you took a picture of a Rooms related QR code) Rooms is currently only available on iOS although an Android version is slated for release in the early months of 2015. Will Facebook's latest venture into the app market succeed or not? (Remember Slingshot!) Your guess is as good as mine, meanwhile but be on the look out for KingKhalidTheDragonTamer in various message boards on Rooms. The post Facebook transports us back in time with Rooms appeared first on tbreak.ae. COPYRIGHT 2014 TBREAK MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). (c) 2014 All rights reserved. Albawaba.com |