[danso]

Yes, all of these things are already possible to implement, in the same way that it was possible to construct a webpage in which you listed your activities and doings and manually update them -- and track your friends who have their own webpages -- long before Facebook came along.

The idea isn't the point here, it's the ease of use and the visceralness of it. The gun maps debate is a prime example of this. Anyone could go to the government office and get those records. And if you were a thief, you would have much more use out of them as a straight excel spreadsheet which you could cross-reference with other property records...or at least just do quick name searches across a large Excel file.

But as soon as a newspaper put a bunch of red dots on the map (which made it nearly impossible for a user to find anything more than who has a gun and who lives at that red dot without clicking manually thousands of times), the New York state legislature is hot to pass a law to ban those public records.

Usability and location is much more than just "additional features".

[darkarmani]

> And if you were a thief, you would have much more use out of them as a straight excel spreadsheet which you could cross-reference with other property records...or at least just do quick name searches across a large Excel file.

Are they using this to steal the guns or avoid the houses with guns? Owning a dog is probably the single best way to dissuade break-ins if you are that concerned.