Why Google+ Can Still Beat Facebook

Even as Facebook goes public and nears 1 billion users, Google+ still has a chance to become a major contender if it simply plays to its own strengths. 

 

PCWorld - Now that Facebook has gone public and is nearing an astounding 1 billion members, it’s a good time to ask whether Facebook’s main rival, Google, can compete in the social networking game.

Google said in April that 170 million users had “upgraded to Google+,” but the company has been coy when it comes to specifying how many of those people actually use the social network on a regular basis. Some observers have suggested that it's mainly Google employees and hard-core Google loyalists who actively use the service today.

I still think Google+ can win out against Facebook in the end. But to do that, Google must learn how to play to its own strengths.

A lot rides on whether Google can pull that off. For ad targeting, Google can collect the data it needs from the subjects of people’s Web searches and the content of email, but that data isn’t nearly as personal and valuable as the stuff people willingly provide to Facebook every day. Social network data is far more individual and preference-oriented than other kinds of targeting data, and the long-term competitiveness of Google’s advertising business (96.5 percent of its revenue) may depend on Google's ability to get that data.

If anybody has a battle plan for Google+, it’s Larry Page. The Google cofounder and CEO has given some good reasons why Google+ will become a contender, but his reasons seem highly theoretical at this point.

‘Circles’ More Closely Resembles Real Life

Page says that the “Circles” structure in Google+ offers a great way to organize your friendships. He’s right: The Circles design is immediately intuitive; it’s easily understandable, and it works because it replicates the way we manage relationships in real life.    More

Google brings further tweaks to Gmail

If you use Google+ and its Circles feature, you'll see your friends' 
faces up top in your in-box when you select a given circle.

(Credit: Google)

 

CNET - Google announced two new tweaks to Gmail this week, including further integration with Google+.

Among other things, the changes bring Google profile photos of your friends and contacts to the top of your in-box under certain circumstances, and in a blog post, Product Manager Itamar Gilad said they were meant to "continue to bring people front and center in Gmail." Gilad spelled out the tweaks:

Quick access to contact details

When you search for an e-mail address [in Gmail], the search results will now show you contact details in addition to that person's [Google] profile photo [if he or she has one] and the e-mails sent from and to them. From here, you can start a chat, call their phone and more. Plus, if your contacts have a Google+ profile, this information will stay up to date automatically. You can get to these same results in a variety of ways including from the people widget, contacts, and the chat list search menu.         More

New Google+ features: Customize your streams, and more

CNET - Google+ is giving its members a few stocking stuffers designed to enhance the social network.

Touted in Google’s official blog today, the enhancements are part of an ongoing effort to make Google+ more effective and more user friendly.

One of the tweaks will let you customize your Google+ stream. The more people you follow, the more cluttered your stream can become, increasing the odds of missing important posts. To help unclutter your stream, a slider at the top of a particular circle will let you control how posts from that circle should mesh into the overall stream.

The red notifications button at the top of your Google+ page tells you how many notifications are in the queue. But sometimes you need to click on a specific notification to get the full scoop on it. To reduce the time you spend clicking around, Google is adding “sneak previews” that quickly clue you in on what’s new among your notifications.        More

Steve Jobs, Google+ and iPhone top Google’s 2011 search list

Tech topics, led by Apple terms, were hot this year on the annual Google Zeitgeist list

Computerworld – What technology and technologists most interested the online world this year?

Based on the most popular 2011 Google search terms, people were most interested in getting information on Apple founder Steve Jobs, the iPhone 5, the iPad 2, and Google+.

Out of the billions of searches that people conducted on Google this year, these were the top tech topics in the company’s annual list of top searches.

“This year marks our 11th annual look back at the searches that compose the year’s Zeitgeist — the spirit of the time,” wrote Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, in a blog post. “With Zeitgeist, we look at the most popular and the fastest rising terms — the terms with the highest growth in 2011 — in many categories across many countries around the world.”

On the list of fastest-growing search terms, Google’s new social networking site, Google+, came in at a strong second, while the release of Battlefield 3, a first-person shooter video game, came in at number five, and the anticipated release of the iPhone5 was number six.      

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Big Changes Coming to Google Plus

Vic Gundotra says integration imminent but analysts say a lot of work to be done

Computerworld – Google looks close to unleashing Google+ on the enterprise.

Earlier this month, CEO Larry Page said he wants Google+ to “transform” the company, while another Google exec said this week that part of that transformation is imminent.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit this week in San Francisco, Vic Gundotra, a Google engineering senior vice president, noted that Google+, the company’s new social network, soon will be integrated with Google Apps, the company’s cloud-based office suite. The company on Thursday accidentally leaked information on the update to Gmail, which is a key feature of Google Apps.

All signs point to big changes coming not only for Google+ but for Google Apps. A Google spokeswoman on Friday would only say that the company is “working fast and furiously” to bring features in Google+ to Google Apps. She declined to say when the integration would take place.

“If I were a betting man, I’d bet that the enterprise is their target,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “I think that they’ve positioned Google+ as more enterprisey than Facebook. With Google+’s ability to be more selective about setting up different circles, corporate users could set up circles for different customers, colleagues or business associates.”

He added that while Google is focused on social networking, the company also has set its sights squarely on the enterprise. By combining Google+ and Google Apps, the company could pull its two focuses together.

“Google sees socialization and collaboration as the obvious way to gain even more market share and mind share in their lines of business,” Olds said. “It’s all interrelated with them, I think. Their apps will all tie in together with the collaboration people can do with Google+, and it all ties to search.”                             More

Google+ Expands, Takes Aim at Facebook

Google+, the social networking site from the search giant, experienced massive growth in its first few weeks.

Google Inc and Facebook trotted out a variety of new social networking features in back-to-back announcements Tuesday, underscoring their intensifying competition for Web surfers.

Google integrated its flagship search engine into its 3-month old social network — with membership now open to the Internet public — and expanded its “Hangouts” video-chat feature to allow mobile use and broadcasting.

The company said on its official blog its well-received Hangouts feature — where up to nine people can link up and chat with a user on video — will be available on camera equipped smartphones powered by its own Android software. Support for Apple Inc iOS devices “is coming soon”, it added.

And a user can now host an online broadcast with this feature — recording a session and broadcasting it live for public access online. Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am will host the first “Hangout on Air” on Wednesday, Google said.

“Hangouts should keep pace with how you socialize in the real-world, so today we’re launching it on the one device that’s always by your side: your mobile phone,” senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said on the blog post.           More

40 Google+ tips and tricks for power users

Get the most out of Google's new social network with these 40 awesome tips and tricks.

 

ComputerWorld - Google+ is all the rage right now. Even under its limited-invite "field trial" phase, the social sharing service is growing in leaps and bounds, with oodles of new users joining every day and even more champing at the bit to get in.

Most of us, however, are only beginning to scratch the surface of what Google+ can do; like many Google products, G+ is brimming with advanced features and untapped tweaks. That's why I decided to put together this massive list of Google+ tips and tricks. It includes some of the best power-user pointers I've found both from my own experimentation and from following some really smart folks in the Google+ universe.

For more G+ tips and general tech talk, be sure to join me on Google+ as well. I promise I won't bite -- at least, not unless you ask really nicely.

Google+ Tips Part 1: The Stream

1. Use hotkeys to get around Google+ faster. In your Stream, press "j" or "k" to move through posts, and press Enter to start a comment. (Pressing Tab and then Enter will cause your comment to be submitted; hitting Tab twice and then Enter will cause it to be cancelled.) You can also press "q" to jump to the Google+ chat box.

2. Hotkeys work in the notification drop-down, too: Press "j" or "k" to move up or down in the list, and then press Enter to open any individual notification. When viewing a notification, "j" or "k" will let you progress forward or backward to other items. Pressing "Esc" will close the notification window altogether.

3. Want more hotkeys? Check out the G+ Extended extension for the Chrome Web browser. It adds a series of additional options, including hotkeys for +1'ing posts, sharing posts, and expanding comments.

4. If comments are getting out of control in your Stream, try the +Comment Chrome extension. It collapses all comment threads so you see them only when you click to expand. Another good option is the G+me Google+ extension; it leaves comments expanded by default but gives you a one-click option to collapse any thread or post on demand. It also provides badge-style comment counters to help you keep tabs on new activity for items you've collapsed.

5. You can take a specific item entirely out of your Stream by clicking the small drop-down arrow next to it, then selecting "Mute this post." That'll also keep you from receiving any future notifications about the item.

6. On your own posts, that same drop-down arrow holds options to shut down comments and prevent people from resharing. The commands affect only the specific item you're viewing.

7. Sometimes leaving a comment on an active post can turn into a bouncing-screen challenge, thanks to the top-of-page activity always pressing your Stream downward. To solve this, click the drop-down arrow next to the post you're viewing and select "Link to this post." That'll open the post in a new tab; type your comment there, then close the tab when you're finished.

8. Google+ lets you stylize text within posts and comments. To italicize, sandwich your text with underscores _like this_; to make text bold, use asterisks *like this*; and to create a strikethrough effect, use dashes -like this-.

9. Make Google+ a little easier on the eyes with the Google+ Ultimate extension for Chrome. It separates posts into individual boxes with an offset background and forces the top status bar and left sidebar to stay in fixed positions while you scroll. Another good option is the similar Usability Boost extension; it gives a slightly different modified look to the site that some users may prefer.

10. Mention (or "tag") someone in a post or comment by typing "+" or "@" and then the person's name. Google+ is still a bit wonky at times about bringing up the right result; try typing the name slowly and enclosing it in quotation marks (e.g. +"Bob Sacamano") if you have trouble.

11. Improve the G+ reply mechanism immensely by grabbing the Replies and More Google+ Chrome extension. The extension puts links throughout G+ that let you reply to the author of any post or comment with a single click -- and without all the "+"-typing hassle.        More

Google+ traffic dropping already?

CNET - Is the shine beginning to fade for Google+?

Google's social-networking foray saw fewer U.S. visitors last week, and those who did visit spent less time on the site on average, according to new data released today by market researcher Experian Hitwise.

Google+ had 1.79 million visits for the week ending July 23, a decrease of 3 percent compared with the previous week when the network had 1.86 million visits, Experian Hitwise reported.
The average visit was 10 percent shorter, down from 5 minutes 50 seconds to 5 minutes 15 seconds.    More

50 Percent Will Abandon Facebook for Google+, Poll Finds

PCMag.Com - As Google+'s numbers climb to an estimated 18 million users, PCMag asked readers: will you ditch Facebook for Google+?
As of publication time, a total of 6,237 readers have weighed in, overwhelmingly in favor of Google+. Half of the respondents (50 percent or 3,091 people) said they like Google+ and they plan to leave Facebook. The second most popular response came from 21 percent of voters (1,303 people) who said they're undecided, considering how new Google+ is. There's still 12 percent (733 people) of readers who said they haven't been unable to join G+ yet. The idea of social networking as a whole was rejected by 11 percent (682 people) who said they're against the whole concept. Only 7 percent (428 people) said Facebook is irreplaceable and they're sticking with it.

Despite the poll's response, it's highly unlikely there will be such a significant exodus from Facebook. Facebook boasts a membership of 750 million people—375 million people just aren't going to quit the number one social network. But the results of this informal poll point to a bigger issue: people are increasingly annoyed with Facebook.

 
"There is no reason to stay on horrible Facebook, period," user tlwinslow wrote. "It's the ZuckerBeast, an enemy of everyone's personal privacy, and must go, it really must go. More power to Google for providing a saner alternative."       More

Your Old Photos May Be Visible to All on Google+

PCMag.Com - Google+ users concerned about privacy had better double-check their Picasa and Blogger accounts, as the images are now much easier to stumble across on the new social network.

 

Long-lost—or simply long forgotten—photos are popping up on Google+ without some users knowing it. If you're at all concerned about the privacy of your images, you'd better double-check whatever you've uploaded to Picasa and Blogger, as the sister sites are showing off images they host directly in Google+, making it easier for people to find them.

I was tipped off to this image privacy issue a few days ago when I received a Google+ notification that my sister had tagged herself in one of my photos. "One of my photos?" I thought. "But I haven't uploaded anything to Google+ yet!"

What she had found, by looking under the "Photos" link associated with my profile," were pictures of us traveling together... in 2008. Three years ago, I had uploaded the photos to Picasa, made them public, and sent the link to my family. I rarely use Picasa (if I recall, I used it on this occasion because I maxed out my free Flickr space), so I forgot to take the images down later or mark them private. Either way, I was never too worried that business associates or loose acquaintances would come across the pictures, as they'd have to search pretty hard to find them.

But now, all those photos are in Google+, easy enough to find from the "Photos" link on my profile page.

Who Can See What?
After all that talk about how easy it is to create Circles (even though some disagree), see who's in a Circle, and share content with only specific people, it's surprisingly much more difficult to figure out who can see your images and albums.      More

User satisfaction study: Facebook vulnerable to Google+

IDG News Service - User satisfaction with Facebook is low enough that the social networking site risks losing significant market share to Google+, according to a new study.

Although Facebook did marginally better this year than last, it still ranked last among all the sites included in the study, called the American Customers Satisfaction Index (ACSI)/ForeSee Results E-Business Report.

Describing the Facebook user experience as "poor," author Larry Freed wrote that Facebook has benefitted from "a monopoly of sorts" in the social networking market.
But Facebook shouldn't rest on its laurels. Despite its dominance, things could change quickly if it doesn't improve its customer satisfaction, according to Freed, president and CEO of Foresee Results.

"If Google can carry over their customer-centric ethos to Google+, Facebook could have serious competition that has the potential to very quickly erode its market share," he wrote in a draft of the report sent to IDG News Service.

Freed noted that Facebook increased its customer satisfaction score from 64 last year to 66 this year -- out of a possible 100 -- a sign the company "may be moving in the right direction, albeit very slowly."      More

Hashtag creator brings his idea to Google+

CNET - By adding a single character to Twitter's vocabulary nearly four years ago -- # -- Chris Messina unlocked a wealth of useful information in Twitter.

Now he wants to bring the same creation, called a hashtag, to Google+.

Hashtags are terms beginning with the pound sign, also called a hash, for easy identification as a recognizable label. Examples include #wwc hashtag for women's World Cup soccer or the ever-popular #fail hashtag for complaining when things go wrong. By following a particular hashtag, it can be easier to concentrate on content you might be interested in.

Messina sees hashtags as, ideally, a way that people can sift their Google+ "stream"--the collection of posts from all people a Google+ user follows.

"Lots of people have requested the ability to target content [to] their followers based on topic (i.e. only share content to people who are following me AND interested in, say, comics). Since the product doesn't support that kind of targeting, I'm just making something up, like I did with hashtags back in 2007," Messina said in a Google+ post last week. But so far it's a manual process: "So, if you see 3 to 4 topic hashtags at the beginning of my posts (like subject lines but for topics), they're there so people can choose to ignore my post if they're uninterested."

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Google+ vs. Facebook: Which Can You Trust?

Analysis: Are people flocking to Google+ to escape Facebook's evil clutches? And if so, is that really such a good idea?

PCWorld.Com - A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how MySpace's assets -- including some 50 million-odd personal profiles -- were purchased by Specific Media, an online ad firm, and the privacy implications of that.

Since then, some smart folks have pointed out to me that -- hey, looky -- Google is also an advertising company. And when you come right down to it, so is Facebook. That's certainly what has produced the vast majority of FB's revenues so far.

• 4 things Facebook doesn't tell you about privacy, security
• So, Why Do We Trust Google with Our Data?

So can any of them be trusted?
Former TV newsman Issac "Ike" Pigott asked a similar question this morning on his Posterous audio blog:

Am I wrong for continuing to think that there's humor in the fact that so many people are flocking to Google+ because they just don't trust Facebook with all their private information? These are the same people who've had gmail accounts for six or seven years, have racked up about five or six gigabytes of data that they leave on Google servers, [including] emails they would not want the rest of the world to know about. And [they] trust Google with all that but [they] won't trust Facebook with it."

 

Artwork: Chip TaylorAn interesting thought. First, though, let's examine the premise of this question. I'm not convinced people are abandoning Facebook for Google+. I think they're just adding Google+ to their ever growing list of social media sites.

[See also: Groupon wants your soul -- and also your location data. ]

In fact, based on my short experience with G+ and the friend/follower notifications that have come pouring into my inbox, the people who are flocking to G+ are the same ones who flocked to Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Buzz, Foursquare, Groupon, blah blah blah -- I mean the same friggin people. It's the Social Media Mafia; Robert Scoble and the Scoblettes. They're all over G+ they way they were all over all of those other services.

Remember in high school, when you tried to start a club for all the cool kids but the dorks kept showing up instead? It's like that.      More

Google+ wields data openness against Facebook

CNET - Google is accelerating efforts to make its new social network look like a more open and attractive alternative to Facebook.

The latest: Google will allow users to export a list of Web sites that they've recommended through the "+1" button.

Brian Fitzpatrick tells reporters on a Google Hangout video chat today that openness makes Google work hard to keep users from leaving.

While only a modest change, it highlights how Google is trying to use openness--the ability to extract your data from its servers with the click of a button--to differentiate itself from its far larger and more established rival.

"When your users can leave you you're going to work as hard as you can to keep them," Google engineering manager Brian Fitzpatrick told reporters during a video conference today using Google Hangout. A service announced last month called Google Takeout makes it easy to move to rival services.

Facebook, on the other hand, has taken a different approach to who owns user data. Last week, it blocked a tool written by developer Mohamed Mansour that allowed users to extract contact information their friends have shared with them.

This week, it blocked another by Open-Xchange, which allowed people to reconstruct their Facebook contact list on Google+.

It's not exactly a new debate: Google tried to ratchet up the pressure on Facebook to be more open last November, although the discussion at the time was about searchability rather than the possible threat of Google+. An early round in the skirmish took place as far back as 2008.  More

How to move your Facebook photos to Google+

CNET - As a Google+ newbie, you might be wondering how to get all of your photos from your previous obsession (Facebook) to the latest spectacle, Google+.

Facebook went on the defensive recently when users tried to export their friend lists to Google+ for easy adding. Facebook blocked the service, leaving us users to fend for ourselves.
Well, listen, Facebook: you can take my friends, but you can't take my photos.


Watch Video 


To move your Facebook pictures, you'll first need to download all your albums, then reupload them to Google+. A Web tool like Move2Picasa will do this for you in one shot, but a field test deemed this service unreliable. Try our method instead.    

Download your photos

 

Option A: Go to Facebook > Account > Account settings > Download your information. After some time (several hours to a day), Facebook will notify you that your download is ready. Download it, unzip it, and you'll find all your albums in the "Photos" folder.

Option B: Go to PickNZip.com and log in with Facebook. Click "Find My Photos," then head to Download > Download all photos. This will download all of your uploaded albums and any photos you've been tagged in. Once you've downloaded the file, unzip it.      More