Finally Google+ is available for under 18s and I managed to get an account and make this blogs page:
https://plus.google.com/100262737091295906698/posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
1/28/12
12/2/11
10/1/11
Some page updates
I have added a Google+ icon to the page. I have also added rates so you can rate the posts, and a You might like... bit.
9/30/11
Google+: Source code reveals unannounced features?
Code junkie Matt Mastracci discovers new features that Google+ hasn’t released yet. If he is correct, Google is ready to step it up with fixes, new features, and user experience improvements to stay competitive with Facebook.
Now that Google+ is off to a much better start at being a key player in the social network space, they know that they need to work fast to fix any issues, address concerns and add new features as quickly as possible to make their offering competitive against the behemoth that is Facebook. It’s hard to guess which features and tweaks they are going to roll out next. Sometimes however, web companies leave themselves exposed during the iterative development process. Hackers and web application engineers have ways of figuring things out, sometimes only having to use the “View Source” option in their web browser.
Recently, one such code junkie named Matt Mastracci (@mmastrac on Twitter), was trying to gain early access to Google+’s new circle-sharing feature and inadvertently came across what appears to be some possible features that have yet to be announced and released to the public.
The Google+ “Wall”
Not a lot to go on here as most of the code has been obfuscated but the first one he talks about is the Google+ equivalent of writing on someone’s Facebook Wall, where users can write or post content on the walls of individual profiles without it showing up in the timelines of the other users:
Google Experts
The next chunk of code reveals something that might be Google’s answer to Quora. In this next snippet you’ll see references to the phrase “Google Experts,” where questions can be posted, Google+ users can add other user names to questions in the same way you can now in your posts, comment threads, etc.
Also in the above piece, Matt says it’s apparent that they are possibly testing this feature out right now to make sure that it works correctly on the Google Apps domains. So somewhere, somehow, it might be accessible to see it in action. Unfortunately, he didn’t get that far but I’m interested to see what this looks like!
Privacy Controls
After all the damage control that Facebook has had to deal with over privacy issues, Google would be stupid to not make this an extremely high priority. It backfired on them big time with Google Buzz so they got a little taste of not only how serious the public takes this issue, but also how users don’t forget these mistakes and continue to talk about these screw ups online for weeks and months on end on Twitter, Facebook and their own blogs. Learning from those lessons, Google has some sort of privacy control pane in development to help you streamline your privacy settings easily. Matt was able to get this privacy wizard to pop up on his profile page with some code manipulation.
Google Voice Integration
The last, but certainly not least, feature addition is the integration of Google Voice to the Google+ platform. Matt isn’t totally sure how this is gonna look but at a quick glance his guess is that you’ll be able dial people right off of a web page without being able to see their actual phone number.
The race is on
It’s clear that Google is really starting to realize what they are up against. One of their biggest challenges is that they are developing all these technologies in-house. The upside to that approach is that it can be tested and very efficiently integrated into their other product offerings. The downside is that each new feature they add will yield yet another layer of learning curve with no customer base brought in with whatever the new feature is. (like Netflix, Skype, and Spotify did).
The social network competition is going start heating up big time now that Facebook may actually have some real competition in the coming months. Google is going to have to pay extra special attention to where Facebook is headed next. They would also be smart to monitor closely, conversations across the social-sphere about Facebook, listening to people’s complaints, desires for new features, and just the overall experience.
Click here for the original article at zdnet.com
Now that Google+ is off to a much better start at being a key player in the social network space, they know that they need to work fast to fix any issues, address concerns and add new features as quickly as possible to make their offering competitive against the behemoth that is Facebook. It’s hard to guess which features and tweaks they are going to roll out next. Sometimes however, web companies leave themselves exposed during the iterative development process. Hackers and web application engineers have ways of figuring things out, sometimes only having to use the “View Source” option in their web browser.
Recently, one such code junkie named Matt Mastracci (@mmastrac on Twitter), was trying to gain early access to Google+’s new circle-sharing feature and inadvertently came across what appears to be some possible features that have yet to be announced and released to the public.
The Google+ “Wall”
Not a lot to go on here as most of the code has been obfuscated but the first one he talks about is the Google+ equivalent of writing on someone’s Facebook Wall, where users can write or post content on the walls of individual profiles without it showing up in the timelines of the other users:
Google Experts
The next chunk of code reveals something that might be Google’s answer to Quora. In this next snippet you’ll see references to the phrase “Google Experts,” where questions can be posted, Google+ users can add other user names to questions in the same way you can now in your posts, comment threads, etc.
Also in the above piece, Matt says it’s apparent that they are possibly testing this feature out right now to make sure that it works correctly on the Google Apps domains. So somewhere, somehow, it might be accessible to see it in action. Unfortunately, he didn’t get that far but I’m interested to see what this looks like!
Privacy Controls
After all the damage control that Facebook has had to deal with over privacy issues, Google would be stupid to not make this an extremely high priority. It backfired on them big time with Google Buzz so they got a little taste of not only how serious the public takes this issue, but also how users don’t forget these mistakes and continue to talk about these screw ups online for weeks and months on end on Twitter, Facebook and their own blogs. Learning from those lessons, Google has some sort of privacy control pane in development to help you streamline your privacy settings easily. Matt was able to get this privacy wizard to pop up on his profile page with some code manipulation.
Google Voice Integration
The last, but certainly not least, feature addition is the integration of Google Voice to the Google+ platform. Matt isn’t totally sure how this is gonna look but at a quick glance his guess is that you’ll be able dial people right off of a web page without being able to see their actual phone number.
The race is on
It’s clear that Google is really starting to realize what they are up against. One of their biggest challenges is that they are developing all these technologies in-house. The upside to that approach is that it can be tested and very efficiently integrated into their other product offerings. The downside is that each new feature they add will yield yet another layer of learning curve with no customer base brought in with whatever the new feature is. (like Netflix, Skype, and Spotify did).
The social network competition is going start heating up big time now that Facebook may actually have some real competition in the coming months. Google is going to have to pay extra special attention to where Facebook is headed next. They would also be smart to monitor closely, conversations across the social-sphere about Facebook, listening to people’s complaints, desires for new features, and just the overall experience.
Click here for the original article at zdnet.com
Hang out with the Black Eyed Peas on Google+
Google+ users will be able to hang out with the Black Eyed Peas. A message saying "Hang out with the Black Eyed Peas on Google+ right before they go on stage. Tonight at 11pm." appeared on Google. The link takes you to will.i.ams Google+ page. He recently posted:
"50thousand people in central park...
lets see how many people will join in on the backstage and onstage hangout...lets re-define concerts, interaction, webcam'n, lets have fun..."
and
"lets have fun at the backstage hangout...we even have a hangout onstage as well...
i want to re-define backstage interaction with fans who can not make the show...i think this will be the very first online backstage onstage web cam session...
"i like doing things 1st" "
The message:
"50thousand people in central park...
lets see how many people will join in on the backstage and onstage hangout...lets re-define concerts, interaction, webcam'n, lets have fun..."
and
"lets have fun at the backstage hangout...we even have a hangout onstage as well...
i want to re-define backstage interaction with fans who can not make the show...i think this will be the very first online backstage onstage web cam session...
"i like doing things 1st" "
9/22/11
Google+ is Exploding. Millions Joining Daily. 30% Increase in Users in last 2 days.
Paul Allen posted this on his Google+ profile about 3 hours ago:
My team just completed a new round of counting Google+ users by surname. And I have updated my model. Our sampling of 400 uncommon surnames in the U.S. also reflects usage in many other countries, since the list of 400 includes names that are popular in India, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, and many other countries.
In the past couple of days, since Google opened its doors to the general public over age 18, the growth rate has skyrocketed to rates we only saw during the first week of its "field test" -- back when it had a small number of users to begin with, the growth rates were of course much higher.
But when I checked the data this morning, it is clear that Google+ is absolutely exploding -- 30% growth in just 2 days and with a base of nearly 30 million members already.
Here are my latest estimates:
On September 9, our model showed 28.7 million users
This morning, our model shows 37.8 million users, with most of the growth coming in the last 2 days
By adding a fudge factor (see below) to account for private user profiles and for non-Roman surnames (both of which are totally overlooked by our surname counting model), my current estimate is 43.4 million users
The timing on Google+ opening up to the public is interesting. Facebook has made a ton of UI changes this week and is holding it's F8 Developers Conference today - in fact it is just staring now. According to a survey this week by Mashable, 72.2% of Facebook users hate the recent UI changes, including the News Feed redesign. Twitter's stream was filled with complaints yesterday about Facebook under the hashtag #newfacebook.
Google is a company that has had the incredible discipline for more than a decade to use a very simple, minimalist design on its home page along with a long search box to encourage longer queries. Changes to home page links are very infrequent. The popularity of its home page never led Google to turn itself into a portal, with hundreds of links and a few lucrative ads. Given that discipline, I think the tens of millions of people who will be signing up for and using Google+ will find that changes here will be very well thought out, very iterative, very carefully tested, and won't be nearly as jarring as the changes that have been made at other social networks. Google is not in a rush to change the world. They are on a steady course to do so.
Notes about My "Fudge Factor":
My earlier model (see links below) which proved to be very accurate in the first 2-3 weeks, did not address either private profiles or non-Roman alphabet. According to FindPeopleOnPlus.com, there are substantial numbers of users from countries like Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and many other countries, which my surname counting approach does not include. So I have decided to add a 5% privacy fudge factor and a 10% non-Roman alphabet fudge factor in my Google+ model. I'll need to develop a way to actually calculate those percentages somehow, rather than just guess on them.
For reference, here are my earlier posts on this subject:
*Google+ passes 10 million users on 7/12: http://bit.ly/pduDrG*
*4.5 million estimate on 7/9 (actually 12:15ish on 7/10): http://bit.ly/qUAxzt*
*1.7 million estimate on 7/4: http://bit.ly/pFm7oP*
Google+ hangouts with extras is freaking awesome! Added features Screen sharing, Sketchpad, Shared notes & Google docs!
One of the hottest and most used feature in Google+ social network is Google+ hangouts. To spice up further, google+ team is introducing quite a lot of features that are only found in paid commercial tools, absolutely free for Google+ users.
These new features are available as preview features (still in development) bundled and called as Google+ hangouts with extras.
Here are some of the notable features
* Screen sharing / Desktop sharing – Now when you are hosting an hangout, you can share your screen or a window and present to the hangout participants
* Google Doc’s integration – You can share a google document with hangout participants and collaboratively edit with other participants (Similar functionality of Google Wave now with video and audio interactiveness)
* Shared notes – Collaboratively take notes as the hangout proceeds
* Shared sketchpad or scratchpad – Collaboratively draw diagrams with hangout participants
* Named Hangouts – Name your hangouts, easy for sharing
Interested in trying or using these new features? All you have to do is, Start a new hangout by clicking on Start a hangout button in your Google+ page. In the following hangout screen look for the link Try Hangouts with extras to preview new features (refer image below). (Note: You must click on the link to launch the hangout with extras not the hangout button to try the new features.)
We tried all these new hangouts extras feature today with our team and they all worked flawlessly (remember these features are in preview mode). However there were some minor usability issues while using screen sharing mode. While screen sharing, it doesn’t show the presenter instead it replaced his view with the screen (can’t see the presenter). In another instance it worked perfectly fine with the shared screen took over majority of the real estate and each of the participants appeared in small viewports on the right. Since it is in preview mode, we’re pretty sure Google+ team is working on issues and enhancements.
For a small startup like us with teams spread across the planet, these tools are a God send. These new features combined with existing features takes socializing to a whole new level combined with greater productivity.
Click here for the original article at google-plus.com
These new features are available as preview features (still in development) bundled and called as Google+ hangouts with extras.
Here are some of the notable features
* Screen sharing / Desktop sharing – Now when you are hosting an hangout, you can share your screen or a window and present to the hangout participants
* Google Doc’s integration – You can share a google document with hangout participants and collaboratively edit with other participants (Similar functionality of Google Wave now with video and audio interactiveness)
* Shared notes – Collaboratively take notes as the hangout proceeds
* Shared sketchpad or scratchpad – Collaboratively draw diagrams with hangout participants
* Named Hangouts – Name your hangouts, easy for sharing
We tried all these new hangouts extras feature today with our team and they all worked flawlessly (remember these features are in preview mode). However there were some minor usability issues while using screen sharing mode. While screen sharing, it doesn’t show the presenter instead it replaced his view with the screen (can’t see the presenter). In another instance it worked perfectly fine with the shared screen took over majority of the real estate and each of the participants appeared in small viewports on the right. Since it is in preview mode, we’re pretty sure Google+ team is working on issues and enhancements.
For a small startup like us with teams spread across the planet, these tools are a God send. These new features combined with existing features takes socializing to a whole new level combined with greater productivity.
Click here for the original article at google-plus.com
Google+ is open to all - but not under 18s
Today is a big day, because finally Google+ is open to everybody (except from under 18s). A message on google.com says: Thanks for waiting. Google+ is open to all! Join now. The only thing I am disappointed about is that it is not open for under 18s. There were lots of questions about this as well. I know some people think it should not be open for under 18s. I saw a comment on a Yahoo answers page saying ¨Facebook used to be cool when it was a college-only thing...then Mark opened it up to everyone and it went downhill dramatically¨. I have asked the question on Yahoo Answers as well and someone answered:
¨Only after Beta is over and Child Control Settings are in place will it be released to minors. Till then it is their policy as they have no child control filters in place currently they do not wish to allow under age users to use the site.
G+ was expected to have a open release date in August, now expect maybe early september ¨
(This was about a month ago)
What do you think?
¨Only after Beta is over and Child Control Settings are in place will it be released to minors. Till then it is their policy as they have no child control filters in place currently they do not wish to allow under age users to use the site.
G+ was expected to have a open release date in August, now expect maybe early september ¨
(This was about a month ago)
What do you think?
8/21/11
Google Plus Starts Verifying 'Celebrity' Accounts
So how can you tell if a particular Google Plus profile page is verified or not? Easy: Look for the addition of a checkmark next to a user's name. This checkmark doesn't appear in comments or news posts the person makes, so you'll have to click through to a user's profile page to find out whether the account actually represents the famous celebrity in question.
But we should add a caveat: Google isn't just confining verified accounts to the rich, famous, and public. If you're a popular Google Plus user, you might soon be asked if you'd like to verify your account as well.
"For now, we're focused on verifying public figures, celebrities, and people who have been added to a large number of Circles," writes Google Plus team member Wen-Ai Yu. "But keep in mind that this is just the beginning. We're working on expanding this to include more people in the future, so hang tight!"
Google hasn't unveiled the official criteria for what constitutes enough of a "celebrity status" to warrant a verified account – we mention that as we do, for it's unclear why people like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (469,245 circle additions and counting) have yet to receive the coveted checkmark of truth next to their names.
Perhaps it relates to the verification practice itself which, again, Google has not disclosed. A July CNN article suggested that Google was considering having its verified users submit copies of their drivers licenses in order to verify their accounts. A more likely suggestion is that the negotiation for official Google Plus verification is handled between Google representatives and celebrity representatives.
Assisting the verification process is Google's mandate that Google Plus must use their actual names on the service. Messing around with a pseudonym – or trying to convince users that you, a 23-year-old dude from New Jersey is actually Dolly Parton – will give you a four-day countdown to expulsion from the service, should Google notice.
"During this period, you can continue to use Google+ as usual," wrote Google Plus product manager Saurabh Sharma. "We're hoping that most affected users will be able to quickly change their profile name while continuing to enjoy all that Google+ has to offer."
Click here for the original article at pcmag.com
8/19/11
Google+ users across the world
Top cities:
San Francisco
New York
Los Angeles
Top Countries:
USA
India
Sri Lanka
San Francisco
New York
Los Angeles
Top Countries:
USA
India
Sri Lanka
8/17/11
Is Facebook Blocking Google Plus Invite Links?
Facebook is irked about the growth of Google Plus. Google Plus now has over 25 million users, and ever since it was launched, it has had a tremendous growth. Despite that Google Plus is in field test and new registrations to the site can be done via “invite only“, and the fact being that Google had to shut down the invite system because of high demand, it somehow still managed to achieve enormous popularity.
Now that Google allows its Plus users to invite (more people) their friends to experience the new social network, its rival Facebook, seems to be overwhelmed. Of course, currently the best way to interact with friends on the Internet is via Facebook, and thus users are making use of this means by sharing Google Plus invite links on their walls. Users are not just getting themselves a Plus account, but are also attracted to the new social network and slowly migrating from Facebook.
Facebook appears to be piqued about this and is reported to be blocking Google Plus invites from the users’ Facebook news feed. This came into light when the Senior Vice President of social business, Vic Gundotra posted a video on YouTube demonstrating that Google+ invites that have been shared on Facebook did not show up in the news feed of other Facebook users.
The video was posted after which the company had gotten reports of this unusual behavior. “I wonder how widespread this problem is?” Gundotra asked.
In response to Vic Gundotra’s statement, Facebook (obviously) has denied the fact that it is stopping users from sharing the Google Plus invite URL. Facebook noted that they have a display-filtering technology that help prevent spam and thus could exclude certain links from re-appearing on a user’s news feed if it had previously been posted several times.
“Newsfeed is an automated system that is designed to deliver the most relevant content to you and your friends. The technology evaluates hundreds of factors, including your relationship to the poster, the type of content, the click-through rate (where appropriate), and people hiding similar posts from their feed.
In real time, it decides what to display to you and what to filter for both Top News and Most Recent. It also includes systems that attempt to identify and block spam. Links have a history of the most abuse and are given the most scrutiny. As a result of all of these factors, a given link may be shown or filtered to people differently at different times.”
Click here to view the original article at techie-buzz.com
8/16/11
Google+ Posts Now Appear in Google Search Results
Google has begun integrating Google+ into search results with public Google+ posts now appearing in Social Search.
Whenever a user publicly shares a link on Google+, an annotation will show up under that link when it appears in a friend’s search results. For example, if I share a Mashable article about Google+ eliminating pseudonyms publicly on my Google+ page, users who have added me to their circles will see a note that I shared that link if they stumble upon it in Google Search.
Google+ now joins Flickr, Twitter, Quora and Google Buzz as other inputs for Google’s Social Search product. Social Search debuted in 2009 at the Web 2.0 Summit, partly as a response to Bing’s integration with Facebook and Twitter. Social Search highlights what links your friends are sharing on the web and returns results it believes are relevant based on your friends’ interests.
Social Search integration is only the beginning for Google’s plans for combining its search engine and social network. Google intends to revive real-time search with Google+ data and will launch a search engine for Google+ posts. Of course, the tech giant did the same thing with Google Buzz, and we all know what happened to that product.
Click here for the original article at mashable.com
Whenever a user publicly shares a link on Google+, an annotation will show up under that link when it appears in a friend’s search results. For example, if I share a Mashable article about Google+ eliminating pseudonyms publicly on my Google+ page, users who have added me to their circles will see a note that I shared that link if they stumble upon it in Google Search.
Google+ now joins Flickr, Twitter, Quora and Google Buzz as other inputs for Google’s Social Search product. Social Search debuted in 2009 at the Web 2.0 Summit, partly as a response to Bing’s integration with Facebook and Twitter. Social Search highlights what links your friends are sharing on the web and returns results it believes are relevant based on your friends’ interests.
Social Search integration is only the beginning for Google’s plans for combining its search engine and social network. Google intends to revive real-time search with Google+ data and will launch a search engine for Google+ posts. Of course, the tech giant did the same thing with Google Buzz, and we all know what happened to that product.
Click here for the original article at mashable.com
8/15/11
How long did it take Google+ to reach 10 million users compared to Facebook & Twitter
This graph shows how long it took Google Plus to reach 10 million users compared Facebook and Twitter. Google+ managed to get 10 million users within 16 days - that's 48 times as fast as Twitter and 53 times as fast as Facebook. Also Google+ is still invite only!
8/14/11
List of Google+ Games (so far)
You can access Google+ Games by clicking on the icon show to the right. Here is the list of all the games (on 14-AUG-2011).
Monster World
Collapse Blast
Dragons of Atlantis
Sudoku Puzzles
Dragon Age Legends
Angry Birds
Zynga Poker
Bubble Island
Wild Ones
City of Wonder
Zombie Lane
Crime City
Bejeweled Blitz BETA
Diamond Dash
Flood-it!
Edge World
Monster World
Google Plus Launches Gaming Channel
Ever since the launch of Google Plus, the search giant has been trying to convince the world that Facebook is old news. One of the ways it's attempting to do this? By showing off how it's able to do all the things Facebook was able to do, albeit with a cleaner, more minimalist interface. With the rise of "Farmville," gaming has become a big part of Facebook, and, starting today, it's now a big part of Google Plus. Gaming, I mean...not "Farmville." Yet.
Google Plus Games is a free service available to anyone with a Google Plus account. At present, there are 16 games, many of which have already made a splash on Facebook. Familiar titles like "Bejeweled Blitz" and "Zynga Poker" are joined by the Google Plus-compatible versions of "Angry Birds" and "Diamond Dash."
As with Facebook, users need to grant games access to their profiles before playing them. This usually amounts to giving those games access to friends lists, but automatic updates on profile pages can be deactivated if you'd rather not constantly bug your friends with the success of your digital moon base.
"Angry Birds" takes social a step further, introducing a new series of levels called Teamwork. Having more friends playing "Angry Birds" through Google Plus will allow you to unlock more levels. The game also tracks the total number of stars your friends have earned, as a means of unlocking even more content.
It'll be interesting to see just how far Google is going to go with its gaming initiatives. Right now it seems like it's more following the pack than blazing its own trail, but that could change drastically as Google Plus Games matures.
Click here for the original article at http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com
Google Plus Games is a free service available to anyone with a Google Plus account. At present, there are 16 games, many of which have already made a splash on Facebook. Familiar titles like "Bejeweled Blitz" and "Zynga Poker" are joined by the Google Plus-compatible versions of "Angry Birds" and "Diamond Dash."
As with Facebook, users need to grant games access to their profiles before playing them. This usually amounts to giving those games access to friends lists, but automatic updates on profile pages can be deactivated if you'd rather not constantly bug your friends with the success of your digital moon base.
"Angry Birds" takes social a step further, introducing a new series of levels called Teamwork. Having more friends playing "Angry Birds" through Google Plus will allow you to unlock more levels. The game also tracks the total number of stars your friends have earned, as a means of unlocking even more content.
It'll be interesting to see just how far Google is going to go with its gaming initiatives. Right now it seems like it's more following the pack than blazing its own trail, but that could change drastically as Google Plus Games matures.
Click here for the original article at http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com
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