Google Plus

Google announced in a post today on the AdWords blog that a new API for third-party apps will allow businesses to manage their branded Google+ pages through social media management services like HootSuite.

Initially the API will only be open to six partners including Buddy Media, Involver, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, Vitrue, and HootSuite. Starting with selects users, these services will allow businesses to manage their circles, make posts to their Google+ page, and monitor activity and analytics. On the Hootsuite website, for instance, features listed include the ability to manage circles, as well as “monitor, search, share, and post” right within the app’s interface.

The API will inevitably be opened up to more third-party apps after the initial experiment, and social media management companies can already click here to sign up. Below is an image showing Google+ integration in the updated HootSuite dashboard, which is probably the most in-depth solution, and it looks like just about every aspect of a Google+ page has been included.

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It has been just over a week since Google opened up branded pages for businesses on Google+, and according to a report from TPM, a page for Bank of America has already been vandalized with satirical messages mocking the company’s business practices. Here’s an example of one of the posts made to the page:

“We are committed to making as much money as possible from usury, coercion, bribery, insider trading, extortion, and debit card fees as possible.”

You can see the “We took your bailout money and your mortgage rates are going up” tagline in the screenshot of the page above, which was snapped before the page was not so promptly taken down a week after it was created. You will also notice the candid photos of former CEO Kenneth Lewis along the top. Other posts were of the same entertaining caliber:

“Starting tomorrow, all Occupy Wall Street protestors with Bank of America accounts around the country will have their assets seized as part of BofA’s new Counter-Financial-Terrorism policy…You will sit down and shut up, or we will foreclose on you.”

It should be noted the page wasn’t exactly hijacked, rather created, as one currently only has to link a page to an official website and provide an address and phone number. While Google hasn’t officially commented on the Bank of America page, they did have this to say to TPM regarding the situtation:

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Google+ engineer Vermont Lasmarias revealed today that a new section displaying all of your recently played games has been added to the Google+ homepage. The new section can be found in the bottom left, and allows you to quickly launch into a game where you left off.  Luckily, if you’re not a fan of the new games section, or just want to free up your side bar, you can get rid of the widget right from the homepage too.

Following the introduction of branded Google+ pages for businesses and brands, Google has made a point of letting us know the ins and outs of the service. We learned earlier today that promotions will be strictly forbidden from branded pages, i.e. no direct advertising of contests, offers, sweepstakes, etc. In addition to launching a new Pages guide that acts as a resource for those who want to learn more, they also made a post on the official Google+ page today outlining some of the intricacies of the service.

You might have known a couple of these, but others probably not. For instance, Google+ Pages cant mention or follow a user unless you’ve connected with them first,  and a page will automatically unfollow a user if the user unfollows the page. Below is the full list from Google, or head over to the new Google+ pages resource center to learn more about how to share, promote, and measure the traffic of your brand page.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8Ccf5GxM7vg]

Google has just announced a significant new update to Google+ with the introduction of branded ‘Google+ Pages’. From within a Page, fans will be able to join live hangouts, discuss topics, or just follow a brand or topic that interests them. For example, “hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favourite clothing line, or follow a band on tour”. Users will also be able to +1 a page, as well as add the page to a circle, while page owners can display a new Google+ badge on their site, allowing users to add their Google+ page to a circle without leaving the website. Sites that are linked to Google+ pages will also have their +1’s tallied into a single total.

It looks like just about anyone will eventually be able to create a page,  with categories currently listed including “Local Business or Place”, “Product or Brand”, “Company, Institution or Organization”, “Arts, Entertainment or Sports”, and “Other”. Although, as of right now, the feature isn’t open to the public, but will soon be available to everyone. You’ll eventually be able to create pages at plus.google.com/pages/create. Below is a screenshot of what you’ll see on that page once it’s opened up to the public.

Google also announced pages will be included in search results, while a new feature for search called Direct Connect will allow you to navigate directly to a Google+ page through search by entering “+” prior to the page name. For example, try typing “+Google” or “+Youtube” into Google search. Rather than displaying search results, you’ll be taken directly to the Google+ profile. Direct Connect is an experiment that won’t be available for all pages and users initially, but will roll out over time. You can learn more about Direct Connect here. Video of Direct Connect in action and links to currently live Google+ Pages after the break. 
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Left to right: YouTube slider (closed), slider (open), pop-up playlist, slider (while playing)

As part of several Google executives’ promise to “ship the Google part” of Google+, the company is rolling out two new features that integrate two of Google’s core products into Google+, starting with YouTube and Chrome.

The YouTube “slider” will be accessible via a new icon in the upper right of Google+. Hover over the icon and a search bar will slide out allowing you to enter a search query. A playlist of related videos will automatically begin playing in a pop-up window, while the slider will remain so you can continue searching. Also, when sharing YouTube videos within your circles, users can open a related playlist right from within the post (image below). YouTube playlists will also now be displayed in Google+ search results.

Chrome integration comes way of two new extensions (image below). The first, a +1 button allowing you to share the current webpage with any of your circles. The second is a notifications extension that allows you to check your Google+ notifications from a familiar red icon that looks almost identical to the notifications tray on the Google+ UI. Non-Chrome users can get these features on the latest version of the Google Toolbar. You can grab the new Chrome extensions here.

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Kevin Fox, a former lead designer for Google Reader, has made an offer to Google on his blog. Kevin offers that he will sign a three month contract to come back to Google to help restore the Reader product after this week’s changes — which he isn’t a fan of by any means. In fact, most people aren’t happy with Google getting rid of old social features to implement Google+.

Kevin says that he will keep with the design changes that Google is making across all products, but will restore and enhance Google Reader to the product it should be. Here’s to the best Kevin.

Google’s Vincent Mo announced on his Google+ profile this evening that users can now +1 Google Plus Photos. The feature is available on the iPhone app and will make its way to the Android app soon. This is a highly requested feature that we’re very happy to see!

I’m super excited to announce one of the top requested features on Google+ Photos: You can now +1 a photo! Click on a photo to open the lightbox photo viewer, and you’ll see the +1 button at the bottom left side of the photo. Click to +1 the photo, or click the counter to see who else has +1’d it. Try it on the photo below! (Photo credit: +Thomas Hawk)

+1’ing a photo is also available in the latest Google+ iPhone app (http://goo.gl/gArY7) and is coming soon to the Android app and the mobile web site.

Thanks, and keep the feedback coming!

Along with updates to the Google Reader UI and the roll out of the GoogleTV 2.0 update, an update to the Google+ app for Android is live on the market today. The update brings so many changes, Lead Product Manager of Google+ Games and Mobile is calling it a “completely new Google+ app”

The UI has been given a complete overhaul and now seems like it will fit in a little nicer with the impending Ice Cream Sandwich roll out (it also closer resembles the iOS Google+ app UI). Among the other enhancements to the app– improved battery performance, notification improvements, a new posting UI, support for Google Apps users, and the ability to sign out. You can also now add people to a circle from circle profiles.

Android Police notes that the update removes the Google+ widget but Google+ Mobile product manager Punit Soni has confirmed that it will return soon for non-ICS devices. You should see the new Google+ app appearing in the market today. More images and full list of new features below.

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Google announced on their blog last week that they’d be redesigning Google Reader, and today the redesign has hit the interwebs. The redesign takes shape like almost every other Google product in terms of color, shapes, and speed.

Google Reader now also features Google+  functionality built in, after turning off friending and following in Reader. Users will be able to +1 a post and then from there have the ability to share it with their Google+ friends. Check it out after the break.

The redesign will begin rolling out to users in the coming days, so hold tight if you’re not yet seeing it. For me, the new redesign is welcomed, because I thought the last one was just plain bleh. Having the new look around Google is giving the company a cutting edge feel.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xcgCtYOkxhk]

Following this afternoon’s announcement that Google Apps users would now have access to Google+, Google announced some updates to the service via the Official Google Blog.

While noting that over 1 billion items of content are shared on Google+ each day, they announced a  new “What’s Hot” (video above) feature that will display the most popular items in two different places. The first place is after the latest posts in your stream and the second place is a standalone stream accessible from the sidebar on the left.

The new Ripples feature will allow you view to track analytics of public posts by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner of a post followed by the “View Ripples” option from the context menu. From there you will be able to view top comments and public shares as well as view and zoom in on activity related to the post using a timeline and interactive infographics. Check out the video of Ripples in action below:

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Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google will launch a new music download store that will interconnect with Google Plus in the next two weeks. Users will have the ability to buy songs for 99-cents each, after listening to it once for free.

The new music store will obviously be based off of Music Beta, which has allowed users to upload 20,000 songs for free as a storage locker. Music Beta doesn’t feature any song purchasing whatsoever. Presumably, when launched next week, Music Beta will turn into Google Music.

Google will interconnect Music with Google+. Users can share tracks with their circles, who can then play the song once for free and then purchase it after for 99-cents, reports WSJ. Interestingly, there was no mention of Music during the Ice Cream Sandwich launch, but we assume some more will be announced on that front..

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Google just announced on their Reader blog this afternoon, that Google Reader will be receiving an updated redesign to match many other products next week. When it comes to social features that Reader already has, Google will be removing friending, following, and shared links and implementing Google+ features instead.

The new redesign will most likely look like the redesign we’ve already seen across Mail, Docs, Maps, and more. Personally, I welcome the new theme, because currently I don’t think Reader looks good. I also like Google’s efforts to make their products look better.

Google’s Co-Founder Sergey Brin and VP of Product Vic Gundotra were just on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit taking questions from the audience. One question that has been sitting in the back of our minds that was asked is when Google+ will be available for Apps users. Gundotra answered that Google+ will be available for Apps users “in a number of days.”Gundotra also said that brand pages are on their way soon too, but not as quickly as Google+ for Apps users.

Gundotra said that Google+ wasn’t initially available for Apps users because of the technology changes that are needed. Gundotra didn’t think Google+ was going to take off so fast, and that they were going to put Google+ in the hands of Apps users faster.

Google has just announced on their blog that they will be shutting down Google Buzz in a few weeks. Users will be able to take out their data from Buzz with Google Takeout, but it will still be viewable on their Google Profile.

In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won’t be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.

Google also announced a slew of other products that will be closed in January of 2012, including Code Search, Jaiku, and iGoogle’s social features.

So what’s up with all of these product closures? As explained before, and also in yesterday’s earnings call, Google is trying to put more focus around core products. In today’s case it looks like these products will allow the Google team to focus more on Google+. I think we’re all fine with that, right?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beFP0REw3DM]

Google’s VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra just announced on Google+ this afternoon that Google+ is now rolling out real-time search and improved hashtags. Gundotra explains in the video above, and in his post:

Real-time search
Now when you search in Google+, you’ll see a message about new posts the instant they’re available. If you click on this message, or select “Most recent”, then relevant posts will start appearing in real-time.

Improved hashtag support
People have long used hashtags to mark their posts with certain topics — just ask our very own +Chris Messina, hashtag inventor. You don’t have to use hashtags on Google+ (search works fine without them), but when you do, we’ll automatically link to search results.

In attempt to grow their young social network, Google has taken out a full page ad in the traditional print version of the New York Times promoting Google+ Hangouts. Search Engine Land posted the photo above, where Google talks about the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu hosting a Hangout last week in their ad. Google strikes out parts to explain how they came to the rescue when the Dalai Lama wasn’t granted a visa to visit South Africa.

Google’s decision to take out a full ad was definitely smart. Yesterday numbers were published by an analyst showing how much of Google+’s traffic is beginning to decline, but maybe spreading the social network to a different set of people will help. That ad is great and all, but why didn’t Google use some images to catch the eye?

What once used to send you to Picasa Web Albums, the “photos” link on Google’s navigation bar now sends you to Google+’s Photo service — Google Operating System discovered. Google+’s Photo service displays photos from your circles, from your Android phone, photo’s you’ve been tagged in, and your list of Picasa Web albums. Google+ Photos is still missing some editing features, album descriptions, and the ability to edit prints.

Don’t get this confused however, as Picasa is still available by manually typing in the URL. But, this seems for the best, right?

A few weeks ago a report surfaced that Google Plus saw 1269% user growth, due to the social network opening up to the public and earning a nice spot on the Google homepage. Today, however, analytics firm Chitika is reporting that Google Plus’s traffic has dropped 60% — indicated by the graph above.

Are people not digging Google Plus?

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Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am has announced on Google+ that his music group will be hosting a backstage hangout, well, via Google+ Hangouts. The Hangout will take place tomorrow at 6 PM EST, before the BEP’s concert in Central Park. Will.i.am posted:

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”

Yeah guys, Fergie will probably be there too.

As noted by The Next Web, Google’s VP of Product Bradley Horowitz, told Wired in an interview that Google+ will soon be Google. “Be Google?”, you’re probably thinking. What he means is that Google+ will soon not be its own product, but rather tied into almost every service offered by Google. You may remember when Google+ was sort-of tied into YouTube, but Horowitz says it will go deeper than that.

“Until now, every single Google property acted like a separate company. Due to the way we grew, through various acquisitions and the fierce independence of each division within Google, each product sort of veered off in its own direction.

… But Google+ is Google itself. We’re extending it across all that we do—search, ads, Chrome, Android, Maps, YouTube—so that each of those services contributes to our understanding of who you are.”

Google+ will soon be tied into ads (which has already happened), Chrome, Android, Maps, and more. This will begin to make a definitive Google product, leaving Google+ no longer acting as a separate company. This should make it easier on the non-technical folk, unlike you or me.