Google Plus

Googler Matt Cutts has posted to Google+ while running the San Francisco marathon. The post of his time, as seen in the image above, has already received over a 160 reactions. Keep on truckin’ Matt!

To add a new social experience, Youtube Live has been integrated into Google+ Hangouts reports GigaOm. In the past, Hangouts users could watch Youtube videos together, but today, they can now watch Live events Youtube hosts on occasion. Past events include concrets and speeches from the Whitehouse. Want to give it a try? Follow the directions below.

• Start a Hangouts session in Google+ and invite your contacts to join you.
• In a separate browser tab, head over toYouTube.com/Live and select a live stream of your choice
• Copy the YouTube video I.D. of the selected live stream. Not sure how to find it? Just click on theshare link below the video. You’ll get to see a link like http://youtu.be/XXXXXXXX – the cryptic code after the slash is the video I.D.
• Switch back to hangouts, open the video tab and search for the I.D.
• Click play, and you’re all set.

According to a report from Experian Hitwise, Google+ has seen a 3% decrease in traffic over the past week. But don’t let this worry you, as Google+ has seen a 9% traffic increase from Gmail. Maybe Google+’s hype has worn off, but it’s great to see Google+’s integration across their services is paying off. We obviously expect numbers to go back up again when the service goes public — whenever that may be.

via ReadWriteWeb
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Robert Scoble has posted some highlights of his talk with Google VP +Vic Gundotra regarding the Google+ name fiaso. Gundotra told Scoble Google deleted Google+ accounts that spell their names in “weird ways like using upside-down characters, or who are using obviously fake names, like “god” or worse.”

There have been reports that Google has had a couple missteps in their deleting process. Gundotra says Google is working on making this a smoother process:

He says they have made some mistakes while doing the first pass at this and they are learning. He also says the team will change how they communicate with people. IE, let them know what they are doing wrong, etc.

Bradly Horowitz, Google’s VP of Product, had much more to say on the matter including some “myth busting” (below):
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While we’ve already reported Google will release business profiles for Google+, VentureBeat is reporting these business profiles will be getting some pretty cool features.. besides a company page. The new features include analytics and more sharing features, while consumer accounts will be left without. Business profiles are due out in the coming months in an open beta, while VentureBeat says analytics and sharing features will be due out around Q3 2011. 

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Here’s a new idea for Google+ — musician Daria Musk is hosting a concert over a Google+ Hangout. Currently, Hangouts are limited to ten users so Daria is streaming the event on the website HangoutParty. Go ahead and enjoy some good music!

via Robert Scoble

Following Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen’s estimate that Google+ amassed ten million accounts in just two weeks and the subsequent confirmation from Google, comScore is out today with fresh stats derived from cumulative unique visitor data from around the world. While the research firm did not attempt to estimate the number of unique user accounts, they found out that about 20 million unique visitors worldwide loaded Google+ pages as of July 19, just three weeks after the service debuted:

The evidence shows that Google+ is off to a strong start in its first few weeks with a global audience of 20 million visitors. It has clearly captured the attention of the technorati and as usage incubates among this crowd it will likely continue to proliferate to a more general audience. That number represents an increase of 82% from the previous week and 561% vs. two weeks prior. The U.S. audience recently surpassed 5 million visitors, up 81% from the previous week and 723% from two weeks earlier.

Their data is based on unique visitors and includes visits from both Google+ users and non-users who may have visited plus.google.com pages. Bear in mind that the numbers exclude visits from mobile devices and usage that occurs through the Google+ bar at the top of most Google pages. Google+ seems to be off to a great start everywhere, with 63 percent visits from abroad. The top five non-US markets include India with 2.8 million visitors, the UK (867,000 visitors), Canada (859,000 visitors) and Germany (706,000 visitors). More interesting data points right below the fold.

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We have already seen snippets of code revealing Games is headed to Google+, but this morning it has been confirmed. SlashGear reports on the Google+ help page there is talk about a Games stream, where users can find updates from shared games. Google+ Games will have a sharing aspect, and the Games stream will sum up what your friends have shared from within those games.There is no word on when this will be available.
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[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oafKRykUg”]

Google’s Christian Oestlien announced on Google+ tonight that company pages on Google+ will be coming in the next few months to everyone in an open beta. Oestlien says “tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organization” have applied since registration started almost two weeks ago. Originally, Google was going to use a select group of businesses chosen from their registration.

While you wait over the next few months, Google doesn’t want you to create a page for your business — rather use a person to represent your business. Google has already closed down Mashable and numerous other businesses. Shh…

Business Insider is reporting Google has acquired social group startup Fridge. Fridge was apart of Y-Combinator, and announced it was closing its doors last week. Last night, Fridge told BI that they have been acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.

Specifically, Fridge was acquired for Google+. Fridge’s four man team will begin working on the product starting next week, and we assume since they are a social group startup, their primary focus will be around Circles.

In order to grow their social network, Google has put together a ‘celebrity acquisition plan’ reports CNN. The plan revolves around Google adding a verification process to Google+ for celebrities, keeping out the impersonators. This is very similar to Twitter’s ‘verified account’ feature many celebrities and public figures have taken advantage of.

Besides celebrity accounts, Google has been working hard on getting businesses to join their social network. Google opened up a registration for companies interested in getting a company page just a few weeks ago. Perhaps presence of celebrities and businesses will grow Google+ to new heights.
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After a few tense days of anticipation, Apple has finally released Google Plus for iOS devices…

Google Plus just showed up in the App Store.  It is a free app and will allow iOS users (not iPad universal yet) to connect with their Google Plus ‘Circles’.  Bonus: Google+ iphone app doesn’t work with iOS beta 3.

Description

Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in.

Features:
* Circles let you share the right things with just the right people.
* Stream is where you can get updates from your circles or see what people are saying about things nearby.
* Huddle is super-fast group messaging for everyone in your circles.

Google+ is only available for users 13 and older.

Just yesterday, we were wondering what the holdup was.  Now where’s our Skype for iPad!?

More screenies below..
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Michael Dell hosting a hangout

GigaOm is reporting that Michael Dell, Dell’s CEO and chairman, wants to use Google+ Hangouts for customer service. Michael Dell has used Hangsouts more than a dozen times to connect with customers, showing he’s a fan of the service and he yesterday said on Google+:

I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?

As of now Google+ is in an invite only beta, so this idea couldn’t be executed yet. But this is certainly some good thinking.

Google gave all employees moving into the Zurich office apples with the Google logo engraved.
Source: Webilus.fr

It is hard to escape the buzz flying around Google+, the search monster’s latest social thing. It raised red flags at Facebook where Mark Zuckerberg summoned a hastily organized news conference that fell on def ears with general public. The presser was a classic case of over-promising and under-delivering as Zuckerberg’s “awesome announcement” turned out a yet another dull unveiling of way overdue features, such as group chat and Skype integration. But who would have though just a month ago that Google would put the fear of God into Facebook with what many consider an unusual take on social networking?

Nobody saw it coming when co-founder Larry Page took the reigns April 4 from Eric Schmidt. What a difference a few weeks make. An invite-only service closed for public in two weeks since launch signed up more than ten million users. And when it opens for everyone later this year, the hundred million milestone will be well within reach. Page, who once famously called Steve Jobs a liar, put the pedal to the metal from his first day as CEO by tying executive bonuses to their contributions to the company’s social strides. The move quickly earned him notoriety among tech watchers and his own employees.

But unlike Mark Zuckerberg – who may try to be, but is certainly no Steve Jobs on stage  (see why in the below YouTube clip) – Page has notably been keeping low profile while cunningly taking clues from Apple’s iconic leader. We were told about “moon shots”, to the dismay of many watchers (this author included). Page was stiffing innovation and focusing too much on corporate bureaucracy, many cried…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYfvf40ZVc]

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A new Chrome Extension called GTools+ allows you to customize Google+ to your liking. The extension features many customizations — like moving Chat to the Google Bar, adding an unread counter for Gmail and Reader, language translation for posts from your foreign friends, and the ability to keep the Google Bar at the top of the page when you scroll down. GTools+ is available on the Chrome Web Store. All of GTools+’s features:

- Unified Google bar, your personalized menu is possible on all Google services!
- Stick the Google+ bar always on top when you scrolling
- Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on link inside the Google+ bar
- Change the position of the chat for put in the Google+ Bar
- Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar
- Right click on the extension icon for go to the options page fastest
- Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language)
- Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar.
- Edit the color of any notification bubble.

via Nirmal TV
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If your Google+ profile is ever suspended for any reason, it won’t be the worst thing to happen because other services tied to your Google+ account could be rendered inaccessible as a result. As far as Google is concerned, Google Profiles and Google+ Profiles are the same thing and removing one for whatever reason will take down the other. If you intend on building your online identity on Google+, you should read the following guidelines carefully.

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Google+ is gaining momentum with each passing day but the search giant isn’t content with resting on its laurels. Google is aware that it’s facing an uphill battle if it wants to dethrone Facebook so they’re iterating and rolling out new features like crazy. Here’s a quick overview of the more notable enhancements coming soon to Google+.

Rohit Khare, who was added to Google social team following the Angstro acquisition in late 2010, announced that an address book uploader will be rolling out to everyone over the next few days. This will let you export your friends list from other social services in the standard CSV or vCard formats, without messing up your other Google Contacts.

By the way, bear in mind that the folks you put into your Circles are automatically added to your Google Contacts’ Other Contacts section. Previously this week, Engineering Manager for Gmail frontend Mark Striebeck mentioned “several Gmail/Google+ integrations” and he already arranged several Hangouts to discuss the topic. And you may have heard that Google+ features for businesses are coming, too.

Go past the break for more features and a couple of clips…

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmZ7hYY24U]

Regardless of your politics, this is interesting.  Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich talked with a group over Hangout — taking questions and even asking them. Among other topics, Newt talked space to the debt ceiling, and someone was nice enough to post a video recap. This is an incredible tool for politicians to use, and we expect more to hop on as the election nears.

via Vic Gundotra 
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In the two weeks since it launched, Google+ is closing in on its first major milestone, the ten millionth user. The news was published in a post by Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com (not related in any way to Microsoft’s co-founder and tech gossip books author). He wrote this morning:

My surname-based analysis shows that the number of Google+ users worldwide reached 7.3 million yesterday (July 10) – up from 1.7 million users on July 4th. That is a 350 percent increase in six days. The userbase is growing so quickly that it is challenging for me to keep up, since the number of users of any given surname (even the rare ones I am tracking) seems to be climbing every day. More impressive than last week’s growth is the astonishing growth in users from yesterday at mid-day to tonight — a 30% jump. My latest estimate tonight shows approximately 9.5 million users. This suggests that 2.2 million people have joined Google+ in the past 32-34 hours. I project that Google will easily pass 10 million users tomorrow and could reach 20 million user by this coming weekend if they keep the Invite Button available. As one G+ user put it, it is easy to underestimate the power of exponential growth.

Allen also found out that Google+ is especially popular overseas with one US user for every 2.12 non-US users, although that ratio is likely to change over time. If Google+ continues growing at this pace, the service could easily amass a hundred million users before the Fall, at which point Facebook might wanna hit the panic button.

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As we reported last week, Google is working on a photo sharing service called  Photovine.

Photovine site is now live but not “open for business”.  It doesn’t appear to be part of Google Plus though it will offer some “social network service integration”.  It is also weird that the start page has an iPhone rather than a Nexus S and the like..

Google, who barely appear on the page at all, advertises the service:

Photovine is a community that’s about creating fun and unique collections of photos that we call Vines. In Photovine, vines connect you with people through the ideas and themes expressed in your photos. A vine is like a constantly growing family of photos connected through a common caption created by you, your friends, and people all over the world. Some examples of vines could be: “What Weekends Are Made Of”, “Secret Stuffed Animal”, “Party People”, or, “Love of My Life”. As people add photos to vines, they tell their own stories about the moments, images, and ideas that define our lives in a way that’s social, creative, and fun. Start a vine by taking a photo and creating a new caption, or add to an existing vine. Other people will see your vine and join in by adding their own photo, showing their own take on the caption.

More Q&A below:
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The ever growing circle of Google+ fans was hit by a glitch which caused the system issue a massive number of notification messages to some users. The servers basically were spamming some users inboxes because the search giant has ran out of disk space, the company’s social chief Vic Gundotra explained in a post on Google+ yesterday.

Please accept our apologies for the spam we caused this afternoon. For about 80 minutes we ran out of disk space on the service that keeps track of notifications. Hence our system continued to try sending notifications. Over, and over again. Yikes. We didn’t expect to hit these high thresholds so quickly, but we should have. Thank you for helping us during this field trial, and once again, we are very sorry for the spam.

It seems a bit strange that the company which operates massive data centers around the world would have any issues with disk space, but it is possible that Google+ engineers underestimated interest in the service which by some estimates already has five million users.

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