Looks like Google+ is turning more than a few heads within the social space, drawing some attention away from the "mothership" that is Facebook.
If, like the majority, you haven't had a chance to explore Google's rival to Facebook yet, Technobombs has put together a helpful comparison of the two services.
If it was a boxing match, going on this example Google+ may just take it on points but the additional features Facebook has make it a tightly contested bout.
Who wins it for you? Will you and your friends be switching to Google+ anytime soon? Tell us in the comments below.
Google+ Released, Bringing MySpace Back, New Google Metrics, Twitter for Developers, StumbleUpon Widget and the Pope's First Tweet
Google+
This week the search giant unveiled its rival to Facebook, Google+. However, access to the "limited field test" had to be halted almost immediately after its launch, due to demand by users (it is now possible to buy invites on ebay). Google+ is the companies social initiative that brings friend streams, group video chat and group texting to Google's millions of users. For more information you can check out the mycleveragency blog post on Google+.
Bringing MySpace Back
Singer Justin Timberlake has joined forces with Specific Media to purchase MySpace for a fee of $35 million. This represents a significant loss for News Corp. who bought the site in 2005 for $580 million. The singer will not be taking a back seat however, and is set to be involved in the creative process of updating MySpace. This comes despite Sean Parker (who Timberlake played in The Social Network) recently explaining the collapse of MySpace. There is more on the mycleveragency blog.
It has been a busy week for Google. As well as announcing Google+ they have also unveiled an improvement to their Webmaster tools. It will now be possible to measure the effect of 'Tweet', 'Share' and +1 buttons. This will show the added value of the +1 button in search results, whilst also showing the effect of other sharing buttons whilst users are on the site. There is also a sneaky preview of the new Gmail.
Twitter Site for Platfrom Developers?
Twitter is working to develop and launch a dedicated site for developers working on the Twitter platform. The new site could be launched sometime in July, company officials said. The fast-growing company has had a hot-and-cold relationship with its developer community, to put it mildly. Many early developers built products 'such as Twitter clients' and helped the network grow but later found themselves in competition with the company itself, which ended up buying clients.
StumbleUpon has this week released a share widget for websites. Working in much the same way as the 'Tweet' or 'Share' button, website owners can create a widget for their page. By using the Widget Creator, you can insert one line of code into your blog or website that includes either your favourites or sites that are rated the highest within an interest and/or domain. You can choose from three different sizes including square-ish (300×250), wide rectangle (600×250) and tall rectangle (160×600).
Pope Sends First Tweet
Pope Benedict XVI has sent his first tweet to launch a Vatican news and information portal on the 60th anniversary of his ordination. His message read: "Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI." The Pope, 84, used an iPad to activate the portal and send the tweet.
Google is certainly dominating the news this week, closely followed by Justin Timberlake and MySpace. Do you think either social network has the power to rival Facebook or even Twitter? Or are you more interested in the new Google Analytics or Twitter developer site? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below...
Twitted and LinkedIn Ads, American Express and Foursquare, Skype and Facebook, Foursquare Reaches 10 Million, Klout Comes to Facebook, Google Photosharing and Harry Potter
Twitter Ads
After nine months of testing in-stream Promoted Tweets on third party client Hootsuite, reports have surfaced today that Twitter’s head of monetization Adam Bain has been pushing a new in-timeline Promoted Tweets product during this week’s advertiser-heavy Canne Lions awards. To the two of you that this comes to as a shock, one word: Inevitable. Twitter has made no secret of the fact that in-stream Promoted Tweets have been an eventual business model goal since April of 2010.
LinkedIn today announced that they plan to roll out changes to the advertising platform across LinkedIn which will surface actions from your network, like recommendations and company follows. The focus is to deliver ads that are more useful and relevant to you. Above are a couple of examples that illustrate these changes well.
American Express & Foursquare Team Up
Last March, foursquare rolled out a small test with American Express: link your AmEx and foursquare accounts, spend at least $5 at a local merchant in Austin, and get a $5 savings applied directly to your monthly statement. They have now announced that the partnership is going national. Across the whole country, at select merchants, you can now check-in with foursquare, pay with your American Express card, and get big savings on your monthly statement.
Skypes Facebook Integration
With the announcement of Skype 5.5 Beta it has also been confirmed that Skype is continuing to bring people together whenever they are apart by introducing an easier way to connect with family and friends on Facebook. You can now instant message your Facebook friends directly from Skype, helping you stay connected with the people that matter the most to you. Simply use the new Facebook contacts tab within Skype to see when a Facebook friend you want to chat with is online and then start an IM conversation right from within.
This week foursquare reached its 10,000,000th user. This is a massive achievement for the company that already has over half a million brands and companies, and over 10,000 developers taking advantage of its API. The company is also thought to be planning another round of funding as its value is now believed to have exceeded the $1 billion mark.
Klout Comes to Facebook
Klout have announced that they're partnering with Involver to allow brands to provide customized experiences to their Facebook fans based on Klout Scores. Besides the number of fans, brands know surprisingly little about who those people are, their potential reach, and have little ability to message them individually. Now, with this partnership, brands can choose to give different offers, promotions, or messaging to fans based on their Klout.
Google Photosharing?
Recent reports seem to indicate that Google is aiming to launch a new photo sharing platform called “Photovine”. The reports surfaced from The San Francisco Chronicle that Google secured the trademark “Photovine”. The clever move is predicted to be a small part of a wider strategy to offset the positive growth of the expanding territory belonging to Facebook.
Pottermore
JK Rowling shocked and thrilled her fans in equal measure today, with the revelation that her new venture Pottermore was set to feature a wealth of new and previously unpublished material about the world of Harry Potter. Although the author made clear that she had "no plans to write another novel", the fresh Potter material – to be unveiled later this year - already stretches to 18,000 words about the novels' characters, places and objects, with more to come.
This week it is all about ads and partnerships. Can Twitter or LinkedIn Ads improve on the Facebook model? What would be your ultimate social partnership? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below...
TechCrunch have revealed something massive - documents and images outlining what appears to be a new Facebook iPhone app built around photo sharing. With apps like Instagram and Colour exploding onto the mobile scene, it is clear that Facebook is keen to focus on mobile photos going forward.
Project Spartan
TechCrunch have also unveiled another Facebook secret project codenamed Project Spartan. They believe it is the codename for a new platform Facebook is on the verge of launching. It's entirely HTML5-based and the aim is to reach some 100 million users in a key place: mobile. More specifically, the initial target is mobile Safari.
Me, Myself & I
Google have released a new tool to help make it easier to monitor your identity on the web and to provide easy access to resources describing ways to control what information is on the web. This tool, Me on the Web, appears as a section of the Google Dashboard right beneath the Account details.
Measure Your LinkedIn Klout
Klout have this week launched a scoring system for LinkedIn. Once you add LinkedIn to Klout, you'll notice a LinkedIn logo will appear on your profile and your influence on the network will be added to your score. The system measures in a very similar way to its existing Twitter and Facebook metrics.
Facebook Hire Former Clinton Press Secretary
The Telegraph reports that Joe Lockhart, a former press secretary for President Bill Clinton, is joining Facebook to oversee the company's international and corporate communications efforts. Mr Lockhart is set to join Facebook next month as Vice President of Global Communications, and represents the company's latest move to enlist Washington insiders.
According to their respective websites, 4-year-old microblogging platform Tumblr now hosts more blogs than 8-year-old WordPress.com. In January, Tumblr had more than 7 million individual blogs. Whilst there's still not much in it, what is clear is that Tumblr is on the up.
Lots of exciting developments surrounding Facebook this week. What do you make of their plans? Will you be using Google to monitor your identity? Or are you more interested in your Klout? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below...
Google have this week announced that it is taking its +1 feature beyond just search results.
The +1 feature allows you to recommend content to your friends and contacts directly from Google search results and ads. But from today you will begin seeing the feature appearing not just on search results but also on web pages.
The +1 button will now go head-to-head with other similar sharing buttons offered by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr. Google have already announced partnerships with a number of sites where you will be seeing the +1 button from today:
The feature will also begin appearing on Google properties such as Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube.
Google hope that +1's integration with search results will make it an attractive feature to publishers, who stand to gain more traffic when their visitors +1 content.
It is important however to remember that the +1 feature is still only an experimental feature that Google search users need to opt in to. Friends' recommendations will only start to appear once you have opted in and are signed into your Google account.
As with most other sharing buttons, setting up the +1 button on your website is straightforward. Google has created a simple tool that lets you choose from a number of sizes and styles, and then provides the appropriate JavaScript code that you can cut and paste into your site.
Google's biggest challenge will be attempting to compete with the Facebook 'Like" button, which already appears on hundreds of thousands of third party sites. However, +1 has the advantage of appearing in search results, meaning users do not have to visit a site to +1 it.
So as the battle between Google and Facebook rages on who will emerge victorious? Does the +1 button present a realistic challenge to Facebook's ubiquitous 'Like' button?
Google have this week announced that it is taking it's +1 feature beyond just search results.
The +1 feature allows you to recommend content to your friends and contacts directly from Google search results and ads. But from this week you will begin seeing the feature appearing not just on search results but also on web pages.
The +1 button will now go head-to-head with other similar sharing buttons offered by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr. Google have already announced partnerships with a number of sites where you will be seeing the +1 button from today:
The feature will also begin appearing on Google properties such as Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube.
Google hope that +1's integration with search results will make it an attractive feature to publishers, who stand to gain more traffic when their visitors +1 content.
It is important however to remember that the +1 feature is still only an experimental feature that Google search users need to opt in to. Friends' recommendations will only start to appear once you have opted in and are signed into your Google account.
Google's biggest challenge will be attempting to compete with the Facebook 'Like" button, which already appears on hundreds of thousands of third party sites. However, +1 has the advantage of appearing in search results meaning users do not have to visit a site to +1 it.
So as the battle between Google and Facebook rages on who will emerge victorious? Does the +1 button present a realistic challeneg to Facebook's ubiquitous 'Like' button?
