Google+ Updates Follow Button, Photos And Badges

To celebrate its second birthday, Google+ has released a new Follow button for websites, updated Google+ Photos and redesigned Badges for Profiles and Pages. Google+ has also released a new Communities Badge, allowing Community managers to advertise their Google+ Communities on their websites.

On Friday, Google’s Vic Gundotra, posted a celebratory message on Google+:

Two years ago we started the Google+ project. We're still young, with lots of growing left to do, but today we wanted to stop (for just a second) and say thanks. It's your support, your feedback, and your enthusiasm that make Google+ so awesome. So let's keep building something to love. Together.

That same day, Google announced changes to various Google+ Plugins, as well as to Google+ Photos.

The Google+ Follow button is a plugin that users can integrate into their websites, which allows visitors to follow them on Google+. Visitors can even add the website owners to a specific Google+ Circle. The Follow widget is compact and, when clicked, confirms the ‘follow’ action. The total number of Google+ followers the user has is displayed beside the button. According to the announcement post on the Google+ Developers Blog, the Follow button is easy to integrate:

The Follow button is simple to add to your website. In fact, if you've already installed the +1 button, no new JavaScript is required. Just configure the plugin, add the markup to your page, and you’re all set.

Google+ has redesigned Profile and Page Badges, giving users more customisation options. Google+ users have been invited to update their Badges now, but the old Badges will be around for another 87 days (it was 90 days on Friday). Users can decide between a dark or a light badge colour scheme, toggle the cover photo on and off, and make their badge landscape or portrait. At the very least, Badges must consist of a profile picture, a name and a Follow button.

According to Google+, Community managers have been requesting Community Badges for some time. Like the Profile and Page Badges, the new Community Badges are fully customisable, but instead of featuring a Follow button, Community Badges contain a Preview button, allowing visitors to a Community manager’s website the opportunity to preview their Google+ Community page in a new tab, without leaving the original webpage.

From there they can view recent posts (subject to your community's privacy settings), as well as join. Returning to your site is as simple as closing the new tab.

Google’s Jon Emerson posted about further changes being made to Google+. Google+ Photos has been improved, “Making it easier to move, download, and upload your Google+ photos”:

• A new “Move” option makes it easy to move photos between albums. Just pick a few photos in an album (or click the new “Select” link to select all of them) and choose where they go. 
• Easier photo downloads. Once you’ve selected photos, use the new “Download” option to save them to your computer. 
• Faster uploading for large sets of photos. We’ve made a few small changes that make adding photos from your desktop an even smoother process.

Emerson goes onto say that Google+ will continue to improve Photos based on user feedback.

What do you think of Google+’s recent updates?

Social Media Promotions Of The Week: 14/06/13

This week’s SMPW is all about fan interaction, with all five brands featured thinking of novel approaches to engage their fans. Here are the five:

1. Burberry – Burberry Kisses



High street fashion retailer Burberry has teamed up with Google to create Burberry Kisses: a campaign which allows fans of the brand to send their loved ones messages sealed with a digitised imprint of their kiss.

To seal their message, fans just have to either kiss their touchscreen device when prompted or pucker up for the webcam. Users can even choose their lipstick colour.

Burberry has set up a special site to send the sealed messages, with a map which displays all the messages being sent in real-time. The messages are sent using Gmail and they can be +1’d on Google+.

2. Skittles – Figurines


Skittles has released a new interactive viral video entitled figurines, which gives fans the choice of which figurine to smash next.

Each figurine has its very own video, which will be shown when selected.

The video has over 25,000 views on YouTube at the time of writing.

3. Vanish – Vanish Tip Exchange


Detergent brand Vanish is inviting its fans to send in videos with helpful tips on how to get rid of tough stains.

There are 38 tip exchange videos on Vanish’s YouTube channel, some with over two thousand views.

The Vanish Tip Exchange app on Facebook asks visitors if they have a tip or a stain, then the community helps or appreciates accordingly.

4. Cow & Gate – Dance Dance Baby

Cow & Gate are looking for the next generation of dancers to star in their Dance Dance Baby advert.

The baby care company’s Facebook fans can upload a video of their child dancing onto a specially created app page. The dancing stars have to be between 9 months and 3 years old. The uploaded videos have been posted onto a gallery page.

The best dancers will feature in Cow & Gate’s upcoming advert.

5. JELL-O – Jigglevision

American confectionery company JELL-O has created Jigglevision. Jigglevision allows you to write, hide and send secret messages on Facebook.

To read the message, the recipient has to hold a pot of red JELL-O over it. The JELL-O makes the message instantly visible.

Although Jigglevision is accessible via a Facebook app, it can be shared on Twitter or via email as well as onsite.

Which is your favourite SMPW this week?

Google Reportedly Finalising Talks To Buy Waze For $1.3 Billion

After rejecting advances from Apple and Facebook, Israeli traffic monitoring and navigation company Waze is reportedly in the final stages of a $1.3 billion deal with Google, who are looking to consolidate their position as king of the app mapping systems.

A number of conflicting reports have been published over the last few months: at first it was believed that Apple were the frontrunners in the pursuit of Waze, but after the company’s mapping software was so poorly received, the rumours died down. Facebook then emerged as favourites, supposedly offering Waze’s founders $1 billion, double what Apple had offered the company, for the rights to the navigation software.

The talks, however, were unsuccessful, especially after Google reportedly swooped in and offered Waze a deal they couldn’t refuse: $1.3 billion in cash upfront, as well as the agreement that Waze would remain a separate brand, Noam Bardin would continue on as CEO and the company’s offices would stay in Israel for at least 3 years – there has been some suggestion that Waze and Facebook’s negotiations broke down because Facebook wanted to move Waze’s offices to the States. The article by Israel-based publication “Globes”, who first reported the story, has been corroborated by a number of Israeli sources.

Waze is an optimal route navigation app, which tracks traffic congestion and road blocks using social updates: Waze’s users, or “Wazers”, share real-time traffic information and road alerts with each other. This information is then visualised on Waze’s road map, with other users and points of interest marked. To create the map, Waze gathers GPS data from Wazers, informing others of slow routes and traffic. Wazers can also mark road blocks or mobile speed cameras on the map hands-free.

Waze and Google could be a match made in heaven for people sick of cluttered roads on their commute: Google’s almost faultless mapping technology, when combined with Waze’s social navigation data, will almost certainly make negotiating traffic far easier.


Do you think Waze will improve Google maps? Do you use Waze already? Is it good? Will you use it if Google acquires it?       

Google+ Now Has “Photos” Search Filter

Google+ has added a new filter to its search engine, “Photos”, allowing users to search for just photos using keywords.

There are now seven categorical options for filtering searches: Everything, People and Pages, Communities, Google+ posts, Hangouts, Photos and events.

To use the filter, users must first search for whatever they are looking for, then select “Photos” from the drop-down box.

Users will be able to see any photos shared publicly, or they can choose to view just the photos that they have uploaded themselves, photos which have been sent to them or photos from people in their circles.

Like Facebook, with its proposed news feed redesign, Google+ is becoming more and more image-focused. Google+’s recently updated profile pages, for example, feature enormous cover photos, which grab the viewers attention and take up almost the entirety of the screen.

In fact, Google+ has become a great forum for photographers, both amateur and professional, to share their work. Dave Cohen, the Google employee who announced the update on his Google+ page, suggested some great searches for photography enthusiasts:

- Long exposure: https://plus.google.com/s/long%20exposure/photos
- Steel wool: https://plus.google.com/s/steel%20wool/photos
- Cartoons: https://plus.google.com/s/cartoons/photos

The new Photos search filter should be available to all users.

Do you post many photos on Google+? Have you found any great photos using the new search filter?

Google Redesigns Google+ Profile Page

Today, Facebook is unveiling its first News Feed redesign in over a year and, earlier this week, they began testing a new-look Timeline. Google has beaten its rival to the punch, having released a new Google+ profile page earlier today.

The first thing users will notice when they go on their Google+ profile page today is a prompt to update the cover photo. Cover photos are now a lot bigger than they were before, up to 2120px by 1192px and displaying in 16x9.

Profile photos are now circles instead of squares, but they still sit in the bottom left-hand corner of the cover photo, remaining roughly the same size as before. The new cover photo provides businesses and individuals with a larger canvas on which to personalize their page and promote their brand.


A “Reviews” tab has been added to the toolbar, where users can post reviews of local places and highlight their favourite restaurants. The Reviews tab can be hidden using the Google+ settings.

Finally, the “About” tab has been updated, so each section is clearly separated. People, Story, Work, Education, Basic Information, Places, Contact Information, Apps and Links are all in distinct boxes. Users can easily edit each box thanks to an “edit” link at the bottom.

According to the announcement post on Google+, the updates will be “rolling out gradually”.

Do you like the redesigned Google+ profile page?

Google Improves Accessibility In Google+ Hangouts

Last week, Google improved accessibility in Google+ Hangouts, adding a Sign Language Interpreter app and Improving keyboard shortcuts.

Hangouts already has a number of features to improve accessibility to the deaf, the hard of hearing, the blind and the partially sighted, two of which were mentioned in the announcement post on the Google+ page of Anna Cavender, a member of the Hangouts team:

The Hangout Captions app, for example, enables live transcription services for the deaf and hard of hearing (http://goo.gl/4RujF). And "Take the Floor" makes it easier for sign language speakers to do a Hangout together (http://goo.gl/chyKS).

The Sign Language Interpreter app lets the deaf or hard of hearing invite interpreters to speak or sign for them during Hangouts. The interpreter appears in the top right hand corner of the hangout window, or becomes the focus whenever they translate sign. The app can be installed from this link: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_?gid=532733437531.

There are also a number of new keyboard shortcuts for Hangout users who don’t want to use their mouse:

For example: muting your microphone is now as simple as Ctrl+D (PC) or Command+D (Mac), and you can start chatting with Ctrl+B (PC) or Command+B (Mac). To view the full list of keyboard shortcuts just type '?' while in a Hangout, or visit this page: support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?answer=2752487.

Both the features will be rolling out worldwide gradually.

Are you excited to try out Google+ Hangouts new features?

Google Changes “Circles” Tab To “Find People”

Google has renamed the Google+ “Circles” button in the toolbar to “Find People”, a move suggesting further changes to come.

Google is supposedly making the changes to keep up with the constant stream of new members joining Google+ every day. In September 2012, Google reported that it had surpassed the 100 million monthly active user mark. A few weeks ago, the Global Web Index reported that, in December 2012, Google+ registered almost 350 million monthly active users. In just four months, Google+ increased its MAU figures by 250 million.

“With so many new people signing up for Google+ every day, it’s easy to miss friends and colleagues who’ve recently joined”, said Google employee Sean Purcell on his Google+ page when the update was made. “So today we’re making some updates to Google+ to help you find people you care about and add them to your circles.”

The “Circles” icon has been renamed to make navigation easier for new users who might not know what Google+ Circles are. Google were concerned that new users would have difficulty working out how to add their friends and colleagues: a function vital to the usability and popularity of the service. Renaming the button “Find People” makes its function self evident to Google+ novices.


Clicking on the “Find People” button takes the user to a list of suggested people to add. On the right of the page there is a list of suggested areas to look, including “Find Coworkers”, “Find Classmates” and “Gmail Contacts”, which allows users to see people who they are already talking to on Gmail. Furthermore, there is a “Connect Services” button with options to link the users Yahoo and Hotmail accounts to their Google+ profile to find more contacts.

Although the “Circles” button in the toolbar on the right of the screen has been changed, Google+’s defining Circles feature still exists in the form it was before: users can categorise the people they add into circles for colleagues, friends, family, acquaintances or following, managing their circles in the “Your Circles” tab at the top of the page. Users can also still create circles if the pre-existing options don’t fit the description of their relationship.

Do you like the changes Google has made to Google+?

Gmail Compose Box Gets New Features

The Gmail compose box, which was released late last year, now allows users to add labels and stars to messages.

“How many times have you been writing an email and had to reference something in another message? Saving a draft, opening the old email, and then reopening your draft wastes valuable minutes. The new compose pops up in a window, just like chats (only larger),” said product manager Phil Sharp on the Google Enterprise blog.

“This makes it easy to reference any other emails without ever having to close your draft. You can even do a search or keep an eye on new mail as it comes in. And because the compose window works the same way as chats, you can write multiple messages at once and minimize a message to finish it later.”

Gmail users can now add stars to important messages in the compose box and labels in order to categorise them, making sorting and finding sent emails easier and quicker.

The update was announced by the Gmail Google+ account, informing users that both new features can be found in the More Options menu of the compose box.

How useful have you found these updates to Gmail?

YouTube Adds Six Languages To Their Automatic Captions

Google has announced that automatic captions on YouTube are now available in six additional European languages; French, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian.

YouTube now covers a broad range of European languages since these options have been added. Although the automatic captions are far from perfect, they are likely to improve over time.
The captioning feature was originally only available in English when the option was launched in 2009. The video sharing site also now supports Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

Google says that “Automatic captions can be a starting point, where creators can then download them for editing, or edit them in-line on YouTube. Creators can also upload plain-text transcripts in these languages, and the same technology will generate automatically-synchronized captions.”
To choose the language that the captions are shown in, you have to select the closed caption button on a video that has this feature available to it.

YouTube say that they already offer about 200 million videos that come with automatic and human-created captions.

Do you use captions in YouTube videos?

Free Promoted Tweets Offered To Charities During Hurricane Sandy

Twitter are offering free promoted tweets to a number of charities and organizations as Hurricane Sandy sweeps across the East Coast of North America.
The companies involved in the campaign are the Red Cross, FEMA, the New York City’s Mayor’s Office and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Free promoted crisis tweets are one example of a number of charitable initiatives Twitter have provided over the last few years, including #hopeforjapan and the International Literacy Day, both parts of Twitter’s Hope140 movement.

The service is accessible in areas where the power or internet has gone down, even to people without Twitter accounts, thanks to Twitter’s SMS service providing support. All someone has to do is text ‘follow [username]’ to 40404.

The Twitter initiative is one of a number that companies are providing online to support those during the ‘Frankenstorm’, as the Halloween Hurricane has come to be known. For example, Google have set up an interactive map which allows users to follow Hurricane Sandy’s progress.

Hopefully the service will provide support to those in need.

Google Acquires Social Media Management Platform Wildfire

Google has acquired social media management platform Wildfire Interactive for an undisclosed amount, the tech giant announced Tuesday.

Wildfire, which launched four years ago by Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard (pictured) was funded in part by Facebook, counts Amazon, Verizon Wireless, Virgin, Gilt Groupe and Spotify among its clients. It helps them manage their content, ads, promotions and more across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest.

Wildfire is the latest in a string of acquisitions of B2B social media firms. In May, Oracle paid $300 million for Vitrue, a cloud-based firm that handles social media communications for McDonald’s, American Express and Gillette, among others. Oracle followed that acquisition by snapping up social media monitoring firm Collective Intellect in early June. That same month, Salesforce.com paid $745 million for Buddy Media, and Syncapse bought a smaller social media firm, Clickable. It was long rumored that Facebook was interested in buying Wildfire.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but AllThingsD‘s Peter Kafka‘s sources tell him its around $250 million — a third of the price Salesforce paid for Buddy Media, which Google was reportedly once interested in purchasing.

In a blog post, Google’s Jason Miller said that Wildfire would be integrated into its suite of website and ad management tools, including Google Analytics, Admeld and DoubleClick. It’s Google’s way of ensuring that advertisers continue to come to Google to purchase and manage their display advertising campaigns, whether they’re looking to do it on Google or on another social network.

Behold: The First Video Taken with Google Glasses

Google has unveiled the first video taken with its sci-fi eyewear concept, Project Glass. The topic: jumping and flipping on a trampoline, doing a backflip while wearing Google glasses.

Google launched its Project Glass goggles on Google+ in April, and the news sent the concept of Google’s futuristic glasses — which would project augmented reality images into wearers’ field of vision — into a worldwide frenzy on the web. Although Google co-founder Sergey Brin has been testing the device and teasing pictures to show the Internet what it can do, this is the first time we’ve seen a video taken by the device itself.

In addition to taking pictures and video, the glasses can perform many tasks performed by a smartphone. For example, while wearing the glasses, you would be able to see weather forecasts and what’s on your calendar for the day, as well as send text messages and emails to friends and family — all projected right before your eyes.

Google told Mashable in April that selling the glasses this year would be “very unlikely.”

Would you want a pair of Google Glasses? Do you think this is the way we will live our lives in the future? Let us know in the comments.

Google Launches iOS App For Blogger

Google has finally launched an iOS app for Blogger, giving the blog network’s millions of users a simple way to write, manage and publish posts from their iPhones.

The app, available for iOS users 3.2 and up, is rather straightforward. It allows users to compose and publish blog posts complete with photos and geotagging. It also lets users view and edit their published and draft blog posts. It mimics the simplicity of the Blogger for Android interface, though. Users can also manage multiple blogs from the interface.

While the app works for the iPad, it only works in compatibility mode. Hopefully an iPad app is in the near future.

This is the first official Blogger app for the iPhone. BlogPress created an unofficial app that Blogger endorsed, but an official app has been long overdue. The blogging service, once the world’s largest blogging service, has been overshadowed by WordPress, Tumblr and more lightweight competition. Google recently started investing in an overhaul of the service in an attempt to make Blogger relevant once again.

What do you think of Blogger and its new iOS app? Let us know in the comments.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Combination will Supercharge Android, Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. - Aug. 15, 2011 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”

Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the US, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and the approval of Motorola Mobility’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

Google+ invites

Google+, the search giant’s answer to Facebook, is currently in a “limited field test.” However, it looks like Google has opened the floodgates to the masses.

The Google+ project is the company’s social initiative that brings friend streams, group video chat and group texting to Google’s millions of users.

For the last few days, Google+ invites have not been available to the public, but apparently Google is prepared to test the service with a larger group. Google+ users will find a button that allows them to invite their friends on the Google+ Stream page. Invites are also available if a Google+ user shares content with a non-user via email.

Google+ invites are in high demand. I sent just one tweet and posted one update on Facebook, and I have received over 100 requests for invites. Request for Google+ invites are flooding Twitter.

Are you on Google +? Have you gotten a Google+ invite yet? Let us know what you think of Google’s social service in the comments.

Update: Google has closed off invites after just a few hours. Demand was “insanely high,” according to Google SVP of Social Vic Gundotra.

Google +1 The end of SEO as we know it?

Just copy and paste the following code into your site



Happy +1 'ing :) !!!

Google +1 Potential Future

From a strategic standpoint, there is enormous potential for Google +1 for several reasons:

First, +1 is a lead generation vehicle

Google’s +1 feature is embedded as a button next to each Google search result. These +1 icons are used to signal to people who are signed into their Google accounts that their connections (email contacts, chat friends) have approved of links provided via search. They also provide searchers with a mechanism to endorse links, provided again that they have created and are signed into their Google accounts. But that’s the catch: You can’t +1 a search result without having an account with Google. Effectively, then, +1 serves to convert otherwise anonymous (well, relatively anonymous, anyway) web searchers into account holders to whom Google can market its products and services.

Second, +1 will provide a new data source to protect Google’s flagship search asset

Numerous critics, such as Berkeley professor Vivek Wadwha, have become increasingly critical of the quality of Google’s search results. Meanwhile, content farms such as Demand Media have earned billions of dollars in revenues via the production of low quality articles that rank well by exploiting Google’s search algorithm. Consequently, a common viewpoint of many web users is that Google has been cashing in on spam at the expense of its search engine users.

Google has made strides in addressing this challenge by altering its search algorithm to punish content farms. However, despite Google’s claim that +1s will not initially impact search results, +1 feedback will undoubtedly reach a tipping point whereupon crowd sourced data can be used to improve search quality. Simply put, Google can reverse the perceived declined in search quality by serving up results that your respected contacts have previously vetted. Once +1 clicks have achieved a relevant total volume, you can expect to see increasingly-personalized search results.

Third, +1 clicks will help Google serve more relevant advertisements

In 2010, Google’s search advertising revenues surged over 20% to $25.4 billion. Imagine how much that growth rate can accelerate if search users would just tell Google which ads they’d like to receive? Well, +1 enables this, both implicitly and explicitly.

At launch, +1 buttons are active for both search results and advertisements. While only a small percentage of people are likely to +1 advertisements (explicit ad feedback), this model is not without precedent and relative success. On the implicit end, Google can target individual interests and fine-tune the ads that are served to a specific individual by using data from his/her +1 history. This approach mimics Facebook’s ad model, and it represents a mechanism for improving Google’s AdSense platform (and — Bingo — increasing advertising revenues).

Fourth, +1 will expand to other digital assets, increasing its utility

Criticism of Google +1 as a mechanism for just ranking search results is shortsighted. The +1 system will almost certainly expand beyond search and into Google’s other digital assets. It’s likely that we’ll all be able to +1 videos and curated channel content from YouTube, songs from Google’s soon-to-be released music streaming service, apps from Google Apps or the Android Market, businesses and other places via Hotpot, and so on. And soon we’ll all see +1 buttons embedded across websites alongside icons from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The expansion of +1 across Google entities and the greater web will serve to not only increase its utility for web surfers, but also to help Google draw more complete profiles of the consumers who are being targeted for advertisements. You might even say that +1 is the next logical step toward a full-blown social network from Google — but I’ll leave that hypothesis for another blog post.

Summary: +1 is a strategic move that reinforces Google’s core

Google may be investing in self-driving cars and planning YouTube channels to compete with traditional television networks, but one thing is clear: Search is Google’s Castle, Everything Else is a Moat. For Google, success is not defined as an end result where +1 buttons become as pervasive as Facebook’s social plugins. Instead, +1 will augment Google’s core competency: providing the best search results available and placing ads that complement the search experience. For the reasons outlined above, +1 will enable that mission. Deriding the “version 1.0″ of +1 is a shortsighted view that fails to take into account Google’s long-term goals.

The Google "Like Button" Google +1

Google’s announcement that it’s adding a "+1 button" to incorporate sentiment into its search results raised a lot of questions not addressed in the company’s official announcement.
Google rep Jim Prosser was interviewed about "Google +1"

Why is Google doing this?
Aside from the fact that it represents another way to compete with Facebook, Google’s official line is that it will make search results more germane. Says Prosser: “People consult their friends and other contacts on decisions. It’s very easy and lightweight way to make search results more relevant.”

Will the number of +1s affect search rankings?
Prosser says no, but adds that it’s something Google is “very interested” in incorporating in some form at some point.

Who are these contacts we’re seeing next to the +1s?
They are from Google Contacts, which come from various Google products, most notably Gmail, Buzz and Reader.

Will we see Facebook friends giving +1s at some point?
Not likely. Prosser draws a distinction between the “open web” and Facebook’s closed system. Google is up for incorporating open social media apps, but not Facebook. And Facebook isn’t likely to be interested in bolstering +1, a competitor to its “Like” button.

What about Twitter?
That’s a different story. Google already incorporates Twitter data into their searches, though Prosser says there are no immediate plans for integrating Twitter results with +1.

What about using data from other social networks?
Prosser says Google is interested in using more data from Flickr and Quora, which Google considers “open web” apps. Initially, though, you won’t see your Flickr or Quora friends’ +1 recommendations.

When will we start seeing the +1s?
Not for a few months. Those who are interested in experimenting with +1 right away can go to Google.com/experimental. Otherwise, Prosser says only a “very small percentage” of searches and sites will have the +1 button within the next few weeks.

Will +1 be incorporated into banner ads?
Not right away, though Google is interested in that possibility.

Facebook Trumps Google!

It looks like 2010 was indeed the year that Facebook's success exploded.

For the first time ever, U.S. Web surfers visited the social networking site more than any other site in 2010, beating out Internet behemoth Google, according to a report from Hitwise, an Internet analytics firm.

Facebook, which had a flood of good and bad publicity last year, grabbed 8.93% of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010. Google, which had been in the top spot in 2009, slipped to the No. 2 position with 7.19% of all visits, Hitwise said.

The analytics firm also reported that Yahoo! Mail came ranked third with 3.52% of all visits, while the main Yahoo! site was fourth with 3.3%. YouTube rounded out the top five with 2.65% of all site visits.

Facebook Watch
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QuickPoll: Should Google, Yahoo and Hotmail be worried about Facebook?
More about Facebook Facebook had been creeping up on Google during the last several months.

While Google has long been at the top of the heap when it comes to grabbing the most visitors -- and time spent on a Web site -- Facebook began making its mark last summer.

In September, Online researcher comScore reported that for the month of August, Facebook edged out Google in terms of how much time U.S. users spent on a Web site. U.S. users spent a total of 41.1 million minutes on Facebook in August, compared with 39.8 million minutes on Google's various sites, including Google News and YouTube.

And last March, Facebook hit another milestone when the social networking site replaced Google as the most visited Web site in the U.S. for a full week.

Hitwise reported over the weekend that Facebook marked another small victory for the year. After analyzing the top 1,000 search terms for 2010, Hitwise calculated that the word "Facebook" was the top search term for the year.

"This is the second year that the social networking Web site has been the top search term overall, accounting for 2.11% of all searches," Hitwise reported. There actually were four variations of the term "Facebook" in the top 10 searched-for terms of 2010: facebook; facebook login; facebook.com, and www.facebook.com.

Other search terms making the top 10 include: Craigslist, Myspace, YouTube, eBay, Yahoo and Mapquest.

MAJOR NEWS FOR TWITTER .... the end of paid SEO?

I don't know if you heard about this, but there was a very exciting announcement recently from Google about Twitter!
And it is FANTASTIC NEWS for us Twitter users :-)
Google, who as we know are the "Internet Gods" have said that they are now indexing tweets!
What this means is that when you type what you are searching for into the Google search icon, Google will now also check "tweets" from Twitter for responses to your search as well as the usual websites, blogs and articles. This means that Twitter is now not only a major free traffic generator but also an amazing free tool for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

------> Click here to watch the Demonstration