• Gavin O'Malley, Dec 6, 2012, 11:52 AM
  • Google Gives + "Communities" The Next Web Google+ this week debuted a Communities feature, which looks a lot like the social network’s response to Facebook Groups. “If there’s something you’re interested in or you’re an expert about, Google+ wants to help give you a chance to connect with others who share your passion and interests,” The Next Web writes regarding Communities. Read the whole story...
  • Franken Declares War On Location Tracking The Verge Giving some mobile marketers cause for concern, Senator Al Franken reportedly plans to reintroduce legislation that would require companies to obtain clear consent from users before collecting, obtaining, or sharing mobile-users location data. The Democrat from Minnesota is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, and sees presently legal tracking practices as a clear violation of personal privacy, The Verge reports.
     

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  • Surface's Distribution Problem All Things D More than any other factor, poor distribution is preventing Microsoft and its Surface tablet from taking on Apple. That’s according to Detwiler Fenton. “Lack of retail exposure at Best Buy and others is severely depressing sales,” the Boston-based brokerage firm said in a new research note. As a result, as AllThingsD point out, Microsoft is expected to sell a measly 500,000 to 600,000 Surface RTs in the December quarter.
     

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  • How Big Is Google+? Tech Crunch In other Google+ news, Google’s social network also released new user data, this week. According to the search giant, Google+ now has over 500 million members, 235 million of whom are active across Google other properties. That said, “Numbers are tricky, for any service, specifically Google+,” notes TechCrunch. Why? “Because a lot of the usage is private, among people who share things just with friends.”
     

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