Google+ Looks a Lot Like Facebook by Erik Sass

Rumors have swirled for over a year about Google's long-awaited social network, Google+, which is supposed to claw back some market share (in terms of time spent on the Internet) from Facebook, and which was finally unveiled yesterday. Now that Google+ is available to some journalists (not me) in a soft launch, many people are naturally wondering what differentiates it from Facebook, and Google itself is at pains to distinguish it; back in November 2010, Hugo Barra, Google's head of mobile product development said, "We're not working on a social network platform that's just going to be another social network ...Read the whole story

  • Will The Google+ Project Out Social Facebook? by Laurie Sullivan

    Google began rolling out a social network called Google+ to a limited number of users that it believes will crack the code on the social market game. If it can convince consumers to give up a few personal details and a photo to build a profile, the site could make the Mountain View, Calif. company a formidable competitor to Facebook. ...Read the whole story

Social Networkers Under A Microscope by Jack Loechner

According to a new survey from The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, designed to examine the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter, Facebook dominates the SNS space with 92% of SNS users using Facebook, 29% use MySpace, 18% used LinkedIn and 13% use Twitter. ...More

  • Google+ Opens Ad Door To Google TV, Social Games, Interest-Based Search And Display by Laurie Sullivan

    Can Google do for social what it did in search? Advertisers have been waiting to answer that question for years as they waved good-bye to Wave, waited through privacy issues in Buzz, and watched as social network Orkut gained acceptance in Brazil, but nowhere else. ...More

  • Did Google+ Just Exploit A Facebook Vulnerability? by Catharine P. Taylor

    I remain unconvinced that Google needs to be a runaway success at something else, but in launching the Google+ project yesterday which exploits the biggest problem with Facebook, I'm rooting for it to finally get social networking right. ...More

  • Two-Thirds of Local Merchants Advertise on Social Network; 1/5 Use Facebook by Jack Loechner

    According to MerchantCircle, new local ad offerings from Facebook are making inroads with local merchants and may put increasing pressure on Google and pure-play deals companies such as Groupon for share of local marketing budgets. With its huge consumer adoption, ease-of-use and low barrier to entry, Facebook continues to be the most popular digital site for merchants to market their business, though, overall, 66% are using the social network for marketing. ...More