New Search Tool Out as Social Web Tells Google: “Don’t Be Evil”

Download the “bookmarklet” released today by an ad-hoc group of engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, and you might get better search results from Google.

Last week, Google announced that information from its fledgling social network, Google+, would be surfaced in its search results all while effectively suppressing data from other competing, and much more popular, networks. Google claims the suppression (unfair censoring?) is unavoidable because it could not adequately index data from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn due to their reluctance to publicly share all their data.

Understandably, the folks behind the other networks — which do actually supply a significant amount of public data — were miffed. But they took quick, and pointed, action. The bookmarklet that’s now available, and which has Google’s famous motto for its name, “Don’t Be Evil,” uses Google’s own search capacities to demonstrate how the current setup of data suppression is avoidable, after all, and how the dominant force in search is using its brute force to manipulate results in a way that serves its own interests.

If you want to use the tool, go to http://www.focusontheuser.org/ and download it.

So far, only one name from the group of engineers is known: Blake Ross, a co-founder of Firefox who’s currently Facebook’s Director of Product.

Read More:

http://www.focusontheuser.org/

http://allthingsd.com/20120123/facebooks-blake-ross-leads-dont-be-evil-effort-to-restore-diverse-social-results-in-google-search/

Is Google Stretching Its Monopoly’s Muscles?

Perhaps all that’s missing from the Larry Page photo you see below really is an old-fashioned top hat, a curlicue moustache, and some coattails before the familiar figure of Rich Uncle Pennybags emerges. Since Google’s announcement earlier this week that material posted on its new social network, Google+, will be given a prominent position in the results of its more-than-iconic search engine, peers, observers, and rivals (understandably) have been crying foul.

Critics of Google’s latest move to “socialize” company products have decried what they perceive to be Google’s flexing of its monopoly muscles. That’s because the company has what some term a “natural monopoly” in the area of Web search — its dominance is beyond dispute. Google’s derided and “risky” move is being attributed to company brass becoming nervous on account of the heat it’s currently feeling from Facebook and Twitter — the giants of the new Social Web. Either to thwart its rivals, or because it really doesn’t feel capable of successfully embedding the social material of other networks at the moment, Google will not be “surfacing” social postings from Facebook or Twitter in the same way as it will being doing with Google+’s.

In a statement, Google defended its actions by saying:

“Google does not currently have access to fully crawl the content on some sites, so it’s not possible for us to surface all that information. Ushering in the new era of social and private data search will take close cooperation, and we hope other sites participate.”

Read More:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/google-adds-posts-from-its-social-network-to-search-results/?ref=technology

Britney Spears, Google+’s Ashton Kutcher

Britney Spears has done it again, and this time there’s no need for cloying interjections, the newly engaged singer gained the distinction of being the first person on Google+ to reach one million followers. Ashton Kutcher shares the same honor, but on a different network: Twitter.

There seems to have been a very concerted effort on behalf of Spears’ management to ferry her across the magic threshold because, as many have been pointing out, there’s an enormous section on her official homepage existing for the sole purpose of enjoining visitors to follow her on Google+.

Despite the still-somewhat uncertain merit of making it big on Google+, at least at this particular instance in time, the triumphant score will be something a great many Britney fans will be cheering. The Google+ achievement can certainly also be credited to her enduring popularity, and perhaps, also, to the nostalgia people feel for the era she defined. Critics and skeptics, as if we needed a clue, will no doubt patter on and on about the lack of competition from other major stars that Brit faces in the network that has been out only since the summer.

Either way, seems Google+’s tech adoring users have a soft spot for a singer.

Read More:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397948,00.asp

Britney Spears Beats Larry Page as Google+’s Most Followed Person

Tonight, Katy Perry may be “giving thanks” in grand style with a free concert in L.A.’s Staples Center, but this Thanksgiving Eve, Britney Spears received an unexpectedly special gesture of thanks from her own fans. As of today, they’ve managed to propel her to the very top of Google+ popularity, which means she’s wrested the top spot from Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and CEO. And, that’s not to pile on faint praise on the often controversial singer. Larry Page himself had to contend with taking the top spot from Mark Zuckerberg, his social networking nemesis, a few months ago.

Although this remains good news for Britney, it’s spelling out even better news for Google’s honchos, including Page. As industry writers have been diligently pointing out, riding the high popularity crests of Google+ had been limited to consummate tech-ists like Page and Zuckerberg for a while. Sure, these folks are celebrities, but they’re mostly extolled by the extant and proudly persnickety gaggles of technophiles out there. That these divergent groups are growing at astounding speed no one doubts, but it must be pretty reaffirming for Google that its social network is finally becoming, as some put it, “normal,” thanks to the stronger showing of mainstream celebrity following. Snoop Dog currently occupies third place on Google+.

Read More:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/11/britney-spears-best-thing-happen-google/45374/

Gmail Inboxes More Social With Mingly Plug-In

Heartening — and social — news are coming to your Gmail inboxes. The source of the scoop is Mingly; and it’s actually the news itself. The self-dubbed “personal relationship management tool” was released as a plug-in for Gmail this week. Think of it as a way to unite, harmoniously, your social feeds and email messages — something that could be irremediably messy, à la Google Buzz, but isn’t, because it’s something totally different.

So, what goodies does this plug-in bring to the table? For starters, it’ll give you the ability to synch your Gmail and (webby) social contacts in a “social address book” of Mingly’s creation. Another thing is that once the tool is in place, and you’re composing an email, you’ll get to see the recipient’s updates and maybe even his or her self-written, character-limited biography. And something that can’t be glossed over is that among its rather substantive nifty features, Mingly will also let you send tweets and Facebook and LinkedIn messages from your Gmail inbox.

If you want Mingly for you Gmail, head over to www.getmingly.com and keep in mind that it works on Firefox and Chrome browsers. The same press release that announced the plug-in’s launch, also stated that Mingly’s makers were working to make their tool operational on other email services.

Read More:

http://ming.ly/mingly-launches-public-beta-and-makes-gmail-social/#more-471

Business World Says Hello to Google+ Pages

Google+ is now officially open for business and to business. Entrepreneurs who were pining for the missing, and increasingly important, social network in their consumer outreach portfolios can now stop holding their breath and create a new business online home asap. The business section of Google+ will go by the slightly retro moniker “Google+ Pages” — an echo of the still delivered, but rarely used, Yellow Pages. Google has made the new business tool available worldwide.

Businesses, brands, and organizations were initially excluded from Google+ because, by Google’s own account, the recently launched social network was not fully outfitted for engagement with those types of entities. Google was so strict on this rule that businesses that rushed to join saw their accounts abruptly terminated, posthaste. The doors are now open and music groups will also be delegated to Google+ Pages — All American Rejects are already set up there.

Along with the Pages, a new search feature has also been rolled out: Direct Connect. Direct Connect allows searchers to type in the plus sign [+] before the name of a band or business. The plus sign will zip users to that organization’s home in the Google+ Pages. For clarity’s sake, Google has also pointed out that its Pages now form part of Google search results.

Read More:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-pages-connect-with-all-things.html

In Order: Improved Sociability and Google+ Incorporation for YouTube

YouTube has been the property of Google for a good number of years now, but as its parent company reaches out for improved sociability and “sharing” features, the famed democratizing broadcaster of video content still has some maturation to undergo. To help YouTube achieve its full social potential, Google acquired the startup Fflick, along with its sharp development team. The goal is to have Fflick’s developers helm YouTube’s integration into Google+, the online behemoth’s newfangled social network.

Out of Fflick’s team of four developers, Ron Gorodetzky has been getting especially good press — Nathan Olivarez-Giles, a Los Angeles Times tech writer, recently profiled him. In the piece, Gorodetzky says that selling Fflick to Google, a mere six months after launching it, was not a decision he took lightly. Google zeroed in on Fflick’s ability to take social data and content — like tweets and online conversations about movies — to create useful applications. Fflick’s most prominent product was a movie recommendation website based on just such materials.

Although Gorodetzky did not divulge any technical details of how the integration of YouTube was going, he did mention that his bosses were trying to extract more useful information form YouTube comments. He also made it clear that Google had most definitely turned its focus to “sharing.”

Read More:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/11/fflick-google-plus-youtube-ron-gorodetzky.html

Two Nobel Laureates Hangout on Google+

It could only be expected that a figure who all around the world is greeted with hundreds of people camping out for days to hear him speak, would be no slowpoke when it came to embracing social media. That’s certainly the case with the Dalai Lama. He’s set a date for a Google+ hangout with Archbishop Desmond Tutu — both men count a Nobel among their ribboned hard metals.

There’s a reason for the hangout: Archbishop Tutu’s home country, South Africa, denied the visa request filed by the Dalai Lama to attend his friend’s 80th birthday celebration. It’s believed that South Africa was pressured by China, whose economic investment in the country is significant, to deny the request. The Dalai Lama is considered “subversive” by the Chinese government.

Regardless of their geographical separation, the two spiritual leaders will be coming together for some screen time this Saturday, October 8th at 1:30 am PT. Archbishop Tutu’s birthday was on Thursday, October 6th.

The Archbishop had some harsh words for his president: “Hey Mr. Zuma, you and your government don’t represent me,” and went on with: “You represent your own interests.”

Tony Ehrenreich, a leader of the important coalition of South African trade unions, Cosatu, preempted him earlier in the week with the following comments: “Even though China is our biggest trading partner, we should not exchange our morality for dollars or yuan.”

Read More:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world/asia/dalai-lama-cancels-south-africa-visit.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=%22dalai%20lama%22&st=cse

Google+ Now Available to All

Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, today took to the company’s official blog to post about Google+’s newest added features, numbered 92-100, respectively. The biggest news out of his rather longish list was really the 100th: as of now, anybody who wants one can sign up for a Google+ account, that’s with or without an invitation from a peer with more social media diligence.

If Google is really intent about catching up with Facebook’s accumulated 750 million users, opening its social network to everyone is a move in the right direction because unlatching the floodgates is bound to do much in terms of bridging the remaining gulf.

Also announced were a Google+ search feature, new tools for screen sharing, shared doodling, and a rattle of tweaks for Hangouts — these last can now be named, accessed through mobile phones, and recorded and broadcast live. The fresh cherry on top is that Hangouts APIs have also been released. Google+ has been out for less than 90 days, so all this amounts to more than one daily improvement that’s been introduced since day número uno.

Gundotra’s post also touched on Google’s newfangled — and still challenging — focus: “bring[ing] the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software.”

Read More:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/google-opens-up-to-all-comers/?ref=technology

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/google-92-93-94-95-96-97-98-99-100.html

Google Hands Out Badges to Competitive Readers

This week Google is keeping its social momentum going by setting free onto the web its new Google News badges. It’s definitely a social feature for those who like to share, and let’s just say it out right, brag a little about all the stuff they read. Yes, for these folks, badges that track reading and prominently display to others their “badge level” are just the thing. The badges are sharable among Google contacts.

The reader-rank system uses badges that cover many topics. According to Natasha Mohanty, the author of the Google Blog post that revealed the news, there’s more than 500 types of badges for competitive readers to collect. Among those categories, readers can aspire to reach, in descending order, Ultimate, Platinum, Gold, and Silver levels on any given subject.

Google dishes out the badges to users who do their politics, sports, and other daily fare reading through Google News and have their web browser history enabled; it’s also necessary for readers to be logged into their Google accounts while they tire their eyes out a bit.

Google, once again stressing its hard-earned user-privacy sensitivity, is letting people know that the badges are “private by default,” which is another way of saying that they’re going about the introduction of their new features in way that’s very unlike Facebook. Even once users opt to share their badges, the specific articles they’ve read to achieve their status will remain private.

Read More:

http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/shareable-google-news-badges-for-your.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/07/google-launches-sharable-news-badges-for-google-news-readers.html

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