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Google Plus Vs. Facebook: There can only be one
Alright maybe that title is a little misleading. There can be more than one social network at a time. The thing is the new kid on the block never seems to hang tough. (yes it was a NKOTB reference) MySpace has already showed us that bigger does not always translate to long term winner in the Social Network landscape.
That being said Facebook has over 700 million users. They are not going anywhere anytime soon. Google tired with Buzz and failed very publicly. This time around they are at it again but with Google Plus. A funny thing happened though. Everyone loved it. It was not a clone of anything else. It was not trying to be the next Twitter or a new Facebook. It was Plus and people loved it.
Google+ is now open to the public which means the floodgates are wide open too. I have been getting email after email that someone has added me to their Circles. I have no idea who half these people are. Unlike Facebook people can add you at will but you don’t have to add them back if you do not want to. I took one step further and made a circle called Unknown. Facebook clearly feeling the heat has retooled its NewsFeed so you can see all your friend’s updates in real time like Twitter does.
Google+ now lets you turn on Hangouts into broadcast platform. They also have search in Google +. Not sure why this was not on before. It sure should have been put in the beta. Never the less it is in there now. Google had almost 20 million users and that was just during the beta. Now that it is open to the public. Look for it to get about 100 million by the end of the year maybe sooner. On the flip side of that Google+ is so rich that it could be too much for most users that are use to Facebook’s simple layout and web games. People that jump to Google + might go right back to Facebook because of that.
Google believes in Google+ simply because employees won’t get paid if it does not succeeded. The fact that bonuses are tied to Google doing well on the Social Network market place is not lost of the hard workers over there. They have gone all out to make Plus the best it can be. One could say that Plus has already done what it needs to. Now they can do is sit back and wait to see if people bite.
Google+ is loved by us early adopters and tech-savvy folks. We also are the people writing about this tech world. So good job Google but we are not the ones you need. We would try just about any tech network just to test it out. What you need is the average Joe & Jane Doe to join your network to not just look around but stay long term. Facebook vs. Google+ bout fight will go on for a long time. There will be no clear winner anytime soon. Facebook is the champ and Google + is the little contender that could.
Google+ now open to the public: Let’s see what kind of number it puts up
Google+ social network is now available to anyone who wants to join. They have also added 91 changes during the social network’s beta trial. The trail was only 90 days but it got a lot of good Buzz. The most notable additions are that the Hangouts video chat feature is now available for Android smartphones running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or newer.
The list of key changes:
- A new “Hangouts on Air” option allows users to live broadcast to up to nine different people.
- Hangouts can now be named.
- A screen sharing function has been added to Hangouts.
- Users can now share and view a sketchpad directly inside Hangouts
- Google Docs can be viewed and shared inside Hangouts.
- Google+ members can now search for other users from the social network directly and Google+ will return results from around the web.
- The Google+ Hangouts API is now available for developers.
Facebook takes a little more from Twitter to fight Google Plus
Facebook continues to refine what a user can do with it’s News Feeds. Google Plus is already seem by many as a win for Google and a real competitor to Facebook. At the moment Twitter is filling to void as the place to gather information and share it. Although technically a social network, its more like a water cooler than a hangout spot.
That said everyone loves to hang out at the water cooler. Facebook has taken note of this. The social network’s newest feature called Subscriptions lets you follow people on Twitter, sort of. This feature combined with the recently announced Acquaintances is sure fire way to compete with Google Plus. Will it work. We won’t know just yet. Google Plus is still in closed beta.
When you hit the Subscribe button on someone’s profile, it gives you the ability to keep tabs on their updates without having to befriend them. Some are calling it the stalk button but Facebook thought of that too. You have the option to toggle subscriptions on and off if you’re concerned about privacy.
Facebook For iPhone Updated; Hidden iPad code Removed
Facebook has released a new version of their iPhone app.
Facebook 3.5 brings some new features such as the ability to tag friends and places in photos and finally the ability to add privacy controls on posts. Facebook has fixed a number of annoying bugs and improved the overall performance and stability of the iPhone app.
Facebook app v3.5:
[ Made it easier to share with who you want - Added the ability to tag friends and places in posts - Added the ability to share external links from a web view - Added new design for Profile and Group Walls - Improved the sharing tool to add privacy controls on posts and match your settings on the web site
Improvements and bug fixes: - Improved Notifications speed - Fixed a number of Chat bugs - Made it easier to select filters in News Feed - Fixed a bug with the Notifications bar disappearing - Fixed a number of Photos bugs - Improved performance and stability overall ]
This is not however the Facebook’s iPad app. In fact Facebook has gone out of it’s way to removed the iPad app code from the latest version. That means if you update to this new version. The jailbreak tweak FaceForward to enable the Facebook for iPad app won’t work. So I would skip updating the app on your iPad for now.
YouTube adds Google + Hangout: Watch videos along with friends. Could Netflix be next?
It seems that you can now watch a video with your friends on Google Plus’ Hangout. It works very similar to Xbox Live’s Movie Party. I was able to get 3 people to Hangout and watch a short clip. It worked very well without any issues.
Once Google + adds business to the to the mix. I see this feature becoming very useful for marking. You could debut a trailer to only very loyal fans or contest winners. Think how this might work for Superbowl ads. You could all do Hangout instead of flooding my inbox with links. I mean other people’s inboxes with links.
So far I have not been able to find a video that Hangout does not work on. From Tech New Today with Tom to even the very limited movie selection that YouTube has. This is a feature I would love to see come to Netflix. Unlike the Facebook Like button. The Google + Hangout only goes to who you invite to participate. Thus circumventing the whole its illegal to share the entertainment you rent law that is stopping Netflix from using Facebook.
It was only a matter of time: Google+ gets games (yes, Angry Birds is here)
You knew it was going to happen. It was a matter of time before Google brought the missing part of the social puzzle together. The wait is over people. The still beta and arguably highly successful invite only social network is testing out games. It is only has a few right now but I am sure the flood gates will open up very soon. Once games are activated you will be able to play at any time by clicking the games button at the top of your stream. You will be able to see the latest game updates from your circles. When you can browse any invites that you may have or see the games that people you know are playing. The Games page will also have accomplishments just like Xbox 360 & PS3.
One neat feature is that your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games as well. So no spamming people with each new score. The developers that are on the list do not number too many but those lucky few will have a very big foot hold on a sure to be big market. Angry Birds and Zynga Poker are sure to get a lot of love. Unfortunately right now its invite only within an invite only beta. So if you go the plus.google.com/games page all you get is a “We’re glad you want to play games on Google+. Don’t worry, your turn is coming up! We’re currently testing with a small number of Google+ users. Please check back soon.In the meantime, why not start a hangout?”
Facebook + iPad = Awesome? We might find out as soon as next week
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all smiles. Why is he so happy? The light might have just come on in his head. iPad is a mobile device and Facebook needs an app for that. Zuckerberg said that the social network has plans to “launch something awesome” next week. What that awesomeness is, no one outside of Facebook knows. Although we all in the press and the tech public as a whole can only imagine it’s the iPad app.
While there is however no official word on what will be announced, the new iPhone photo-sharing service called “WithPeople” that was leaked last week would not be as awesome as an iPad app. The service if launched will give my default photo sharing app Instagram a run for it’s money. We really won’t know until next week.
Apple iOS 5: A detailed hands on review
It’s been a busy busy busy week! Between E3 press conferences and the Apple WWDC event. There was little time to do anything but take notes. Here is a review of the new iOS 5 on a iPad.
Safari Reader will remove all of the ads and other Web layout within a story so you can view the text as a single scrolling page. We now also have tabbed browsing and wireless syncing. Apple introduced the ability to use the volume up button as a camera shutter button. Android and Windows Phone 7 phones have had physical shutter buttons for a while now. Also you may remember there was an app that let you do the same thing but Apple pulled it. Funny, now they are doing what they pulled an app for doing.
Apple states that GameCenter now has 50 million users now and pointed that Xbox Live has 30 million users and it took them over the eight years to get there. If you look at this closely they left out some key facts. Xbox Live Gold cost money. GameCenter is free. GameCenter is on every iOS device. Xbox Live is only on Xbox 360 and now windows phones which just stated out. Apple is trying to match up GameCenter vs. Xbox Live but its not really a real fight since they are not the same service. In iOS 5, GameCenter will add achievement points for the first time. I look forward to how developers will take advantage of this feature. You will also have the ability to see friends of friends. You will have the option for game discovery through recommendations.
iMessage for iOS 5 plans to take on RIM’s aging BlackBerry Messenger platform. For that matter it plans to take on all messaging services. Let us take a closer look at this new service that will sure change the shape of messaging. The new iMessage lets you send messages to any iOS device even if it does not have SMS support. That means iPad and iTouch devices are able to come along for the ride as well. iMessage will tell you if someone has received, read your message and shows you when someone is typing. You are able to turn this off if you don’t want to give anyone a heads up. It also provides encryption to protect your communications. I will have a deeper review of just iMessage at a later time.
Twitter so synonymous with just out normal life that it has become a part of everything we do. Political figures use it to announce they want to be elected. Celebrities tell us their thoughts and ideas. Businesses use it for promotions. Everyone else speaks their mind on there. I use it on a daily on multiple devices. Twitter already had a great app for the iOS but Apple has gone ahead and integrated Twitter directly into its operating system. With iOS 5 you can send tweets such as Web links, photos, YouTube, locations from Maps, and contacts. A neat feature that is that it will scan your address book and add twitter usernames to contact information.
iOS 5 also adds Reminders to the mix but to be honest it is 100% copy of Androids pull down screen. I do however like the ability to add reminders based on locations. You can set a reminder to go off when you leave the office, when you land from the airport or anywhere else you want. The only thing is the location has to be one from your address book or your current location.
iCloud backs up and syncs Mail, Contacts, Calender, Reminders, Bookmarks, notes, photoStream and adds Find My iPad/iPhone. You also get asked to make a .Me account for free. If you backup to iCloud your iDevice will no longer back up to your computer automatically when you sync with iTunes. At the moment you can not by extra space even if you wanted it. When you try to delete your iTunes music the iCloud crashes back to the dashboard. It also seems to make a partition on your device space and upload to the cloud. So be warned if you have a small hard drive, your space will be limited for backups. Also the first backup over to the cloud takes a few hours.
All in all for this being a beta they did a great job in developing iOS 5. I think iOS 5 will be loved by everyone not just the Apple Fanboys out there. Look for it this fall.
