The G in Google Stands For Getting To Know Your Neighbors

By now I'm sure you've heard about Google Plus; in fact you have have signed up and are enjoying the world's newest social network, but did you know it's also a great way to get to know your neighbor too?  No, really!

Above is a screen grab of the Safari version of G+ from my iPhone.  As of when this is being written the iOs app is still awaiting Apple's approval but the mobile web version is pretty damned good and as you can see I circled the word "Nearby." When you click on that it takes you to status updates and things people have shared publicly from YOUR AREA.  (If you want to be part of that though make sure to grant Google permission to use your location data.)

To bring this discussion back around again to my original point; say you're new to a city and don't know any of your neighbors.  You go to the "nearby" stream on Google + read a post from someone that's perhaps in your neighborhood, you add them to one of your circles, the two of you become friends and voilà, the social network becomes even more social!

I don't know if the Google folks were thinking of that use case when they thought up the "nearby" feature but if sure seems like a great way to get to know some people you may have never had the chance to meet.

You can find me on Google + at THIS link or on Twitter HERE

Google Plus Twitter Divided By Facebook Equals Better

So, who's using Google Plus by now?  If you answered me, then you're among the 10 Million people who have signed up since the service launched just a mere two weeks ago.  At the rate it's going, and if those numbers stay consistent G+ could be a "Facebook Killer" after all.

But hold on, why should the world's newest social network kill anything?  In the mortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"  And there's no reason why Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook can't.  I know it would be convenient to have one social network to rule them all but there isn't a one that's perfect.

I've found different use cases for each.  Facebook is where my family and friends are.  Twitter is more of a news feed and G+ is really good for conversation.  Social Media and Tech star Robert Scoble did an experiment tonight and found the maximum number of comments per-post on Google Plus is 500.  

Talk about dialog! 

We also can't forget competition breeds innovation.  With the launch of Google + came the introduction of the "hang out," where up to you and 9 friends can video conference all at the same time.  What did Facebook roll out a week later?  Their own video chat service, which is the result of a partnership with Skype.  Granted it's something FB had already been working on but it's a good guess that Mark Zuckerberg and company put the project on the fast track and got it out earlier than they wanted to once they found out what Google was doing.  

Just watch and you'll be able to see the cat and mouse game heat up in the months and years to come.

I'm hoping none of the 3 social networks get killed because with each comes more choice and more innovation.  

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Fishville For Facebook

I am not a Facebook gamer.  There are plenty of people who are but don't count me as one of them.  Well Dave, you may be asking yourself, then why are you writing about a Facebook game?  Because there's tons of users out there and I consider myself a friend of all technology.  Even the kind I never use.

This may become a regular feature so keep coming back please.

Today we're talking about Fishville.  And, you guessed it, the game comes from the same folks who brought you Farmville, Zynga.

In the game you raise baby fish, feed them as they grow, and decorate your fish tanks with friends!

Like I said at the top, I'm not a gamer so probably won't be playing it so you'll have to try it for yourself.  Here's the link.

New Hotmail

Ah, Hotmail, we had good times together didn't we?   I had my first e-mail address with you after all and I'll always cherish those memories.  It's been years since we've seen each other though.  I wonder if you've changed.  Damn, you look good!  Have you had work done?  Oh, you have!!!

Yes, Hotmail has gone through a metamorphosis and it's aim it seems is to take out Gmail.

Here are just a few of it's upgrades that Microsoft just announced.

Hotmail Highlights Gives you a quick overview of what’s new in your inbox organized by source, such as e-mail contacts or social contacts from Facebook or Twitter.

Sweep is a function which claims to be a simpler alternative to e-mail filtering, enabling you to quickly organize the messages that aren’t exactly spam, but that you don’t want at the top of your inbox.

Microsoft Office Web Apps allow you to edit documents directly from your inbox. You can also store the documents and photos you send on Microsoft SkyDrive, which means you don’t have to worry about size constraints because they live in the cloud.

The new and improved Hotmail also allows you to view photos in a slideshow or videos received from Hulu or YouTube right in the inbox. If you receive attached photos, you can see them in the form of a nifty slideshow.

And finally, Microsoft mentions some other features it hasn’t discussed in detail, like enhanced account protection, full-session SSL, multiple e-mail accounts, subfolders and contact management.

As far as the amount of users Hotmail has, they still have a commanding lead over Google, with an impressive 343 Million to Gmail's 150 Million.  But, in the tech world if you don't keep improving you're bound to start losing market share eventually so that's probably the reason for this overhaul.

The new version of Hotmail launches sometime this summer.

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