When the Google+ Platform is opening for developers and why it’s taking so long

The Google+ Platform is still a relatively small collection of read-only APIs, but Google is definitely preparing for a wide and varied set of features for developers.

At the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco Thursday, Google+ engineering director David Glazer (pictured) revealed that Google will roll out more enhancements to the social networking platform “when we’re delighted with how it’s working.”

It’s a vague answer to an important question, and it has a … Continue Reading

Sorry Facebook, mobile users just want to text

Mobile content usage spanning everything from downloading apps to browser and social network usage continues to escalate, but nothing is taking off quite like texting.

Nearly 75 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers now send text messages, according to new data from analytics firm comScore.

The data, gathered from a monthly online survey of 30,000 mobile subscribers ages 13 and up, reflects an ongoing shift in the changing behaviors of the more than 234 million … Continue Reading

HootSuite adds support for Digg, Trendspottr, and InboxQ

Popular social networking management service HootSuite announced Wednesday it has added support for more social apps and opened its Engagement API.

Digg, Trendspottr, and InboxQ have joined the HootSuite App Directory; a collection of apps and social media sites that you can manage with HootSuite. Each app has a unique set of features that you can access with HootSuite’s dashboard.

Those who use Digg, a community that shares new stories and videos from all over … Continue Reading

Warner Music Group chairman loves Spotify, calls Google Music an “oxymoron”

Google Music is an oxymoron and Spotify is a friend to the artist, Warner Music Group chairman Edgar Bronfman, Jr. said Tuesday on his last day on the job.

Bronfman, Jr. expounded obtusely on the reasons why Warner Music Group has yet to sign a deal with Google and talked up the potential of all-you-can-stream music service Spotify in an interview with Peter Kafka at the D: Dive Into Media event in Dana Point, Calif.… Continue Reading

The 3 Facebook IPO risk factors that matter

When Facebook’s S-1 filing comes out (which could be as soon as tomorrow, if you believe the Wall Street Journal), we’ll see a lot of risks in it.

The S-1 is the first and most significant document that a company fills out, and the Securities and Exchange Commission publishes, prior to an initial public offering. If it’s typical, we’ll see many boilerplate risks, such as an earthquake wiping out Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, … Continue Reading

Privacy’s state of the union: Google follows Facebook down the path of no return

Google made some sweeping changes to its privacy policies yesterday. It let users know it will be combining data from all of its services, from search to email to photos. This will give Google a much more detailed picture of its users, allowing it to deliver more relevant services, and of course, more targeted advertisements.

People have a right to be angry about this. Faye Kakia, a fashion designer who creates virtual clothing to sell … Continue Reading

King.com launches first game on Google+

King.com has more than 150 games on the web. In the past year, it successfully moved five of the games to Facebook, garnering 23.8 million monthly active users on the social network. And today, the company is launching its first game on the Google+ social network.

The company is unveiling its most popular game, Bubble Witch Saga, on Google’s social network, which now claims to have more than 90 million registered users. If the company … Continue Reading

Google+ introduces new Q&A feature for crowdsourcing answers from friends

Google has taken social interaction with your friends to another level. The search engine giant has introduced a new Google+ feature that allows you to ask friends about your search results.

Google is testing the new “Ask on Google+” feature, which pops up at the bottom of your search results. Click the link to ask your friends any question related to restaurants, movies, how to make friends on Google+, or other topics. Your question will … Continue Reading

Add VentureBeat to your Google+ Circles

VentureBeat has officially made its debut on Google+!

We’ve taken our time to curate a Google+ page that offers you the latest and greatest VentureBeat posts throughout the day. Add VentureBeat to your circles and we’ll keep you updated with everything that’s happening in the tech and business world.

Each day we post our most popular and newsworthy posts on Google+. Also look for videos, photos, event details, and VentureBeat news.

Join VentureBeat on our … Continue Reading

Larry Page wasn’t lying about the Google+ engagement numbers

Google+ is a social network that is being built backwards. Hundreds of millions of people rely on Google, but not its social network. That makes things awkward in a lot of ways, and certainly Google’s efforts to find a foothold in the social space have seemed, until recently, feeble or forced.

But while my colleague Rocky Agrawal is right that companies often try to woo journalists and their audience with misleading numbers, I think Larry … Continue Reading

Google named best company to work for (it’s not just the great food)

Perhaps it’s the 40,000 square-foot park that keeps Google’s employees happy, or maybe it’s the one day a week to work on anything they want, or perhaps even the onsite dry cleaning. Whatever the combination of perks, Fortune magazine has named Google the number one company to work for in America.

“I want Google to be an amazing place to work, so really excited to see us ranked as the best place to work by … Continue Reading

Google+ lets you record and share video via webcam

What’s better than posting photos or text updates? Sharing videos, of course. So says Google, which has slightly enhanced its Google+ social network today with a webcam video recording option.

“Today we’re making video a bit more fun by letting you record and share videos of yourself using your webcam,” Google+ Photos engineer Shana Gitnick wrote in an update on the social site.

“To get started, click the video icon in the share box and … Continue Reading

With Google+ favoritism, Google has decided to sell its soul — and it may pay

Google’s introduction of Google+ links into its search results is a big departure from the company’s previous more neutral approach to search, and it exposes the company to a huge risk.

It opens up the company to significant criticism from not just insiders but regular folks too, if they come to realize that Google is now favoring itself in search results, and therefore is no longer as useful. On the other hand, Google is making … Continue Reading

Why Google is ditching search

This story originally appeared on CNET and is republished with permission.

There has been a huge maelstrom about Google integrating Google+ into its search links. And it all misses the point.

Twitter and others are complaining that Google is throwing its massive 65 percent-plus market share weight around and quashing smaller competitors. The reason Twitter and others are so threatened is that the pattern of shared links within Google+ provides a decent enough indicator as … Continue Reading

Google search gets its biggest change in a decade with a dose of Google+

Well, it’s finally happened. Google web search has been Google-Plus-ified.

Today, Google is bringing some specific new features to Google web search, its flagship and most widely used product. In addition to the usual assortment of links, pictures, news items and shopping results you’d see in a typical Google search results page, logged-in Google+ users will now also find several kinds of Google+ content sprinkled in among the normal search results. There are even promoted … Continue Reading

Facebook gains on Google with 30% increase in unique U.S. visitors in 2 years

New evidence suggests that Facebook is inching closer and closer to overthrowing Google as the most-visited web brand in the U.S.

Facebook’s unique U.S. visitor count has increased by 29.5 percent since Oct. 2009, according to Nielsen data shared exclusively with VentureBeat.

Compare that to the 5.4 percent increase in U.S. visitors to Google sites in the same two-year period, and you have the makings of a Facebook coming-of-age story that could end with the … Continue Reading

Google+ traffic & users jumped in final months of 2011

Google+ has seen a steady surge of new signups and user activity over the final quarter of 2011.

While more than a few doubters have wondered whether, after several failures, Google can succeed in the fickle world of social networks, new reports from analytics firm Chitika show the service has as many as 62 million users.

Google’s suite of social tools started out with strong user curiosity and great initial user statistics. Just three weeks … Continue Reading

Google+ reaches 62M users, still not giving Facebook a run for its money

Google+ has reached 62 million registered users and is signing up 625,000 new users per day, according to unofficial Google+ statistician and Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen.

For a social network that was invite-only until July 2011, those numbers are not bad. However, Google+ has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to Facebook’s 800 million users.

Google+ has been adding new users by the tens of millions just about every month … Continue Reading