Did Mark Zuckerberg Join Google Plus?

As the world scrambles around, trying to get a Google Plus invitation — what, are you above eBay or something? — a rumor broke about perhaps the most famous social media person in the United States joining Google’s currently-exclusive social platform. I’m referring to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Did the person who stands to lose the most to Google Plus infiltrate the enemy or is someone spoofing the public?

More than likely, it’s a spoof profile, but then again, hiding in plain sight is an effective measure as well. The reports of the Zuckerberg Google Plus account appeared in a couple of British publications, with the Daily Mail going as far as to post a screenshot of the account in question:



Naturally, spoofing Mark Zuckerberg, or, well, anyone for that matter, is simply a process of using the person’s name and likeness. The more famous you are, the easier these materials are to come by, quite obviously. Consider the unending amount of fake Twitter accounts, and apply that to a new service everyone wants to be apart of. With that in mind, it’s probable that the Zuckerberg Google Plus profile is a fake, but then again, there’s the hiding in plain sight angle.


The Inquirer has similar ideas, but it’s their description of the Daily Mail that wins the day:

According to the ‘isn’t she fat?’ and ‘oooh, look who’s in a bikini’ UK newspaper the Daily Mail, the account might actually be fake, and Zuckerberg might not actually have created a public profile on a headline grabbing assault on his business after all.

So? Real? Fake? Is Zuckerberg sleeping with the enemy, or is someone, to quote our friends across the pond, having a laugh, knowing the account couldn’t be ignored?
Tags: Google , Google Plus , Mark Zuckerberg , Troll

Google Release New Spam Bot In Form Of Google Plus

There has been a huge amount of hype surrounding the release of Google Plus, a social networking addition to their already robust portfolio and the main reasoning behind the Google +1 buttons that have begun to be implemented across search engine results pages and websites across the globe.

Well with so much anticipation to see exactly what Google have been able to create, once given the chance to sample the experience that many are yet to learn of but within minutes of access, the first problem has already raised its ugly head.

Testing of the Google Plus site has revealed that the latest offering from the online giants is a cloaked version of a spam bot that potentially is going to cause issues for millions of online email users.

So where does the problem arise?

The fact that Google Plus allows non Google Mail accounts to be placed into the contacts list within the site has opened up a huge security issue for email users based on the fact that Google have allowed you to share anything that you wish with huge contact lists, regardless of whether they use Gmail or not.

Here is an image of the screen box that you are presented with when you select to share something with your contacts, make sure to take note of the highlighted area as this is the extension of your ‘social circle’.


The adding of comments, links, videos and pictures has now become easy for those who are looking to use the site but the danger begins when malicious spammers begin to breach the Google Plus homepage and begin to share Trojans, viruses and botnets cloaked within links.

Okay so this isn’t anything different than when you open your inbox and have offers from senders that are looking for someone to hold millions of pounds for them following the death of a prince far away, well other than the fact that you send the share to people outside of your contact list, but the real issue is the inability to unsubscribe from the email alerts if you are not a Gmail user.


This is the same email that every person within the contact list of any sent email receive but it seems that Google have failed to realise that their un-subscription link offers very little to anyone that is not a user of their Gmail service.

We have tested this here and when a share is revealed to an email address that is not Gmail based, they are unable to opt out of the email alerts, instead receiving a Google 404 page.


Google are known to want to try to make ground within the social networking world but with Google Plus functioning in the way that it does at the moment, they need to either act quickly and sort out the 404 issue or they need to eliminate the ability to include email addresses outside of Gmail.

Either way, at the moment Google could just have unwillingly created one of the biggest spam bots on the internet and one that offers the additional danger of being unable to opt out of the updates.

Google Plus invite reaches Twitter “king” Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher joins Google+, admits he needs more practice inside.

Looks like Google+ isn’t only for nerds like me, unless Ashton Kutcher is also a nerd, oh maybe he is.

The famous Hollywood star is the latest member of still-exclusive and hard-to-join Google+ social networking site launched by Google last Thursday. No official word yet about the exact date of Kutcher’s inclusion inside G Plus, but his first post was recorded July 1st.

He said, “sweet. another thing for me to post on.” Kutcher is known for his record as the first Twitter user to reach 1 million followers mark with the social networking site’s “Million followers contest.”

In Google Plus, Ashton Kutcher holds at least 680 “in circles” or “followers.” Apparently, the Google Plus community is still small, so Kutcher is still on track to get another “million” record, unless Larry Page (one of the founders of Google) will maintain its lead with 12,000+ “in circles.”

Anyway, Kutcher admits in one post that he’s still trying to adjust inside the new social networking site. He posted publicly, “this is going to take getting used to. makes me feel like a newbie.”

Google Plus is the latest project of the search engine giant that will obviously challenge the popularity of Facebook and Twitter. According to multiple testers including “me”, Google Plus is like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr in one website, with better sharing and “privacy” setting. Trust me, Google Plus and “privacy” mixed inside.

Already joined Google+? You can add Ashton Kutcher here, Larry Page here, and me.. As in “me”, here.

A Plus for Google

July 3, 2011:


There was a tweet in my timeline on Thursday morning: Google+ sending out invites. Watch out for a Twitter explosion.

And Twitter did explode — with requests for invites.

The problem with ‘invites only' services' is that you become desperate for an invite, and it shows — on Twitter. Some time ago it was for Google Wave. I literally begged for an invite in Twitter and got one from someone I had never seen or conversed even in Twitter. Unfortunately, Google Wave was a dud and collapsed.

Now it is Google again, with Plus.

When Google Plus was announced, there was the dampener again — initially, it would be through invites only. I hit Twitter again — and begged. (I think I am becoming rather good at it) This time, I begged directly to a geek who I knew had invites to share. He responded and sent me one. Going by the initial reactions and what I have seen, Plus has received a positive response. The geek who ‘donated' the invite to me said he became so addicted on the first day itself that he was late for office! For a beta release, Plus had a lot of features, he said. He felt the concept of creating your own ‘Circles' was great, as you could share content only within the circle you want (you can have several ‘Circles'). As Google says, “You can choose to share some things with college buddies, others with parents, and almost nothing with your boss; just like in real-life.”

In Hangout, you can create a ‘Hangout' where you can have group video chat with up to 10 people. There is more to Plus such as Huddle (Group chat) and Sparks.

As I write this, I have just started trying it out, and I can say Google has done some homework. When Google announced Plus, there were jokes about how Google was ‘nonPlussed' about social networks. But now, it seems Google has got it right.

The added advantage Google has is the Android platform that seems to be steamrolling all other mobile platforms (with the exception of iPhone). An app for Plus is already available for Android phones. One for iPhone is “coming soon”. Others who have phones that run on Symbian, Windows Mobile or BlackBerry need not worry, as Plus can be accessed through the browser. If you don't have any phone or don't have an Internet plan for your phone, you can always use the computer. Just log on to plus.google.com with your (begged) invite.

Keywords: Google+, Google Plus

Facebook Gears Up To Compete With Google Plus

Facebook Develops New “Awesome” Update

Facebook’s creator and owner Mark Zuckerberg has announced that on the 6th of July, Facebook will be release a new update consisting of “something awesome” developed by his Seattle team. That little something has turned out to be a brand-new update for Facebook users. Friday, Facebook sent out invitations for an event due to be held at Facebook’s Paolo Alto base of operations on the same day.
Facebook To Give Users Video Chat Service

It’s obvious that Zuckerberg has planned something, but just what exactly? Sources say that Facebook has teamed up with Skype to give Facebook a video chat feature. It is unclear whether or not the product will just function if a user’s computer already has Skype installed, or if the downloading of further software will be necessary. However, it is known that the feature will be experienced from within an Internet browser, and that there is a very thorough level of collaboration between Facebook and Skype.


Facebook Makes An Attempt To Counter Google

Google’s newly-released social network, Google Plus, has a feature concerning video chat that allows users to talk to each other through video in groups as large as ten. This feature is called “Hangouts.” As of right now, Facebook has no video chat feature, which PCWorld has interpreted as something Google Plus could give them “serious competition” over. Rumors have been spread that a video-chat feature isn’t the only thing Facebook’s cooking up: there’s also been talk of an official iPad app, as well as a mobile project. Whatever Zuckerberg has planned, it looks like the public will just have to wait until the 6th to find out.

In this article you learned about the plans Facebook has on releasing a video chat feature for users very soon. Mark Zuckerberg is apparently trying to come up with a way to contend with Google’s most recent social endeavor, Google Plus. Google Plus seems to be a very popular topic already; it’s obvious that Facebook has realized they have a competitor.

Google Plus threat to Facebook, Twitter

And thus, with Plus, Google owns us whole.

That is, of course, only one way of looking at Google's labour of over one year, when the team guys sat writing codes, eager to make as big an impact in the social media sector as in the mail, search, photo and document storage domains.

This time, they were also hoping to do one better than Orkut, which was literally steamrollered by Facebook in popularity and functionality, and certainly better than its disastrous Wave. The idea, one supposes, was to create a product that would make a mash of its prime competitors Facebook and Twitter and wipe them out. Will Google + do that?

Google + is still in its snooty, exclusive, I-will-call-you-don't-call-me phase, but let us remember that was Mark Zuckerberg's strategy initially as well. Facebook was the privy of exclusive Ivy League schools in the U.S. and the U.K. until the blitz happened. So, invitations are still scarce to come by, not all those in the Plus can extend invitations to friends who are still nonplussed. However, for sure, there are many more being added to my circles every night, nearly thrice the number than I started off with.

But when you are in, you may not notice this; it automatically signs you in on a secure (https) server, significant if you consider the recent controversies over Facebook taking liberties with users' privacy. So far, so good.

Even if you missed that, there is no way you cannot pause at the nearly spartan, neat, user interface. As yet uncluttered in comparison to FB, and only four silos (Home, Photos, Profile, Circles) to click on. Yeah, no games, and thankfully, no Farmville! On the face of it, it is simple; yet, it takes some initially to figure out the Google +. The ‘Stream' is the equivalent of FB's scroll newsfeed, and there are similar options — to share, edit, host photos and videos, and delete them. You can also ‘mute' those annoying conversations on your Stream. Phew! There is also the ‘Sparks' component, which according to Plus, “…looks for videos and articles that it thinks you'll like, so that when you're free, there's always something to watch, read and share.” Your grandpa will approve, it adds, but who is looking for Grandpa's approval rating on social media?

What is utterly out of the box for social media is the ‘Circle' concept. Literally, you can create your own social spheres, including friends, acquaintances, colleagues and contacts in different circles that are more than faintly reminiscent of school-level Set Theory. You can choose who you want to share specific information with, hiving off various groups that may be in conflict with each other: a boss versus someone to whom you are bitching about him.

A thumb tack aids you to transfer multiple persons on to the circles; and every circle you delete merrily jigs away out of the screen. Will subsets of intersecting Venn diagrams soon come to play, where diagrammatic impressions mapping friends who belong to more than one circle? It certainly will jazz Plus up. ‘Hangout' is Google's version of ‘teleportation,' a.k.a. ‘video chat' and is certainly cool thus far.

Mobile Google Plus is adapted finely for Apple's iOS and is functional on the Android platform (tried on HTC phones), but does not deign to work on the Symbian platform (tried on two of Nokia's E-series). Snooty again? Because even as the migration to Android or iOS gathers steam, there are still millions of users on Symbian, and everyone knows the link between Twitter's phenomenal growth and the facility of mobile phones.

Even if you are in, there is the fact that Plus is about a week old.

Keywords: Google Plus, social networking

Google+ Users Want App Store, Facebook Data Imports

What's next for the new Google+ social network? If Google acts on its users' requests, the ability to export data from Facebook to Google+ might be one, as well as an app store.

And one user already acted on his own request: a Chrome extension to export Google+ Stream posts to Facebook and Twitter.

Announced Tuesday, Google's Google+ takes on Facebook in form and function. With LinkedIn serving as a social network for jobs, PCMag.com's hands-on found Google+ to be a social network for geeks, chock full of new features and social options.

Even Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has joined Google+, although his profile page has just one update: a change to his profile picture. Larry Page also has a single public post, but Sergey Brin has yet to publicly announce himself on Google+.

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Within Google+, any comments attached to a public post are themselves public, and early users attached enthusiastic comments to two posts from Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, with congratulations and feature requests. Google currently is conducting a "field trial" of the service, with a full rollout at a future date.

Until then, users posted a number of questions and feature requests.

Facebookoff tool?

Perhaps the most interesting suggestion was offered by Mehdi Sharifzadeh, who said, "I want my facebookOff tool NOW!"

In Oct. 2010, Facebook offered a tool to offload data from its site, called Download My Data. An analysis of the feature by InsideFacebook.com notes that it includes wall posts, photos, movies, and names of contacts (without their contact information), all contained within a ZIP file and matched against an index file. Theoretically, the data could be matched and uploaded to Google+. However, commenters also claimed that the feature either didn't work or was incredibly slow, requiring days to process.

Invites, invites, invites

Not surprisingly, Google+ users wanted to add their friends as well. But they also realized that a social network doesn't just need users, it needs their digital lives, as well: photos, videos, and opinions stored on Facebook and elsewhere.

"Very cool product, but the content is all still on other networks... please open up invites soon so we can spread them around and get our near and dear ones signed on here!" Hrishikesh Diwan wrote.

"I second the invite thing," Alejandro Nijamkin, a software engineer at Google working on the Google+ Android app. "People will probably stop visiting after a while if they can't have more people to share with."

An app store

It's hard to believe that Google wouldn't have something in the works here, although it's difficult to know if this would something along the lines of a Google Chrome extension or a more formal app store. Keep in mind that although Google has a Chrome Web Store, but that marketplace seems to have much more of a lowe profile than, say, the Android Market, where apps are much more central to the mobile experience.

"Hope you'll put in some OpenSocial goodness in the future," Sebastian Mauer wrote. "Extendability via apps is crucial if you're really trying to compete with the 'ol fb ;)"

And then, of course, there's something like Zynga. Farmville on Google+? It's a long way off, even if it's technically feasible.

What's the fate of Google Buzz?

François Bacconnet posted an as-yet unanswered question: "But how Google+ and Buzz stay side by side? Will they be merged?"

It seems likely that Google Buzz, which was immediately criticized for privacy missteps, will end up being folded into Google+. On the other hand, as other commenters pointed out, those that adopted Google Buzz should be rewarded.

"Yeah, it was a successful roll out anyway you look at it - because you invited people like me who would have told you in no uncertain terms if it wasn't," Rob Gordon, an app developer, wrote. "Now go invite everyone who has been active on Buzz - they suffered more then you could possibly know, and are your most loyal users."

Integration across other Google properties

Yang Guo chimed in with some additional thoughts.

"Think about all the stuff that can be integrated!
- Calendar: event hosting
- Translate: auto translate posts from your foreign-language friends (though probably won't happen that much, with circles and all)
- Mail: connect mail to posts on Google+ limited to only one person?
- Reader: I can already follow people that keep Google+ updated with their blog entries. Would be cool to have reader content flow into my Google+ stream"

An API

This suggestion, from Karl Asman, is undoubtedly in the works.

Downvoting

We may have already seen this. Pull out a contact from your Circle, and a red "-1" icon appears. But the ability to "dis-" or "un-" like a person or post has been missing from Facebook, and it may or may not show up on Google+.

Data granularity

So far, as some have noted, Google+ is more of a one-way street, where people can be followed without their explicit permission. It's a different relationship than Facebook, where "friends" are accepted by both parties.

"It seems a shame there's no way to post messages so they are categorised, but ALSO public," Oliver Comes noted. "I tweet in 3 main subject areas, but no-one is interested in all of them, so I have three Twitter accounts so people can choose which "part" of me to follow. It seems Google+ doesn't solve this problem :( i.e. posts have to be public and seen by everyone, or to circles and only visible to people I have added (like Facebook does)."

Iterate, iterate, iterate

Google's new unofficial mantra of late (like Microsoft's use of innovation) seems to be "iterate," or the ability to quickly roll out updates and new versions of existing code. Several Google engineers expressed enthusiasm for Google+ (G+), and rolled up their sleeves.

"I second Bin's comment," Balaji Srinivasan wrote. "Best day since I joined Google. I am thrilled at all the progress we have made and am looking forward to some kick-ass quick iterations in the coming weeks."