The User Advocate

boagworld:

A quick review of Google+

(Source: boagworld, via sido)

Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.

Google+ allows individuals to share photos, messages and comments but also integrates the company’s maps and images into the service.

It also aims to help users easily organise contacts within groups.

But some analysts say Google has simply reproduced features of Facebook while adding a video chat function.

Google, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the US, has taken several stabs at Facebook in recent years.

But its previous efforts ended in failure, with both Google Wave and Google Buzz proving unpopular with users.

How to Call BS on Social Media Gurus

scott berkun talks

Viewdle sits between the camera and the user analysing faces in the camera stream, identifying them, then offering links to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms. A user can identify and tag people in pictures & videos then pass the information to their social networks. As they tag others the software learns to recognize them, and can even share these new visual profiles with other users. The live view also offers an augmented reality tagging overlay that reveals information about the people around you.

(Source: viewdle.com)

INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.

dhgisme:

Last week I launched a Massive Brainstorm around the question: how can we use social media tools like Twitter, Foursquare, & Facebook to affect the 2012 Farm Bill?

I received the following tweet on Monday from Jason Boucher, an information technologist, writer in higher education, and…

Coca-Cola announced internally today that it is making changes to the leadership team of its global integrated marketing communications and capabilities organization. 

“It’s recognition of a shift in the landscape,” said Ms. Clark, senior-VP integrated marketing communications and capabilities. “Increasingly, we understand the idea of a liquid and linked landscape. And perhaps we weren’t structured for ultimate success within that landscape.”

read the full article on adage.

Everyone is aware of how significantly Facebook has impacted modern technologies such as online communication, information aggregation, and boyfriend stalking. Less noticed, but just as profound, is its influence on art. Just as refinements in mirror crafting led to an increase in self portrait production during the Renaissance, Facebook’s steady, unrelenting invasion of every crevice in the civilized world has led to a new renaissance in portraiture, notable for its creation by people who wouldn’t know good art if it friend requested them.

read more @ fastcodesign

The new and improved Twitter look & feel

Today’s calendar is broken. It’s a static repository of events. It’s a snapshot, a moment in time. Contrast that against our dynamic and ever changing lives and we have a significant disconnect. The model doesn’t work – it isn’t representative. It doesn’t leverage our digital footprints and create incremental value. The application is outdated and with that we have an opportunity to innovate.

If we compare the leaders in the digital calendar space, we see very similar feature function developed to date. If we remove brand and unique UI elements, we are left with complete product parity.

We believe the time to think about the calendar of the future is now. We have assembled the opinions of some of the industry’s brightest minds to weigh in on what the calendar of the future might look like and the benefits it might provide to our personal and professional lives…This is a manifesto.

read the Tungle.me manifesto (and watch the video) 

What’s the main difference between successful Google applications (search, maps, news, email) and a successful social applications? With Google applications we return to the app to do something specific and then go on to something else, whereas great social applications are designed to lure us back and make us never want to leave.

read the full article on ifindkarma

A new study from Pew Internet found that between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking site usage grew 88% among Internet users aged 55-64, and the 65 and older group’s social networking presence grew 100% in the same time frame.

read the pew report

read the full article on mashable

How social media is changing webdesign

The Social Landscape