Tech Week in Review 7-8-2011

The Google Plus 50

Chris Brogan, author and speaker on social media applications for business, has had a lot to say about Google+ since its launch. One of this more thought-provoking posts on the subject, The Google Plus 50, caught the minds of many techies this week. It’s not a list of 50 people to Circle up with on Google+, but simply a list of 50 things to think about when it comes to Google+ and its potential to change the social web. A few nuggets from the list:

6. If Google+ starts influencing Page Rank (meaning, if a link shared on G+ is weighted more than others), it’s game on for SEO/SEM.

9. You don’t need Quora, if you can ask detailed questions in G+ and share them with specific Circles, etc.

16. There are more big name visionaries poking around on Google+ right out in the open than on any other social application that I’ve seen (this just might be the nature of G+, that everything is so visible, but it FEELS like big news to have Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg and others checking it out.)

34. How long before we see our first Hangout live music “jam?” That’s one record button away from being supercool. And one “name your price” Google Checkout tweak away from being instant micro content for sale.

Facebook Unveils Skype-Powered Video Chat. Blocks Export Tool.

When Mark Zuckerberg and friends said they were going to launch “something awesome,” who knew it would be video chat? Well, possibly everyone, but the point is you can now do one-on-one video chat on Facebook. Powered by Skype, it’s pretty much the same as using Skype’s software. What’s interesting about this is that Google+ launched with a feature called Hangouts, a 10-person video conferencing tool. I won’t say Google+ is meant to compete with Facebook, but it’s definitely trampling the lawn outside that walled-garden and has many people jumping ship already. You would think Facebook would have launched something a bit more exciting than what we already had. CNET has a great comparison of the two video chat services.

Even though Zuckerberg is the most followed user on Google+, he’s obviously not going to be endorsing the product any time soon. He did comment that Google+is a “validation of Facebook’s vision” (via Mashable) where just about everything goes social. While neglecting to make any more direct comments on Google+, we did see Facebook take the time to block a Google Chrome extension for exporting your Facebook friends. This is presumably due to increased usage of this extension by Google+ users.

Major Updates for Amazon Cloud Player

A few important updates to Amazon Cloud Player / Cloud Drive. For a limited time, you can now get unlimited music storage in Amazon’s cloud for $20 per month. In addition, music purchased from Amazon can now be stored for free, including items purchased before the launch of Cloud Drive. If you qualified for the free 20GB of storage by purchasing an mp3 album, you are also eligible for unlimited storage. iPad users rejoice, Cloud Player for Web now fully supports the iPad. Just jump to www.amazon.com/cloudplayer in your Safari browser on your iPad for music streaming goodness. Visit BGR for the full press release.

Blogger and Picasa to Become Google-Branded

We may soon see the names Blogger and Picasa become a thing of the past. These, along with several other Google services and acquisitions will be renamed to follow along with the launch of Google+. It’s all about branding when it comes to the web and Google seems to be looking to tighten things up. Blogger will become Google Blogs and Picasa will become Google Photos. Of course, YouTube will retain its name,which is probably just as well-known as the Google brand itself. Allegedly, this goes down within the next six weeks, but Google has declined to officially comment.

via Mashable

About the Author
Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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