:: Future of Journalism

Google quietly launches Latitude Leaderboards. A threat for Foursquare?

Engadget :: Google didn't exactly offer much fanfare for this new feature -- as far as we can tell, it still hasn't been officially announced. With the latest update to the Google Maps app, Mountain View delivered an extra level of functionality to the all but forgotten Latitude. Now check check-ins earn you points which are tallied and used to rank Google+ users on a global leaderboard, just like on Foursquare.

Continue to read Terrence O'Brien, www.engadget.com

YouTube Blog: We added more ways to communicate (release note)

YouTube Blog :: You keep adding and watching more videos, so we’re working to keep adding more ways for you to watch, share and enjoy the channels and videos on YouTube. This week in Release Notes we’ve got a new way to promote your Google+ profile on YouTube, more options in the Annotations Editor, posting to your Channel Feed and more.

Continue to read youtube-global.blogspot.com

"Now is the time to quit Facebook" - A movement explained

ReadWriteWeb :: Last week's overvalued IPO, and the fact that Mark Zuckerberg owns more than a quarter of the world's largest social network and refuses to share the cash has put many users over the edge. But months before the IPO rumor even surfaced, there were plenty of folks who had already left Facebook for Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. They are happy to tell you why they left, and they encourage you to do the same. They have joined together on other social networks - Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ - to discuss why they left Facebook, or why they're thinking about leaving Facebook.

Continue to read Alicia Eler, www.readwriteweb.com

Google+ launches developer pages

Google+ Blog :: Today we’re launching the Google+ Developers page to help you stay connected to all the latest Google+ platform news, events, community, and more. As the lead of the Google+Developer Relations team, I’m really looking forward to meeting you there -- add the page to your circles to join the conversation, comment on posts, and join our hangouts. Our team will host regular hangouts to talk about the +Platform, your experiences with it, and share tips and tricks with the community.

Continue to read googleplusplatform.blogspot.com

Ad agencies' (social media) marketing mix: 89% Facebook, 39% Twitter, 18% Google+

ZDNet :: Facebook continues its dominance in marketing campaigns. In Q4 2011, 89% of agencies said they plan to utilize the medium for their clients going forward. This is followed by 39% planning to use Twitter, 36% choosing YouTube, 21% picking LinkedIn, and 18% opting for Google+. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean the agencies will be using ads on these social networks: it just means they want to use the platforms to market for their clients, whether that be with ads, Facebook Pages, Google+ Pages, or other creative means (data source: STRATA).

Continue to read Emil Protalinski, www.zdnet.com

Matt Lynley: Google+ is growing much faster than Facebook did in the early days

Business Insider :: Don't write off Google+ just yet — compared to Facebook's early days, its growth is meteoric. It took Facebook nearly a year to reach a million users and more than four years to reach 100 million. It took Google+ about two weeks to reach 10 million, and less than a year to reach 100 million. Paul Allen, the "unofficial" statistician for Google+ and founder of Ancestry.com, says Google+ could reach 400 million users by the end of the year.

Continue to read Matt Lynley, www.businessinsider.com

"The President of the United States is on the phone." Like to Hangout on Google+?

O'Reilly Radar :: We're suddenly very close to science fiction becoming reality television, live streamed to large and small screens around the world. On Monday, January 30th, 2012, the fireside chats that FDR hosted on citizens' radios in the 20th century will have a digital analogue in the new millennium: President Barack Obama will host a Google+ Hangout from the West Wing, only a few weeks after the White House joined Google+.

Continue to read Alex Howard, radar.oreilly.com

Q&A with Amit Singhal: Search Plus Your World isn’t perfect, but it’ll improve

Search Engine Land :: Two weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World. Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much. Not so, says Google search chief Amit Singhal. Most Google users are happy, Singhal said. Of course, Search Plus Your World isn’t perfect, he admits, but it’ll improve. Danny Sullivan talked with him about the reaction to Search Plus Your World.

The Q&A exchange - Continue to read Danny Sullivan, searchengineland.com

Too much focus on Google+? Google's crappy search results

Search Engine Land :: The debate about what should — and shouldn’t — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point. But I’d like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else: how it appears Google is taking its eye off the ball of being a search engine.

[Danny Sullivan:] Dear Google: Crappy results like (my search for Santorum) don't give the impression you care about search.

Continue to read Danny Sullivan, searchengineland.com

Google privacy shift will have greater impact on Android users

Washington Post :: Google this week announced a shift in its privacy policies that will allow it to follow the activities of users. The company emphasized in interviews that the change would apply only to users who are signed on to their Google accounts. The initiative could be of particular significance for consumers of Android devices, who are almost always signed on to their phones and tablets, experts said. Without signing up for an account, an Android smartphone owner would be limited in what he or she could do on the device, they said.

Continue to read Cecialia Kang, www.washingtonpost.com