The 2012 Republican National Convention have announced that Google, Inc. has been named the “Official Social Platform and Live Stream Provider” of the Republican presidential nominating convention to be held Aug. 27-30 in Tampa.

As a convention partner, Google will provide a range of technology support and services, including streaming high-quality, live video of convention events and programs.

“Google and YouTube are transforming the political process, providing voters an unprecedented degree of participation and, for the very first time, giving every American who has access to a computer, tablet, video gaming system, interactive television, or video-enabled smart-phone an exclusive backstage pass to the podium of a national political convention,” said convention CEO William Harris.

Using a host of new technologies and communications platforms including “Google+ Hangouts” (a new multi-party videoconferencing feature), convention organizers hope to provide voters a virtual front-row seat to convention proceedings and activities.

“Having Google as a partner ensures the most engaging convention experience in history,” added Harris. “Our goal is to bring the convention to you, no matter where you are or which device you use.”

“We are excited to work with the Republican National Convention to help break down traditional barriers and empower voters. By incorporating our tools and technology, we are offering a behind the scenes look at the convention process and allowing voters, delegates and viewers to shape the conversation,” said Susan Molinari, Google’s Vice President of Public Policy.

Image Courtesy of    NewsHour

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Since its launch last June, Google+ has reached more than 90 million users in just over a period of six months. It would be astonishing if people created the accounts the same way they did for Facebook and Twitter. However, the case with Google+ is different. According to news sources, most users accidentally create Google+ accounts while signing up for other Google services. However, the CEO of Google, Larry Page, finds Google+ a success. In a press release, he stated:

“I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally – well over double what I announced just three months ago. By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+, we will create amazing experiences across our services. I’m very excited about what we can do in 2012 – there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business.”

The overall increase in Google+ memberships may be due to its integration into social networks via Google Apps, Gmail, Picasa, and all Google services. Today, even though Google+ is a prominent part of search results, it is still behind when compared to Facebook and Twitter, which have 800 and 100 million active users respectively.

“Over 60 percent of Google+ users use Google products on a daily basis. Over 80 percent of Google+ users use Google products every week,” said Page in Thursday’s Google earnings call.

Measuring the popularity of a service according to its registered users, rather than its daily active ones, tells you nothing about its overall success. Given the popularity of Google search, Gmail, and YouTube, 60 percent is quite a low percentage of daily interactive users. Truth be told, the statistics provided are only there to hide the actual number of people who really do use Google+.

Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic said the following as a response to the statistics mentioned above:

“Unless we’re misinterpreting what ‘Google product’ is, these numbers are very strange. Remember that Google’s products include Google Search, Gmail, and YouTube, so one has to wonder about the 40 percent of Google+ users who don’t use a single Google product in a day. One might even conclude that the 20 percent of Google+ users who don’t use a Google product in a week are not really “on” the internet in a way that most users would recognize.”

According to VentureBeat, this is not the first time Google has released misleading Google+ statistics. Last July, Page said, “The service had 10 million users who shared 1 billion items a day.” That seems quite unrealistic; does it make sense for an average user to share “100 items a day”? Many may see Google+ as a start-up that has gained popularity through Google’s position in the market and not through its effectiveness as a social networking site.

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Facebook’s new design “Timeline” and Google Plus’ neat organization and visual impact have given it users something to talk about. Twitter has decided to follow its competitors’ strategies and give its users something to talk about as well. The social network has unveiled a new set of changes and modifications in its design.

The new design, dubbed Fly Twitter, proposes a new and fresh design for its users. The slogan, which appears on twitters official site (http://fly.twitter.com/index_en.html), portrays the new design by saying: ”Yours to discover. A faster, simpler way to stay close to everything you care about.” Although not yet publicly available, it will be introduced in the coming weeks to its 300 million users.

The new design will basically consist of four areas: Home, Connect, Discover and Me. According to Twitter, the Discover Page will be one of the most significant since it will expose trending topics and popular discussions that are being discussed around the web. On the other hand, the Connect area will be the platform where everything that users do–such as mentions, retweets and followers–will be placed.

These changes have clearly developed to grant the social media site a place in the market since its competitors have applied new designs too. ”Today we introduce a new version of Twitter. We’ve simplified the design to make it easier than ever to follow what you care about, connect with others and discover something new,” Twitter said in a post on its official blog.

“What we’re announcing today is just the beginning. We now have a framework in place that we will quickly build and iterate upon to help users connect with whatever is meaningful to them.” New apps for iPhone, Android and TweetDeck have been released this Thursday, December 8.

Twitter’s new image will integrate a lot of simplicity and visual impact. The users will be able to count on an easier way to navigate through the the page, and newer applications with different page areas will offer something different.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0qqDy5BmYKE

1000 Words / Shutterstock.com

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Social media websites in United States are almost half a decade old now and the statistics that broke news lately proves that social media websites have beaten porn in terms of traffic. The distance between the porn sites and social networks has remained steady over this time, despite a number of innovations by the former which are intended to attract visitors.

Similar results were presented by Hitwise, a UK-based web analysis platform which spotted that the average British web surfer spend more time on social media websites than on porn sites. According to the netcraft.com 2011 report of “Most visited websites” or the report of toptenreview.com, all social media websites are in the top 10, leaving porn behind in the competition.

The popularity of adult films cannot be denied as a form of entertainment. According to cnbc.com the porn business is so big that every second: $3,075 is spent on it, more than 28,000 internet users are viewing it and 372 internet users are using search engines to find it. Online, porn sites make up about 12% of all sites, taking in approximately $2.4 billion a year.

Developments in porn distribution includes credit card sales, web video and driving up the development of such technologies as 3D TV. According to David Amerland, a British NUJ journalist, editor and author of the best-selling “SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website to Google’s #1 page”, the main drive behind the consumption of porn online has to do with deep-rooted feelings of isolation and loneliness.

There is an explanation on the Toptenreview.com 2011 report of ‘Most Popular Websites’ why social networks are so popular:

Through social networking, people can use networks of online friends and group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create real–life friendships through similar interests or groups.

Besides establishing important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests with other like–minded members by joining groups and forums. Some networking can also help members find a job or establish business contacts. Most social networking websites also offer additional features.

In addition to blogs and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. Members can read bios of their favorite music artists from the artist’s profile page as well as listen to their favorite songs and watch music videos. The video section can include everything from member–generated videos from hundreds of subjects to TV clips and movie trailers.

Amerland expresses a similar opinion on socialmediatoday.com. He noticed that social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are personally invested and built online interaction. They are there to fulfill a human need to connect with new people, retaining friendshops, finding partners and lead a digital lifestyle.

He also noted that ECG studies of subjects carried out while accessing porn and social networks has shown that many of the same areas of the brain light up while visiting these websites. It suggests that the same form of addictive and compulsive behavior arises whether it be from adult films or social media platforms.

On August 15, 2011 the American Society of Addiction Medicine issued a public statement defining all addiction in terms of brain changes. “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry.” Porn addiction is included on the list. Should we ask the question, when will social media addiction appear in this ranking?

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The new social networks of Google, Google Plus, made all Google Plus profiles public and delete private profiles on July 31. If you are using a Google Profile, which describes anyone using the new Google+ social network, Google is issuing an ultimatum: If you don’t make your profile public by July 31st, Google will delete it.

On the other hand if you do not want to find yourself in searches, you can change your profile settings. But users do not hide their name and surnames, it is not possible.

Google announced this application in their official Google Plus help center. Here is the article of it:

“The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don’t allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public.

Keep in mind that your full name and gender are the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you’ll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don’t want to share.

If you currently have a private profile but you do not wish to make your profile public, you can delete your profile. Or, you can simply do nothing. All private profiles will be deleted after July 31, 2011.”

Google Plus is the new social network and a competition between Google Plus and Facebook exists currently. Google’s new application and changes could affect this competition.

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