Google’s super secret social networking endeavor, Google Plus, was released this week as a “Field Test.” Many from the Google Buzz crowd and FOGs (Friends of Google) were invited along and within 48 hours it opened up to a much wider group. It is estimated (albeit unscientifically) that several thousand people now have access. I’d like to let new readers know that I get excited about new web properties. I’ve pitched other new social networks that turned out to fall flat. However, Google Plus is the real deal and absolutely worth a serious look.

1. Google Plus was one of the best kept secrets of any large project I have ever seen. It’s truly remarkable that more information did not leak out about this project.  Sure, almost exactly a year ago, Kevin Rose tweeted “Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon ‘Google Me’, very credible source.”  But not very much was known about the details of the project. Now, Google in grand fashion has released “Google Me” as “Google+”.  Google has tight control over confidential information and plays its cards close to its vest. (In this regard, Google is similar to Apple.) However, people on Buzz knew something was coming soon because the few Googlers who supported Google Buzz was noticeably absent from Buzz for months.

2. Google Plus is NOT Buzz Reincarnated — Thankfully. I’ve seen people refer to Google Plus as “Buzz 2.0″ and I can barely see the resemblance. Although the Field Test includes many of the prominent Buzz users, the site is not similar to Google Buzz in many respects. It’s not baked into Gmail, does not have a chaotic feed that is difficult to follow, has an entirely different UI and includes MANY previously-unseen features. In hindsight, what kept Buzz from becoming a ghost town was the friendships that formed early in Buzz’s existence. In a sense, we were a people without a home. Just prior to the Google Plus launch, some of us were migrating to a site called “Namesake.” (Check it out if you haven’t.) In other words, we were collectively coming to our senses that Buzz was not a good platform.

Google Plus brings with it some amazing features but the best is “Circles.” Each user has the ability to create, edit and delete groups of friends in a simple manner. I’ll let Google explain with its own Youtube:

Google Plus is being compared and contrasted with Facebook, not surprisingly. Circles are far easier to use than Facebook’s “friends lists.” Almost everyone I know who uses Facebook shares everything with their entire friends list or the entire universe of Facebook users. Sometimes, rarely, they will send someone a private message too. Circles allow for people to easily group people by interest or topic. The ability to easily drop and drag people into and out of a Circle makes for relationships to develop (and end) quickly. No longer am I sharing everything with people I can barely remember from high school. But if I wanted to, I could. Circles enable users to better control the distribution of their updates.

And I’m barely scratching the surface by only mentioning Circles. There’s also Sparks (discovery by topic), Hangouts (group videochats) and some other features that are still in development like Questions and Games. (Yes, Google Plus has better feed control than other social networks and without a doubt we’ll be able to exclude unwanted classes of content from our feeds. Did you hear that Zynga?)

3. Google Plus is NOT Facebook Plus — Thankfully. While it looked like Facebook to me at first (perhaps even an older iteration),  Google Plus is substantially different. Already I see new relationships forming. Facebook, as I see it used, is primarily a tool for sharing brief remarks with friends from the face-to-face world. Google Plus can be used for the purpose but what I like about it is the ability to find interesting people who don’t exist in my face-to-face world. On Twitter these relationships can be formed by a series of 140 character tweets, but on Google Plus there are some more in depth discussions forming around topics, and we have the baked in ability to meet face-to-face (virtually) without even leaving the Google Plus ecosystem. In fact, as far as communicating with people online, Google Plus is a comprehensive platform.

In any event, I think the “Facebook killer” view is the wrong way to look at Google Plus right now. It could be used as a Facebook alternative (or Twitter alternative) or simply as a supplemental social network. It is not a case of Google just “one-upping” Facebook. Google has designed a unique social network with some features we have seen before but many new features which appear to be carefully considered (contrast with Buzz)  and extremely well executed (e.g., Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and so on). By running a limited Field Test, Google is working out some minor issues before the site is available to everyone but none of the minor issues I have seen have adversely affected my impression of what Google Plus is and where it is going.

There’s so much more that could be written about Google Plus and the blogosphere has exploded with posts about it. There are many different ways to analyze Google Plus but I suggest, as I wrote above, that Google Plus is unique. If you do not join up thinking Buzz+ or Facebook+, you will likely fall in love with it the way most users seem to be during the Field Test.

If you don’t already have access, you will soon. While you wait, minor annoyances are being resolved and Google Plus is improving. You’re in for an eye-opening treat and I hope you enjoy it at least as much as I have the past few days. When you get there, look me up (http://goo.gl/eA1ih).

P.S. The Android app for Google Plus, which can only be used by people who have joined and not those waiting for invitations to join, is icing on the cake. Truly spectacular.

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--Google’s Game Plan: Google is not failing at hardware. It is succeeding at something else.

Brief explanation: I was flirting with the idea of shutting the blog down or allowing it to simply wither on the vine. I even considered posting a message that all of my blogging will occur in a micro fashion either on Buzz or Twitter (@JonMallin).  However, I have decided to keep the blog live, allow guest bloggers to participate (Thanks Louis Parker and Nick Waye), and to personally update it on a infrequent basis. These are my thoughts on technology that I’ve had bottled up (get the joke?) for awhile with a focus on Google.

On to discuss Google’s game plan… TweetDeck was acquired by Twitter because it threatened Twitter. TweetDeck was and is the most-widely used third party vehicle and Twitter was the destination. The problem for Twitter is that TweetDeck was also a vehicle that drove people to Facebook and Buzz, though to a much lesser extent. If FaceMashSomething popped up tomorrow, a Twitter rival, TweetDeck could propel it to instant stardom. On the other hand, if Twitter acquires TweetDeck then it owns and controls a vehicle, an especially popular vehicle.

Today I had a somewhat similar random thought that might sound somewhat conspiracy-like. Google has created Chome browser and Chrome OS to move advertisements from the web and into the OS (banner at the bottom, pop-ups, etc.). Remember the fundamentals? Google is, at its core, an advertising company… plain and simple.  This would insure advertising revenue regardless of the websites people visit. Websites come and go. There was AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, MySpace, etc. Websites tend to be short-term trends. What is intelligent about Google’s plan is that it would be immune to these trends. Facebook could beat Buzz/Google Me, Bing could become popular, Twitter use could skyrocket and guess what? If Google owns the vehicle, the OS it gives away for free, it has the ability to sell advertisers access to your eyeballs (remember, your eyeballs are Google’s primary “product”).

This is precisely the Android model.

So, Android = huge success by all accounts based on insanely fast widespread adoption.

Google owns the vehicle and it serves up ads through third party apps (note: in fact, no native Google apps have advertising banners AFAIK).

If they can move from handsets to desktops to other ways of catching your eyeballs, Google makes boatloads of cash.

If I’m correct in my thinking, Google should be patenting the heck out of an OS that overlays ads over internet accessed content or otherwise interjects ads into the user experience (brief pauses with animated ads or boot-up ads… whatever, patent it all). Furthermore, Google should give away computers. I previous wrote, “Chrome OS Netbooks — Hell Yes, Google Will Give away computers” back in December of 2009.  What happened?  Google beta tested a computer giveaway, the CR-48. The goals isn’t to sell computers. It never was. Every pundit who declares Google’s hardware experiences “failures” is an idiot. Google TV is a way to sell your eyeballs when you look at your television. Google’s web properties sell your eyeballs when you look at the computer. Google Android, YouTube… you get the point. The amount of revenue Google receives directly from the sale of a physical product is immaterial to Google’s plans. The only thing that matters is that Google win the vehicle war.

My belief is that Google may think it has nearly saturated some of its existing customers and maximized the value they can extract out of existing eyeballs. They now need new eyeballs. People who don’t have computers, smartphones, etc. If they give away computers, they may harvest up new eyeballs. Senior citizens and the poor are likely audiences.

This is not to say Google isn’t diversifying. Sure, it wants to serve up its productivity suite. But, I contend that line of business will be immaterial to Google’s revenue stream for a long, long time.

Google’s “master plan” is to be the vehicle through which your eyeballs travel. They’re not looking to pull money from your wallet by selling you a product. Instead, our eyeballs are being sold as the product and Google wants to make sure it is the largest, best eyeball store around.

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--Google Plus: Stealth Mode to Instant Competitor?

Miio is a mixture of every hot property on the web right now. It is a little like Facebook, Twitter, Buzz and FriendFeed. In other words, it is a social networking site. Do we really need another? The answer appears to be a resounding YES. Miio brings in the best of each of the hot properties and it is really gaining traction. The service is so polished that TheNextWeb entitled a post “Early adopted alert: miio is here, and it’s looking really slick.”

I’m a big fan of Google Buzz and I’ve been vocal about it. The CEO of miio, Richard Lusk, is also a Google Buzz fan. I’m not alone in saying that I plan to shift some of my social networking time to miio.

I’m not going to attempt to reinvent the wheel. There’s an excellent review of miio in the blogosphere entitled, “Why miio isn’t Twitter or Facebook: And why this is a good thing.” The post contains a video demo and a terrific overview of the service. It’s recommended reading.

If you check out miio, add my profile to your network. It’s at http://miio.com/jon.

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I budget most of my social networking time for Google Buzz. Here’s my long-winded why…

Facebook support waivers and A list bloggers like Mashable speculate about the fate of MySpace, but nobody seems to be reporting on Google Buzz. Sure, it faltered out of the gate with a privacy misstep. To briefly recap: users were set to auto-follow their Gmail contacts and those auto-follows could be seen by other Buzz users. However, this was done inadvertently and the problem was patched faster than a speeding bullet. This issue was addressed quite well at SXSW. Google apologized. (It differs significantly from Facebook intentionally taking what was previously private and unapologetically broadcasting it to the entire 400 million plus Facebook community but that’s another post altogether.) Now, in case you were wondering, Buzz doesn’t have any known privacy bugs. You can buzz publicly or privately. You can show or hide your list of people you follow and people who follow you. Has anyone in the media or blogosphere been reporting on this?

To me, this is what makes Google Buzz appealing and more so than competing social networks:

• Building a Buzz environment to your liking: It is easy to build followers and to reciprocate follows. My Google Buzz followers are largely active Buzz users. I have more Google Buzz followers than Twitter followers and I joined Twitter ages ago. I enjoy both reading and writing on Buzz.
• Twitter falls short: Twitter is often difficult to follow. Conversations, which rarely develop, need to be decrypted because of the 140 character limit and the lack of meaningful organization of Tweets. It doesn’t help matters that many active Twitter users tend to be get-rich-quick schemes and pure follow-back whores.
• Facebook is a different animal: Facebook isn’t really about expanding horizons. Sure, I like keeping in touch with people and Facebook makes that easy. I suggest you ask yourself these questions if you think Facebook is the be-all-end-all of social networks: How many new people have you met on Facebook? How many real conversations have you engaged in on Facebook? What is the signal to noise ratio on Facebook? Are you content with Facebook governance and frequent changes in policy?
• The Buzz platform is well designed. Sharing information from Google Reader, YouTube and by URL has never been easier. We are expecting to see the Buzz API opened up at Google I/O which should benefit the platform and accelerate Buzz growth.
• Community support and mobilization: We’ve taught each other how to use Buzz and some conventions for Buzz use have developed. We’ve mobilized to support Buzz and provided feedback to the Google Buzz Team. The Google Buzz Team has responded with improvements and is currently privately beta testing new features.
• Buzz is a community. I have met new people near and far (very far) and joked, shared opinions and debated. Buzz users have engaged and thoroughly discussed many topics. My posts and ideas have generated more discussion on Google Buzz than any other platform. I’m not alone in this regard; other people report the same. It’s nice to have feedback every once in a while from a diverse group of people.

Buzz is social media at its finest! If you were scared off by the privacy glitch and haven’t experienced Buzz recently, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Give Buzz a second chance.

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--Google’s Game Plan: Google is not failing at hardware. It is succeeding at something else.

I’m starting a buzz campaign to bring Music Mondays from Twitter to Google Buzz. For those who unfamiliar with Music Mondays, people simply tweet the music they’ve been listening to lately to generate some Twitter activity and to help spread the news about good recording artists.

Music Mondays make more sense on Buzz than Twitter because you can embed YouTube videos directly into a buzz. Simply put “Music Monday” in your buzzes (hashtags on Buzz are for losers) and share your favorites. Maybe include a brief bit about why you like the song or how you discovered it.

My campaign is, admittedly, off to a very warm reception but a slow start because I only have 260 followers on my personal account and 124 on my blog account. Please consider rebuzzing this post with the buzz this link below or just buzz “Music Mondays are now on Google Buzz. Please post a YouTube video like this one…” To embed a YouTube video, just click on the insert link button in your buzz box and paste a YouTube URL into it.

My buzz tomorrow will be a terrific Beck music video with cool robots in it that I discovered on YouTube earlier today. Follow me on Buzz to see and hear it tomorrow. Click here to follow me.

UPDATE: If you want to search buzz for all Music Monday posts with videos, do the following search: “music monday has:videos”

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Everyone is buzzing about how to use Google Buzz and whether it will succeed. Some are still tweeting about privacy concerns. Everyone wants to know whether Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz can coexist. In this post, I take a different approach. I begin with the assumption that Google Buzz will succeed and consider what effects that will have on the world of blogging and on more mainstream digital media. I conclude that Google Buzz will have profound effects that significantly differ from effects of any other social networking site that currently exists.

What do I mean by “succeed”?  I mean that Google Buzz becomes a useful repository for information sharing that is frequented by many for news, opinions and sometimes everyday chatter.

Google Buzz Differs from Existing Social Networks

If Google Buzz succeeds, then a relentless flow of information will come into Google Buzz making it very sticky. This is very unlike Twitter, which I contend is not a very sticky site at all. Almost all tweets, other than casual banter, have outbound links. This has created a cottage industry in URL shortening. Tweets are essentially headlines that direct people away from Twitter into a different realm, often the blogosphere. While Google Buzz could be used to drive traffic into a different realm, it is much more sticky for a few reasons. First, there’s no character limit on Buzzes. Google Buzz could be a substitute for blogs, particularly simple ones like the Posterous blogs. (This is a topic I mused about before: “Google Buzz could become a Substitute for Blogs if…”). Second, there’s absolutely no start-up cost and it is easy to begin buzzing. You can login and can begin almost immediately. You don’t have to mess with customizing WordPress. Third, unlike Twitter (and Facebook to some extent), Google Buzz has very good support for images and video. Rich content buzzes are quite common. With Twitter, you needed an outbound link to see any rich content at all with the exception of user avatars. Fourth, Google Buzz has a good commenting system (which is likely to be improved) and discussions are easy to follow, unlike Twitter. With Twitter, even if you read a post on a blog and decide to comment, most likely you would do so on the blog and not via Twitter. Google Buzz, on the other hand, is self-contained and comprehensive.

Google Buzz is designed to draw people away from other sites and into Buzz. It’s baked into Gmail which many millions of people use daily. Google’s popular RSS reader also draws people into Google Buzz through prominent links in Reader. Google made apps for phones and cooked in a location sharing sharing feature via Google Maps (a la FourSquare). Picasa is wired into Google Buzz. Every buzz has an email link at the bottom for sharing it. This draws people into Google Buzz, not away from it. In other words, Google Buzz is well integrated with other properties in the Google ecosystem.

If Google Buzz Succeeds and it’s as “Sticky” as I say, then…

First, traffic to blogs will go down as Google Buzz becomes a substitute for blogging. As long as people can locate people with similar interests (and I’m sure there are third party sites mimicking “WeFollow” as I type and Google may roll something out too), affinity groups can stick with Google Buzz. Second, with rebuzzing, sharing via Google Reader and upcoming integration with Google News, sites that simply aggregate news will be irrelevant and unprofitable. Third, if aggregators are “buzzed out,” then what about the fate of publications like Mashable/TechCrunch or old media like the local newspaper? I predict that they will publish more original content  and less “mash-ups” or aggregated content. Further, they will be leery of  publishing their content to Google Buzz. Instead, they will try to stick to the Twitter model and drive people with outbound links to their websites to generate advertising revenue. Already, we’re seeing Mashable which boasts 2.3 million followers post outbound links as opposed to publishing directly into Google Buzz. This model could succeed if the original content is attractive enough to draw people away from Google Buzz to read it and the person chooses the outbound link over Google Reader.

How does Facebook fit into the picture? Surprise: Facebook wants to become what Google Buzz already is.

If Google Buzz does succeed and the blogosphere contracts, particularly the amateur blogosphere, it will do so where Twitter and Facebook have failed. As I already discussed, Twitter’s model was to aggregate headlines but it has not produced a sticky site. Facebook is a very sticky site but not for the same reasons Google Buzz will become a very sticky site.  Facebook is sticky because people want to share their life’s experience with people they know and/or read about friends and family.  Major media outlets and significant blogs have not yet gotten much traction on Facebook. People don’t want to pollute their stream of friends’ news with other content (like the backlash against Zynga’s games publishing into streams). Accordingly, I believe Google Buzz is very unlike Facebook… and in a useful sort of way. While theoretically Google Buzz could be used like Facebook, it is better suited as a sticky news and opinion social network of sorts. This is one of Facebook’s goals but Google actually has a significant head start because of its integration with other Google properties. This runs absolutely counter to what you read elsewhere that Google Buzz is a startup challenging a 400 million strong Facebook. I contend that Google is today buzzing with what Facebook wants to become. (Perhaps I just answered the question of whether Facebook and Google Buzz can coexist. Yes, Facebook for friends and family and Google Buzz for news-worthy content and opinions.)

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If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and played around on Google Buzz, you haven’t missed much. I’ll tell you what’s been going on the past few days. It seems like almost all of the buzz is about Buzz. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, however; Google employees have been working around the clock to respond to user feedback with improvements, according to the Official Gmail blog. Many of the improvements relate to online privacy and the auto-follow feature (which is now an auto-suggest feature).

Some buzzers are reposting news articles and other material that comes to them by RSS via Google Reader.  The integration among many different Google properties is truly amazing. In addition to Google Reader integration, there’s Google Maps for viewing local buzz, Google Profiles for sharing contact information (you can verify email addresses and even your name, similar to what some high profile people did on Twitter) and a reportedly well-designed app for Android.

There’s plenty of support among tech blogs for Google Buzz. Tech Crunch rolled out a “Buzz This” button and Mashable followed soon thereafter. Some blogs posted DIY instructions for Buzz This buttons. Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, has had some significant interactions with readers. Presently, he is soliciting ideas for Mashable articles.

I haven’t seen much in the way of celebrities or news outlets using or promoting Google Buzz. Ashton Kutcher, where are you? Are you going to challenge CNN in this new forum?

If you have ideas for improving Google Buzz, you can submit them here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=buzz … but let’s hope the Buzz team gets some sleep and enjoys the Olympics like the rest of us.

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I believe that Google Buzz is primarily aimed at attracting Twitter content right now, not Facebook content. This is a follow up post to the video I recently posted.

If you haven’t watched the video, I’ll sum it up. Google’s core strength is the search business. Google wants to be branded indelibly as the map for the internet. (It didn’t pick the Parisian Love Superbowl advertisement by accident.) Up until now, Google crawled the web to map it. The map was periodically (but not continually) updated. Some sites refreshed daily, some hourly and some nearly instantaneously. Now, more and more, consumers are looking for instantaneous news and communication. Google Buzz was created primarily to bring content to Google instead of the present model of crawling the wires to update Google’s map of the web.

The Twitter Argument

If you want breaking news, you can find it on Twitter and find it faster than anywhere else because all major news outlets bring content to Twitter. Twitter is the king of real-time news. Twitter doesn’t crawl for anything. Google got very lucky recently when it inked a non-exclusive deal to index Twitter. (Microsoft did too.) Although little is known about the contract, the rumor is that Twitter received a combined $25 million for the indexing deals (which, in turn, put Twitter in the black for 2009). This is a threat to Google for a variety of reasons. First, the contract may not be renewed or could go exclusively to Microsoft in the future. Also, the entire Twitter company could fall into unfriendly hands. Google does not like relying on any company that may not commit itself to “openness.” Second, Google probably paid more for the Twitter contract than it cost Google to build its own Twitter-like service, Google Buzz. Third, Google Buzz is virtually guaranteed to be more successful than Twitter due to the tie-in with Gmail which has an installed active user-base of approximately 174 million regular users.

Why Facebook Isn’t a Serious Threat Yet

Facebook has yet to challenge Google’s model of mapping the web. While you can do rudimentary web searches through Facebook, nobody does. Facebook is not populated with the same real-time news content as Twitter. This trend is shifting with the growing number of fan pages and professional accounts but up until now Facebook was simply a place to crack a joke to a large crowd, post pictures of kids or invite people to a party.

HOWEVER, Facebook could easily become a serious threat. It is among the most sticky of all websites. It has an installed user-base of over 400 million users. If it made a serious push to have meaningful content come to Facebook (news outlets, blogs, etc.), it could challenge Google’s efforts to be the best map of the internet perpetually.

Predictions

Twitter will get wiped off the map by Google Buzz. It may continue to exist in a MySpace-like state. Some lesser player could buy it or it might have a weak IPO. The real fight will be Google vs. Facebook but that’s on the horizon and will only occur if Facebook makes a meaningful effort to map the web. The scariest scenario for Google would be Microsoft and Facebook uniting forces. Bing plus Facebook could mount a meaningful long-term challenge to Google. Keep in mind that Microsoft already has a small piece of Facebook. So, Google isn’t simply looking for a piece of the social networking business. It is also playing defense to keep its dominance in mapping the world’s information.

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Not much to say about this other than BlackBerryRocks.Com just posted the links. See the post here: http://bit.ly/9pGQjl.  Use the Desktop Manager install.

P.S. Can’t handle multiple accounts. P.P.S. WTF? RIM’s finally getting around to releasing a Twitter app when Twitter is about to be owned by Google Buzz? 9 million buzzes in 2 days.

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Here I gripe about Google Buzz…

I believe that Google Buzz has a lot of potential and I’m digging it.  However, it has some kinks that need to be worked out:

1. Notifications should skip the Gmail inbox by default. We can see the notifications in the left-hand pane and don’t need to intermingle buzz with email. Filters can be used to route the buzz to archives and skip the inbox (instructions courtesy of LifeHacker at http://goo.gl/3Iyt) but it would make more sense to have a toggle whether the user wants buzz in the inbox.
2. Kudos to Google for making responses to buzzes (which work like comments on a blog) editable. However, it would be really nifty if the buzz responses were (a) nested and (b) could be hidden. Many popular buzzes have so many comments that it’s almost impossible to follow the conversation. The clutter on the page is overwhelming too.
3. The “Mute” button doesn’t work. Be warned: If you mute a buzz you commented on, then new replies will all show up in your new buzz count. Because the mute button doesn’t work, long discussions like the ones Mashable started are to be avoided.
4. The “Mute” button is dangerously close to the “Unfollow” button.
5. Let us harvest our Facebook friends list and add them in buzz. While I appreciate the efforts to avoid mentioning Facebook anywhere and not link to it, the ability to draw in our existing social networks would be helpful. Pulling in Twitter followers simply doesn’t cut it for many of us.

I’m actually kind of digging buzz but the issues I identified above need to be addressed ( at least 1 through 4) or this ship won’t sail.

P.S. Mini-Gripe: Couldn’t Google add some more background/color themes to Gmail? The existing ones get mighty boring.

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The Wall Street Journal and Mashable are reporting that Google will soon roll out a “status update” feature to Gmail similar to Facebook and Twitter. This is BIG news and “Make Gmail Social” (which appears in the Mashable headline) is now a trending topic on Twitter.

This is another bold move by Google to dominate the interwebs. Gmail already has an enormous installed user-base (around 150 million users; compare with Facebook which has around 400 million users) and integration with GTalk and AOL’s AIM. Even if the status update feature fails to gain acceptance, at a bare minimum, Google captures more mindshare and could draw some more users into Gmail. In a recent Mashable poll, Gmail trouced Microsoft’s Outlook as a preferred email client (70% to 19% with 11% voting no preference). (Candidly, I reacquainted myself with Gmail after reading the poll and ultimately decided to consolidate my email into Gmail instead of Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird.)

If Google’s status update gains widespread acceptance, then the obvious losers are Facebook and Twitter. The timing couldn’t be more damaging to Facebook, which is expected to have an IPO this year. The status update war of 2010 is brewing, as the Scobelizer post I referred readers to the other day suggested. Perhaps Facebook drew first blood by making its “search” feature more prominent on the redesigned Facebook interface. Google fired back with a largely unexpected Superbowl advertisement that touts its search engine and, now, will go head-to-head with Facebook.

A less obvious loser is Mozilla which is expected to roll out Raindrop soon, a program that integrates social networking, email and instant messaging. Gmail will perform the same functions, it is entirely web-based and it has an enormous installed user-base.

The status update feature also suggests to me that Google Wave will have a more business-centric focus and will not be intended for casual banter amongst friends. Initially, Google Wave was pegged as Google’s answer to Twitter but many users found it difficult to use and invitations to Google Wave’s preview were limited.

Mashable questions whether Gmail will have an option to also publish a status update to Facebook and/or Twitter. While this option is within the realm of possibilities, I believe it is unlikely that Google will implement it. Facebook draws significant advertising revenue away from Google. If Google were to feed the Facebook frenzy, then it would be making a big mistake.  Things might get interesting with the GOOG this year… they said social features were in the works and it looks like they’re delivering, soon.

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The Eagle has landed. The much anticipated UberTwitter Beta-6 has arrived. UberTwitter was voted 2009 Blackberry App of the Year by Crackberry users. Beta-6 is packed full of new features, including:

• Comprehensive Twitter list support.  Lists are probably the best thing that has happened to Twitter since the advent of the URL shortener. With UberTwitter, you can create new lists, delete existing lists, subscribe to lists by SMS, add members and remove members.
• Find people. You can search Twitter for users just like you can from the web interface.
• The Uber-bar has tabs for easy navigation between @ replies, DMs and timelines. Apparently, you can also customize the bar to include a list but I was unable to add a tab when I tested UberTwitter Beta-6. Update: Got it now.  You have to add them from the “Lists” option and then you can arrange them using the “Uber-bar Maintenance” feature.
• Better Geo-Tagging (using Twitter’s integrating Geo-Tagging or myloc.me).
• And, many more enhancements.

To download UberTwitter Beta-6 point your native Blackberry browser to http://www.ubertwitter.com/bb/download.php or fire up your Blackberry Messenger 5.0 and scan the bar code below:

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Recognizing that Facebook has a significantly greater user-base than Twitter (Zynga’s FarmVille alone has more users than Twitter, reportedly), we have added a Facebook fan page. Please consider becoming a fan of Tech Bottle on Facebook. We also will continue to push our content to @techbottle on Twitter.

All of the methods of following Tech Bottle are now listed on our Contacts page.

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One of the big stories this week is that Twitter will turn a net profit this year simply due to its content sales to Google and Bing, according to Bloomberg. For a cool $25 million, Google and Bing are indexing every public tweet. Twitter’s operating expenses for 2009 will be approximately $20 million. Accordingly, Twitter will return approximately a $5 profit for 2009, which comes as a surprise to many. Currently, Twitter has no other sources of revenue. 2010 is expected to be turning point for Twitter in terms of cranking up the revenue, according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.  How can this be accomplished without alienating users?

Twitter is expected to generate additional revenue through a combination of advertisements and premium features.

Advertisements

Advertisements work well for Facebook, which is almost exclusively accessed through its web interface and mobile apps. Twitter, on the other hand, is more frequently accessed by Twitter clients like TweetDeck, Seesmic and others. Consequently, advertisements that simply appear on Twitter.com will probably not generate as much revenue per user as Facebook advertisements. I expect Twitter to push sponsored Tweets which would show up in a user’s all friends timeline. This would push the advertisements to every platform. The problem with this approach is that it dilutes a user’s timeline if too many advertisements are pushed. I predict that sponsored tweets will come in 2010 but they will push infrequently, perhaps once every 30 minutes.

Premium Features

I expect that current Twitter services, all of which are completely free, will remain free. If it were otherwise, users would be up in arms. Twitter can’t exactly charge for services it has been giving away, e.g., Twitter searches, RTs, etc. I think what we will see if better content management for profile pages which could be implemented on a subscription basis. Currently, only text colors, the profile pic and desktop background are customizable. I think we’ll see Twitter offer a blogger-like profile page with direct Twitter integration. So, Twitter pages will support widgets, full posts (not 140 characters), pictures, music and video. This will be an assault on WordPress, Posterous, Google’s Blogger but probably warmly received. Certainly, Twitter could charge for blogger-like profile pages but it could, instead, rely advertisements. If properly implemented, this could make Twitter a preferred platform to Facebook. Facebook fan pages are simply blue-and-white boring and are not easily customized. Business will be attracted to a platform that allows for better customization, provided that that interface is intuitive and user-friendly.

I think we’ll see a substantially improved Twitter search engine. Users will be able to limit and sort tweets by date, location (now that the Twitter location API has been updated) and other criteria. I don’t expect this addition to be a paid-only feature. This would be supported by advertising and integration with the sponsored tweets.

Implications

Twitter wants to create a more comprehensive platform, something akin to Facebook. Blogging on other platforms may become less popular. The improved search capabilities may draw users away from traditional search engines, including Google and Bing. Although they will also have real-time Twitter results, it will be a rare instance where a user who wants to find tweets actually visits a web search engine to do so when Twitter begins offering an adequately comparable or superior search service of its own.

I think we’ll see Twitter incorporate the best of Facebook. Along with this will come some challenges, including privacy issues, which has plagued and will continue to plague Facebook. Nonetheless, I think we’re in for a record-breaking, blow-out year for Twitter in 2010, provided they don’t alienate users with petty charges or significant content dilution through excessive advertising and Facebook doesn’t beat Twitter to the punch on implementing the premium features.

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UberTwitter is adding two new terrific features and making changes that don’t affect the interface that will improve the app’s performance. The two noticeable changes, as shown in the pictures below of the .941 test release, are  auto-complete of usernames and customizable tabs with color icons.

Auto-Complete of Usernames in Upcoming UberTwitter

New Customizable Tabs with Color Icons in Upcoming UberTwitter (See Top of Image)

With these enhancements, UberTwitter will solidify itself as the top Twitter app on the Blackberry platform. Notably, Seemic (available now in Blackberry App World) has made some improvements to its beta Blackberry app. However, now that UberTwitter has added support for Twitter Lists, I think it is clearly in the top spot.

[via BlackberryOS.com]

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SocialScope is the combined Facebook and Twitter App for the Blackberry smartphone that is under development. It is currently in invitation-only beta testing. I wrote about it a last month. The @SocialScope Twitter account was silent for about a month but just tweeted this evening that the release version will support FourSquare, the location-based networking/game of sorts.

Keep in mind that RIM has its own Twitter app under development and the Ubertwitter beta looks strong too.  FourSquare also has its own Blackberry app in development that is expected any day now. So, where’s the place for SocialScope in the Blackberry app wars? Well, it aggregates streams from a variety of sources and could, if properly executed, be a terrific app.

I’m mildly skeptical because of past failures of other apps like this, e.g., Snaptu. On the other hand, Nimbuzz is going to be a huge success and it aggregates virtually all commonly used IM services and Skype.

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TweetDeck Beta 0.32.1 was released today. As the second most popular twitter interface (just behind twitter’s own web interface), this is big news! The new release supports Twitter lists, LinkedIN and keyboard shortcuts. Head over to TweetDeck.Com to download (Adobe AIR).

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Today Seesmic released a Twitter app for Blackberry and Android phones.  I tested it on the Blackberry.  It is a full featured Twitter client and an easy choice over Ubertwitter and Twitterberry.  Brief review follows along with download barcode.

Like some other Twitter clients, Seesmic alerts you to new @ replies and DMs.  The alerts are system wide and display in the notification area.  It also supports yfrog and twitpic and features, like Ubertwitter, geotagging.

Unlike some other Twitter clients, Seesmic supports saved Twitter searches and has excellent support for Twitter lists.

The only feature lacking is support for multiple Twitter accounts.

It is a very light download, weighing in at 172 kb.  You can point your Blackberry browser to www.seesmic.com to download or load Blackberry Messenger 5.0 and scan the barcode below:

Download Seesmic

How does this work?

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A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.

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“Nearly 28 percent of Twitter users are above the age of 45, while 26 percent users are between the ages of 15-24.,” reports NeXt Up, a research firm that recently ran an economic evaluation of Twitter.

This statistic surprises me considering most people I know above the age of 45 either do not have a basic understanding of how Twitter works or assume that a user must tweet about daily activities to be a Twitter participant.  For those reluctant to join Twitter, I usually have to convince them that they can read news sources and other information in real time without actually tweeting.  They need reassurance that they can keep their Metamucil dosing private and there is no need to broadcast it to the world.

Perhaps the television promotion of Twitter on Oprah and CNN, among other outlets, has encouraged the above 45 crowd to join.  Nevertheless, I am quite curious to know the age of the average frequent tweeter.  It certainly does not seem like the over 45 crowd from the profile pictures in the trending topics.

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SocialScope for Blackberry is the much anticipated social networking app that combines Twitter and Facebook features.  The project has been under wraps in its beta stage and many Blackberry users who have requested access have yet to receive an invite.  Apparently those who have access are asked to adhere to a strict confidentiality agreement. Therefore, little is known about this project.  It appears, however, from scouring chat boards that some breaching early stage testers were unhappy with SocialScope.

During the beta period of SocialScope, RIM announced its own native Twitter app in the works.  It is rumored to use push technology to receive tweets.  This could be crushing blow to 3rd party Twitter app developers.  Consider the impact of RIM’s own Facebook and MySpace apps.  Does anyone regularly use a 3rd party Facebook app or MySpace app?  The RIM apps have significant flaws but they still squeezed out 3rd party developers.  What’s the future of SocialScope, Ubertwitter, Twitterberry (Sarah Palin’s favorite)  and other Blackberry twitter apps?

SocialScope better hit the streets first or else it has very little hope of converting people away from RIM’s own Twitter app.

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