As one plus rises, another plus disappears: Google just ticked off their power searchers by quietly removing a feature that they’ve had since 1997 — the + search modifier, which forces a certain phrase to show up in a search. As heavy users of Google ourselves, this missing + is pretty annoying. Instead, we’ll have to force it by putting quotes around an item. Bet you can’t guess why they’re replacing it. We’ll give you a hint: Google Plus. Meanwhile, we’re gonna cry about our missing +Plus search.
In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won’t be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.
Let’s face it, it was time. Google Buzz had long been a wasteland of RSS feeds and awkwardly-shared Google Reader content, and Google+, despite the engineering department’s criticism of the product, has been gaining some needed … uh, buzz, with 40 million users and counting. And the fact of the matter is, we still use it every day. With Buzz, we were gone within a few weeks. So were a lot of people. Noted techie Leo Laporte, for example, noted that Buzz was basically a wasteland back in August … of 2010 (it launched in February of that year). So if anything, this was overdue.
Pretty cool to see the Google+ debate around this post included in the “best of” for the #OccupyWallStreet hashtag, cited in the piece. Also, hashtags on Google+? Long overdue.
Google+ adding search capabilities, improving hangouts, opening to everyone: Considering the source, doesn’t search seem a little late in the process? That said … it could be worse. (Looking at you, Google Buzz.)
Over two years ago Muck Rack launched the definitive list of journalists on Twitter. Now we’ve assembled a list of journalists on Google+ by going through the 500 most followed journalists we’ve verified on Muck Rack. It so happened 140 (an omen?) of those 500 were on Google+. If you need link bait you could even extrapolate that to mean 28% of journalists on Twitter have joined Google+.
It’s a good list (click the link to see the full thing), but we have to admit we’re not huge fans of Muck Rack’s seeming favoritism of people affiliated with news organizations over those not … look, I have ties to a newspaper, but I don’t use them with my social media presence in any way whatsoever. I feel journalism is less about where you work these days, and more about what you do — it’s the reputation, stupid.
Our mascot Julius will make appearances, however. He’s just too cool a bro to not. As you might remember, they suspended the account in the great Google+ purge of last week. It was annoying. Especially since I went on vacation not long afterward and couldn’t focus any time on it. Anyway, give us a follow! We have days of lost time to make up for!
rebeccatvo said: Wait, wait, wait. Why did they suspend your account??
» SFB says: Why was our account suspended? To put it simply, we were a brand, not a human being. And because they feel that the current format is not well-suited for brands, they want to basically hold them off from running accounts there. We made ours knowing it was a possibility, but as we’re a social brand, we felt it was worth the risk. And apparently our readers did too, because we had built up a lot of followers there in a short time. We disagree with Google’s handling of this (back in the day, Friendster did something similar and it hurt their long-term user base) — but on the other hand, they run the show and we just take part. Alas, it was not meant to be. Sorry guys. *uncontrollable sobbing* — Ernie @ SFB
It finally happened. Google+ killed our official account. This is what it looks like to have a dead account. To make up for this, follow me over here. I’ll do the same type of posting as our mascot Julius, except less-brandy. Bummer, too. We had over 500 followers on the account. But then again, it’s not like they didn’t say anything about this.
Here’s what you gotta love about Google+, as opposed to Twitter. Celebrities are FOLLOWING you. So you get e-mails like “Vin Diesel is following you” like it’s nothing. Who cares if we think he’s the worst thing to happen to acting since the talking baby? VIN DIESEL is following us on Google+. (Also see: Newt Gingrich’s early embrace of Google+.)
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If you’re going to say things about someone, don’t just assume. The headline on this Inquirer story: “Zuckerberg closes off Google+ account so he can’t be tracked.” The story itself, via Social Statistics compiler Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: ”Mark Zuckerberg and Google management (Matt Cutts, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Vic Gundotra and Marissa Mayer) all changed their profiles overnight and consequently dropped out of the Google+ top 100 list!” So, because Zuckerberg (and a bunch of other high-profile people from Google, by the way) might possibly not want to take part in some stupid list that nobody other than a couple of attention-obsessed folks like Robert Scoble really truly care about, it’s the same thing as Zuckerberg caring about his privacy. Not buying it. Maybe Zuckerberg thinks a stupid list is a stupid list. He’s allowed to think so. In the end, this is SEO bait, hook, line and sinker. It’s just dumb.
Kudos to Newt Gingrich: Wow, it’s been a long time since we wrote a phrase like that. Anyway, Newt Gingrich is releasing videos of the Hangout sessions he’s doing on Google+. Which, you gotta admit, is pretty freaking cool. Newt, enjoy your moment ahead of the curve. EDIT: Tumblr user kohenari is in this clip around the 7-minute mark. Which is even cooler. (thanks climateadaptation)
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