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Big-G is going social and for me this marks a big moment in the history of the Internet, on par with facebook’s launch of social-media as we know it today. It sounds very negative, to say that Google has turned it’s big guns on facebook with the launch of G+, but heck I get a kick out of saying anything good about Google, because they care about the progress of the Internet in the right direction / have enriched me and my company in such far reaching ways (aside Search, we use Apps, Gmail and Analytics).

Inspite of it’s 700 million users, Facebook should be fretting about G+, and afraid right now of being displaced as the top-social-network on the planet. Infact, the most urgent and the fastest ever corporate-reincarnation should happen soon at facebook, for following reasons:

1. The tiny 8 point fonts on fb user interfaces suck. This might have been what Mark Zuckerberg used for his famed Harvard-dorm invention, but 700 million people are getting ever bigger screens and want to read easier. Change this soon or they’ll be stuck with it for a long time.
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2. The attitude to privacy at fb’s top management needs to radically tame down. Fb might think they want to radically open up the Internet, but it’s users are not that far on the vision. We users still want, ultimate if possible, control over our information. Social media should be a media for voluntary-sharing, not forced. And users will gravitate to platforms that respect our fundamental instincts for privacy (read G+)
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3. Google is combining Search with Social, and everyone knows Google has a 70-95% (depending on the geography) market-share for search. What this really means is website-owners who want to be found over Google (and believe me this is just about eveyone) have a strategic alignment with G+. They will _join G+ very fast. And by _join, I mean they will bring their _content and _users to G+. And when that happens, we can all say “game over”. You see Facebook doesn’t offer this incentive to website owners.

Now with Facebook 2.0, they have to neutralize this defecit, which they could probably do ONLY by combining their social-data with search, as in Bing and Yahoo! Infact the upside of is could be an interesting synergy of the type 1+1=3.

And we are not even factoring in Mobile here yet. If anyone wants to continue this article on how Search, Social and Mobile will overlap to shape the way we consume online-services, feel free to continue below.

Although Facebook has more than 750 million active users, customers are not very satisfied with it’s services. According to a recent customer satisfaction poll, the reason for this dissatisfaction lies in the complexity of the Facebook interface and the range of users. People of different ages and backgrounds are using Facebook and when it ads new features, there is a lack of explanation and help. It is not very intuitive to use and the privacy policies are a mess.

This gap is an open door for Google+. Google Inc. claims the highest satisfaction score among the online service providers measured in the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report. Facebook on the other hand scored the lowest among the approximately 80 providers rated. I’m excitet how Facebook and Google+ will develop the following months!

Everyone has recently been talking about Google+, but still many have difficulties discovering the value of the new social network by Google. What has Google+ what Facebook and Twitter does not have? Why dealing with Google+?

First should be mentioned that the service is still in the beginning of development. For example there are no “pages” for businesses and organizations like on Facebook yet. However, the developers of Google+ have announced a similar function with more options for customization.

The following video gives a short introduction in Google+, it’s functions and it’s position on the market:

Why you should discover Google+?

I remember the time when MySpace was a social media star and Facebook / Twitter were a small services noone wanted to use. At that time I created a Facebook account, and I only had two contacts. There were no Facebook pages, the “Like” was not yet developed, not to mentioning the chat, groups, media integration, games, etc. I looked into my account maybe every 3 weeks or so. Today, MySpace is a desert and more than 500 million people share their information and news on Facebook.

It’s worth every now and then to move with the time and try new things. Here are some of the advantages of Google+:

• Using so-called “circles” you can create groups of contacts and share your content just with them. Contacts can be in several circles, as in real life (friends that are colleagues at the same time etc.). You can share content for everyone like on Facebook, but you can also limited your posts for certain circles. Links, videos, pictures, locations may also be shared. You can also add email addresses of contacts who are not on Google+ and share with them. A check-in function and an app for Android and iPhone are also available.
• You can “follow” people like on Twitter, without having a mutual friendship, which is obligatory on Facebook. Just put the contact in a circle and you can follow his/her postings.
• Hangouts provide an easy platform to make video chats or conferences with up to 10 people.
• Facebook is known for the complex and often opaque privacy settings. Often, changes happen behind the backs of the users. Many users are desperately waiting for an alternative to Facebook.
• The interface looks much cleaner and more intuitive in Google+.
• Today, almost every Internet user has a Google account and therefore you do not need another sign-up. Also, the implementation of other useful Google products such as YouTube, Google Docs, GMail, Picasa, etc. is optimal.
• The main product of Facebook is Facebook itself. Therefore, Mr. Zuckerberg earns his money with trading data and advertising. The main product of Google isn’t Google+. Google earns money elsewhere and therefore it is very likely that you will never have advertising etc. on Google+.

“Why should I start from scratch? I have all my contacts on Facebook!”

“I have phone numbers of any of my friends, why should I set up an email address?”
“I have the email addresses of my friends, why should I register on MySpace?”
“I have all my contacts on MySpace, why should I set up a Facebook account?”

These questions are repeating over and over again. It seems to be in the nature of man is to react hesitant and fearful to innovation and change.

But instead of ignoring Google+ one should play with it and try out the services included. With the time, the users will then find out for themselves which platform offers the better service. My advice: take a look at it! If you suffer a lack of contacts, you can follow some “celebrities” here and play around with the functions this way.

For Organizations, brands and shops, Facebook Pages are one of the most popular and most important social media marketing channels nowadays. However, Facebook Pages by default do not have a customization feature in order to make the site standing out of the mass.

Static HTML: iframe tabs is a Facebook app, that allows Facebook Page Administrators adding a customized tab to the Page, where you can place either a flyer, images or any other HTML code. This application offers a very easy way to make your Facebook Page look awsome. For example you can create a “fan gate”, so visitors have to like your page first before they can see its content. You can also display an image with new offers, events and alike. Search in Facebook for Static HTML: iframe tabs, authorize the application and select which of your pages you would like to customize. After that you can navigate to the configuration page and get started.

Let’s face it – we all hate registration forms.  Baring the sick narcissist out there, normal Internet users hate to type in their name, email address, country, postal code etc, every time we want to gain deeper access into a website/portal/web-service.

Programmers and community managers of Internet Portals, e-Commerce Sites and Blogs couldn’t have missed the newest authentication schemes offered by mega-communities like Google, Facebook and Twitter.  Given the millions of users these communities have logged into their authentication databases, the idea is to offer this registration data as authentication-information for 3rd-party sites (like “Mom & Pop’s Screws Online-Shop”).  In effect a user having an account with the major site such as Google, Facebook or Twitter would not need to register again to a 3rd-party site.  They can just tie into the above mega-sites and perform the authentication over their servers.

To mention the most major:

• Google provides OAuth 1.0 for Web Applications
• Facebook provide Facebook Connect
• Twitter provides OAuth as well

However some of these authentication-systems reveal more of your identity related data than is absolutely necessary to perform the authentication.

As a frequent reader of the Mashable Blog, I recently was offered to sign up into the site for commenting on some blog-posts.  The choice was of Facebook Connect and Twitter oAuth.

Feeling Naked on Facebook

The Facebook Connect screen looked as seen below:

Facebook Connect Permission Screen

On a single click on “Allow” Facebook will authenticate the user on behalf of Mashable.  However, notice the remarkable amount of information Facebook wants to provide to the 3rd-party site!   In summary they want to provide the following:

1. You “basic” information, which beats the definition if they are letting out a list of all my friends, so that the 3rd-party site can use the Facebook Graph and extract personal data about all my friends.   Gee, I don’t feel that much like a friend anymore, and who knows which friend of mine reveal my data to CRM/Marketing companies around the Net.
2. Send me email anytime for anything.  That’s not so terrible, but do I want more Email in my life?  No thank you!
3. Post on my Wall.  If I think of my Facebook Wall as space where I can keep my friends updated about whatever is happening at my end, I really wouldn’t want 3rd-party sites to pollute it with all their marketing-info.
4. Did you see the bomb on that screen-shot?  ”Access my data any time”?  And in small greyed out fonts it says “Mashable may access my data when I’m not using the application”, which translated into clear-text means, Mashable can store my data and use it for their marketing (and other) purposes forever, even long after I quit using their site.

The appauling part is that this is not what we sign up into when starting to use Facebook.  Neither is it made clear when Facebook explains the feature to it’s users.  Instead it is hidden away in the nitty-gritty of legal-text.  Compare also the screenshots they have used in their explaination with a real screen we have captured above!

Twitter is no Less Notorious

Below is how a Twitter Permisison page for authentication looks like.

Twitter oAuth Permission Screen

1. Read tweets from my timeline: That’s OK, doesn’t hurt and I’m cool about sharing stuff – so be it!
2. See who I follow and follow them?  Wait, snoop on people I follow and start following them, without their permission?  Again, for all the talk about Social Media, I can’t see what’s social about abusing my profile to be a multiplier for extracting information about my friends/followers!
3. Update my Profile??  Did I read that correctly – this 3rd party service can update my profile-information?  I thought I was the only one who could update my profile! [shaking my head right now]
4. And finally, post tweets on my behalf?  Oh my God!!  What if this 3rd party service was run (or taken over, or infiltrated) by lunatics, and they post on my Twitter feed: “I love OBL-Osama and long-live Jihad?”, or if this service got hacked and messages get spewed onto my feed?  Won’t I be answerable and liable to these posts, even legally?  So why would I allow people to post on my page which bears my pic and name as its owner on it?

As you see, both Twitter and Facebook’s authentication methods allow abuse of your online identity.  It is hence our recommendation to users of Internet services to avoid authentication via Facebook Connect or Twitter oAuth, or at the least, read very very carefully on Permission Screens before clicking the innocent-looking “Allow”!

Have you got into the habit of using Facebook or Twitter for authentication purposes?  Then we’d love to hear from you.  Share your experience by leaving a comment…

We hope to soon post a similar review for Google’s oAuth system, so please stay tuned!