Is Google+ the new Facebook?

After the lukewarm response to Google Buzz, the search giant is back again - this time with the feature-packed Google+. Touted as the rival to Facebook, the new social networking place has the online forums buzzing. While most people are going gaga over its cool features like Circles and Hangout some are just slamming it as a mere copy of Facebook

While you still make up your mind whether to love or hate Google's latest offering, here's what the experts are saying.
Expert talk
Danny Sullivan, searchengineland.com
The terrible name is a bad start. Google+? Google+! I can't even question or exclaim about the bad name without it looking bad in writing.Pronounced "Google Plus," the product is officially written as Google+ - making placing any punctuation after the name fairly awkward. And Google+ looks like and quacks like Facebook in several ways.
Ben Parr, mashable.com
No matter what Google says, Google+ is the company's response to the rise of Facebook. The two companies are in heated competition for talent, page views and consumers. While Google controls the search market and has a strong presence on mobile with Android, it hasn't been able to crack the social nut. Its most successful social product, YouTube, had to be acquired, and it still ranks as one of the most expensive acquisitions in the company's history
Mark Hachman on PCMAG.COM
Put simply, Google+ is a social network for geeks. But users used to Facebook's minimalist interface may find Google+ jarring. And, sad to say, Google's "field trial" suffered from overcapacity, an issue which may or may not have rippled into our evaluation on Tuesday afternoon. I and other PCMag.com staffers experienced numerous annoyances, which resulted from either poor design decisions, alpha glitches, or the overcapacity issue - I don't know which.
Brian Womack, bloomberg.com
With Google+, users easily share information based on the circle of friends they think would most like to see a photo or read a message, such as immediate family or people who like a certain hobby or sports team.
Ryan Tate .defamer.com
Really! Dump Facebook and tell all your friends about your new, richer social network. It's like Facebook but with much better groups (purportedly), so you can segregate your relatives and friends into different "Circles" that get different streams of information from you. You can name your circles and add whoever you want to each one; the relationships can be one way, so you can receives shares without sharing back. There are some other features, but that's the only one you need to care about. Google is touting Plus as a big improvement over Facebook.
Marshall Kirkpatrick , readwriteweb.com
With Google+, users such as immediate family or people who like a certain hobby or sports team. Once users sign up, they have a profile page with security settings that let them share or hide personal information, such as education or job descriptions. Contacts are suggested based on user e-mail accounts.

Google releases chrome12

Google chrome releases it`s next version chrome-12.There are more improvements when compared to their old version chrome-11.Chrome 12 is more secure than ever before,using Safe Browsing technology, which has improved malware and phishing protection. It also includes a warning system that alerts the user when downloading certain file types – the system will not note the URLs or the files themselves.

Chrome users will be automatically updated within few days.Google had some other announcements including the news that its sites (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs, and Google Sites) would not support older browsers after August 1, 2011. This means that IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5, or earlier browsers will not be supported, and Google will no longer test compatibility for these platforms before introducing new features.

The last announcement from Google contains “…new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds… Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.”

Google Acquires Post Rank

Last week social engagement data startup PostRank announced it had been acquired by Google. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
PostRank was launched in 2007 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Staff`s of Postrank will be soon moving to San Fransisco to join with their workers of Google.

Last year, PostRank Analytics added Activity Streams, which the company called “a FriendFeed for content.”The analytics service itself launched the year before as a way to track data on a large number of social media platforms, including Twitter, Digg, Delicious and more.

PostRank CEO and founder Ilya Grigorik wrote today on their startup’s blog, “We are extremely excited to join Google. We believe there is simply no better company on the web today that both understands the value of the engagement data we have been focusing on, and has the platform and reach to bring its benefits to the untold millions of daily, active Internet users.”

He added that,more details on PostRank’s progress within Google will be coming up in a few months.

Facebook rejected Google

Google Inc tried to partner with Facebook but was rejected, denying the search to the social network's trove of personal information, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said.

Schmidt did not specify which deal in particular he was referring but noted that Google's search could be improved with access to Facebook's data about Web surfers' friends and acquaintances.

"We tried very hard to become partner with Facebook," Schmidt said. "They were unwilling to do the deal," he added, noting that Facebook had traditionally partnered with Microsoft.

Schmidt, who was speaking at the D9 conference organized by the blog AllThingsD, also noted that Google had also recently renewed a partnership with Apple in which Google provides map technology featured in the iPhone.

A former Apple board member, Schmidt said their relationship had gotten "rough" as Google began to develop its Android smartphone operating system, although they remained good partners in certain businesses.

Schmidt, who ended his 10-year run as Google CEO in April and handed the reins to 38-year-old Google co-founder Larry Page, is among the more than a dozen tech industry executives slated to speak at the conference, taking place this week at an upscale resort in Southern California.

Among the other scheduled speakers are the chief executives of the Walt Disney Co, Hewlett-Packard, Twitter, Zynga, Groupon and Alibaba.

Google, Microsoft to test Apple's tablet dominance

Google and Microsoft's attempts to loosen Apple's grip on the booming tablet-computer market will be put to the test this week as PC makers unveil new models at the Computex trade show in Taipei. Investors and analysts will be looking to see if Google's Android operating system can match the popularity of the iPad, while Microsoft may preview its next Windows platform for tablets a year after Apple's first offering hit store shelves.

"Investors want to know which tablet is better, which has the best price-performance , and when the non iPad camp is going to get going ," said Angela Hsiang, an analyst at KGI Securities in Taipei. "Previously, people couldn't actually see the products .

At Computex, we'll be able to touch and use them." Acer and Asustek Computer, which upended the computer market when they showed low-cost netbooks at Computex in 2007 and 2008, will demonstrate new tablets featuring Google's Android this week. The operator of the world's most popular search engine and Microsoft will both send executives to the event to meet with reporters and update companies on their plans.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and ARM Holdings , whose chip designs are used by Qualcomm and Nvidia to run tablets, will also try to convince manufacturers that their products are the best as the desktop and notebook markets slow. Global shipments of tablets will climb to 215 million units in 2015 from 17 million last year, Toni Sacconaghi, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a May 26 report.

Fifteen percent of all tablets will cannibalize the sale of consumer PCs, reducing computer-sales growth by 2% annually between 2010 and 2015, Sacconaghi wrote. Competition from new entrants will cut Apple's share of the tablet market to 50% next year, iSuppli said on April 21, from almost 100% when the Cupertino, California-based company began selling the iPad in June.