google plus | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 12 Aug 2016 10:52:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png google plus | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Google is dropping Google+ from the Play Store https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/google-is-dropping-google-from-the-play-store/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/google-is-dropping-google-from-the-play-store/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2016 10:52:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=302724 Google has begun ditching its Google+ social networking integration from the Play Store, as it continues to make the service far less ubiquitous. While there was once a section about people you knew and what they thought of various apps, and you needed a G+ account to leave reviews, none of that is present any …

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Google has begun ditching its Google+ social networking integration from the Play Store, as it continues to make the service far less ubiquitous. While there was once a section about people you knew and what they thought of various apps, and you needed a G+ account to leave reviews, none of that is present any more.

Google's Plus social network has been a bit of a strange experiment for the company. It's never quite generated the interest or user base of the other major social networks and doesn't appear to have offered enough to really stand out. While nixing its features even more might seem counter intuitive, perhaps Google is looking to make it more streamlined.

gplusbye2

Source: Wikimedia

It's certainly not as all encompassing as it once was. There are no more Google+ votes in the app store and you can not leave reviews simply by being logged in to your standard Google account. You will still need that to access and use the Play Store as before, but there is no longer a need for a Google+ account too (thanks Ars).

It's not clear if this is the last service that Google+ support will be stripped from, but Google appears to be trying to make the network stand on its own two feet, rather than have it stick its toes into every pie it can.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see moving forward, if the anonymity of not being tied to your real name when leaving reviews, will give people the confidence to leave more reviews in future, perhaps making the whole system more honest. 

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Google lets you Private Message in Hangouts now https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/google-lets-you-private-message-in-hangouts-now/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/google-lets-you-private-message-in-hangouts-now/#respond Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:00:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=104635 Google is continuing to update its social network API, this time adding the ability to private message your pals when you're in a Hangout. This brings the Hangout API to version 1.2, not only making it possible to communicate without others listening in, but also integrating new video and sound features. Now those running an …

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Google is continuing to update its social network API, this time adding the ability to private message your pals when you're in a Hangout.

This brings the Hangout API to version 1.2, not only making it possible to communicate without others listening in, but also integrating new video and sound features. Now those running an On Air hangout can control who exactly appears during a video broadcast and you can now add sound effects to it too.

Google says this could work well with a laugh track, but who isn't going to add a few lasers to their show?

A few other tweaks have been made as well, including the abilty to add a topic for a hangout and to display the locale of the person who created it. All of these are detailed nicely in Google's new developer log.

Shhh
This message is just for you. Don't tell anyone.

Private messages work as you'd expect them too – not necessarily if you expected them in the first version of the API – with the ability to send secret messages to others in the hangout through a simple text input. Google pointed out in the devlog that you don't necessarily need to type in the whole name either, or be 100 per cent accurate, just enough that the API knows who you're talking about.

KitGuru Says: Does this make Google + more exciting? Not really, but it does make it more functional. With Twitter circling the wagons somewhat with its API, Google is in a prime position to capitalise on disgruntled developers – we'll have to wait and see if it does.

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Google sales beat projections https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/google-sales-beat-projections/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/google-sales-beat-projections/#respond Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:50:21 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=53185 Search engine giant Google have had a good week, releasing reports that sales beat projections. Their sales rose to $6.92 billion, which was more than the %6.57 billion projection of analysts which were surveyed by Bloomberg. So far it seems a good start for Larry Page, who replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO in April. His …

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Search engine giant Google have had a good week, releasing reports that sales beat projections. Their sales rose to $6.92 billion, which was more than the %6.57 billion projection of analysts which were surveyed by Bloomberg.

So far it seems a good start for Larry Page, who replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO in April. His strategy of targeting new markets such as mobile advertising is helping to generate growth. His investment in new businesses to help compete in the growing social networking sector is paying off. According to ComScore Inc, people spend an average of 6.7 hours on Facebook in June, compared to 4.1 hours with Google.

Google's Larry Page

Google+, the next step in their plan for social networking expansion has already signed up 10 million people and they are sending and receiving more than a billion items each day, according to Page. It may be a long way behind the 750 million users of Facebook, but it has been positively received, even in these early stages.

Gene Munster, a well known analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos said in an interview on Bloomberg West “Google is a real-time indicator in terms of the broader economy; this is a good sign. The improvements in ad units that we saw tonight can continue for the next few quarters.”

Net income rose to $2,51 billion, a gain of 36 percent.

Kitguru says: Still a long way off challenging Facebook, but with Google's resources and skillset, it may just be a matter of time.

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Google Plus: can it succeed? https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/google-plus-can-it-succeed/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/slyvia/google-plus-can-it-succeed/#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:41:30 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=52269 Google's Eric Schmidt told reporters at the Allen & Co media conference in Sun Valley that Google Plus is becoming an integral aspect of the business. “The whole company is ramping up on top of it.” he said. Google Plus is a serious effect by the organisation to challenge Facebook in the social networking sector. …

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Google's Eric Schmidt told reporters at the Allen & Co media conference in Sun Valley that Google Plus is becoming an integral aspect of the business. “The whole company is ramping up on top of it.” he said.

Google Plus is a serious effect by the organisation to challenge Facebook in the social networking sector. Schmidt said that the integration is paramount to the success “The assumption is that everything will move over to using the Plus infrastructure over time. We’re trying to use the identity infrastructure to make the Google products really interesting.”

So far Google Plus hasn't been widely adopted, because Google have only sent out a limited number of invites, so they can continue with squashing bugs before the masses get their hands on it. He added “There have been a couple of privacy bugs, which were fixed within a few days.”

Eric Schmidt: Google

Schmidt was also keen to point out that this is not a copy of Facebook, and it was never intended to be.

“If you read the reviews, people seem to understand that it’s somewhat different from Facebook. We have a somewhat different view of privacy. The privacy defaults are different, the way we handle it is different.”

Circles, a part of Plus which lets users select specific groups of people to share information with is also going to be shared between Gmail and Buzz. “All the products in the company will evolve the Circles function” Schmidt said.

He also said that Google have wanted to work with Facebook and Twitter, on sharing information and becoming linked together, but he said, to this point that the companies had not been able to agree on a plan.

Kitguru says: A new option for social networking? Taking on Facebook in this sector is very tough as they have such a firm foothold already.

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