G+ set to take on Facebook
August 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
If you haven’t heard of the latest social network — set to be Facebook’s main competition — Google+ has swelled in recent weeks to over 25 million users, making it the fastest-growing social media site to date.
While most people are really excited to dive into a new Internet space, I have to say all I could think was “Really! Another social media site?” It turns out Google+ has some great features, especially for photographers.
The Google+ project (or G+ for short) is technically only in beta-testing mode and not currently open to the general public, although you can sign up and receive an invite from Google without too much wait time right now. Still, they do technically call it a project, as they are working on implementing some new features. So far you can only have a personal page, and not a band or community/business page like on Facebook.
If you are already an avid user of Google’s other services (GMail, Calendar, Docs etc) like I am, G+ integrates nicely into the morning routine of checking your email where, after creating a G+ account, you can receive status updates and comments all in one place.
Google+ has also introduced the concept of circles, where you can group the people you follow in G+. You can make as many circles as you like. I have one for other people who are interested in photography and video production, and you can share updates and photos selectively with each circle.
For instance, you can put your mom in the family circle and she won’t have to look at photos that you took at the last office party that you shared with your work circle.
Google+ has also introduced the Hangout, which is a really quick and easy way to have an on-the-fly video conference with up to 10 of your friends. You can even throw out an invite to your circles, say if you were feeling like talking about photography one night.
Personally, I don’t use video conferencing that much, but I think it would be a useful thing if you had lots of friends from far away. You can also both watch YouTube (another one of Google’s assets) videos together and make comments while watching it, which could be a fun way to spend an evening with a faraway loved one.
Probably the thing I like best about Google+ so far is its photo sharing. You can upload huge photos — 2,048 pixels on the long side — and they look stunningly beautiful with Google+’s large thumbnail gallery, which lays out your photos akin to a magazine spread. Browsing other users’ photo spreads is a treat, and quite a photo community has developed really quickly.
G+’s photo galleries are powered by Picassa, Google’s long-ignored photo sharing service. If you have ever uploaded photos there, they are automatically ported over into Google+. Photo uploading was a snap, and it was quick and easy to create a gallery. If Google adds a few more features to its photo section, I can see it being a big competitor to Flickr, one of the largest photo communities on the net.
I have been using Google+ for about a month now, and to me, I don’t see it as a Facebook killer, yet. It may be one of the fastest-growing social media sites on the Internet, but the crowd is still definitely over at Facebook.
Fan pages and events are crucial for social networking, as is direct messaging. The benefit is that healthy competition usually makes features better faster, which is great for all of us. If Facebook were to implement a feature similar to circles and improve its photo sharing, we’d be all set.
The jury is still out on who will win the title for king of the social media hill, but it will be an interesting battle to watch.
( jharper@herald.ca)
Jeff Harper is a local photographer and video producer and owner of Flying Fish Multimedia. You can follow him on Google+ here: http://gplus.to/banjomanjeff.
Share and Enjoy
How to unplug from Facebook, Twitter and Google+
August 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Tired of being friended and poked on Facebook? Just not that into your followers on Twitter? Google+ making you feel less than totally happy? Here’s how to unplug from three popular social networking sites.
It’s the most popular social networking site on the Web with more than 750 million users. There are three ways to tune out or turn off Facebook.
•Take a break
If there’s a chance you might make up with Facebook, this is a good temporary option. Turn off email notifications, remove the Facebook app from your phone, take the website out of your bookmarks and generally cleanse your online existence of all unwanted reminders of Facebook.
How to do it: Go to “account settings” under the account menu. Select the “notifications” tab and remove the check next to the alerts you don’t want to receive. The downside: Your friends may still tag you in photos, write on your wall or send you messages and, when you don’t respond, may think you lack basic social skills.
•Deactivate
If you are not sure you want to quit Facebook forever, you can deactivate your account. You will disappear on Facebook immediately. People will not be able to search for you or view any of your information. But Facebook will save all of your wall posts, photos, messages and other personal information in case you have a change of heart.
How to do it: Go to “account settings” and select the “security” tab. The last option at the bottom of the page is “deactivate your account.” Click on the link. Be forewarned: Like a jilted lover practiced in the art of emotional blackmail, Facebook will try to talk you out of leaving by showing you pictures of close friends who will miss you. To reactivate your account: Log in with your email address and password.
•Delete
If you want to scrub every last detail of your existence from Facebook, you can permanently delete your account.
How to do it: Unlike deactivating, deleting is not an option under account settings. Instead, click on “Help Center” from the account menu. Type “delete” into the search box. Select the option: “How do I permanently delete my account?” Scroll down to “submit your request here.” Or you can type in this link: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account.
Click on the link and you will get a message asking you to verify that you want to delete your account. Click the “submit” button. Facebook will ask for your password and will perform a security check. Facebook will not delete your account for 14 days. During that time, it will email you to verify that you are the one deleting the account, not an impersonator trying to wreak havoc on your social life.
After 14 days, all of your information will be permanently removed from Facebook. Some of your information will remain on Facebook’s backup servers for as long as 90 days but will not be available to Facebook users and will not be personally identifiable. If you log into your Facebook account or log into another website using your Facebook account during the 14-day grace period, you will be asked to confirm or cancel your request to delete your account.
Insider tip: You may want to ditch Facebook, but maybe not all of your personal information. Before deleting your Facebook account, you can download your profile, wall posts, messages and more from Facebook. From “account settings,” click on “download a copy of your Facebook data.”
Twitter has as many as 400 million monthly users who send out 200 million tweets a day. There are two ways to quit.
•Take a break
Not quite ready to bid farewell to all your followers? Follow the same instructions as for Facebook. Turn off email notifications (consider leaving on direct messages if you hear from anyone important that way), blot out all those pesky reminders of Twitter on your computer and phone, and take a timeout from scanning and sending 140-character messages.