Meet new people with social networking

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The days of meeting up with some officemates for a few drinks after work may linger on, but new forms of technology are changing the ways we find each other.

People looking to bond over common interests no longer have to rely on hoping a coworker shares an interest in skydiving or stamp-collecting thanks to social media enterprises such as Facebook.

That’s the story told by several Battle Creek-based groups that focus on getting adults together for both networking and relaxing. One of them, Battle Creek Green Drinks, has found those methods more successful than traditional ways of getting the word out.

Green Drinks is a group for people with an interest in the environment that meets the fourth Thursday of every month at Arcadia Brewing Company; today at 5:30 p.m., former U.S. Congressman Mark Schauer will speak to the group on behalf of the BlueGreen Alliance.

Organizer Jennifer Sellers said Facebook has been instrumental in keeping Green Drinks in people’s minds.

“We normally get 20 to 30 at our Green Drinks meetings, and pretty much the only way I advertise those are through our Facebook page and then I send out the e-mail reminder a few days before,” she said.

Sellers said the group also has posters printed, but people usually walk past them. However, word-of-mouth also plays a role in getting people to join up, she said.

Facebook has also been a boon for the Battle Creek Area Young Professionals. The group is a social networking organization for people to not only have a good time but also develop professional skills. Chairwoman Nicole Finkbeiner said there are about 325 people following BCAYP on Facebook.

“Facebook is, by far, our best communication medium,” she said. “It also allows us to provide an opportunity for businesses and organizations to let young professionals know about their events by posting those on our Facebook wall.”

Facebook isn’t the only site in town, though. Meetup.com, a website that hosts groups and their event calendars, is another way people are finding each other. There are a handful of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo groups to be found there. One of them is the Battle Creek Area Women’s Group, which gets women and their families together for social events such as dinner or catching a movie. Organizer Naomi Love said the site allows her to get information out to members and potential recruits in a way that was impossible years ago; she found out about it herself after stumbling upon the site while looking for groups of motorcycle enthusiasts.

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Google+, Facebook duel is big boon for users

Computerworld - Industry analysts have suspected that adding Google+ to the social networking mix would force Facebook to up its game. And it looks like that prediction is coming true.

Facebook announced Tuesday that it tweaked its privacy settings, making them more intuitive and more clearly informing users of who will be able to see the posts and links that they put on the site. It’s a move that is making Facebook‘s privacy settings more like those found on new rival Google+.

And the changes aren’t one-sided in this battle of one-upsmanship.

Google this week announced that it has made a few changes to its +1 button. Google reported that when users hover over the +1 button on a Web page or article, it will show them a list of friends and online contacts who already have clicked on it. This makes Google’s +1 button a lot like Facebook’s Like button.

On Wednesday, Google also noted that it was adding another feature to the +1 button. Google+ users can share Web pages with people in their circles just by clicking the +1 button. When they click on it, they’ll be shown a “Share on Google+” option.

“Facebook and Google, as direct competitors, are the best thing that’s ever happened to social networking in terms of fueling innovation and improvements,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “When Facebook was the 800-pound gorilla and essentially unchallenged, there wasn’t much urgency behind any changes. Now that there’s another gorilla in the same cage, it’s going to push both companies to go all out to dazzle and satisfy users.”

Olds also noted that with Google+ picking up a lot of momentum at the outset, both companies will be quick to upgrade their sites, respond to frustrated users and even steal strong points from their competitor.

“It’s pretty widely acknowledged that Google+ has done a better job with privacy than Facebook has, so I would expect Facebook to tweak its privacy settings to fix it,” he added. “And Google sees that Facebook has a quick and easy way to rate things, so they spiff up their +1 button. We’re going to see a lot of this type of activity.”

Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group, said this kind of heated competition will force a leapfrogging effect that will only benefit users, who will get new features and more attention to their gripes.

The quick moves by Google+ and Facebook to better each other will likely spill over to other social sites, such as Twitter and Quora, said Brad Shimmin, an analyst with CurrentAnalysis. “I do think that the innovation and maturation of Facebook and Google+ will encourage other consumer-oriented players to keep up in terms of providing a safe, productive and enjoyable user experience,” he said.

Going forward, Olds expects both sites to build in more tie-ins with localized content, as well as local deals, much like users get with sites like Groupon. He also expects both Google+ and Facebook will continue to beef up their mobile platforms.

“From a user perspective, this kind of competition is exactly what the social networking world needs,” he said. “Social network users will see a lot of new features coming their way soon.”

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, or subscribe to Sharon’s RSS feed . Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

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