What is Google Social Search and how does it work?

Firstly, let's answer the question, what is Google Social Search?

While using Google some of the answers displayed after you enter a search query are "Results from people in your social circle". Let's break this down a little further. These results are from people you are in contact with either on Twitter, Gmail, Google Buzz etc. The purpose behind this is that you might want to read and find out info from people you are in contact with and therefore trust, rather than information provided by strangers. The reasoning behind this rungs quiet deep. Search has been constantly changing and people now want to know what is the best camera to buy from their Twitter and Facebook friends. Search has been evolving and so has Google. So when your type a search query and a social friend of yours already has a blog post of a Twitter update that is relevant, it shows up in your Google search results. So in addition to the usual Google results, you also see relevant results from people in your social circle.

What kind of content is in Social Search?

Here are some of the types of content you might see:

• Websites, blogs, public profiles, and other content linked from your friends' Google profiles


• Web content, such as status updates, tweets, and reviews, from links that appear in the Google profiles of your friends and contacts.


• Images posted publicly from members of your social circle on Picasa Web and from websites that appear on their Google profiles


• 
  Relevant articles from your Google Reader subscriptions
  

Who is in my social circle?

• People in your Gmail (or Google Talk) chat list


• 
  People in your Friends, Family, and Coworkers groups in your Google contacts
  


• 
  People you're publicly connected to through social sites, such as Twitter and FriendFeed, that appear on your Google profile or in your public Google Buzz stream.
  


• People you’re following in Google Reader and Google Buzz


• People who are connections of those in your immediate, public social circle. This means that if you have a friend on Twitter, and he follows five people, those additional five people may also be included in your social circle.

Google Social Search is going to become more and more important as more and more people are connecting to each other and the basic thing being that you trust someone your in touch with and also if you have any queries about information or anything else provided, you can always get in touch with them easily and get your question answered. 

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Sociolatte

Google Voice: How does it work

What is Google Voice and how does it work?

Google voice is a soft phone integrated into your Gmail inbox, currently available only in the US and Canada. With Google Voice you can now make and receive phone calls right from your Gmail account. Google voice gives you one number for all your phones voicemail as easy as email, free US long distance, low rates on international calls.

So let's say you have three numbers your friends can contact you on, a mobile number, a home number and an office number. To contact you your friends might sometimes need to call all three numbers. In an event you are unable to pick the call it goes into voice mail. If a voice mail is left it will last on any of your three phones for two weeks and is automatically deleted. So, you would need to dial all three phones before you can hear your voice mail. All this is set to change with Google Voice. Google Voice gives you one number which can be used on any phone and does not depend on the carrier you use. So if someone calls your Google voice number you can have it ring all your phones or none of your phones. If you want to ignore the called based on the person or the time of day. If you let the call go to voice mail you can listen in before answering. You can also wait to receive a transcript of the message. You can then send a text message for free. 

If you have an unwanted caller you can easily block them. This means you can bring down your call annoyances and up the awesomeness. All of this for free. To learn more visit www.google.com/voice. 

it is also learnt that Google is now going to go all out to promote this new feature. Red telephone booths are going to be appearing in airports all across the US and Canada. This fantastic looking phones make real calls using internet connections and not land lines. Calls from these booths are free, even international calls. 

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Sociolatte

Amplify: How does it work

What is Amplify and how does it work?


Amplify is a service that allows you to autopost to Facebook, Google Buzz, Posterous ,Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger,Ping.fm, Plurk, Friendfeed, Diigo, Delicious, Bit.ly URL Shortening. 


The idea behind the service is to allow old fashioned conversation by clippings things off the net and sharing it. You can amplify it by adding your thoughts and start conversations around topics of interest to you and your friends. You can share news, videos and just about anything.


The service has a Twitter style box just bigger with HTML options that allow you to autoshare with your other social network connections on sites like Twitter and Facebook. There is also a Facebook styled Newsfeed to keep up with what's going on. 


There have been new features that have been added today to the service.

1. Live Feeds: The Amplify Newsfeed now updates in real-time so that new posts stream in without you ever having to refresh the page.

2. Mentions: One of the most important ways to keep up with a conversation is to know when you are being spoken to or about. With this in mind, every user now has a “Mentions” feed that displays the latest mentions of their twitter @username on Amplify. So, if you’d like to make sure someone sees one of your comments or posts on Amplify, just be sure to include their Twitter @username.

3. Conversations feed: This is the place to see all the latest comments on Amps you’ve posted, previously commented on or are “eavesdropping on” (described below).

4. Eavesdropping: An “Eavesdrop” link has been added to the bottom of every Amp that lets you add it to your Conversations feed. This way, you can keep up with the latest conversation on Amps you haven’t yet commented on just as easily as one’s you have.

5. Action Feed: When you want to quickly check the latest comments and recommends of your Amps, the new Action feed is the place to go.

6. Managing emails: To help you become less dependent on email notifications, in addition to a global setting that lets you turn off all email notifications for new comments, you will now see a check box on the Amplify save page and below every comment form that lets you opt out of email notifications on a per post basis.

7. Permalinks: The changes described above apply to conversations that take place from within one of the various main feeds on amplify.com. But sometimes, you might open a specific post in a new tab and want to keep up with new comments on it right from there. Now, all permalinks will automatically let you know when new comments have come in, so you don’t have to keep refreshing the page to find out.

8. Microblogging and Direct Messaging: The limit on microblog posts and direct messages has been increased from 500 to 1,000 characters, giving you more room to say what you need to say in those instances.

[Hat Tip: The Next Web]

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Sociolatte

GetGlue: How does it work

What is GetGlue and how does it work.

GetGlue is a entertainment based social network and is available for Android and the iPhone. The iPad version will be coming soon. Once you get the App you can rate movies, music, stars, shows etc. See reviews by your friends and get recommendations. GetGlue currently has more than 4.5M new unique ratings and check-ins for tv shows, movies, music and books every month. GetGlue users rate and check-in to things they like to get recommendations and earn rewards and stickers.


The main features for the App include.

• Check-in to tv shows, movies, music, games, and books


• Share check-ins with your Twitter and Facebook friends


• See what your friends are currently watching, reading or listening to


• Earn leaderboard points and get stickers from GetGlue and major brands


• Rate lists of popular shows, movies, music and books


• Get suggestions for weekly new releases and old favorites picked just for you


• Take your favorite entertainment and suggestions with you everywhere

GetGlue has also announced new exciting stickers from partners - Revision3, HBO, Showtime, Barnes and Noble, Universal, Thrillist, FEARNet and TV Squad.

Revision3: A geeks dream come true - the fan stickers for all top Revision3 shows are here. We also have some secret stickers for Beer, Kevin Rose and Veronica Belmont.

HBO: When HBO launched stickers for True Blood, Entourage and Hung, fans loved them for their bold look and edgy names. Today, HBO is announcing a set of HBO personality stickers. To earn these, fans need to like various shows, characters and stars.

Showtime: Showtime is back on with the premier of Weeds and The Big C. We are delighted to offer exclusive stickers for these shows. The new Weeds secret stickers are sure to delight the fans of the Botwin family, with their provocative colors and themes.

Other partners: Barnes and Noble fans can now get a sticker for their favorite book store and also a special sticker for Nook. Since Friday, many of you have already earned a new sticker from Universal for checking-in to the Scott Pillgrim movie. We are also delighted to announce exclusive stickers for fans of Thrillist, FEARNet and TV Squad.

To download the iPhone App or Android App please click here. 

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Sociolatte

Twitter launches who to follow: Get more followers and find new ones to follow

Twitter has launched "who to follow" worldwide. It was rolled out in stages and now everyone has got who to follow. If you Tweet with regularity and are consistent. Twitter is definitely going to recommend Tweeps to follow you. This also ensure that a lot of active accounts are now going to get a huge number of followers.

The best part is if you are looking for who to follow and you see someone recommended to you in the sidebar. you can follow from right there. You do not need to go the person's personal page to follow the user. If you want more than the two suggestions that are bing shown you can click on the "View All" to get a whole list of new people for you to discover and follow. Facebook and Linkedin already have this feature and it has been functional for a long time. Facebook suggests you friends you might already know and Linkedin shows you professional people you might be connected with through your contacts.

Twitter however is a little different as it has always been. The suggestions being thrown up are pretty solid and good. They are showing you people who are worth following and who you can learn something from. This has really spiced things up in Twitter. This new engine of theirs called "who to follow" has really mixed things up for the good and putting people together based on likes and interests in a really effective way. This should have been done long ago. My first suggestion was a popular someone from Mashable and I was not surprised. Good one Twitter.

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Sociolatte

Top 3 most liked Facebook pages

The 3 most popular pages are growing at an incredibly fast speed. There are three top 3 pages and the number of people who have clicked the thumbs up Facebook Like button on these pages are staggering.


So here goes with our new top 3.


1. Lady Gaga has over 14 billions fans
2. President Obama has over 11 billion fans
3. Twilight now has more than 10 billion fans


There you have it the most popular Facebook pages. Well things don't always stay the same on Facebook and we can expect to see some changes soon. 


Following close behind is the YouTube fan page on Facebook that already has over 10 billion fans just a little short of The Vampires page. YouTube is trying very hard to get to number one, they are also asking everybody to go to their page and click the like button.

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Sociolatte

Google Sync: How does it work

Google Sync is a cloud based service that works with BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia, Windows Mobile and Symbian Platforms and most other phones that are SyncML capable. Google Sync keeps your phone's address book in sync with your Google Gmail contacts. You can Sync two phones together and thereby both phones will have the same contacts automatically. Which also helps you to transfer contacts from one phone to the other without any difficulty. If you wondering how to transfer contacts from one phone to the other especially if you've got a new phones and would like to update the device with all your contacts. You can also sync you phone with your PC. Since it is a cloud based service once you change, add, delete contacts in one device, both the devices will get updated automatically.


Android based phones can sync with Google contacts out of the box. 


Google Sync will help your synchronize your phone's built in address book and calender with your Google accounts. Once you setup Sync on your phone it will automatically update your phone's contacts with contacts from your Gmail account. Sync will also download your Google calender events to your device. Sync is a cloud based service which means everything happens over the air and updating one place means both your devices synced will be updated. You can use Sync to synchronize your desktop PC and your mobile phone. Any changes made on one device means the other devices updates wirelessly. So you do not need to physically connect your phone to your computer. Updations on one device means the other device gets updated as well. All these services happen in the background or over-the-air. This simple means that all your contacts and calender events are always in sync no matter where you go or what you do. Because Sync works by backing up your info to your Google account. Your information is always safe even if you drop your phone in a pool. No more fears of loosing info when your phone goes missing or walls into water. 


When you buy a new phone and connect it to your Google Sync account it will restore your address book and calender. 


Visit Google Sync now

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Sociolatte

Wikileaks: How does it work

This post seeks to shed light on What is Wikileaks and how does it work. 


Wikileaks is constantly in the news. Newspapers, blogs and TV channels are covering it relentlessly.


So what is Wikileaks? WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. 


This material being leaded on Wikileaks is essentially material that powerful men and governments would not want leaked to the general public. 



How does WikiLeaks operate?
"WikiLeaks combines the protection and anonymity of cutting-edge cryptographic technologies with the comfortable presentation style of Wikipedia, although the two are not otherwise related. Our network also collects materials in person and from postal drops. We also run a network of lawyers and others to defend our work and our sources.
WikiLeaks information is distributed across many jurisdictions, organizations and individuals. Once a document published it is essentially impossible to censor". (Source: Wikileaks)


Wikipedia has this to say: "Wikileaks is an international organization, based in Sweden,which publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive documents while preserving the anonymity of sources. Its website, launched in 2006, is run by The Sunshine Press.The organization has described itself as having been founded by Chinese dissidents, as well as journalists, mathematicians, and start-up company technologists from the U.S., Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Newspaper articles and The New Yorker magazine (June 7, 2010) describe Julian Assange, an Australian journalist and Internet activist, as its director. Within a year of its launch, the site claimed a database that had grown to more than 1.2 million documents.Video posted on a website called Collateral Murder established Wikileaks as a prime portal for unauthorized, accurate accounts, documents and video from distant battlefields".


Wikileaks maintains its own servers at undisclosed locations, keeps no logs and uses military-grade encryption to protect sources and other confidential information." Such arrangements have been called "bulletproof hosting.


So put all of this together. How does Wikileaks work? and how will they help the public?


Wikileaks seeks to give it's users complete anonymity and maintain their privacy while leaking sensitive documents that powerful governments usually want to hide. People who use the site are also protected in a way. Information leaked from distant battlegrounds make their way to Wikileaks and then become totally available to the public. Ordinary citizens can then see for themselves wrongs or rights that might have been done.  Ordinary citizens are privy to information that is usually listed as classified and hidden away from public view. 


Wikileaks seeks to break all this and bring corrupt governments and officials into the limelight and not allow them to hide behind a veil of secrecy. For all this to work however there need to be whistleblowers, people willing to tell their stories while remaining unknown for obvious reasons. These leaks are them seen by ordinary citizens who get to know things that could come as a real shock. Wikileaks says that they facilitate all this because they believe Governments need to know that they can be held accountable. Ordinary citizens need to know what their government is up to and people of other countries also need to be aware. 


Well the thing that brought Wikileaks the media attention they needed was the Wikileaks Afghanistan War Logs. Also known as the Afghan War Diary, (2004 -2010). Which brought to the forefront lot's of issues including General Hamid Gul if the WikiLeaks Afghanistan war logs are to be believed, he is also behind a secret network helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda strike at U.S. forces.


What do you think about all this, use the comments section to let us know. 

Visit Wikileaks at www.wikileaks.org

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Sociolatte

Facebook: What is the difference between a business account and a user profile?

Business accounts are created for individual who only want to administer pages and their Facebook Ad campaigns. Business account are for those individuals who represent companies or their own business interests no FB. They are not there to mingle and become a part of Facebook but to generate buzz through pages and their Ad campaigns. So like any other normal user account they will not be able to able to view profiles of users or any other content on the site that does not live on their pages. Business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send and receive friend requests. A Business account is purely related to the individuals pages that they administer and Ad campaigns they may be running on Facebook.

An original post by

Sociolatte