social networking — Todoleo Tech Blog

Well well! The news has broken! Google's efforts to launch a social network have come out of the cover of the Googleplex and hit the public parts of the web.

The Google+ project webpage.

I visited the Google+ project page and got all excited when I followed the link through to the Android Market and installed the application on my HTC Wildfire S. The installation was smooth, and I ended up with a few new application icons in my Android app drawer.

Sadly, once launched, the Google+ app asked me to select a Google account I want to use to sign in and I ended up with this message:

Google+ is still in active development and not yet available to everyone. You need an invitation to sign in. Please check back later.

If anyone reading this post who can send me an invite would, I thank them in advance. I'm really looking forward to using this social network layer to Google services which should make Facebook become the next MySpace and Friendster. I'll update this post as things develop.

Feel free to send me an invite to Google+, and as usual to leave comments/questions as well.

Yesterday evening I watched episode 100 of This Week in Google, one of my favourite netcasts.

TWiG Episode 100 as viewed on my Ubuntu laptop.

This Week in Google, also known as TWiG, is a netcast (or podcast if you prefer the term) available as a live video stream at http://live.twit.tv/ at 2000 UTC weekly on a Wednesday and later as a download from http://twit.tv/twig. TWiG covers the news and views on Google, cloud computing and social networking. The netcast often heads off on tangents that inevitably lead conversation to subjects such as the TV show Glee, the Chipotle fast food restaurant and food, and Jurgen Habermas (a favourite of Jeff Jarvis).

TWiG is usually hosted by Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis. Often there are guests involved in the websphere of cloud computing and social networking such as Kevin Marks, Chris Di Bona, Kevin Purdy, Matt Cutts and others.

As was said both in the love-fest that was the beginning of episode 100 and in the chat room, congratulations to Gina, Leo and Jeff and all involved in the show. I find it pleasant to watch/listen to and also enjoy the interaction the hosts and guests have with listeners in the chat room and on Twitter.

Here's to another 100000 episodes of This Week in Google!