Google Plus

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Google+ Users, You Could Be in the Money

About $12 worth in a class action lawsuit

(Newser) - Former Google+ users could be eligible for a settlement due to leaked data, but go ahead and spend it all in one place because it's about $12. Americans who used the social media platform that was active between 2011 and 2019 have begun receiving emails announcing a $7.5...

Google Plus Will Be No More Sooner Than Expected

Privacy concerns are behind the change

(Newser) - Google is still having trouble protecting the personal information on its Plus service, prodding the company to accelerate its plans to shut down a little-used social network created to compete against Facebook. A privacy flaw that inadvertently exposed the names, email addresses, ages and other personal information of 52.5...

Google Shuts 'Google Plus' for Consumers After Breach
So Long, Google+

So Long, Google+

Google shutting down its unpopular 'Plus' social network

(Newser) - Google is shutting down its long-shunned Plus social network for consumers, following its disclosure of a flaw discovered in March that could have exposed some personal information of up to 500,000 people, the AP reports. The announcement came in a Monday blog post , which marked Google's first public...

Google to Let 'Plus' Users Contact Any Gmail User

You could get email from someone who doesn't have your address

(Newser) - Watch out, Gmail users: You may soon see messages in your inbox from people you don't know. Google is rolling out a feature over the next few days that will allow any Google+ user to send an email to any Gmail user who is also on Google+, even if...

Man Arrested Over Google+ Invitation

One got sent to his ex, violating a restraining order

(Newser) - A Massachusetts man is blaming an automated Google+ invitation for an arrest that could land him in jail. As the Salem News reports, one of Thomas Gagnon's ex-girlfriends got an email inviting her to join his Google+ Circle. The problem is that said ex-girlfriend had a restraining order in...

Google Will Soon Be Using Your Face, Name, in Ads

New 'shared endorsement' ads will promote your ratings

(Newser) - Google may start spitting out some very familiar-looking search results. That's because the online giant plans to follow in the footsteps of Facebook by generating ads that use your name, photos, ratings, and comments to promote various products and pages. For instance, explains the New York Times , if you...

Google+ Looking to Suck You in

CEO Larry Page pushes effort to build social network

(Newser) - Signing up for a YouTube or Gmail account? Get ready for a publicly viewable Google+ page, too. While Facebook users are clocking 400 minutes per month on that site, Google+ users spend just three minutes—and Google is trying to change that by making its own social network a little...

Birthday Reminders Coming to Google Homepage

Company boosts its social appeal

(Newser) - Google put an ad on its minimalistic front page for the first time yesterday, and soon it will start giving away more of that desirable real estate … for birthday reminders. Yep, within the next few days, any Google+ member performing a search on Google.com in English will see...

Google Whacked With Record $22.5M Privacy Fine

Firm used loophole to get past Safari privacy controls

(Newser) - Tracking Internet users who had a "do not track" privacy setting switched on has cost Google $22.5 million. The fine, the largest the Federal Trade Commission has ever levied against a company, came after investigators found that the search firm had bypassed privacy settings in Apple's Safari...

Users Like Google+ Better Than Facebook
 Users Like Google+ 
 Better Than Facebook 
survey says

Users Like Google+ Better Than Facebook

But Facebook still has more users—way more users

(Newser) - Finally, some good news for Google+. The most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) finds that users are much happier with the Google social network than they are with Facebook. Facebook scored 61 out of 100 in customer satisfaction (down from 66 last year), while Google+ scored 78. Of course,...

Google+ Basically a Ghost Town
 Google+ Basically a Ghost Town 

Google+ Basically a Ghost Town

Visitors to the social network spend three minutes there a month

(Newser) - Google+ launched with ambitions of competing with Facebook, and if you listen to CEO Larry Page, it's on pace to do just that, with 90 million users registering since June. But there's one big problem, the Wall Street Journal observes: Those 90 million users aren't actually doing...

Obama to Woman: Send Me Jobless Husband's Resume

Also defends drone use in Google+ chat

(Newser) - President Obama sat down for an extended "interview" in a Google+ Hangout yesterday, and at one point, things got a little personal, Politico reports. When a woman confronted him over H-1B visas for skilled immigrants, saying that her husband, a semiconductor engineer, couldn't find a job, Obama turned...

Google Just Killed Its Search Engine
 Google Just Killed 
 Its Search Engine 
OPINION

Google Just Killed Its Search Engine

Why Mat Honan is switching to Bing

(Newser) - Don't look now, but Bing just became the best search engine—purely because Google shot itself in the foot. Google this week launched its " Search, Plus Your World " overhaul, which deeply integrates Google+ into your results. "Long story short: It's a huge step backwards,"...

Google Searches Getting Personal

Integration of Google+ content sparks backlash

(Newser) - Google's latest search revamp is a blow to both privacy and competition, critics complain. The search giant is integrating search results with content from its Google+ social network, meaning searchers will soon see results from content they have shared with friends as well as from the wider Internet, the...

Google's Photo ID Feature Calms Privacy Fears

Security experts applaud opt-in requirement

(Newser) - Google has quietly launched a facial recognition service for Google+, but unlike Facebook's more intrusive photo ID feature , Google is earning praise from privacy experts for keeping Find My Face an opt-in feature, reports eWeek . Like Facebook's Tag Suggestions, which launched about a year ago, Find My Face...

Britney Spears Claims Top Spot on Google+
 Britney Is the Queen of Google+ 

Britney Is the Queen of Google+

Pop star boots Google CEO from top spot

(Newser) - Lady Gaga may be the queen of Twitter , but Britney Spears is the queen of Google+. The pop star recently overtook Google CEO Larry Page to become the most-followed person on the social network, PC Magazine reports. The top five, along with their number of followers as of Social Statistics...

'Dreary' Google+ Is Doomed
 'Dreary' Google+ Is Doomed 
OPINION

'Dreary' Google+ Is Doomed

Facebook has nothing to worry about from boring competitor: Farhad Manjoo

(Newser) - Did you think that Google+ was one of the hottest, fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet? Well, that was so last September. Just five months after Google launched its social media challenge to Facebook, signing up about 40 million users in record time, Farhad Manjoo of Slate is declaring Google+ to...

Google Looking to Buy Yahoo
 Google Looking to Buy Yahoo 

Google Looking to Buy Yahoo

Google wants more users for Google+, more advertising markets

(Newser) - Google is trying to buy rival Yahoo and has talked to at least two private equity firms about financing the deal, reports the Wall Street Journal . Despite Internet ad revenues soaring around 20% a year, Yahoo revenue has foundered for several years, spurring talk the Internet giant could go private...

Samsung, Google Unveil Slick New Android Phone

New phone is first to run Android 4.0

(Newser) - Only hours after Motorola rolled out its new Razr , Samsung and Google unveiled a new Android smartphone of their own. The high-end Galaxy Nexus—which is set to retail for more than $700—would have launched more than a week ago, but the companies decided to reschedule after the death...

Google Engineer Rips Google+
 Google Engineer Rips Google+  

Google Engineer Rips Google+

Service 'a knee-jerk reaction' to Facebook's success, Steve Yegge complains

(Newser) - While using Google+, senior Google engineer Steve Yegge accidentally shared a post heavily criticizing the company's social networking service with the general public instead of just his co-workers, the Huffington Post reports. He described Google+ as an example of the company's "complete failure to understand platforms,"...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>
Most Read on Newser