Bradley Horowitz (left) and Vic Gundotra: Burned by Buzz, and back for more In the beginning, there was Friendster, which captivated the early Web'ites before it was smitten by slow servers and exiled to the Far East.

By B.L. OchmanGoogle+ is headed for 20 million members by this weekend, and, depending on who you talk to, it's either an epic success or an epic failure. But I think many of my esteemed colleagues are looking at Google+ from the wrong point of view.

Mat Honan -Here's the problem: I hate my friends. You do too. I'm using the word "friends" in the social networking sense. Facebook and Flickr "friends." Twitter and Tumblr Followers. These people don't like you, and vice-versa. You probably haven't even met in real life.

We're now a few weeks in on Google Plus, and some good things are happening. For the most part, email addresses are open and new users are on boarding in droves each day. It seems that while the conversation is still mainly about Google Plus, we're talking less about what it the social network is, and more about what we plan to do with it.

If you have to look up the meaning of cruft, you might not be ready for this. Several months ago, I wrote about the relative levels of utility of the social media platforms to which I have subscribed. Where did this all start?

I've been working on the Facebook Platform since 2007. I got serious in 2009 as a part of the Facebook Fund. Since being a part of the Fund, I've been responsible for 80-90 million app installs on Facebook.

Jul 9, 2011 at 5:26pm ET by Matt McGee With the Google+ user base already in the millions and growing, Google is planning heavy investments in it and will eventually use Plus as the infrastructure behind all of the company's products.

Curated from Mike Elgan's excellent, detailed post. There is a lot to this idea. And while I don't advocate completely dropping all of your other Social Media activities, for Interest Graph and professional purposes especially, this is exactly what could happen.

July 9, 2011 07:00 AM ET Computerworld - Social networking fatigue: You've got it, and I've got it. Everyone's overwhelmed by the sheer number of social sites the industry keep churning out. I was already struggling to stay active on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google Buzz, Google Reader and several other social sites.

Everyone's all abuzz and atwitter about Plus, the new social network from a search engine company with which you might be familiar. I won't break down all the features and how-tos and what-ifs, as other folks are better at that, including  Jason Falls and Chris Brogan. My initial, abbreviated take ...

This week has been all about Google+ for us here at Made by Many. Well, mostly. So it literally shouts out as the presentation theme for the week. If you're on Google+, don't forget to follow us: gplus.to / madebymany .  First, Ross Mayfield , Slideshare's VP of Business Development, has a nice guide to how Circles work in Google Plus.

This post is meant to be a getting started guide for those of us who got an invite and are now wondering how to use Google+ . If you're looking for an overview of Google+ check out Part 1 of this post: Google+ and World Domination.

"the motherlode of Google+ tips for all y'all suckas that don't know…" - Donny Rhoades I figured it would be useful to put all of the Google Plus tips and shortcuts I have found thus far in one handy place. Please add any additional tips you discover in the comments.

Over a year ago Paul Adams who was then the user research lead for social at the Google UX team told a story in a power point presentation at SlideShare of the evolution of Google + .

By now, you have all probably heard about the Google+ project, Google's next attempt at making their network more social. Its goal is to make sharing online more like sharing in real life. If you haven't gotten your invite just yet, you can learn more about Google+ in the following quick-look video, and by visiting the Google+ project overview, searchable details and discussion pages.

Google has announced a new project, Google+. And it's a big one. If you're confused about what it is and how it might fit into you life, read on to find out more, plus we've got full details on the services, when you can sign up and what it means for Facebook, Twitter and more.

Google+, the search giant's social network, has just received a strong endorsement from one of the pioneers of social networking: MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson. Tom Anderson, best known as the default friend on MySpace during its early years, co-founded MySpace with Chris DeWolfe in 2003. For years, it was the world's most-visited social network.

The day Google+ launched, I sent a friend at Google who was involved in building the service an email requesting an invite. I got the invite late that day and started playing with the service. Here's my profile. I'm not sure if this page is public or you need a Google+ login to see it.

When people ask "can Google+ beat Facebook?" they're misstating the question. It's not about one site versus another site. Google+ is bigger than that. The reason Google calls it the "Google+ Project" is that Google+ will become a central part of Google's whole identity. It will reshape the company.

Google the Net Conquering Hero but the Defeated Contender of the social network game has launched their new social networking service called Google + on Tuesday, to give its rivaling competitors : Twitter & Facebook a run for their money.

When Google unexpectedly launched its new social network Google+ earlier this week, many pundits were skeptical about the company's latest attempt to enter the social arena. Given Google's dismal track record when it comes to these kinds of products, that kind of skepticism made sense, but after using it extensively for the last few days, I can't help but think that it is the single biggest threat Twitter has had to faced yet.

I got invited to try Google+, which has been writ­ten about a lot. Short sum­mary: Face­book should be scared. The Stream (sim­i­lar to Face­book) is pretty nice UI/UX. Intu­itive icons, clean design. Sparks, the newsy thing (explained by Poyn­ter with a screen­shoot above), not so, though it's where I think the more inter­est­ing jour­nal­ism poten­tial lies.