Clipping and Curation Service Amplify Shuts Down

• Wed, 22 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

Sustaining a successful social sharing product with a small array of features is a challenge. For every success story like Pinterest, there are dozens more that have tried to gain traction, and, while possibly succeeding to a small degree, not seeing enough activity to convert into a healthy business. One of the more recent to close its doors is Amplify.com, which acted as a home for users to clip favorite sites from the web (including on mobile...

Read more

It's Not Social If You're Not Engaging

• Mon, 20 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

What does it mean to "be social" or to participate with people online, including family, closest friends and colleagues, but strangers as well? Is sharing a link social? Is telling somebody where you are or what you ate social? Is showing a photo of your kid social? It can be - and it can also not be. An action becomes social when you engage with others and provide value through your sharing and interacting beyond the action itself. This is...

Read more

Daily Kos Urges Democrats to Vote for Santorum

• Thu, 16 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

+Markos Moulitsas and the +Daily Kos crew are enjoying the ongoing GOP primary battles so much that they are encouraging Democrats to crash upcoming open Republican primaries and caucuses, casting their vote for +Rick Santorum, all in the name of extending the increasingly close race with +Mitt Romney, which could make +Barack Obama's chances of reelection greater in the long run - assuming money and ill-will is...

Read more

Dice.com: Louis Gray on Google and Job Hunting

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

Last fall, shortly after I joined Google, +Michelle Greenlee contacted me for a quick interview about the Google hiring experience, and what tech-savvy job seekers can do to leverage the influence of social media to influence hiring managers. The story was finally posted this morning.
The biggest take-away is probably my last note in an answer to her final question: "The world is becoming social and the new world of business and hiring...

Read more

50 Things a +1 Can Mean

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

A +1 is simple. It’s one of the easiest ways on the web to take an action that endorses the content and says you saw something. But it can mean many different things. That’s the beauty of +1. You can +1 things you like. You can +1 bad news. You can +1 things you love. You can +1 casual status updates or items that change the world.

Often, we get asked what it means to +1. Here are some ideas. We’d love to see yours.

/via The Google+ Page (Which I...

Read more

Two Numbers: 1 and 90 Million

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

By now, you all have seen the dual bits of news today - first that Google+ has achieved 90 million users with at least one new feature every single day, over 1 million businesses and brand pages, and sign in of 60% daily, 80% weekly.

Also, earlier today, Google was (for the 3rd time) named the best place to work by Fortune Magazine (see http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/1.html). We're working on...

Read more

Daria Musk Visits Google+ for Live Performance

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

Last Monday, I had the great pleasure of meeting +Daria Musk and interviewing her on stage, to learn more about her story and rise from relative obscurity to becoming a Google+ sensation. As I told the Google+ team, assembled in the private concert, in my introduction, Daria epitomizes the community here as well as anyone I know.

She is fully invested in this platform, is tireless, upbeat, and to boot, is incredibly talented. I'd heard...

Read more

10 Great Ways to Get Discovered on Google+

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

As social networks evolve, so to do your circles. Even in the few months since our launch, you’ve probably added a lot of people to your circles who you didn’t know before - people who share common interests, or came by recommendation of a trusted friend or expert. Some people have rocketed their way to high visibility, added to hundreds of thousands of circles, by virtue of their actions on Google+. So while I can’t promise you the big numbers, ...

Read more

A First Grade Math Nerd

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

When I was in 1st grade (back in 1983-84), we had breaks in the middle of class, that rotated so a small group of kids had a few minutes of recreation. I distinctly remember at one point heading to a hanging easel which was nothing more than a chalkboard with some chalk. Being a math nerd even then, I wrote up a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

At the age of six, I was writing a googol. (It would be decades before Google came about, of course). I...

Read more

10 Google+ Searches You Can Save or Modify

• Tue, 07 Feb 2012

BLOGS louisgray.com

1. TechCrunch OR ReadWriteWeb OR TheNextWeb

For top tech news. If you have other favorites, change the words.
https://plus.google.com/s/TechCrunch%20OR%20ReadWriteWeb%20OR%20TheNextWeb

2. Google+ Search for Google+

Never miss an update about Google+
https://plus.google.com/s/Google%2B

3. Beautiful OR Majestic

What the world finds visually appealing.
https://plus.google.com/s/beautiful%20OR%20majestic

4. lolcat

Hat tip to +Ben Huh&n...

Read more