Microsoft trying to break down Google again. You can pretty much guess our stance on this argument, #teamgoogle.

Some days I look forward to checking Google just to see if there is a new doodle up. Hey, it’s the little things, right? This video talks about their recent doodle honoring Freddie Mercury’s birthday on Monday. Pretty funky to take a look inside the process and see the designer in action.

This TechCrunch article talks about how we are starting to see slower G+ traffic every week. Sophomore slump? We think so, too.

The problem with Google+ is that they are not releasing it fast enough. It is not hard to get an invite, so why not open it up to everyone? Our lifestyles are so used to technology happening FAST, so get with it, G. I need more friends on it before I start actually caring about it.

Also, us Facebook users are so used to following our brands and pages, but G+ is not going to offer that service for at least a few more months. This is a huge issue. Yes, Google needs to get all the kinks worked out, but half of why I use Facebook is to check in with my pages. I like to see what events are happening around my city, shopping deals, restaurant deals, new releases, etc. If G+ does not have that, why would I bother?

I think G+ has some potential, but they need to get going on it. I like the idea of Circles (unlike this article- but hey, to each his own), I like how easy it is to chat through G+ (Facebook chat always crashes for me), and I like the clean layout. But c’mon, Google, let’s get this ball rolling. 

Google+ (Google’s own version of social networking) was launched two weeks ago today and remains invite only for the time being. Already over 2million have begun using Google+, with numbers rising hourly. 

G+ allows you to organize your connections by providing Friends/Family/Acquaintances/Following circles; just simply drag a connection right into the circle to place them. You can also delete or create your own circles, it is completely customizable.

G+ allows users to easily search through their email contacts and invite/add those users to their circles. It also allows you to find friends using Yahoo and Hotmail. However, I do not see any sort of “Find Friends via Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon… etc,” which might be an issue. If this exists though, correct me if I’m wrong. 

If you want more information about the newest social network, check out the links below.

The Google+ Project

10 Top Google+ Users Weigh In on the Web’s Newest Social Network

Google+ Two Weeks in, Taking Facebook Head On

Zuckerberg on Google+: It’s a Validation of Facebook’s Vision

Google+ Experiences Some Growing Pains

In the name of moving forward, Google is going to abandon older browsers beginning August 1st. Older browsers are less secure and for the most part, not sophisticated enough to handle the latest technologies. 

For a short time period users will still be able to access their browsers, which includes IE7, Safari 3, and Firefox 3.5 and their predecessors; however, eventually these web services will stop working. 

I’m sure people still use these older versions. However, considering that the later versions are faster and easier to use, these late adopters will only benefit from being forced to upgrade. 

Google revealed the new Chromebook, a web-only laptop operating entirely on Google’s Chrome browser, on Wednesday. 

As applications continue to move to the cloud, a web-only laptop becomes more useful. Even though you cannot download applications onto the Chromebook, almost all can be found online, such as Google Docs or Amazon’s Cloud Music Player, to name a few.

This is an interesting take on how Google is taking Chrome down a path from browser to full-fledged OS. If it means less Microsoft, we of course welcome it.

Some thoughts on this:

1. Google doesn’t generate revenue from organic searches, so why would it care that it’s killing business that doesn’t contribute to its bottom line via AdWords / other advertising properties?
2. When you choose to build a business model that relies almost solely on the actions of another company, you don’t have a leg to stand on in situations like this.  Reminds me of the line from Brick Top in the movie Snatch, “If I throw a dog a bone, I don’t want to know if it tastes good or not.”
3. We’ll cautiously throw Google some kudos here for looking out for the end user, but in the end this probably has to do more with driving more business towards AdWords.