Obama shines in Google Plus Hangout, and that’s the point
President Obama has been popping up in live events and town halls on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and now in a Google Plus hangout, chatting with 5 lucky (and pre-selected) Americans in a live video stream. Over 130,000 total questions were submitted, and we’re waiting for the final audience numbers from Google+. Just as FDR triumphed on radio and JFK on TV, Barack Obama shines in social media circles with an upbeat, easy-going style.
Google Plus debuts its first TV commercial
Google+ has launched a television commercial, which started airing during the Lions vs. Packers NFL game on Thanksgiving. The commercial focuses on the importance of “Circles” and how, “in your head you assign everyone these roles, once you step back and get away from that you realize these are the people that were actually there for me.”
5 new challenges for media companies using Google Plus
(Guest post by Jen Lee Reeves, interactive director at KOMU.com, which was the first local TV station to use Google Hangouts on the air. She’s also an Associate Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism.)
The day after Google+ was open for invites was the day I creates the KOMU 8 News account. For 19 glorious days I played with its potential as a brand at the same time I tried to understand its uses as an individual.
I immediately recognized the differences. The KOMU brand page (the new location is here) was a chance to share updates from our newsroom and encourage input from people who want to discuss news topics.
TV brands quick to join Google Plus pages
Google launched business pages Monday, and it didn’t take long for the major TV brands — and a handful of local TV stations — to create their own Google+ pages. Here at Lost Remote headquarters, we’ve created our own, adding the G+ button “follow” button throughout. (Here’s how. It’s a static button for now, but Google says one-click follow buttons are coming in the next few days.)
Google Plus launches business accounts
After launching in late June, Google Plus experienced the fastest start of a social network on the planet. But it refused to allow businesses to create branded pages — many media companies started accounts only to have them removed — which is arguably a key reason why Google+ usage has slowed in recent weeks.
But today, Google has launched its much-anticipated business accounts, working with a small handful of brands as “early examples” (including +Breaking News, which is my real job).
Why Google’s Motorola acquisition is a huge TV play
Google announced this morning that it’s sweeping up Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, a whopping 60% premium over Friday’s close. You’ve likely read that the acquisition will give Google access to a fresh crop of patents and allow it to more seamlessly integrate its Android operating system with Motorola handsets. But it’s also Google’s biggest [...]
Optimizing posts in the Google Plus stream
(Editor note: Welcome Kim, Lost Remote’s new contributor!) As the grand-daddy of SEO, it seemed only fitting that Google would come up with some sort of tricky algorithm for populating Streams. But for now, they seem to have chosen the simplest possible method: listing posts in mostly chronological order (an improvement over the first week [...]
Guest Post: Google Plus pulls TV station account
UPDATE: +BreakingNews, one of the first brands to join Google Plus, has had its account pulled as well. It had 20,000 followers when it was shut down. +CoryBergman and +StephanieClary are posting the Breaking News updates on their personal accounts until Breaking News is re-established on Google Plus. This is a guest post from Kimberly [...]
Report: Google in early talks to buy Hulu
The LA Times is reporting that Google is in preliminary talks to buy the video service Hulu, and other big suitors are in play, too. “Hulu has begun meeting with potential buyers including Google, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. to drum up interest in a sale,” the LA Times reports. It all began when Yahoo [...]
Google, Drudge, Facebook the major drivers for news sites
Social media and search are emerging as the driving force behind how people visit media websites. A report by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism shows us how people find online news. The study looked at the top 25 news websites. Among the project’s findings: Google is the primary driver of traffic. It accounts [...]
Google rolls out its own ‘like’ button with +1
Google is starting to roll out a new social recommendation engine called +1. Think of it as a “like” button for search. Before you roll your eyes, remember that Google is still the largest referral driver for most media sites on the web. Ok, here’s how it works. Little +1 buttons will soon appear next [...]
Google’s Groupon acquisition to benefit DOOH media
The biggest news in the technology and startup communities over the last few days has been Google’s rumored acquisition of daily deal site Groupon. The numbers being thrown around for the purchase price are huge, to say the least. The figure that I believe to be correct is $5.3 billion with a $700 million earn [...]
Google News adds ‘most shared’ module
A few weeks after adding a “news from your friends” module, Google News has added “most shared” stories to the mix. It’s down the page (for now) in the right column: “When people say that some amount of social technology is going to infiltrate every nook and cranny of the internet, they aren’t kidding,” says [...]
Google News testing Twitter ‘friends’ integration
Google News is testing a new feature that brings a social element to its news aggregation. Today we noticed a new module in the right column — above the fold — under the heading “friends” that asks for your Twitter account: Enter it in, and Google News serves up headlines from people you’re following: Notice [...]
