Final Reflection

While blogging for my Internet Studies class I have come to the conclusion that I would love to be a Technology Journalist. I have always considered writing as an alternative to being a History Professor because the main thing I would want to be doing as a History Professor is Researching. Teaching can be fun but I feel like my real passion has always been writing. I have always been fond of technology as well. Because of this I feel like a job as a technology writer would fit perfectly. I love to review and use new technology and I am actually about to make a blog that reviews mobile games.
I would love to work for someone like the Verge or Wired or Mashable or any company like those. It s definitely a dream of mine but I am quite far from finishing it. With any hope I will be able to get an interview and possibly an internship with them over the summer.
I just want to say I greatly enjoyed this class and I wish all of you a very fond farewell.

Sincerely, Temporary Tech Templar

Life without Us.

While it is hard to imagine the Earth without humans. It was once a solid truth. As humanity began to grow humans began to change what nature was and what the Earth was. It is surprising to think about how much we do to keep our houses and building from crumbling or being overtaken by nature. It would not be long before nature completely covered what man has spent so long creating. For a huge eye opener I have provided this short film that was shown on the history channel.

Need a new Phone? Don't get it through the new upgrade plans!

All the main carriers, ATT, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile have rolled out with upgrade plans that allow its users to upgrade their phone more frequently. While this sounds awesome, according the Verge they aren't exactly worth it. I am someone who always wants new technology. I love my devices and than I soon become frustrated with them because they get "slow" or "buggy" but in reality they just get old. It is common for humans to want something just because its the new thing, an unfortunate trait that many of us share. The cell phone companies figured this out and came out with very complicated plans to make it seem like you are inf act both getting new devices on a more regular basis and you don't have to pay as much! It seems to good to be true, and in fact it is. As the Verge describes, these plans give the illusion of being a good deal but because the charges they put on it it actually would be cheaper to just buy the phone for full price off contract and bring it to the carrier.
This of course is not possible for every person but even so. The way that they get away with this is by making it hard to understand what they are charging you for. They put overages on the phones already so that they can make a profit but than they tell you you have to pay hardware charges which is basically the same thing as the overage charges but because they put the overage charges in your phone bill they can call it hardware charges and make you pay them twice. In reality you will be paying for your phone twice with these plans and it is actually surprising that Verizon is the worst deal of them all.
In the end we all want new things but sometimes it is just better to have a little patience because what's a few more months here or there right?

Freedom of Technology

"Technology wants to be free", it's plain an simple for the writers Wired. They recently published an article in their magazine describing the ridiculousness of the cell phone law that prohibits you from unlocking your phone. Did you know that if caught and taken to court you could face 5 years in jail and a 500,000 dollar fine? I had no idea. To me, as well as the everyone else who has a pinch of sanity left in them, this is a bit of over kill to say the least. However, it is not all gloom and doom here, apparently there is a group of people called the "bridge-builders" who see the connection between law and technology and wish to close the gap to make technology and innovation able to soar while also keeping in mind the political and safety proponent that comes with every new mass technology. The main issue being that technology is always adapting, always coming out with newer and newer models and faster and faster processes. This to most people is an excellent thing, who wouldn't want faster ways of handling things using technology, why go slow when you can move fast. Well in Washington, "you are always trying to reconcile competing interests" as the article says. This of course makes innovating quickly a bit of a challenge because the companies that have a stake in technology also want to make sure that they don't get pushed out of the way by the same innovations they are trying to create.
In the end we are still behind on our technology laws but with more and more interest groups sprouting up we can hopefully see quicker appeals and reforms to our technology laws.

The article I am referring to in this post is from the December issue of the Wired.

7 Tech Laws that Defined 2013

Mashable, a news site that features lots of tech stories, recently posted an article about 7 tech laws that were passed in 2013. While some of them are less significant than others it is good to see that tech laws are on the forefront of some representatives minds.
The first one they mentioned deals with police having to get warrants to search your email. In the article it says that many people believe this to be dated. However, I think it's fantastic. It should of been a law for quite sometime, and while it had originally covered only email 180 days old and earlier it now ranges back 6 months. Although with all the news that has come out on the NSA and Prism I doubt a search warrant will do any American much good anymore....
The next one has to do with cellphone location. This one was passed in California and it makes it so that cops are required to once again get a search warrant before they can access cell phone location data. This one also seems good on paper to me, because it protects our rights as it should. However as I said for the previous one, with the NSA it may not even matter anymore.
I am going to skip over number 3 and go straight for number 4 as number 4 is a little more relevant to what I am talking about. Unlocking cell phones has been a big deal for quite some time. It has always been illegal to unlock cell phones but over the past couple of years they made unlocking cell phones and exception to the rule and merely left the out of the law that said it was illegal. However this year they decided to not do that again and it is now completely illegal to do it. Sometimes you got to take a step back before you can move forward, so hopefully we will get it together and make it legal to unlock your phone again in 2014. One can dream right?
Number 5, is an interesting one because it involves FB likes and your first amendment right to Freedom of Speech. This means that liking something on Facebook is now protected by the First Amendment, because why not I guess?
Number 6 will be great for all of you business oriented people. You may now keep your phone on through out your flight as long as it is in airplane mode. I actually got to experience this new phenomenon when I went to Florida for Thanksgiving. I still ended up turning my phone off...I guess some habits die hard.
If you want to read about them and what Mashable has to say the link is below. Hopefully we will see things like being able to copy DVD's to your hard drive for personal use in 2014 and other such laws passed. Keep on trucking America, technology is here to help so let it!

Biggest Tech Laws of 2013 

A Humbling picture.

As I was waiting for my flight to go to Florida over the break, I picked up Wired Magazine. I have always thought Wired was an excellent news source for technology news as well as technology culture. This one article really stuck with me though. As humanity expands we really push for newer and better technology. We want newer game systems that can render graphics that make the real world look a little less grand, we ask for newer phones that can predict what we want to say before we say it. But while these technologies are useful it doesn't necessarily benefit humanity as a whole. When I saw this graphic, provided by Wired, I was in shock by the fact that Diarrhea, Malaria, Preterm Births, and Lower Respiratory Infections were some of the leading causes of deaths in the world. All of these things are preventable diseases that can be treated and cured and others just require medical attention. And as Wired put it, "40% of that toll results from disorders that could be avoided with basic medications, clean water, and neonatal care." It is quite eye opening to me that while what we take for granted is something someone in another country or area my take as a kingly gift or life saving gift. 

In the end we really need to come together as a whole. Things are getting the media's eye that really shouldn't such as celebrity baby names and Walmart horror stories. If people cared more about treating illnesses or coming up with solutions to clean water crisis in other countries we most likely would have solved them by now and made them self sustaining. As a hopeful up and coming technology journalist. I hope I can shed some light on companies and technology products that deserve to be known to the world because they actually help the world and its people. 

Classic ASU Library

After searching for a table on the second floor I began my journey up the secret stair to the third floor where I am endlessly teased by the people who are taking up tables that are meant for four people. And as the search continues I see people I have never seen in the library since the beginning of the semester. I call them the hopeless ones. For they come only to try to scrape a passing grade and think the library will somehow give them the strength to do so. But they underestimate the distracting power the library can have a foolishly pick a table on the talking floor where the run into friends and talk for hours on end while their hopes for a good grade quickly fade into dreams of grandeur. This semester is no different. I fear every table will be full this time, and hope of a secluded window seat to finish the remainder of my work grow dimmer by the hour. The time is near, the parking deck is at almost full capacity, I hope to find a table but a hope is all it can be.

Essay 2 Question 1: The Love connection between Congress and Copyright Holders

Copyright has become a major focal point of my generation. You see it every time you watch a DVD. The big "illegally watching a movie is the same as stealing campaign". Or the patent wars between some of our major tech companies such as Samsung and Apple. Where Apple was just recently awarded over 100 million dollars because of Samsung's apparent infringement on Apple's one of thousands of patents they "own". The biggest problem with the copyright's is that the laws are to broad encompassing things that no longer can be used commercially and should be shared with the public so to further the public's knowledge and progress.
This is the main argument of both Lessig (a political activist for removing the Sonny Bono CTEA bill) and Eldred (a retired programmer who's mission was to create an online database of works in the Public Domain for the benefit of humanity). Eldred started his project off on the right foot, it was mainly for his daughters who he wanted to enjoy works by Hawthorne and it soon grew to become much larger and encompass many authors. And when Poems by Frost were about to opened to the public domain he was excited to scan those onto his site as well for the enjoyment of the people however, later that year the congress once again extended the copyright's length of coverage. This meant it would be illegal for him to add it to his site. Eldred told the world he planned to do it anyways which would technically make him a felon. This was when Lessig became interested and their connection formed. For both men they believed that it was wrong for Congress to extend the length of the Copyright as it was unconstitutional and gave Congress to much power but the main reason was that it limited progress and limited human knowledge!
So with this connection formed between the two they took the matter to court where they lost every battle. They then petitioned for it to go to the Supreme court. The main premise of taking it to the Supreme Court according to Lessig was that they felt the CTEA was unconstitutional. And the state reasons were 1. Extending existing terms violated the Constitutions "limited Times" requirement. 2. Extending terms also violated the First Amendment.(Lessig Ch. 13) Lessig as well as Eldred believed that "Copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."(Lessig Ch. 13) This of course is terrible news because it shows how thoughts of money come before thoughts of the greater good of humanity which can explain many of our world issues today such as Global warming, famine, poverty, among others. Many of these could be fixed or at least on the path to being fixed but because people care more about money than getting things done and improving the world as a whole.
This main fact is what upsets me most about some of our current copyright laws we have in place. The ones I am thinking of specifically deal with mobile devices and unlocking them. This was seen as a felony for a while and could cost you up to 250,000 in fines. The only reason it is not is because they decided to temporarily exclude cell phones from the list of technology that is effected by copyright. To me this is the most ridiculous part of the law. The only thing you are doing when unlocking your phone is basically letting you actually control your device and use it to the functions you want it to do, not what the cell phone company prescribes as the functions you need. It in no way hurts anyone and the cell phone companies, who were at first against allowing phones to be unlocked, no longer care because they realized that is what their customers wanted and found there was no harm in people unlocking their devices. When there is a general consensus among the people as well as the major companies I feel that Congress as a political body should meet to change the law. It is a government for the people by the people and what Congress is making it is a government for money or a government for the people as long as it means Congressmen and woman are still on companies payroll.
This is a black stain on our government that won't be removed easily. The next biggest problem with copyright law is with movies and music. It is becoming absurd. Why can I as a consumer buy a DVD and then not be able to copy it to my hard drive to watch on the go on my laptop. It's ridiculous. If I am using it for personal use who cares whether I copy it to my computer. I already bought the DVD. The same with music. It is a problem and it truly does stifle growth as a whole. I mean I remember sitting in my band class and my teacher telling us we could not get the music for Carmina Burana because the music was to expensive to buy out right and buy an individual copy for each student or even every other student. So we had to perform another piece we had learned the year before because the music was to expensive to buy. This meant in reality that the copyright law was actually restricting the bands ability to learn. We could not learn new music because it was to expensive to pay for and because we could not simply buy a copy and then make a few copies to distribute we were in fact becoming students who could not learn. And that means our musical knowledge was not expanding and in turn we were becoming stagnant in our progress as musicians. This to me is one of the biggest faults of our society. When a law restricts the ability to learn we basically our signing humanities death certificate because restricting learning means we are in theory setting a limit to how much knowledge we can obtain as a society.
In the end it all comes back to what Lessig said which is Companies and estate are just trying to "rent-seek" (in terms of economics) (Lessig, Ch. 13) which basically means they are just trying to get the extra money from the companies by saying that they will extend the copyrights of these works if they are paid x% of the profits they would earn from them extending the date. It is sickening and very well could be one of the downfalls of America as a super power and it is absolutely a downfall to what America is supposed to stand for which is freedom as well as innovation and change in what is typical to what is right. We have fallen far from what our original founding fathers had set out for us and I think it would do us good to look back to our origins so that we can set our United States back to the way they should be, United towards forward progress.

Project Ara

The cell phone industry has been making great head ways in the past 8 years to bring us smarter and smarter phones that can do more and more. But one thing they have made little to no innovations in is customization. As a consumer the only real way I can customize my phone is typically on the software side in picking which launcher to use or what app to download. On the hardware side there are even less options, the ones mainly being able to pick how much memory you get between predesignated amounts or putting a case on your phone to make your Iphone seem different then the next persons.
Well now we have a project Ara. A project being spearheaded by Motorola, it calls for the full modularization of cell phones so that the consumer can swap out different modules as they see fit. It is a brilliant idea, making the cell phone completely customizable from battery size to camera quality even to screen size, the possibilities could be endless.
I recently signed up to take part in project Ara. I along with the others who signed up will be tasked with "missions" that will basically be about the project they are working on. The user with the most active account at the end along with a few other users who accounts are also very active will receive a modular phone free of charge to test out.
Once I receive my first mission I will post it here. But until then stay tuned.

Here are some useful articles so that you can no more about what Project Ara is!

Project Ara (official site)
The Verge on Project Ara
Gizmodo on Project Ara + Comments

Why Be Me when I Can Be Anyone! Essay 1

Essay

In today’s world you can be anyone you really want to be. People do it all the time. They go onto to their favorite social media site, create a new person and BAM! They are whoever they want to be. I have not personally taken part in this but they have made an entire tv show called Catfish just to reveal people who have been doing this.

Social Media allows you to be able to do this, to make a new you. It isn’t reserved only for social media though, as Baym points out, you can do this in video games as well as forums or any other place where you are interacting with others. Identity has become a huge deal to people in my generation. Everyone wants to be unique and have cool things that other people don’t have. This has definitely happened to me where I wanted something my friends had or I thought I would seem cooler if I did a certain thing. It happens to almost everyone.

For me, Social media has definitely mediated my relations with others. Facebook and Twitter have caused me to know what is happening with my friends so much that with some people I have found it hard to talk about things because I already know what is going on in their lives because they constantly update the world. Texting and smart phones make this even more so because I constantly have the feed of updates in my pocket.

Video games on the other hand have helped me form bonds with people I may have never met. I play with people across the world that in any other situation I would never have encountered but because we both play team deathmatch in Call of Duty I now can team up with them and talk to them in party chat as if we have been friends for a long time. And if someone had said that I would be talking with people all the time from around the world in video games 8 years ago I would of thought they were insane. This is one of the many ways in which media is shaping my relations with people.

Facebook, Twitter and really any social media site have also changed the way society and humans interact. They make it so that people can talk to anyone they want as long as they are “friends”. They also make it easy for people to keep in touch. This has made it so people who I might have lost touch or did in fact lose touch with I have now reconnected with because we both have facebook profiles.

One way in which technology has negatively affected me is through texting. At first I loved texting, I would say I was a texting fiend. I was constantly texting all my friends and even people I was just ok friends with just because I could. However, it made it so that I was not going to go see people in person and talking to them face to face because it was so much easier just to text them if I needed something. This made it so that some of the relationships that I thought were very strong were actually not as much I first believed. It wasn’t until my phone broke that I realized how my phone wasn’t something I needed to always have. I cut back and started interacting more and my old social self came back to the surface.

Another thing Baym brought up was how media makes it so that we can form our own personal identities as well as our own social identity and that we want to be seen and known by our identities we create and that they need to be original and our own and thats why people will sometimes make up their own identities to achieve this. While I have never made up an identity  I can appreciate wanting to have your own self identity that makes you feel good but also having a social identity that allows you to be the person you want everyone else to know. In facebook I hide some pictures I don’t want everyone to see because I think they make me look a certain way that isn’t how I am. It is a common trait for people to not one others to judge them based on what they have done and now with media you know what everyone has done so keeping your social identity the way you want can be tough.

When Wesch talks about Youtube and how it is a phenomena this is very much the way our generation is going. And how people upload videos of how they do something and want everyone to see it and see them as very funny or very cool because they do a cool stunt. Media has become to shape how we perceive cool and how we perceive interesting and how we perceive ourselves and identity.

Can't Handle Constantly Responding to Emails? Try this tip out!

We all can get overwhelmed by that ever increasing inbox. I am the kind of guy that likes to have no outstanding emails that I haven't at least looked at. It actually bothers me if I haven't opened an email. Sometimes though, I just don't have the time to look and then respond right away. And then when I finally do get time I forget that I needed to respond to the email. Today, I was looking through my typical list of blogs I always read and came across an article by Lifehacker that told me how to cure this problem. It was setting up a customized email response that gets sent to anyone who emails you. Now this may not work for everyone but creating a custom response to the people that email you the most could be a very impressive and effective tool! The part I like the best is how you can put in other ways to contact you if they need you urgently. As a student I wish my professors would use this because sometimes I can't wait until the next day or the next week, whenever they finally find the time to respond to me. All in all this seems like a solid idea. So check it out if you would like!

Avoid Email Distractions with a Custom Automated Email Response

Bye Mr. Balmer!

Steve Balmers intense, tearful goodbye to Microsoft.

Steve Balmer made his official good bye's to Microsoft this week. He was CEO of the enormous company and was loved by many of the employees if not all. While Microsoft has had its ups and downs recently over the past few years this man has been behind a lot of the ups. To say the least he was passionate about the company and whoever replaces him will have big shoes to fill.

The Hidden Gem that is Twitter.

believe, neptune monologue: Welcome to the Twitter World: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-should-care-about-twitter-2013-9 This article entitled, "Why You Should Care About Twitter,&qu...

I have been wanting to write a piece about Twitter and why I think more people would use it if they actually knew how functional and fantastic it was. The blog believe, neptune monologue has given me the perfect opportunity to do that. This post really sums up my main point about twitter which is that it is the perfect news source. Every news source or well known blog or company update their twitter the second they post something new. This means that it is the perfect way to get all the information you want without having to go to a bunch of different sites. For me this means that I can look through all of my tech blogs and websites new articles in the same place at the same time. Which is huge because a lot of the apps that try to replicate that experience are either non-existent or super slow or buggy. So if you have not checked twitter out yet I think it is high time that you do.

OMG IOS7 IS OUT! Said every Iphone user ever this week.

IOS7 just recently came out, as if you didn't know this from all of your friends exclaiming it to you. Guys we get it. However if you are one of the lucky many to download the new update there are a few things you need to know. Luckily Lifehacker composed a great list of "10 Secret Features of IOS7". SO the next time you run into an iphone user you can wow them with something they didn't know they could do on their iphone. My favorite is probably number 2. You can make Audio-only Factime calls. If you don't get why that's funny leave a comment and I would be happy to explain.

Top 10 Secrets of IOS7

The Voice of Siri, How Computers "Talk"

The last few classes have all had one common theme, computer voices. We talked about Hal as well as about Siri. But what we did not really bring up is what was really happening when these computers "talked" to us. In this article by The Verge, they discuss and interview the people who made Siri. The Biggest thing that I think we all knew deep down was that "for every Siri, there's an actor sitting in a sound booth, really needing to go to the bathroom." But what people I think do not realize is the extent to which this statement is true. These actors are literally sitting there day in and day out repeating different words and the same words over and over again in different tones to reflect different meaning, such as a question or and declarative statement. But don't take my word for it watch the video or read the article. It explains in depth the tremendous amount of work that goes into making Siri be able to tell you where the nearest Starbucks is so you can get your coffee fix in for the day.
Machine Language: How Siri Found its Voice.

If Only I Was A Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropists....

Ever since the Iron Man movie came out I have always been so jealous of Tony Stark. But, it wasn't because he had sweet cars, or was a famous boy genius, or even because had billions of dollars (although it would be nice), where my real jealousy for this superhero came from was his tech. He has an amazing assistant that literally could do anything for him basically a Siri but a billion times cooler, smarter, and better in every way, sorry Apple fans. The use of holograms always really intrigued me but not really that he had them but more that he could interact with them, just like he does in the clip above. If I could hangout in his workshop I would be so happy, but only being of average genius levels and not super hero genius level I wouldn't know what to do while there, but one can dream! I would talk more about the film but if you do not know about Iron Man from either the comics or the new films than we have a bigger problem than me not leaving a brief description of the film.

According to ReadWrite: Americans are Losing Faith in Tech, But Just Can't Get Away

According to this News article written by Matt Asay, and posted on ReadWrite (Americans Losing Faith In Technology, But Can't Break The Addiction ) Americans are losing faith in what technology is actually contributing to them in both their personal and work lives. This is not a surprising realization especially with the recent NSA Prism scandal that just came to light. Personally, I have no bone to pick with technology, it is actually one of my great passions in life! However, I can see how technology, if not used correctly or without moderation, could make someones life rather less enjoyable. 

In this article Matt states that our relationship with technology when it came to work productivity, work life, safety and security, home productivity, and relationships with family, have all decreased since last year. Basically saying that technology is becoming less useful and more of a hindrance in many peoples lives than last year. While, the percentage in which people's satisfaction went down only a couple of points it is clear that the down ward spiral of technology in the eyes of the people is becoming a negative trend. 

I plan on still using technology everyday. It has become a part of my routine and I find my routine to be very enjoyable. What do the rest of y'all think? Technology or no technology? Could you survive a week without a computer? Internet? Your phone? Let me know.

Why Google + Should Be Your Social Network Of Choice!

Some people have speculated that Google+ has failed and some even say that it is already on the decline. I say that’s ridiculous! Google+ has come in as number 2 on the social media leader boards leaving only Facebook in the lead, which comes as no surprise seeing how Facebook has had a couple more years to get things right. However there is a reason for Google+ to take the number two spot over others such as Twitter or Instagram, Google+ changes it up a bit with a nice layout and new ways to share and bring your friends into other things such as searches on Google, despite bad public opinion Google+ is making it in the Social Media World.

If you haven’t joined Google+ yet or experimented with the platform, here are seven reasons why you should make Google+ your social media of choice:

1. Circles

The Circles function is by far the best way to organize all the different people you want (or in some cases don’t want) to interact with on a daily basis. Easy drag and drop interface makes it so that putting the right people in the right circle easy. Circles make it easy to share information with the right people. No more having your mom comment on that picture of you out at a college party with that girl….you get the picture. Effortless sharing is the name of the game and Google+ nails it. An added benefit of Circles is people can add you to their Circles without you having to “accept” or “decline” their friend request.

2. Communities

There is always that time in life when you are sitting there wishing you could talk to someone who is like-minded, or having the same issue, or just loves that same TV show as you. Communities make that wish a reality. Now you can go to the community tab, click on it and search your interests and to find the community that best suits your need. People are constantly posting discussions so there is never a lack of new material. I visited the Walking Dead Community and everyone was welcoming and excited for the new season. Communities is perfect for businesses to share news with their fans and really expand their user base. In the Android Community, for instance, there are thousands of people posting new news about Android or troubleshooting advice for different devices. And for each new topic there is a side tab in the community specifically for that interest. So if you have a problem, a love, a gripe, or an interest in something heading over to communities is the way to go.

3. Hangouts

The way Skype should have been. That is what I would call Google + Hangouts. Google Hangouts allows you to video chat with up to 10 people at once (including yourself), this is perfect for talking to the whole family, or getting in that quick last-minute group chat on the presentation you are going to give in ten minutes. It is the perfect solution for talking to multiple people (you’ll pay to be able to add more than one person on Skype!). It is also great for bands that want to share a live feed with one of their Circles, the live feed makes sharing videos even better. So if you're playing a gig at the local pub why don’t you get someone to video it through the live feed on Google+.  Oh, and did I mention that after your live broadcast is over Google+ will upload it to your profile page, YouTube channel, and website so that it can be reviewed and discussed for future generations to come. Yeah, it’s that cool.

4. Explore Tab

There have been hundreds of times while on Facebook or Twitter when I have been flooded with people’s information I really didn't want to see on my Feed. With the sliding button, it is simple to change your settings so that you only view exactly how much information you want. In the Explore Tab you can change how many posts you will see on your Home screen from the Explore Tab. The posts that appear on your home screen are your interests but with this little sliding button you decide if you want to see None of it, Some of it, Most of it Or all of the posts posted to your explore page on your home screen. The recommended amount by Google is "most" which has worked fine for me but everyone to their own.

5. Local

The Local Tabs basic function is to show you anything in your surrounding area that may interest you. It will show you restaurants, drug stores, shops, groceries. Another thing the Local Tab does well is showing you how other people have rated different stores and what their reviews were.  The Local Tab will also tell you what places you have searched for recently so that you may rate it or write a review. You can also change your location to check out places around where you may be going for your next vacation and because it is a Google product you can just zip to the top bar and go to street view to really take a look around.

6. Layout

The layout of Google+ is my personal favorite of all social media sites. A fusion of Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, it features mixed-media content ranging from photos, to videos, to articles. You will find trending words and phrases (like Twitter’s # function) and comments bars (like Facebook). Google+ gives you everything you need in a Social Media site.

7. +1

Google really integrated Google+ into their ecosystem with their +1 feature. It would remind you of the like button in Facebook but spiced up a bit. Every time you +1 something you are suggesting it to anyone who you are in a circle with or is in one of your circles. The great thing about that is that when your friends are searching for something on Google and you have +1 a similar subject Google will show them your suggestion or +1 in their search. Now that you are armed with the knowledge of Google+’s great features you should check it out for yourself and maybe you’ll decide that it is for you. All I can say is early adopters always have it easier in obtaining a fan base or a large interest group so if that is something you are interested in head over there and start your own community or discussion because Google+ is here to stay.

Hey Everyone!