Google is unquestionably the biggest player on the internet, yet the “search giant” has never quite cracked the lucrative social market. After the failure of Google Buzz, they are making another attempt with the launch of Google+.

At the moment, Google+ looks like a bleak version of Facebook, causing a lot of speculation and online chatter about whether or not Google can take on the social network.

For a moment though, I want to consider Google+ not as a potential Facebook killer, but rather a LinkedIn killer.

One of my initial thoughts before using Google+ was that if it integrated in nicely with the services I already use (Gmail, docs, calendar) then there’s a chance I would use it, but if I had to log into yet another social service, it probably wouldn’t happen.

That is one of the things that stops me from using LinkedIn very often. I have my profile, my resume, my professional contacts and occasionally chime into group discussion. However with a small network, I have little incentive to log in on there regularly and don’t have the need to share with that particular network often. It’s a great resource, but it is a little on the clunky side.

Google on the other hand, is something I can’t live without at work. Search aside, I run Gmail for my personal account and work is run off Google Apps. I share documents with Google Docs and all of my calendars and contacts are synced with Google. Using ‘Circles’ (the Google+ grouping of contacts), I can now also set up work contacts and split up my PR networks from my Digital networks – sharing different information with each.

Suddenly, Google+ is looking very appealing.

Do I want to replicate all of my Facebook info over there? Nope. Do I necessarily want to worry about splitting everything up and double posting while people migrate? Not at all. At this stage, I much prefer Facebook but could happily walk away from LinkedIn if I could have easy access to my professional networks along with my documents and appointments. LinkedIn has a great audience but has always failed to impress me as a platform. I’ll be watching with keen interest to see how this plays out!

One more note on how this competes with Facebook – I think web comic xkcd has summed it up nicely; “on one hand, you’ll never convince your parents to switch. On the other hands, you’ll never convince your parents to switch!”.

If your organisation or union had the opportunity to contact almost every professional working within the industry and hold open discussions with them, would you use it?

LinkedIn Groups provides just that. With over 100 million members and counting, LinkedIn is a big player within the social media realm and Groups is the place to tap in.

Think of it as the ‘Facebook Pages’ of the professional world. A few years ago only a handful of leading businesses were creating Pages – now they are becoming almost secondary to a company web site. Unlike Pages, your discussions on LinkedIn Groups will not disrupt someone’s personal time catching up on gossip and holiday photos.

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US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich was first up, and with him his security detail – two clean-cut, serious, suited dudes scanning the room during Bleich’s presentation on the Obama presidential campaign’s pioneering use of social media.

The dudes didn’t have much to worry about with this crowd, the only real and present dangers being excessively snarky tweets or a tussle over an ipad charger.

The Media 140 ‘Oz Politics’ conference at Old Parliament House last week brought together Twitter commentators, activists, journalists, academics and politicians, collectively known as the #politicotragicmediawankersphere.

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The election media landscape has changed forever, the revolution will not be televised.

Gone are the days of one-way election communications, the traditional print and television campaigns of the major parties may have become larger, slicker and more targeted, but they are still functions of the throw it at the wall and see what sticks mentality.

Survivor, Masterchef, Australian Idol started the participation craving, the web and social media gave it a voice. We all want to be heard, to judge and to vote someone off this island. We want to sit on our couches watching news channels or political commentary shows, not talking to our (un)loved ones, but tweeting out live commentary to our new family, the masses. #justsayin

The next day watercooler conversation is dead, colleagues, friends and networks have already torn every issue apart, judge, jury and executioner. And shouldn’t it have always been this way? Read more »

7pm hungry.

I, like many other ‘Gen Y-can’t-I-do-everything-on-my-iPhone?’, first heard about the political events of last week while browsing my iphone for twitter, news feeds and facebook status updates, in front of the slower to react television on Wednesday night.

And feed we did.

As soon as the door shut on the then Prime Minister’s office, social networks were abuzz with the thought of a coup, thousands of tweeps all across Australia were glued to their 140 character evening dinner, with each and all sharing their pointed opinion on the ensuing #spill.

24hr news was being fed from all of this online action, with sky news reporters constantly taking advice and proclaiming news from their iphone instant news features, SMS and Twitter.

Pass the buttered corn. Read more »