Google

The search giant announced the launch of Google+ Pages today that will let businesses connect with fans in a manner similar to Facebook Pages. These businesses will receive corporate accounts to start sharing information about themselves and invite others to join in on the conversation. More after the jump.

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In mid-August, Google announced the launch of Google+ games integrated directly into the search giant’s new social network. Silicon Valley consensus is that Google is finally making a direct attack at Facebook and that company’s commanding lead over social networking; the inclusion of social games, which comprise much of Facebook’s own user activity, seems confirmation of that strategy.

Ted Simon of Kabam, one of the developers in Google+ game’s pilot launch, told SocialTimes Pro the company’s so far seen a promising response by Google+ users to its complex strategy games with a deep social focus:

“Based on early returns, we’re pleased with how things are going so far for our two titles on Google+ games, Edgeworld and Dragons of Atlantis,” Simon told us. “Those are both hardcore social games, not casual games, and Google+ gamers are responding to them well. That’s an indicator that members of our primary audience, core gamers, are residing on this platform.”

As Altimeter’s Jeremiah Owyang sees it, Google+ is an opportunity for game developers simply by being a relatively large social network: “All social profiles are key for game developers, as they can tap into existing networks for increased ability for login and registration,” he told SocialTimes Pro. “Secondly, by using existing friend networks they can increase the chance of content, scoreboards, leaderboards, and sharing of virtual goods.”

In the estimation of comScore’s Andrew Lipsman, Google+ will need about 20% total market penetration to establish itself sufficiently and grow organically. “[Once] a site reaches 20% penetration in the U.S. for example,” he explained to SocialTimes Pro, “the network effects tend to strengthen and propel it higher.” (Lipsman noted that Facebook, and before it MySpace only, reached critical mass upon reaching this level of market penetration.) “That means 35 or 40 million users in the U.S.”

According to comScore, Google+ had about 6 million monthly U.S. uniques at the end of July. So while Google+ is showing strong growth in its early months, it will probably still need tens of millions more in the U.S. alone, before becoming an attractive platform for game developers.

Flurry’s Jeferson Valadares did offer cautious advice for developers interested in Google+: “I think if you manage to get support from Google it might be worth taking a chance,” he told us. For those developers who do wish to pursue this opportunity, Valadares had this recommendation: “Be ready to figure out monetization for yourself since Google Checkout penetration is not particularly high,” he told us. Related to this (and based on Flurry’s analysis of iOS and Android app monetization), Valadares recommended that Google game developers “not rely 100% on Google Checkout and to find out alternative ways of making revenue such as Trialpay or find some other payment providers in parallel.”

What’s incumbent on Google, Will Harbin, CEO of leading hardcore social game developer Kixeye, told us, is this: “They need to prove they have traction that makes it worth our while… Meanwhile, life as a game developer on the browser and Facebook is quite good.” He went on to argue that for his company at least, Facebook’s 30% commission on revenue is more than compensated for by the social network’s large user base. “We didn’t see any change in revenue [since switching to Facebook Credits].” Harbin added that the company has been increasing month-over-month in revenue, even with Facebook’s 30% take.

At the moment, Google+ has no key market differentiator to Facebook, in great part because it has branded itself as a network for real names and identities, which is also the core branding identity of Facebook. This cedes enormous advantage to Facebook and, in SocialTimes Pro’s view, misses a tremendous market opportunity: To become the social network that can also appeal to all those who wish to share content with the many individuals in their extended, Internet-based social circles, via hundreds of millions of pseudonymous identities. By a very rough estimate, there are about 200 million of these in the West alone, a great many from Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms, and perhaps as many associated with gaming platforms, such as the online service Steam (30 million) and virtual world games such as Habbo Hotel, Gaia Online, IMVU, and Second Life (25 million+). Allowing and enabling pseudonymous identities would give Google+ a unique value proposition distinct from Facebook. And, because so many pseudonymous identities are associated with online games, such an offering could greatly increase interest and engagement with Google+ games in particular.

Purchase the rest of this report here.

Game developers, please take this very short survey on the future of Google+ games, which we’ll be using for Social Times’ next report on the subject. How important an opportunity is Google+ games for you? Will it become a competitor against Facebook and Apple’s iOS? Has Google’s 5% commission promotional offer caused you to seriously investigate Google+ as a platform? Click here to answer those questions and more. Early next month, we’ll be sharing the results here, and on SocialTimes Pro. Thanks!

The author of this post, Wagner James Au, is an analyst for Social Times Pro.

The data-hungry among you may have noticed that Google Correlate, the research tool released by the Google team for experimentation in May 2011, has just graduated from Google Labs and can now be found on Google Trends.

The newfangled research tool finds search patterns, ready for analysis, that correspond with real-world trends (think Bird Flu).

According to the Google Blog, the idea for Correlate stemmed from a wish-list request made by researchers “who wanted to be able to enter the trend of some real-world activity and see which search terms best matched that trend….they wanted a system that was like Google Trends but in reverse.”

Correlate allows you to upload your own data series. Then, delivered to you promptly and magically is a list of search terms that have popularity to match the trend.

In one Google experiment, a few years of flu activity data from the CDC was uploaded. It yielded the finding that people searched for the terms “cold” and “flu” in a pattern that mirrored the actual flu rates. Very cool, no?

The masterminds at Google went on to use the correlated terms they discovered to build Google Flu Trends.

It’s worth mentioning that you can also use the Correlate research tool to identify which pattern of activity across the US matches the activity in your own state or the state you are studying (search terms can vary in popularity according to state).

“Search activity is an incredible source of data that may lead to advances in economics, health and other fields,” reads the Google blog, “but we need to handle that data with privacy controls on mind.”

Well said. As per the usual, new technological developments bring a whole new slew of challenges along with the nifty discoveries. And while relationships can be identified using Correlate, the tool is not able to determine causation (we’re nodding to you, scientists).

Go here now to try Google Correlate for free.

Yelp , the popular city-guides website fleshed out with user-generated reviews of local business, including restaurants, bars and shops, is about to get a run for its money.

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Google has released a preview version of Android programming plug-in that will allow developers to create Android applications for Google TV devices. The new tool will enable developers to test their existing Android apps in a big TV screen environment or port them to run over Google TV. Another option will be to create specific apps for Google TV.

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Although Facebook has secured the top spot with 750+ million users, the rapid growth of Google+ (with an estimated 25 million users) must be making the social media giant nervous.  SingleGrain has highlighted the differences between Facebook and Google+ via an Infographic and elaborated the benefits and drawbacks of both networks.

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Not too long ago everyone was pretty excited about the debut of Google Music: then we got Music Beta by Google and, while it wasn’t terrible, it also wasn’t much of a pay-off for years of patience. If you’re not paying much attention to the service’s continued evolution it seems you’re not alone. So, to combat flagging interest, Google has launched Magnifier, a music blog/Music Beta hype machine and provider of some complementary tunes.

Magnifier seems, first and foremost, to be an attempt at putting Google Music back into the minds of a somewhat disinterested public — but it’s also looking to make itself a source of general music information by providing artist and music reviews, history and more. It ties in Google+ accounts as well so those who have transferred their loyalty to Google’s social network may be more likely to get on board with its use.

Google recruited Tim Quirk (whose credits include being the former VP of Rhapsody) to help design Magnifier and his innovative thinking shows. The most interesting aspect of the blog is its integration of Music Beta, something that very well could help reignite the service’s popularity. Magnifier lets you read about, say, its “Song of the Day” then click a button that adds it to your library for (free) listening. Users must have an account to take advantage of this, of course, so if Magnifier catches on we could very well see Music Beta increasing its traffic in the near future.

Google Magnifier only recently launched so there isn’t a ton of content to look through but, if you’re interested in seeing what’s up with the blog then take a click to see it for yourself.

Google will be launching a field test with a set of users that are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) in an effort to make Hangouts more accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired.

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Everyone is talking about Google+ right now and since more and more people are signing up and adding us to their circles each and every day, we thought there was no better time than now to put together a guide about all the features of Google’s new social network.

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