Millions of technology junkies around the globe have become card-carrying members of the Social Media Age. Facebook. Tumblr. Twitter. (And in a not-so-distant past) Myspace. You name it—We’ve created a username, logged in and tried it.

However, nothing stays stagnant (especially the world of social networking), and so these multiple memberships might ultimately prove superfluous—that is if Google and its latest social networking project Google Plus (Google+) have anything to say about it.

A newcomer to the social media scene, Google+ promises to connect you to your friends and interests with a more personalized organizational system than other websites.

Its streamlining features will include:

• +Circles: Instead of a friends list, Google+ allows you to create social circles with a list of certain people and share information with those people only.

• +Sparks: Similar to blogging websites like Tumblr, this feature uses the resources of Google’s famous search engine to compile news and content about your passions from Harry Potter’s final cinematic chapter to the Wall Street’s dips and dives.

• +Hangouts: Taking a leaf from video-chatting services like Skype and Oovoo, Hangouts allows you to connect with people face-to-face in a multi-person video chat. Also, this feature allows you to specifically indicate when you want to participate—so no more inconvenient instant messages at work! (Theoretically.)

• +Mobile: This feature, like most social networking sites of merit, allows you to connect via your phone. Google+ offers instant photo uploading, location tagging and +Huddles, a feature that connects a specified group of contacts in a phone-accessed chat room.

For more information on the functions and features of Google+, click here.

Google+ seems to be accomplishing its “intuitive” design by consolidating the features of other social networking websites into one go-to mega website. What do you think: is this an ingenious idea or an unoriginal move by Google to get into the social networking world?

Regardless, the big question remains: will it topple the almighty Titan that is Facebook? Click here to find out what people have said.

So far membership to Google+ is by invitation only. Will YOU try Google+ when it becomes public?

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We all know how this goes, but how can we change it? Well, according to YouTube, taking just a few simple initiatives can help change your tired day into a success. Here is what they have done to reinvigorate their company:

1. New Ideas Week – Designate an entire work week to new ideas, where engineers can try and discover new things without the pressure of performance.

2. The Awesome Cup – Reward innovative  thinking with a trophy that defines awesome. When someone does something worthy of the trophy, he or she keeps it  until it is passed along to the next coworker who does something equally as awesome.

Check out more on this topic here.

Now, far be it from me to disagree with the Chief Executive Officer of Google, but as a youth of today, I feel compelled to at least state my opinion on the matter. The question of how the children of the social media generation will deal with the skeletons in their online closets has been coming up since the very beginnings of social media. Often mentioned in this discussion are the pictures that many youths post of themselves at parties with alcoholic beverages. One article that I read (though I can’t recall where) argued that these types of irresponsible online posts will one day become so common that their existence will become irrelevant, and while I don’t entirely agree, the point is an interesting one. A more striking argument is that the youth of today are becoming increasingly savvy to the potential hazards connected to the things they post.

Today’s youth are actually censoring and, in turn, branding themselves at younger ages than ever before. Studies have shown that children are actively maintaining their profiles in such a way so as to paint themselves in a positive light. I’ve even seen parties where cameras weren’t allowed at all for this very reason, and I believe this kind of behavior is becoming the rule as opposed to the exception. The answer to how people deal with the embarrassing things they post online is becoming more and more that they don’t post them in the first place.

While it’s true that some may find themselves troubled by their online past, I doubt very seriously that we will see a surge in changed identities anytime soon. If social media changes anything, it won’t be people’s names; it’ll be the maturity with which young people present themselves online. While the world of social media may seem like a strange unexplored territory, these types of issues are nothing new. I’m sure that people asked many of these same questions when the personal camera was first invented, and I think we’ve turned out just fine.

Instead of the meta data showing up under the image result, they appear when you hover over the image. When you click on a thumbnail (which are now larger), it brings you to the page where the image shows up over the original page it appears on. Test it out for yourself to see the new functionality.

Another update to Google Image Search is Search Ads on the results page. If you search for something, you might see sponsored search results, both image and text, above the images returned for your search. For example, a search for “jeans” shows ads for Wrangler and Levis’.

With over 1 billion page views per day on Google’s Image Search, chances are you’ll be seeing these changes on your screen soon.

By the way, if you want a really cool image search product, I’d recommend Cooliris. I use it as an extension on Chrome but you can check out their website to test it out. It’s a really cool visual way to browse images from Google Images, Bing, or even Flickr; the results show up on a scannable infinity wall. Check it out!

The story is about Alec Brownstein’s search for his dream job in advertising, the result of which was one of the coolest pieces of self promotion I’ve read about in a while. Give it a read:

While Googling his favorite creative directors last summer, Brownstein noticed that there were no sponsored links attached to their names. Since Brownstein Googles himself “embarassingly frequently,” he assumed that the creative directors did so as well, and thus he decided to purchase their names on Google AdWords.

“Everybody Googles themselves,” Brownstein explained. “Even if they don’t admit it. I wanted to invade that secret, egotistical moment when [the creative directors I admired] were most vulnerable.”

Since Brownstein was the only person bidding on the names of the five creative directors he most admired, he was able to get the top search spots for a mere 15 cents per click. Whenever someone ran a search for one of the creative directors’ names, the following message appeared at the top of the page: “Hey, [creative director's name]: Goooogling [sic] yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too” with a link to Brownstein’s website, alecbrownstein.com.

Over the next couple of months, Brownstein received calls from all but one of the creative directors whose names he had purchased. And finally, at the end of the year, he received a job offer from two: Scott Virtrone and Ian Reichenthal of Y&R New York.

The whole campaign cost him $6.

(Via Mashable.com)

Click Here to read the full story.

Personally, I was leery about Gmail from the get-go. Remember when you had to be “invited” to open an account! “No thanks,” I said, turning my nose up at what I perceived to be elitist, exclusionary tactics. “I’ll stick with Hotmail – it might have a fraction of the storage, primitive organization and none of the cool features, but it’s for the people!”

As a recent convert to “Gangsta Mail,” I can now look back and see what a complete dummy I was. I love Gmail with an abiding fondness that was once reserved only for very small puppies, Vin Scully and finding money in my jacket pockets. So thanks, Gmail! May you live long and your gigabytes be plentiful.

There were some major developments yesterday in the Twitter world that have many of us real-time enthusiasts very excited…and curious. Google and Microsoft’s Bing both announced real-time search deals with Twitter! WHOA! Wait, what does that mean?

It means that now you can use Bing.com to see what’s hot on Twitter—from the most popular links being shared to the hottest trending topics.  And as far as Google’s plans go, in a few weeks they will be launching an experimental version of “Social Search.” This new tool is designed to integrate information created by people in your Google network into your Google search results. However, it seems like in order for this to work you will need to have a Google account, profile and a fair amount of contacts. (Click here to read more about Google’s Social Search.)

There’s been some talk about how Twitter may be on the way out, but with major entities still champing at the bit to get a piece of the action, that doesn’t appear to be the case—at least for now.

The invite-only test run of Google Wave sent folks into a frenzy last week, so I felt compelled to see what all the fuss was about. I received an invite from a friend and the two of us started experimenting with some of the functions.

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

After exploring for about 20 minutes, I was not impressed. In fact, I was frustrated. The “collaborative” element of the program would more accurately be described as “annoying.” When typing a message to someone, having a conversation or drafting a note, another user can watch as you make typos, and vice versa. What’s more, another user can go into the message you’re writing and add to it in real time. Not only is this whole process extremely agitating, but I’m not sure I see any convenience in it…at least not yet.

With such a small number of people with current access to Google Wave, getting acclimated to the tools and functions is fairly difficult. My hope is that with more testing and development Google Wave will prove to be a less complicated program and a more useful tool for businesses and everyday use. As it stands, I’m going to wait for a better swell to come in.

Have you tried it out yet? What did you think?