(From the Journal IE)

ON TUESDAY GOOGLE launched its long-awaited social networking service, dubbed Google Plus.

Widely seen as the search giant’s first serious challenge to rival Facebook, Google Plus opened to a small group of developers and journalists – and immediately filled to capacity. The company is expected to issue more ‘invitations’ to the service as it develops over the coming months, just as it did at first with Gmail.

In a blog post announcing the service, Google said: “Online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.” But what exactly is Google Plus all about? Here TheJournal.ie takes a look at some of its key features – and how they went down with the first users.

‘Circles’

Google Plus bears a “striking resemblance” to Facebook, with lists of friends and streaming news feeds, according to the Washington Post. But a key difference is the Circles feature which encourages users to group their friends by category – work colleagues, college friends, book club, family and so on. This aims to fix one of the key problems of Facebook: what you share with your closest friends, you don’t necessarily also want to share with your uncle Daithí.

The Google pitch: “We found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So [...] we brought Circles to software.”

‘Sparks’

Sparks seems to be Google’s answer to Twitter – a way to plug in to news and content you’re interested in from all over the web. You input a list of interests, and it promises to deliver headlines, images and links from like-minded people and organisations which you can react to, comment on and share with others.

The Google pitch: “Simply add your interests, and you’ll always have something to watch, read and share.”

‘Hangouts’

Basically, Hangouts is a way to have video chats with several people at once. The aim is to make online conversation less like a phone call out of the blue and more like a time spent, well, hanging out. You hit the Hangout button, invite anybody you want to join you if they feel like it, and (hopefully) shoot the breeze.

The Google pitch: “Whether it’s inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out [...] By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you’re free, and spend time with your Circles.”

First users’ reaction

So far, only a relatively small group people have been able to play around with Google Plus. Their response has been mixed. Influential technology blog TechCrunch was impressed, with their reviewer writing that “I used Google+ for hours and kept coming back. And I have a desire to come back tomorrow.” Social news site Mashable said the project was “a bold and dramatic attempt at social”, adding that it was “solid”, but not “a Facebook killer or game changer”.

Meanwhile, tech news site GigaOm said the service wouldn’t worry Facebook, but that the communications features could sound the death knell for Skype. But The Guardian wasn’t won over – their reviewer called the user experience on a computer desktop “appalling”, Circles “too complex” and Sparks “almost useless”.

Mike’s Thoughts:  So the great Google innovation to the world of Social Media is “Circles”???  Something that allows you to group your online friends?  Wow.  Impressive. 

Apparently my 6 year old daughter was in charge of the product development team.

Dateline NBC’s Chris Hansen — host of “To Catch a Predator”– was busted cheating on his wife with a woman young enough to be his daughter. 
 
Sources say for nearly four months Hansen been cheating on his wife with Kristyn Caddell, a news anchor at NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.
 
Hansen and his wife 53-year-old wife Mary have two sons and live together in Connecticut. 

Mike’s Thoughts:  That sound you’re hearing?  That’s your irony alarm going off.  Again….

 AP) – Tiger Woods has landed his first endorsement deal since the sex scandal. It’s just not in this country. Woods signed a three-year deal with Japan’s Kowa Company to promote a pain reliever there. Woods already has filmed commercials for “Vantelin Kowa,” a heat rub used to relieve muscle and joint pain, but the spots are only for the Japanese market. No word on how much he’s getting paid.

 In his pre-scandal days, Woods had an endorsement portfolio worth nearly $90 million a year. But he lost deals with the likes of Accenture, AT&T, and Gatorade, and one of golf’s greatest has been without an endorsement on his golf bag since returning to play in the 2010 Masters. Woods continues to recuperate from a leg injury and says he doesn’t know when he will return to the links.

Mike’s Thoughts:  His first new endorsement deal couldn’t have been say, a sports drink?  Or a clothing line?  No, of course not.  It had to be for a “heat rub”.  This is because God really does have a sense of humor.  Tiger’s agent Mark Steinberg may (or may not) have one too.

Bruce Springsteen has posted on his website what he says is a “slightly revised version of the eulogy” he delivered for Clarence Clemons at his funeral last week in Florida. He writes, “I’d like to thank all our fans and friends who have comforted us over the past difficult weeks.” Titled “For the Big Man,” the piece recalls Springsteen and Clemon’s almost 40-year friendship, which included a lot of highs and lows. Springsteen writes, “I leaned on Clarence a lot; I made a career out of it in some ways… ‘C’ mellowed with age, he was always a wild and unpredictable ride… ‘C’ lived a life where he did what he wanted to do and he let the chips, human and otherwise, fall where they may. Like a lot of us, [he] was capable of great magic and also of making quite an amazing mess. “Clarence could be fragile, but he also emanated power and safety, and in some funny way we became each other’s protectors… “Clarence was big, and he made me feel, and think, and love, and dream big. How big was the Big Man? Too [bleeping] big to die. And that’s just the facts. You can put it on his gravestone, you can tattoo it over your heart. Accept it… It’s the New World. “Clarence doesn’t leave the E Street Band when he dies. He leaves when we die.” And, as he did on stage so many nights, Springsteen introduced Clemons for the last time. “SO LADIES AND GENTLEMAN… ALWAYS LAST, BUT NEVER LEAST. LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE MASTER OF DISASTER, the BIG KAHUNA, the MAN WITH A PHD IN SAXUAL HEALING, the DUKE OF PADUCAH, the KING OF THE WORLD, LOOK OUT, OBAMA! THE NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES — EVEN THOUGH HE’S DEAD… YOU WISH YOU COULD BE LIKE HIM BUT YOU CAN’T! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BIGGEST MAN YOU’VE EVER SEEN!… GIVE ME A C-L-A-R-E-N-C-E. WHAT’S THAT SPELL? CLARENCE! WHAT’S THAT SPELL? CLARENCE! WHAT’S THAT SPELL? CLARENCE! …amen.”

ODDS OF GETTING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING GO WAY UP IF YOU’RE A MAN

According to a new survey, of the 648 people killed by lightning in the United States over the past 12 years or so, 82 percent were guys.

THE MOST AMERICAN CAR IS A TOYOTA

According to an annual survey from Cars.com, the Toyota Camry is the most American car, winning the top spot on the website’s American Made Index for the third year in a row.

The Camry, which is assembled in Georgetown, Kentucky, and Lafayette, Indiana, is followed by the Honda Accord and the Chevy Malibu, which rank number two and number three respectively.

Here’s a rundown of the Top 10:

1. Toyota Camry – Georgetown, Kentucky and Lafayette, Indiana
2. Honda Accord – Marysville, Ohio and Lincoln, Alabama
3. Chevrolet Malibu — Kansas City, Kansas
4. Ford Explorer — Chicago, Illinois
5. Honda Odyssey — Lincoln, Alabama
6. Toyota Sienna — Princeton, Indiana
7. Jeep Wrangler — Toledo, Ohio
8. Chevrolet Traverse — Lansing, Michigan
9. Toyota Tundra — San Antonio, Texas
10. GMC Acadia – Lansing, Michigan

Mike’s Thoughts:  I’m not sure I’m following the trail of bread crumbs on this story, but I suspect if I go home and watch the 1986 Michael Keaton movie “Gung Ho” everything will make sense.

 NEWSER) – Goldman Sachs is planning a major hiring spree in Singapore as it prepares to slash its headcount in the US to cut costs. The financial giant is so worried about criticism over the job shift that it has taken the unusual step of notifying lawmakers about its hiring plans, insiders tell Fox News. The 1,000 jobs the company is adding in Singapore will mostly be the same kind of high-paying investment banking positions that Goldman plans to cut in the US, a source says.

Goldman’s shifting of jobs overseas is likely to spell bad news for more than just Wall Street bankers, according to Daniel Indiviglio at the Atlantic. It looks like the firm is both aiming to escape new financial regulation and betting against the US economy, he writes—and Goldman has a history of being ahead of economic trends. “If Goldman is right, then the US is going to be in for a rough time over the next decade or so. And other Wall Street firms moving more workers overseas will make matters worse,” he concludes.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Honestly, I’m sort of relieved.  Now the next time a bunch of greedy investment bankers train-wreck the global economy they can look to the taxpayers of Singapore to bail their asses out. 

(NEWSER) – The latest TSA horror story: A 95-year-old, wheelchair-bound, 105-pound woman—who has end-stage leukemia, to boot—was forced to remove her adult diaper during a pat-down at a Florida airport last weekend. Wheelchairs are always swabbed for explosives and their passengers patted down, a TSA spokesperson says. Jean Weber’s mother was originally taken into a glass-partitioned area to be patted down, but was then moved to another room for more privacy and a more extensive search, Weber tells the Northwest Florida Daily News.

Security personnel eventually told Weber, who was sitting outside the private room, to remove her mother’s soiled Depends diaper because it was impeding the search. Weber did so, but did not have another clean diaper with which to replace it. The whole ordeal took 45 minutes, and Weber has since filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security. A TSA spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the specific incident, but said procedures are the same for everyone; a Homeland Security rep also told Weber the agents followed procedure.

BUT WAIT, IT GETS BETTER!

NEWSER) – “We were right” is the TSA’s response to outraged criticism that airport guards made a 95-year-old leukemia patient remove her adult diaper for a security screening, reports the New York Daily News. “We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure,” said the TSA in a statement yesterday. “If this is your procedure—which I do understand—I also feel that your procedure needs to be changed,” said Jean Weber, the woman’s daughter. “It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  I understand that airline security has gotten fairly complex over the last 10 years, but can someone PLEASE explain to me where in the transaction we lost all ability to reason??

The woman is 95 years old.  She weighs a hunred pounds.  She’s dying.

In what bizarre parallel universe is she a THREAT to airline safety?

TSA= FAIL!

(NEWSER) – Desperate to slack off at work, but don’t know how to make sure your boss doesn’t notice you’re on Facebook? Diesel—yes, the jeans company—has the solution. Its new Be Stupid at Work app makes Facebook appear to be an Excel spreadsheet, which means you can update your status all you want without the guy who shares your cubicle noticing. Watch it in action at Adweek.

Mike’s Thoughts:  I guess we all had to see this one coming, right?

(NEWSER) – The yoga fan caught curled up in the tank of a Portapotty to peep on womenattending a Colorado festival has admitted his crime, saying he was “blessed” to be able to spot so many “goddesses.” Luke Chrisco, 30, admits he was “at the yoga festival, doing a little bit of yoga, and I’m just seeing all these goddesses. It seems crazy, but I felt like I was being blessed by their energy.” Chrisco emphasized that he’s a voyeur, not a rapist, and said the human waste in his smelly hideout didn’t bother him. “There’s bacteria in there, but to me, it’s just normal—we all have bodily fluids,” he told Fox31 in Denver. “Where there is muck, there is gold.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  Apparently several different porta-potty companies are currently interviewing Mr. Chrisco for positions in their “Specialized” Cleaning Divisions.  Hopefully he cleans up good for interviews.