If a new study carried out by the Journal of Psychological Science is to be believed, then logging into Facebook and Twitter might be just about the most addictive thing in the world.

Researchers provided 205 people between the ages of 18 and 85 in the city of Wurtzburg, Germany, with BlackBerry phones and monitored them for seven straight days. Seven times a day, all of the researchers were asked to send a message asking what sort of urges they’d experienced in the previous thirty minutes – and how they reacted to them.

The results showed that while people do like a beer, a crafty cigarette or the odd sexual encounter, it’s the draw of Twitter and Facebook that they find truly irresistible. Especially as their reserves of willpower start to dwindle throughout the day.

However, Head Researcher Wilhelm Hofmann does have a theory that doesn’t equate to 140 character messages being internet heroin. Instead, he’s fairly sure that this is down to the fact that in a workplace environment, it’s difficult to get a gin and tonic, ten cigarettes and a quick fumble with someone attractive. But it is incredibly easy to log into Twitter when some kind researcher has given you a free smartphone packed to the gills with social media apps.

But that simple explanation hasn’t stopped some people from claiming that social media might be just as harmful as other addictions such as gambling and smoking:

“There’s also the argument to be made that social media is just as harmful, forcing someone to recede from the world and into a safe little bubble of status updates and tweets, where human beings aren’t troublesome animals but easily compartmentalized profiles.

But it’s a little easier to make the harm argument with cigarettes.”

David Thier – Forbes Magazine

If the research findings aren’t influenced by giving people easy access to the web, and social media is incredibly addictive, then why can’t Google+ get users to stick around?

Feed your social addictions:
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The 21 defendants, including Google, Facebook, Orkut, Youtube, Blogspot, Yahoo and Microsoft have all been dragged over hot coals after a private case accused them of offending the religious sensibilities Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The content in question is a series of images of an “obscene” nature that have appeared in adverts across the various sites – images that haven’t been deemed offensive in any other country Google et al operate in.

While all the companies involved have agreed to take down the objectionable content, the courts in India are still not satisfied, ordering them to provide written proof of the steps taken to stop offensive content appearing in the subcontinent.

Google have declined to comment on what they’ve removed and how, although they have explained that their review team have taken content down from local searches, Youtube and Blogger. Facebook have declined to comment at all, while Microsoft have taken a more belligerent stance:

“Microsoft has filed an application for rejection of the suit on the grounds that it disclosed no cause of action against Microsoft. The matter is sub judice and no further comments can be given.”

Microsoft Statment

Twitter, despite not being named in the suit, have unveiled a new filter that will allow governments to filter out specific types of content in country-specific searches. Unsurprisingly, they’ve been called out for supporting censorship – which they’re used to after bottling out of the SOPA protest. And we assume that Google and Facebook are calling them splitters behind their backs.

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He might be the first Pontiff to embrace social media, but it looks like Pope Benedict XVI hasn’t yet decided whether using Twitter is a vice or a virtue.

The leader of the Catholic Church took out time from checking the trending topics on the official Vatican Twitter account to provide a statement for the “World Day of Communications”. And his focus, like that of protesters, commentators and governments the world over was on social networking and search engines.

The Pope started by comparing Twitter to the Bible, which seems like a compliment from a man who’s job description is “God’s representative on Earth”:

“In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated.”

Pope Benedict, Twitter fan?

But unfortunately for the immortal souls of Twitter users everywhere, The Pope isn’t too happy with us all spending time tweeting, even if he recognises our penchant for ‘profound thoughts’ on subjects such as last night’s tea, the inexplicable popularity of One Direction and what we’ve just posted on our blog.

In fact, he’d much rather we stopped Tweeting quite so much and all just shut up:

“Joy, anxiety and suffering can all be communicated in silence — indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression.”

The Pope, not a Twitter fan?

But, The Pope wouldn’t be The Pope if he didn’t take time out from wondering just what he thought about Twitter to explain that our penchant for using Google is a sign that we all need a bit more religion in our lives:

“Search engines… have become the starting point of communication for many people who are seeking advice, ideas, information and answers. Ultimately, this constant flow of questions demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import, that can offer meaning and hope to their lives.”

Pope Benedict, again.

So, there you have it. Twitter can be profound, but you should use it less, and your use of Google is a sign that you need some meaning in your life. Either meaning or, if last year’s Google Zeitgeist is to be believed, scampi. One of the two.

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Working together, engineers from the world’s top social networks (and Myspace) have come up with a countermeasure that will negate the dark forces used by Google to infect their search results with social data.

The “Don’t Be Evil” browser add-on ensures that Google’s algorithm doesn’t give undue importance to Google+ results, which have started to outrank far more regularly updated social profiles from Twitter and Facebook, and can be downloaded from focusontheuser.org. The site gives this example to show how it redresses the balance and swings Google’s results away from Evil and back towards Relevant:

When you search for “cooking” today, Google decides that renowned chef Jamie Oliver is a relevant social result. That makes sense. But rather than linking to Jamie’s Twitter profile, which is updated daily, Google links to his Google+ profile, which was last updated nearly two months ago. Is Google’s relevance algorithm simply misguided?

Our “bookmarklet”… looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+.

The plugin adds in social results from Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, Flickr and more to ensure that when you decide to make a social search, you see the results that belong there. Not the results Google need you to click to ensure that Google+ looks more active than it is.

And if you don’t want to use social search at all, then there’s always the toggle button on every Google search page. We recommend you make friends with it. We already have.

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While Facebook and Twitter view anyone who logs into their website to use the social networks specifically as a user, Google have decided that anyone who takes an action while logged into a Google account is a Google+ user.

So while you need to read or send a Tweet to be a Twitter user, you only need to check your Gmail account or edit a Google Doc to become a fully-fledged Google+ convert. Despite the fact you’ve not logged into Plus, or used any social networking tools.

This all stems from Google’s recent decision to integrate Google+ into search results, along with just about anything else they can think of. And it’s a clear signal that very soon it won’t matter whether you want to use Plus or not. If you want to use any Google products, you’ll have to +1 yourself.

Unless of course you want to use Google Picnik or Skymap, because Google are dropping them in the latest set of “spring cleaning” product clearouts.

Google have announced that the following products will all be cut by the end of April 2012, leading to widespread shrugs:

• Picnik – A photo editing service (being integrated with Google Picasa)
• Google Message Community -A backup service for Microsoft emails
• Urchin – The analytics software cannibalised for Google Analytics
• Sky Map – A map of the night sky, which is being made open source as all Google support will be dropped

Google have claimed that these services will be dropped so that more effort can be placed on improving core Google apps and services. And in making sure that you can’t access the internet without automatically becoming a Google+ user…

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To help you get through the day, we’ll let you know who’s protesting and what alternatives are available. But while you’re looking around for a replacement Reddit, you might want to see if there’s a way you can protest against SOPA. If you’re an American, write to your elected officials, and if you’re not, pester some Americans on Facebook until they write in.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia have blacked out the English language version of their website, and are directing users towards social networks where they can spread the word about the evils of SOPA. Cleverly, this blackout is all done by Javascript, meaning that search engines can still access Wiki’s content, meaning that the site’s search engine rankings aren’t at risk.

Of course, using Javascript does mean that there are a few ways through the blackout. If you know who to ask…

Alternatives: Asking for information about workarounds on Twitter, going to a library, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online

Reddit

The social news site Reddit is completely blacking out, leaving millions of users with nowhere to post badly drawn cartoons, pictures of their cats or badly-spelt screeds about the evils of various computer game designers. Unfortunately for morale in the FirstFound office, this means that half of the tech department will now spend their lunch hour drawing badly drawn cartoons on paper and sticking them to their monitors, in an attempt to ride out the worst of their Reddit addictions.

Alternatives: Going outside, having a conversation, finding a real hobby. Or, for the completely desperate, Digg.

Craigslist

Free listings site Craigslist will also be going dark today, making it far more difficult for people to get rid of broken furniture or post free lonely hearts ads. Fortunately, they’re only censoring US pages, so if you’re in the UK you can still find that slightly damp couch you’ve always dreamed of.

STOP PIPA (Senate 968) & SOPA (HR 3261)
Imagine a world without craigslist, Wikipedia, Google, [your favorite sites here]…
News Corp, RIAA, MPAA, Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA & others want to make that world your reality.
80 Members of Congress are in their sway, 30 against, the rest undecided or undeclared.
★ ★ ★ Please take a minute to tell your Members of Congress you OPPOSE PIPA & SOPA ★ ★ ★

PS:  corporate paymasters, KEEP THOSE CLAMMY HANDS OFF THE INTERNET!

Message on Craigslist’s US Pages

Alternatives: Gumtree, Free newspapers like Loot.

WordPress

Well, WordPress’ own site is down. So anyone looking to set up a WordPress blog today is out of luck. Luckily for you though, any sites using WordPress will still work, so you can enjoy the fun of the FirstFound Blog all day.

Alternatives: Blogger

Google (Sort of)

Don’t panic. Really. Don’t panic. We’re not living in a post-Google world yet. Google are taking steps against SOPA and PIPA by censoring their logo and posting a link for Americans to complain about the acts. You’ll still be able to search for things – just remember that there’s no point clicking on Wikipedia links.

Alternatives: Google still works, but if you want to pretend it’s completely disappeared, you could try Bing.

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CEOP has released a statement claiming that Twitter should do more to safeguard young members, and that the site reports nowhere near as many illegal incidents to CEOP as Facebook or Bebo. They’ve also suggested that Twitter needs to start moderating tweets and feeds, and introduce a more robust reporting function:

“The centre does receive reports relating to material on Twitter but it’s important to say these amount to a very small proportion of 1,000 reports a month relating to a wide range of online environments.

Twitter have removed illegal images and other content on our request. We believe more can be done around the moderation of Twitter feeds and the strengthening of Twitter’s reporting mechanisms.”

Peter Davies, Head of CEOP

With Facebook having already introduced a panic button and suicide hotline, and Google+ abolishing privacy by dropping everything possible into the SERPs, Twitter remains the last holdout when it comes to social media without safeguards.

But we’re fairly sure that the reason that Twitter reports less incidents to CEOP isn’t an issue with the site’s reporting features. It’s an issue with the site’s demographics.

While Bebo is aimed specifically at teenagers (40% aged under 17), and Facebook features profiles from unborn foetuses, Twitter’s users have typically been slightly more mature, with the majority of users fitting in the 25-55 brackets.

So while we recognise the need to keep kids safe online, we would like to suggest that the reason that Twitter reports less incidents to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is a lack of Children on the site…

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Somewhat unsurprisingly, it took the internet about an eighth of a second to decide that this was a stupid idea, that Google weren’t doing this to improve search, and that we all liked it just fine when we only had ten search engine results on a page, flanked by a few pay per click ads.

To save you from wasting today trawling through hundreds of rants and screeds, here’s a summary of why the net isn’t happy about Google’s latest masterplan:

Complaint One: How can you have social search without Twitter?

Put forward by: Twitter

Last year, Twitter decided that they didn’t want Google to use their data anymore, and withdrew from an agreement over live search – which up until then had displayed tweets in real time. So it’s no surprise that Google have left them out in the cold when it comes to “Search, plus Your World“.

This hasn’t stopped Twitter from blasting Google’s move in a statement which demonstrates why any social search needs to include the micro-blogging service:

“As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone.”

Twitter Statement

Compelling argument?:  Yes. As we mentioned yesterday, a social search function that doesn’t include the largest social networks is at best hopeless, at worst a concerted effort to promote Google+. Speaking of which…

Complaint Two: This is just a concerted effort to promote Google+

Put forward by: SearchEngineLand, thousands of SEOs and social media experts

What do you do when you’ve spent years working on a social network to challenge Facebook, and it’s pulling in about as much traffic as the terminally declining MySpace?

According to skeptics (including one or two in the FirstFound office), you integrate your social network into your main search product, giving undue prominence to social pages and making users think that said network is far more important than its userbase would suggest.

Compelling argument?: Our Google+ business page, which has a handful of users, outranks our Facebook and Twitter pages which have been going for years and have decent followings. So yeah, we think there’s something in this. Which could be a problem, because there’s a bunch of commissions waiting to hammer Google on just this issue.

Complaint Three:  This is yet another example of Google’s penchant for privacy and anti-trust violations

Put forward by: A number of privacy and anti-trust groups

Google’s unfairly promoting Google+, Google’s sharing data that users might want to keep private, Google is trying to set up a monopoly whereby you never need to leave Google for any reason whatsoever. It’s all the usual arguments, from all the usual suspects.

But this time, it does look like Google are guilty as charged. Your Google+ pictures will pop up in Google searches, and why would you need to visit Facebook when you can just use Google to search for information on your friends, thanks to the magic of Google+?

Compelling argument?: We’ve got to admit. “Don’t be evil” seems like a fanciful dream at this point.

But what do you think? Have you popped over to Google.com to try out social search? Do you think it’s pointless? Are Google biased? Is this a ridiculous attempt to monopolise the web?

Or is it a storm in a teacup that will all blow over soon?

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In their infinite wisdom, Google’s search team have decided that when you search Google.com, you really want to search Google+. So as of today, they’re beginning to drop your social data into your search results.

They’re calling this new development “Search, plus Your World”, and it was announced on the Official Google Blog yesterday:

“Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.

“We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.”

Official Google Blog

What Does This Mean?

Simply put, it means that Google will now look at your Google+ network as well as the Google search database when you do a search. And, when Google deem appropriate, photos, status updates and profiles from Google+ will be dropped into your search results.

For example, if you search for “Christmas Party Venues”, you’ll see a few organic Google results, a map with local venues, status updates from your friends lamenting the fact that they drank too much at their own Christmas Party, photographs of you, drunk at your Christmas Party, and some AdWords results. Which is a far cry from the days of ten, trustworthy organic listings and a spattering of ads.

When Will I See Social Results?

For now, only people who are logged into their Google account and are searching from Google.com will see social results. And, in the short term at least, they’ll be told that their search might incorporate social results (see the image above).

So if you’re searching from Google.co.uk, or you’re logged out of your Google account, you’ll just see relevant web results, as chosen by the Google search algorithm. Which is nice.

Is This Really a Good Idea?

Time will tell, but initial comments aren’t positive. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, people aren’t emotionally invested in their Google+ networks, and aren’t particularly interested in seeing a smattering of photographs from their circles.

And with Plus still being far smaller than Facebook, a few dissenting voices are claiming that there’s not really enough social data available to make this move worthwhile, and that the majority of Google users don’t have Plus accounts and as such won’t be affected.

Google do want to involve Facebook in the future, but the social networking giant is currently partnered up with Google’s search rivals Bing. So don’t expect to see a link any time soon.

For now, this integrated social search is optional – so if you’re happy with Google’s usual results, just don’t sign into your Google account.

But what do you think? Is this the future of search, a gimmick, or a ploy to increase Google+’s userbase? Let us know in the comments section.

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Image credit – SearchEngineLand.com

The bill could give copyright holders a number of powers that they’ll be able to use without trial if a website is thought to be in breach of copyright laws, and a fair few major online companies aren’t happy.

SOPA could let companies such as record labels and movie studios force websites to remove content, suspend financial transactions and even have power over what the search engines choose to rank. So Wikipedia, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, eBay, Yahoo, PayPal, Mozilla and more are all planning on taking action.

This online coalition could unleash what they’re calling a “nuclear option”, in which all of the companies involved turn off their website for 24 hours, simultaneously, in order to protest the act and show what would happen to online business if they decided to take their ball and go home.

This sort of move could upset consumers and provoke a backlash from users, but a spokesperson explained that Google, et al, feel that drastic action is necessary:

“This type of thing doesn’t happen because companies typically don’t want to put their users in that position. The difference is that these bills so fundamentally change the way the Internet works. People need to understand the effect this special-interest legislation will have on those who use the Internet.”

Markham Erickson – Director, NetCoalition

It’s a safe bet that 24 hours without Google, Wikipedia and eBay will force internet users around the world to stop messing around and do some work stand up, take notice and protest SOPA, especially when they realise that this is an attempt by the US government to allow American businesses to take action against websites all over the world without any sort of judicial process.

And it might just do some damage to the online economy too…

We think the thought of a world without Google might make the people behind SOPA reconsider, but we’d like to know what you think. If you support or oppose a blackout, let us know in the comments section, or on Google+ or Facebook.

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