Microsoft posts $250K reward for Rustock botnet herders

First bounty since 2009, when Microsoft offered cash for Conficker’s makers

Computerworld – Microsoft upped the ante on Monday in its months-long battle against the Rustock botnet by posting a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the hackers who controlled the malware.

 

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It was the first time Microsoft used its malware bounty program since February 2009, when it offered the same amount for the people responsible for the fast-spreading Conficker worm.

Microsoft announced the reward early Monday in a blog written by Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney with the company’s digital crimes unit. Microsoft also posted a reward document (PDF) that included an email address for tipsters.

“We decided to augment our civil discovery efforts to identify those responsible for controlling the notorious Rustock botnet by issuing a monetary reward in the amount of $250,000 for new information that results in the identification, arrest and criminal conviction of such individual(s),” Boscovich wrote.

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Microsoft kicked off a takedown of Rustock in March, when its lawyers, including Boscovich, and U.S. marshals seized the botnet’s U.S.-based command-and-control servers.

Since then, the number of Windows PCs infected with the malware has dropped worldwide from 1.6 million to just over 700,000 as of mid-June, Boscovich reported earlier this month.

Although Microsoft published legal notifications in Russian newspapers last month — a legal formality designed to give potential defendants an opportunity to respond to charges — it has not identified the “John Does” named in a U.S. federal lawsuit.

In an interview two weeks ago, Boscovich said that Microsoft believes the Rustock operators reside in either St. Petersburg or Moscow.

But Microsoft’s hacker bounty program has had mixed results.

Although Microsoft launched the reward program in November 2003 with a $5 million fund, and has offered $250,000 bounties five times in the past, it has paid out only once, in 2005.

In that instance, two people split a reward for identifying a German teenager as the maker of Sasser.

Sven Jaschan, who was arrested in 2004, confessed to crafting the worm during his trial the following year. Jaschan was eventually sentenced to 21 months of probation.

Before Monday, Microsoft had also posted rewards for the makers of the Blaster, Sobig, MyDoom and Conficker worms. Those rewards have gone unclaimed, however.

Two weeks ago, Boscovich refused to guarantee that Microsoft would be able to name those responsible for Rustock, but he said he liked the company’s chances. “I believe there’s a strong likelihood [that we’ll identify someone], but it’s not a guarantee,” he said.

While Boscovich didn’t promise that the new reward would lead authorities to the Rustock botnet herders, he said Microsoft wouldn’t give up.

“We will continue to follow this case wherever it leads us and remain committed to working with our partners around the world to help people regain control of their Rustock-infected computers,” Boscovich said.

As Twitter turns 5, it delivers 350B ‘tweets’ per day

IDG News Service – Twitter launched its microblogging service five years ago today and the company is marking the occasion by doling out some impressive usage stats.

About 600,000 people sign up for a Twitter account every day, but it took Twitter almost a year-and-a-half to attract its first 600,000 members, the company said on Friday in its official Twitter feed.

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In its first day, users sent 224 “tweets,” which is the number the current user base sends every tenth of a second.

Meanwhile, the company’s engineering team disclosed on its own feed that users send 350 billion “tweets” every day.

Last week, Twitter said that it had recently topped 1 million registered applications for its platform built by 750,000 external developers.

The usage metrics released by Twitter contrast with the ones that Google CEO Larry Page provided about the company’s new Google+ social networking site on Thursday.

Speaking during his company’s second-quarter earnings call, Page said that, although Google+ is still in a limited trial phase and available only by invitation, about 10 million people have signed up for the site. They share about 1 billion items every day.

“Delivering 350 billion Tweets a day is a terribly fun engineering challenge. But, it doesn’t capture how passionate our users are,” the post by Twitter’s Engineering team reads.

Looking back, Twitter has improved tremendously its site stability, availability and performance, which early on were notoriously uneven, making the service vulnerable to frequent outages, slowdowns and glitches.

Today, Twitter’s “Fail Whale” graphic, which became a mainstream symbol for things gone wrong, is seen much less often, and the company has moved on to other challenges, such as building a sustainable revenue stream based primarily on online ads.

Twitter is also facing discontent from some longtime developers who created applications that provided complementary functionality for the site, only to find that in the past 18 months or so, Twitter has decided to build those features natively into its service.

What’s not in doubt is that it is the undisputed, preferred microblogging tool of public figures, companies and private individuals for posting short text messages online and sharing links.

It has even played an important and controversial part in political uprisings, in particular in countries with totalitarian regimes where pro-democracy activists have found Twitter to be an effective yet stealthy communications tool.

Although it caters to the consumer market, its microblogging concept has been adapted by a growing number of enterprise software vendors who now provide Twitter-like services for workplace collaboration and communication.

As it celebrates its fifth birthday, Twitter also finds itself without several of its most public representatives, including co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, who have recently moved on to other ventures.

Google: Sun offered to license Java for $100M

IDG News Service – Sun Microsystems offered to license its Java technology to Google for $100 million, a Google attorney said Thursday, attempting to show that Oracle is out of touch as it seeks billions from Google for patent infringement.

 

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“There’s nothing in there but a guy who’s being paid $700 an hour who comes up with $6 billion. Come on,” Alsup said, after making Oracle tell the court how much its expert gets paid.

Steven Holtzman, an attorney for Oracle, told the judge Oracle has done enough to show that its patent claims support its request for so-called “entire market” damages.

“You can’t even tell me now which claims you’re going to assert at trial,” Alsup shot back, “and you want me to gamble that whatever you decide on is going to meet the entire market rule? That is crazy and you’re not going to get away with that.”

Alsup has been pressuring Oracle to reduce the claims it will pursue at trial. It started with 132 and narrowed it this month to 50. The judge has suggested it should be two or three to avoid overwhelming the jury.

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Oracle has “Google documents” which will show that it wilfully infringed Sun’s patents, Holtzman said, adding that he didn’t want to discuss them at a “public hearing.”

That also drew Alsup’s wrath.

“You lawyers are not going to handcuff the public from knowing what goes on in this federal district court,” he snapped. “This is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation. ”

“If Google has a memo in their files saying ‘we’re about to willingly infringe,’ there’s no way I’m going to keep that secret from the public.”

Holtzman said Oracle has an e-mail from a Google executive to Rubin, the head of Google’s Android division, which he said shows that Google recognized it needed a license for Java.

He read part of the email in court: “What we’ve actually been asked to do by Larry and Sergey is to investigate what technology alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome,” the Google executive wrote, referring to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. “We’ve been over a hundred of these and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java.”

“That’s a pretty good document for you,” Alsup said. “That ought to be big for you at trial.”

Later he asked Google’s attorney: “What do you make of this memo … to Andy Rubin? He’ll be on the hot seat at trial and have to explain this email…. I agree with you it doesn’t [mention] patents, but don’t you think a good lawyer will convince a jury that it [refers to] a license for patents? How do you get around that?”

“You’re going to be on the losing end of this document with Andy Rubin on the stand. You think about that,” Alsup continued. “And I want to say this: Wilful infringement is final. There are profound implications of a permanent injunction. I’m not saying there is wilful infringement, but that is a serious factor when you’re considering an injunction.”

Hands on: Mac OS X, iOS morph into Lion

Apple goes all in on multi-touch gestures in its new OS

Computerworld – Apple has finally unleashed OS X 10.7 Lion, the revamped operating system for the company’s desktops and laptops. Lion is the latest in a string of major OS revisions released over the past 11 years, and this newest cat borrows some tricks from Apple’s mobile lineup.

 

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In fact, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs first unveiled Lion last fall, he made the point that it would incorporate some of the lessons learned from iOS, including automatic document saves, saved states for apps, and systemwide gestures that until now have been more common to the iPad and iPhone.

[ Visual tour: Mac OS X ‘Lion’ up close ]

In some ways, the rollout of multi-touch gestures may be the biggest change Lion offers when it comes to how you interact with the new OS, but it’s other features, like Auto Save, Versions and Resume, that many users will appreciate most.

The last major desktop operating system from Apple was Snow Leopard, which arrived in August 2009. When that OS was introduced, the iPhone 3GS was all the rage and the iPad was still under wraps. But Apple was already figuring out how it could use swipes, pinches and taps in what would become Lion.

Was the company’s decision to change in a fundamental way how Mac users interact with their computers a desperate bid to emulate the success of iOS or a stroke of brilliance? I think it was both — without the desperation.
Getting started

Lion, which costs $29.99 and is available only through the Mac App Store, requires users to have Snow Leopard in place first. And it has beefed up system requirements compared to Snow Leopard. Chief among them, Apple’s new OS requires an Intel 64-bit processor, so anyone with a Mac that doesn’t have at least a Core 2 Duo chip can forget about upgrading.

Lion also wants at least 2GB of memory to run — 4GB is better — and at least 4GB of free space on your hard drive for the file download. Yes, download. Rather than dashing to the store for a Lion installation DVD, you fire up the Mac App Store, buy the OS online, then download and install it. (No doubt, MacBook Air users will be delighted, since the Air doesn’t have a built-in optical drive.)

The bad news: Anyone on a slow connection is going to be waiting a while for the OS to download, although Apple has offered the Wi-Fi in its stores to help out people who don’t have broadband. The good news: If your household has more than one Mac, you can hop on that other Mac, use your App Store login there, click on the “Purchased” tab and install Lion using the same Apple ID. The bonus? You don’t have to enter a ridiculously long Genuine Protection ID like Windows users do.

For companies worried about updating a lot of Macs in the workplace, Apple has a solution: Enterprise customers with volume licenses can download the Lion installer, which places itself in the Applications folder, and then copy that installer to the machines being upgraded. Apple sent out the info in a PDF explaining what enterprise and education users should do. It also will offer a copy of Lion on a flash drive for $69.99 sometime next month.

Note: If you don’t save a copy of the installer before you update to Lion, you won’t be able to save it later. The installer deletes itself after the installation is complete; if you need it later, you’ll have to download it again from the App Store.

A couple more caveats: Lion no longer allows you to run software written for PowerPC, as the Rosetta framework that allowed older apps to run is now gone. And if your machine doesn’t have a glass multi-touch trackpad, you’ll be missing out on the new gestures built into Lion. (Earlier versions of the trackpad without the glass coating don’t support more than two-finger scrolls.)

Windows Phone 7 Mango’s social networking beats iPhone and Android

When Windows Phone 7 Mango hits, it will have an unexpected treat: the best built-in app for working with social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. A recently released video shows some very nifty features that surpass what’s built into Android and the iOS.

 

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The core of Mango’s social networking features will be found in the People hub, which will include updates fed from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. So rather than heading to three individual apps, you’ll be able to check them all from one location.

If you’ve got plenty of contacts, there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll be inundated with updates. So Mango will let you filter, and show updates from any one of those individual social networking sites, rather than all of them.

In addition, the Live tile on the Windows Phone 7 home screen will display any new activity on those social networks, such as whether someone has written on your Facebook wall, or mentioned you on Twitter. From this same location, you’ll also be able to perform a variety of social networking tasks, such as replying to messages, retweeting messages, and so on.

For details, and to see it in action, check out the video from Microsoft, below.

It would be nice to be able to filter not just by service, but by users, searchwords, and so on. Still, what’s built into Mango appears to be a very good app.

This is exactly the kind of thing that can help Microsoft sell Windows Phone 7 devices. Microsoft’s ad campaign for the devices, while clever, takes the exactly wrong tack: It positions Windows Phone 7 as the operating system for those who want to spend less time with their smartphones. Instead, Microsoft should focus on all the nifty things Windows Phone 7 can do — and its social networking features are exactly the kind of thing it should be highlighting.

Microsoft: No botnet is indestructible

‘Nothing is impossible,’ says Microsoft attorney, countering claims that the TDL-4 botnet is untouchable

Computerworld – No botnet is invulnerable, a Microsoft lawyer involved with the Rustock takedown said, countering claims that another botnet was “practically indestructible.”


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“If someone says that a botnet is indestructible, they are not being very creative legally or technically,” Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney with Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit said Tuesday. “Nothing is impossible. That’s a pretty high standard.”

Instrumental in the effort that led to the seizure of Rustock’s command-and-control servers in March, Boscovich said Microsoft’s experience in takedowns of Waledac in early 2010 and of Coreflood and Rustock this year show that any botnet can be exterminated.

“To say that it can’t be done underestimates the ability of the good guys,” Boscovich said. “People seem to be saying that the bad guys are smarter, better. But the answer to that is ‘no.'”

Last week, Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs called the TDL-4 botnet “the most sophisticated threat today,” and argued that it was “practically indestructible” because of its advanced encryption and use of a public peer-to-peer (P2P) network as a fallback communications channel for the instructions issued to infected PCs.

Takedowns like those of Waledac, Rustock and Coreflood have relied on seizing the primary command-and-control (C&C) servers, then somehow blocking the botnet’s compromised computers from accessing alternate C&C domains for new instructions.

By doing both, takedowns decapitate the botnet, let researchers or authorities hijack the botnet, and prevent hackers from updating their malware or giving the bots new orders. That also gives users time to use antivirus software to clean their systems of the infections.

Kaspersky senior malware researcher Roel Schouwenberg said that TDL-4’s use of P2P made the botnet an extremely tough nut.

“Any attempt to take down the regular C&Cs can effectively be circumvented by the TDL group by updating the list of C&Cs through the P2P network,” Schouwenberg said last week. “The fact that TDL has two separate channels for communications will make any takedown very, very tough.”

Boscovich disagreed, noting that the February 2010 takedown of Waledac successfully suppressed that botnet’s P2P command channel.

“[Waledac] was a proof of concept that showed we are able to poison the peer-to-peer table of a botnet,” Boscovich said.

“Each takedown is different, each one is complicated in its own way,” said Boscovich. “Each one is going to be different, but that doesn’t mean that there cannot be a way to do this with any botnet.”

Alex Lanstein, a senior engineer with FireEye who worked with Microsoft on the Rustock takedown, said that the relationships Microsoft has built with others in the security field, with Internet service providers, and with government legal agencies like the U.S. Department of Justice and law enforcement were the most important factors in its ability to take down botnets, any botnets.

“It’s the trust relationships Microsoft has created” that have led to successful takedowns, said Lanstein. “And I think [the technique] speaks to any malware infrastructure where some kind of data feed exists. It really, really works.”

Those who disagree with Boscovich and Lanstein include not only Kaspersky’s Schouwenberg, but also Joe Stewart, director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks and an internationally known botnet expert.

“I wouldn’t say it’s perfectly indestructible, but it is pretty much indestructible,” Stewart said in an interview last week about TDL-4. “It does a very good job of maintaining itself.”

But SecureWorks also acknowledged Microsoft’s takedown chops, saying that its own statistics show that Rustock attacks have dropped tenfold since March.

“Since mid-March 2011, Dell SecureWorks’ CTU [Counter Threat Unit] research team has seen a significant decline in the number of attempted Rustock attacks, and we do attribute it to the comprehensive efforts of Microsoft,” a SecureWorks spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“With the Rustock takedown, Microsoft has built the framework for others to do the same,” Lanstein said. “This is definitely not the last botnet we’re going to go after.”

He declined to name the next likely target, saying that doing so would tip Microsoft and FireEye’s hand.

Microsoft posts $250K reward for Rustock botnet herders

First bounty since 2009, when Microsoft offered cash for Conficker’s makers

Computerworld – Microsoft upped the ante on Monday in its months-long battle against the Rustock botnet by posting a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the hackers who controlled the malware.

 

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It was the first time Microsoft used its malware bounty program since February 2009, when it offered the same amount for the people responsible for the fast-spreading Conficker worm.

Microsoft announced the reward early Monday in a blog written by Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney with the company’s digital crimes unit. Microsoft also posted a reward document (PDF) that included an email address for tipsters.

“We decided to augment our civil discovery efforts to identify those responsible for controlling the notorious Rustock botnet by issuing a monetary reward in the amount of $250,000 for new information that results in the identification, arrest and criminal conviction of such individual(s),” Boscovich wrote.
Cybercrime Watch

Microsoft kicked off a takedown of Rustock in March, when its lawyers, including Boscovich, and U.S. marshals seized the botnet’s U.S.-based command-and-control servers.

Since then, the number of Windows PCs infected with the malware has dropped worldwide from 1.6 million to just over 700,000 as of mid-June, Boscovich reported earlier this month.

Although Microsoft published legal notifications in Russian newspapers last month — a legal formality designed to give potential defendants an opportunity to respond to charges — it has not identified the “John Does” named in a U.S. federal lawsuit.

In an interview two weeks ago, Boscovich said that Microsoft believes the Rustock operators reside in either St. Petersburg or Moscow.

But Microsoft’s hacker bounty program has had mixed results.

Although Microsoft launched the reward program in November 2003 with a $5 million fund, and has offered $250,000 bounties five times in the past, it has paid out only once, in 2005.

In that instance, two people split a reward for identifying a German teenager as the maker of Sasser.

Sven Jaschan, who was arrested in 2004, confessed to crafting the worm during his trial the following year. Jaschan was eventually sentenced to 21 months of probation.

Before Monday, Microsoft had also posted rewards for the makers of the Blaster, Sobig, MyDoom and Conficker worms. Those rewards have gone unclaimed, however.

Two weeks ago, Boscovich refused to guarantee that Microsoft would be able to name those responsible for Rustock, but he said he liked the company’s chances. “I believe there’s a strong likelihood [that we’ll identify someone], but it’s not a guarantee,” he said.

While Boscovich didn’t promise that the new reward would lead authorities to the Rustock botnet herders, he said Microsoft wouldn’t give up.

“We will continue to follow this case wherever it leads us and remain committed to working with our partners around the world to help people regain control of their Rustock-infected computers,” Boscovich said.

Should CIOs have a foreign policy?

With business operations entangled in the unpredictable and sometimes volatile global scene, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ (and the more detailed, the better).

 

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Computerworld – In July 2005, a series of suicide bomb attacks in London’s transit system killed 56 people and threw the city into a state of confusion. The U.S.-based CEO of a multinational financial company with offices in London posed what to him seemed a simple and essential question: “Are all our people OK?”

Getting an answer proved challenging. First, there was no single staff directory that covered the entire company and was kept up to date with ongoing staff changes. Nor was there a single directory of every person’s location and contact information. Second, even if it existed, such a directory would not have included contractors, who nonetheless fit within the CEO’s definition of “our people.”

Third, there was no central record of which London employees were on vacation, on leave or traveling that day, or — more worrisome — which employees from other locations might be visiting London. And finally, even for those employees who were known to be in London and for whom the company had addresses and phone numbers, it was hard to make contact.

“Transportation was disrupted, cellphone service was down, SMS was down, and it was very unclear for most of the day just what had happened,” recalls Andrew Marshall, director of Consultifi, which helps companies understand business risks.

The company’s HR and IT departments weren’t able to provide a timely answer to the CEO’s questions, he says. “It turned into a conversation that involved philosophy and technology as well as HR,” Marshall notes.

There are several lessons any IT leader can draw from this tale. First, there’s no such thing as a safe location: Disruptions can happen anywhere. Second, it’s important to have a plan that spells out what everyone’s responsibilities will be and includes all the information you’ll need. And finally, you need redundant communications systems, because “normal” methods of communication will likely fail — especially mobile, which is quickly overwhelmed by the spike in local demand that takes place during any crisis.
Concerns About Crisis Events Grow

It would be impossible to think about events of the past 12 months without having at least a few qualms over systems, data and employees, especially those outside the U.S., and the possible effect of local unrest, epidemics, earthquakes or other hazards. Indeed, in a 2010 survey of the 100 largest technology companies, 55% of executives reported worrying about “natural disasters, war, conflicts and terrorist attacks.” When the same executives were again asked that question in 2011, that percentage rose to 81%.

In this increasingly global and interconnected world, it’s easy to see why they’re concerned. Power outages, weather events, political unrest or even something as mundane as a ship dragging its anchor over a fiber-optic cable can disrupt your operations in unexpected ways. Data centers could go offline. Data stored in remote locations could become unavailable, as could your supply chain. You could lose contact with offshore service providers due to interrupted communications. Software-as-a-service applications could go offline. And although cloud-based infrastructure is mostly hosted in the U.S. now, that’s expected to change in the next few years, posing even greater risks.

Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet II

After using only Google’s new social network for a week — forsaking all others — here’s what I learned

Computerworld – On July 8, I went on the Google+ Diet, using Google’s new social network for all my online communication. As part of the diet, I stopped using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and several other services. I even stopped using e-mail.


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But the most addictive component of Google+ is something called Notifications. By clicking on the glaring red box that tells how many notifications you have waiting, you can see at a glance who Circled, or followed, you, who commented, +1’d (or “liked”) your posts or comments, and who reshared one of your posts.

Dangerously, Google+ becomes more addictive the more you use it. Simply understanding how Circles and following works enables you to constantly tweak and optimize what you see and who you interact with.

Gmail is an inseparable part of Google+

For my Google+ Diet, I’ve redirected all my e-mail communication through Google+. When I send e-mail, I simply post on Google+, and “address” the post to someone’s Google+ presence or to their e-mail address. One advantage of this is that the subsequent back-and-forth takes place on Google+’s wonderful commenting system.
Google Plus

* Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet
* Visual tour: 8 Google+ add-ons, extensions, and downloads
* With 10M users, Google+ is becoming a social competitor
* Google races to create business version of Google+
* Privacy, contact updates added to Google+
* Can Facebook and Google+ coexist?
* Google+ fervor may be making Facebook nervous
* Google to developers: Stay tuned for Google+ tools
* Google+ hit with spam bug
* Visual tour: 10 Google+ tips for beginners

Continuing coverage: Google+

When I receive e-mail I want to reply to, I paste it into Google+ and reply from there.

I also use e-mail still for non-communication purposes, such as reading my Google Alerts and Calendar notifications, and for submitting columns.

As you may have now suspected, avoiding e-mail is somewhat idiotic, for two reasons. First, the copying and pasting of incoming e-mail into Google+ isn’t easier than simply replying. And secondly, Gmail is, in fact, part of Google+. Gmail serves as its messaging system.

For most people wanting to try the Google+ Diet, my advice is to go ahead and use Gmail with it.

Google+ replaces Twitter easier than it replaces Facebook

The transition from Twitter to Google+ is way easier than from Facebook to Google+. The reason is that Google+ does almost everything Twitter does, but better. On Facebook, however the biggest “feature” is the user base. So if you’re having daily conversations with your old college buddies or high school BFFs, those just stop when you move to Google+. For now, at least.

While Google+ represents a minor potential — and eventual — challenge to Facebook’s long-term dominance, it represents an existential threat to Twitter. As I said in my column last week, Twitter is obsolete. It’s great at delivering a quick comment or link, but if you want to chat about it, Twitter is lousy.

Google+ can replace blogging

Big-name bloggers have already shut down their blogs and replaced them with their public posts on their Google+ profiles. Here’s mine. As you can see, it’s a blog!

Better still, it works like the best blogging platform, Tumblr. It’s easy for other users to re-blog or “share” your posts on their own “blog.” Commenting is great.

The only downsides are that you can’t customize it with a “theme” or custom design, and you can’t use advertising. But it’s only a matter of time before these features come to Google+, I would imagine.

Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet

After using only Google’s new social network for a week — forsaking all others — here’s what I learned

Computerworld – On July 8, I went on the Google+ Diet, using Google’s new social network for all my online communication. As part of the diet, I stopped using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and several other services. I even stopped using e-mail.

 

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As I explained in my column last week, the purpose of the experiment was to see if consolidating and streamlining all social activity into Google+ was possible and, if so, desirable. (You can follow my experiment here, even if you’re not a Google+ member.)

I was able to answer my two questions on day one of my Google+ Diet. Yes, it’s possible, and yes, it’s desirable.

More interestingly, however, I found out all kinds of surprising things about Google+ and about using Google+ as the one-and-only medium for online communication. Here’s what I learned:
Google Plus

* Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet
* Visual tour: 8 Google+ add-ons, extensions, and downloads
* With 10M users, Google+ is becoming a social competitor
* Google races to create business version of Google+
* Privacy, contact updates added to Google+
* Can Facebook and Google+ coexist?
* Google+ fervor may be making Facebook nervous
* Google to developers: Stay tuned for Google+ tools
* Google+ hit with spam bug
* Visual tour: 10 Google+ tips for beginners

Continuing coverage: Google+

A lot of people want to get on the Google+ Diet

I’ve been surprised by the number of people who want to get on the Google+ Diet. Social networking fatigue is an epidemic, and people are feeling overwhelmed by all the social networks and social media out there. Dozens of people have told me they’re going all-out on the Google+ Diet, and hundreds or thousands have apparently jumped into some version of it.

The most common approach: People are quitting Facebook and Twitter, and replacing them with Google+.

Google+ is the most ‘social’ social network

The social activity level on Google+ is off the charts. If you have 1,000 followers each on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, and ask a question, you will probably get 10 times the feedback on Google+.

It’s the feedback that’s motivating A-list bloggers like Digg founder Kevin Rose to shut down their blogs and redirect traffic to their Google+ profiles. I have found the same to be true.

To me, this is what social networking is all about. You share something, then people interact with you about that, giving you additional information, correcting your errors, expressing their opinions and sharing their own related stories. Google+ is by far the most social of all the social networks.

Google+ is highly addictive

I did not expect Google+ to be psychologically addictive. But I have felt the pull myself, and others have, too. It’s the only thing I’ve found online that draws you in like console video gaming.

I say this not to praise Google, but to predict that Google+ addiction may actually become a real problem in the future for some people.

There are two things about Google+ that cause this addiction. The first is the Stream, which is simply a running feed containing the posts of all the people you’re following on Google+. While Facebook’s News Feed is also a running stream of posts, it’s a censored stream. Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm is blocking the majority of posts from your friends from reaching your feed.