It really feels like a horse race now. Google has added new functionality that makes sharing links to Google+ faster and more targeted.

With the new third party widget, you can add a comment before posting to Google+ (just like Facebook) but you can also choose which circle of friends will see the post (better than Facebook).

This new functionality gave me a whole new outlook on Gooogle+ and their circle system. Before this, I only saw the circles as a way of categorizing the relationship. People I work with, family members, friends, people I’d like to work with.

Now, I see new possibilities. Movie Fans, TV Fans, Scrapbookers. Having said that, I still don’t like Google+’s search function. Is it me, or is there no way to search for people who have the same interests so I can put them in my interest circles?

Word of mouth is one of the best means of marketing a product, but sometimes the process needs a little help to get started. Help in the form of cold, hard cash. For a long time, the Pay-for-Posts business was considered only slightly less shady than buying watches from a guy who carries his stock in his coat.

A few years ago, I wrote a paid post for one of my blogs and Google promptly slapped me with a drop in my page rank (does anyone care about page rank anymore?) and placement in the search returns.

Now, paying for posts, Tweets, Facebook shoutouts or video mentions is not only acceptable, it’s good business.

Facebook has teamed up with ticket industry monopolist wannabe Ticketmaster to help event attendees learn where their friends or other people of interest may be sitting for an event. The interactive map using Facebook friends as the way to see who’s sitting where (of course, if you are using Ticketmaster you probably aren’t one of the cool kids who get the good seats through other channels) was introduced this week. Notice the emphasis placed on privacy concerns in the Ticketmaster video.

Admittedly, this is pretty nifty although I would likely never use it. I can, however, see where the right kind of person could find this a neat tool. As for its actual use? The article from Digital Trends sums it up pretty well.

This one falls into the category of “I can see some dotted line connections here, maybe but to draw broad conclusions like this is stupid” category.

According to a study by Columbia University’s (that’s right, the Ivy league school that is supposed to be a place for really smart people) National Center on Addiction and Drug Abuse, it’s more likely that kids who are active in social networking will use drugs. Gee, I am so glad someone finally put two and two together to get five.

Here’s a sample of the findings. The premise is that if teens have seen others drinking and using drugs in pictures on social networking outlets how likely are they to do it themselves or be involved with people that do.