Intial Version Of Business Profiles for Everyone in next few months.

Christian Oestlien in his Google+ post mentioned that Business Profiles will be open for every one in next Few Months

A few weeks ago we mentioned we would be doing a test of business profiles and asked people interested to apply. Believe it or not we actually had tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organizations apply to take part from all over the world. Many of you have reached out to me personally through Google+, e-mail, chat, and even other Googlers. Thank you. Your response has been humbling.

With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in business profiles, we've been thinking hard about how to handle this process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers.

In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself.

All of us on the Google+ effort are delighted by your engagement with this project - thank you all for taking the time to apply and offer such incredibly useful feedback. Keep it coming!

Google+ privacy tips from Kaspersky

Google Plus + fake invites = dangerous malware and infection, says Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab warns Internet users of targeted attacks on newly launched Google Plus social networking site.

Having only launched at the end of June, Google Plus is growing fast, having already reached more than 10 million* users in its first week of operation. However, as with any social network, over sharing has become the default option, and as such, is a constant concern. Considering Google Plus is new to this arena, it is interesting to note that it has already attracted the attention of cybercriminals. In fact, Kaspersky Lab have identified that cybercriminals are already targeting individuals through friend invites to this network, via emails.

Says Fabio Assolini, Malware Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab; “Google Plus is another addition to the social networking world, and while certainly an exciting avenue to explore in this regard, considering the world of Internet cybercrime, Kaspersky Lab have identified that Brazilian cybercriminals have already started sending fake invites with malicious links pointing to malware, specifically Trojan bankers. We recently found one targeting Portuguese speakers and as such, feel that it is crucial to warn users of the potential security threats targeting this social networking site as it is only set to grow.”

The fake invite contains an infected link that when accessed, redirects the user to a very common Brazilian Trojan banker file – a .cmd file hosted at Dropbox. The most interesting thing to note in this message however is another link pointing to a form hosted at Google Docs. The message shows the link as “send the invitation to your friends” but it is actually a fake form created to collect names and e-mail addresses of new victims. Kaspersky Lab has reported this malicious file and the fake Web form to Google for their interest.

Social networks are seen as one of the greatest security threats among businesses, along with various other forms of file sharing. The introduction of new social networking sites creates a haven for cybercriminals to implement virus and threat activity for their own gain; especially as such sites are without a doubt popular among users. In fact, looking at statistics it is evident as to why these sites attract cybercriminals – lots of user. According to Strategy Worx CC**, worldwide Facebook has 750 million users, of which over four million (approximately 4 095 280) originate from South Africa. The same reports also indicates that Twitter has an estimated figure of 277 million worldwide users of which approximately 900 000 users are in SA. Google Plus is fast gaining the attention of users and the nature progress to cybercriminals is evident.

As such, Kaspersky Lab offers the following tips for securing a Google Plus account:

Profile Management – The profile editing section is the brains of the Google Plus’s privacy, providing a versatile interface that allows you to customise how you share each and every nugget of your information. Be sure to use it and make your privacy levels a high priority.
One circle to rule them all – If you’re going to use Google Plus, you need to learn to master the fine art of Circle Management. Circles are the main privacy control centre of Google Plus. They allow you to create groups of friends and associates using a powerful (and cool) user interface that makes it easy to group friends, family and co-workers, and then limit who can see what.
Instant upload - If you access Google Plus using your Android phone, photos and videos you take are automatically uploaded to Google’s cloud via a new tool called Instant Upload. Don’t worry – photos aren’t shared by default, but are stored on a private Picasa Web folder for future sharing. Instant Upload is a fine idea – for a minority of users – but it’s enabled by default and may take a lot of new Google Plus users unaware. To disable Instant Upload, click into the app, Menu/ Settings/ and at the top of the screen uncheck “Instant Upload” for increased protection.

Concludes Assolini; “If you are interested in joining Google Plus, our advice would be to ensure you explore this medium on a secure computer, whist being cautious at all times of pop up blocks and links that insist you re-direct. Furthermore, Kaspersky Lab urge users to not believe in supposed invites received via e-mails. Ensuring a safe social networking experience requires you to be aware that such threats exist, thereby being able to take action the necessary action required and socialising in a secure environment.”

How to Add Google Plus Custom Search Engines in Chrome

If you're running the Chrome Web browser, you can delve into the settings and add your own custom search engines to the browser. In this case, we added two search engines: one for searching profiles and the other for searching posts.

Here's how:

• Click the "Wrench" menu in Chrome.
• Click "Preferences"
• In the "Basics" section, click "Manage Search Engines" in the "Search" section.

1. In the first box ("Add a new search engine"), type whatever you want. I chose "Google+."
2. In the second box ("Keyword"), type the word that you will use to call the search engine from the URL bar. In other words, keep it short and simple. I chose "profiles" for the profile search engine and "posts" for the posts search engine.
3. In the last box ("URL with % in place of query") use the following:

• For the Profile search engine: {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&tbs=prfl:e
• For the Posts search engine: {google:baseURL}search?q=site:plus.google.com inurl:posts/* %s

To save the engines, just hit "Enter" (Return) on your keyboard.

Now you can search Google+ from Chrome's address bar. To do so, just type in the engine name you want (e.g. posts or profiles) and hit the spacebar. That will call the engine for use. You can then type in your query and press enter as you would normally when searching Google.

Finally, Google Plus search!

Make multiple calls in Gmail.

Remember those old multi-line phones with all the buttons across the bottom? That gave you access to more than one line at a time, a feature now available in Google‘s Gmail.

According to the official Gmail Blog, this new multi-call capability will let you put callers on hold with Gmail’s phone service, picking up another call at the same time. Too bad there’s no music on hold to entertain that first caller.

Also imitating conventional phone systems is call waiting, where you receive a notification of an incoming call, and then it’s up to you whether you’re going to answer it or not. The only limitation with this new capability is that you’re only allowed two outgoing calls to physical phones at the same time.

Best of all, U.S. and Canada calls using the Gmail phone and video system will be free through 2011, and all these new multi-line features work with Gmail’s phone, voice and video calls.