Four Things Artists Love about Google Plus.

Lots of artists are posting their work on Google+. We got in touch with a few of them to ask about their experience so far. The response? They love it. As Carsten Bradley, an illustrator in Atlanta, Georgia, writes:

At this point, for artists it is almost like a social networking utopia. We get instant feedback on our work, and visibility far exceeding the capabilities of Facebook and Twitter combined. With the power of circles, we can share works in progress to select individuals and get immediate feedback and critiques without exposing the work publicly. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with those reasons. Maybe it's just because it's new and shiny. [But the truth of it is] that artists are really coming together here, and it's wonderful.

Daniel Ibanez, an artist and illustrator living in Fort Collins, Colorado, loves it so much he can see it becoming his primary art blog.

Here are a four things artists love about the site:

1. Google+'s image display page looks really classy. Art shines on its transparent black background. Not to pat our own backs, The Atlantic's In Focus blog has set up a camp on the site, and the results are awesome.

2. The traffic has been immense, especially relative to the rather paltry artist's private site usually receives. Eric Orchard, a cartoonist living in Toronto, says that the Google+ traffic is translating into a spike in sales of his work.

3. One reason for the increased traffic: Unlike Facebook, it's the norm on Google+ to follow people who are complete strangers. As Canadian artist Linsay Blondeau puts it, "There's no pretense of being actual 'friends.'" Of course, if you're an artist trying to market your stuff, reaching beyond the people you already know is going to be crucial.

4. Twitter, like Google+, is good for interacting with strangers. But Twitter's not a great way to display art (you can include one photo or a link to your site, but not an album like Google+ allows). Additionally, French artist Benjamin Basso points out that Google+ doesn't have a big spam problem (yet), something that can be a bit of an annoyance on Twitter. And the real humans on Google+ are a chatty bunch, giving artists an unusual opportunity to receive feedback on their work.

How to Display Latest Google Plus Update on Your Blog [wordpress]

Google Plus is the newest project from Google and it is also the new invitation-only social media kid on the block that wants to knock Facebook off the mountain. If you are currently using Google Plus and want to add the latest Google Plus update on your blog, that’s possible, you can copy and paste the following on your WordPress files.

<?php
 include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.'/rss.php');
 $googleplus = fetch_feed("http://plusfeed.appspot.com/103329092193061943712"); // Replace 103329092193061943712 by your own ID
 echo '<a href="Here_To_Put_Your_Google_Plus_ID';
 echo $googleplus->items[0]['link']; echo '">';
 echo $googleplus->items[0]['summary'];
 echo '';
?>

P/S: Don’t forget to put your Google+ ID on line 3.

Google vs Microsoft in Android Patent Dispute

Google and Microsoft have been going at it the past few days over patent disputes. Google recently shot back at Microsoft and revealed that Google had turned down the opportunity to partner up with Microsoft in bidding for patents.

So lets start from the beginning. Google's Cheif Legal Officer, David Drummond, apparently accused company's like Apple and Microsoft of participating in an organized campaign to take Google's Android platform down though patent lawsuits.

Brad Smith from Microsoft then soon revealed that Google was talking a load of crap and that Google was offered to partner up but had turned down an offer to bid for patents together. Frank Shaw, Microsoft's Head of Communications, posted an email discussing the deal between Google and Microsoft. He even tweeted "Free advice for David Drummond[Google] – next time check with Kent Walker[Google] before you blog."

Drummond responded by saying, "It's not surprising that Microsoft would want to divert attention by pushing a false 'gotcha!' while failing to address the substance of the issues we raised. Making sure that we would be unable to assert these patents to defend Android — and having us pay for the privilege — must have seemed like an ingenious strategy to them. We didn't fall for it."

Frank Shaw, from Microsoft, responded on twitter by saying: "We offered Google the opportunity to bid with us to buy the Novell patents; they said no. Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else. SO partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do."

So apparently, Google did turn down Microsoft's offer. It makes sense because if Google did buy the patents together with Microsoft, it would not have helped them against any litigation against Microsoft. But really, does this sort of public bickering really need to take place?

Yeah, doubt this little fight is over. Lets see who says what next!

Google Docs Tests New Interface which depicts Google+ Interface

Google Docs has a new interface inspired by Google+ and you can try it here. The interface is clean and there's a lot of white space. You'll also find the familiar red buttons, the gray buttons, the new scrollbars and the labelless search button.

The new interface looks better, but there's a lot of white space that could be used to show more information about the files. The details view is no longer available from the interface, but you can enable it in the old UI and the setting is preserved.