The problem for print publishers — one that Netflix arguably doesn’t share — is that their legacy business still produces the bulk of the revenue they pull in via advertising, and therefore, the incentive to de-emphasize or radically downsize that part of the business isn’t as obvious. Hence, the reason why you see so many publishers opting for paywalls, which bring in incremental revenue but are mostly intended to function like a line of sandbags, keeping existing print subscribers from deserting that business for the free web.

Netflix doesn’t have to worry about the impact of its shift on advertising revenue the way that newspapers do, which is probably why it has accelerated its move, while many print publishers are still waffling about what to do more than a decade after the rise of the consumer web. All Netflix has to worry about is the impact on its customers, which is why Hastings has become so apologetic. The effect of the changes on the company’s revenue — and the resulting decline in the company’s share price — are enough to make it obvious that people don’t like the change.

Poor, poor Netflix. This is starting to feel like the early stages of a (very) bad breakup.

We already loved you—how could we not? You have spent years enticing us—the eager and easy-to-please consumers—with simple DVD rentals and multiple-device streaming services, along with an ever-growing library of movies, documentaries, and television shows—both new and old.

Stop trying so hard to make us hate you!

It may not be dead, and it’s entirely possible I’m shoveling dirt on something that’s still writhing around, promising me it is in fact the next big thing, but I’m now deaf to its cries. Google Plus is a failure no matter what the numbers may say.

25 million users in barely a month is nothing to sneeze at. Google Plus holds the honor of being one of the fastest growing websites in history, and these early numbers had analysts screaming that Facebook would be all but dead in a few more months.

But today I click on my newsfeed and see tumbleweed blowing through the barren, blank page. It’s a vast and empty wasteland, full of people who signed up but never actually stuck around to figure out how things worked in this new part of town. One simple click takes me back to Facebook, and my wall is flooded with updates and pictures from 400+ friends. This just isn’t a contest, and it never will be.

To know why G+ has failed, we must first look at how Facebook succeeded.

I'm sure we'll be discussing this on Saturday. :)

UPDATE: The author wrote a follow-up article later in the day as a response to the outcry of support from Google Plus users.

New feature by Foursquare allows you to "share the places you love" with Foursquare lists.

Sounds similar to Twitter lists, but is it?

What do you think?

Will this attract new and old users to Foursquare? Will it be a top feature? Will it only be used by everyone, or just anyone on vacation?

What do you think the intent is of Foursquare by releasing this feature?

Is it, perhaps, to compete with Twitter or Google+?

One of the most fascinating aspects about the launch of Google+ is the way it reframes how we, as individuals, interact with our communities. As Brian Solis so rightly points out, the initial Facebook model of creating a single social graph of up to 5000 friends must now be compared to a series of what Google+ calls ‘circles’ that expand and contract as we pass through various life stages, jobs, relationships and experiences in our lives.

This contrast is very instructive as to the future, and is particularly important for brands trying to engage with their customer communities. By now, most brands have overcome their reticence to participate in social media, and exhausted their knee-jerk reaction to buy their way to a sizable social footprint that is at least comparable to their competitors. But the challenges continue to arise.

This new reframing, just as Twitter emerged after Facebook, and Google+ after Twitter, we will see more social platforms emerge that will become increasingly sophisticated and nuanjced in their expression of how individiuals prefer to relate to each other.  Ultimately, it’s possible that these platforms themselves will be designed as templates that the users themselves can customize in terms of the best way to express their community and experience of life.

What this means for brands is significant. It is already challenging to engage and maintain the interest of your customers in real time across multiple platforms, especially as many brands are still fighting the inertia that inevitably comes with hierarchical structures designed with control in mind. But now, as the social business marketplace becomes increasingly fragmented and more and more micro-communities, specific to a variety of media (Path, Instagram) start to emerge, brands face the prospect of reaching an increasing number of specific audiences, conversations and communities all in real time.

The Social Habit is a new study conducted by Edison Research and Arbitron, and is derived from the 19th Edison/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Research Series, one of the longest-running studies of consumer adoption of the Internet, new media and other technologies in existence.

This study was originally presented by Edison Vice President of Strategy Tom Webster at Blogworld in New York on May 25, 2011, and presented new, unreleased data for 2011 on America's adoption of social networking sites and services, with a detailed look at Facebook and Twitter usage, mobile social behavior, and location-based apps and services.

Highlights of the study included the following:

Social Media now reaches the majority of Americans 12+, with 52% having a profile on one or more social networks.

This figure is driven largely by Facebook, which is now used by over half (51%) of Americans 12+.

Twitter is as familiar to Americans as Facebook (with 92% and 93% familiarity, respectively); however, Twitter usage stands at 8% of Americans 12+.

Approximately 46 million Americans 12+ now check their social media sites and services several times every day.

Much of this frequent usage is driven by mobile access. 56% of frequent social network users own smartphones, and 64% of frequent social networkers have used a mobile phone to update their status on one or more social networks.

Location-based sites and services (such as Foursquare and Facebook Places) are familiar to 30% of Americans 12+, and used by 4% of Americans 12+.

One in four social network users knowingly follow brands, products or services on social networks. For those who use these sites and services several times per day, this figure increases to 43%.

Amongst those who do follow brands, products or companies on social networks, 80% indicate that Facebook is the network they use the most to connect with companies.

Nearly a quarter of social network users indicated that Facebook is the social site or service that most influences their buying decisions. No other site or service was named by more than 1% of the sample, and 72% indicated that no one social site or service influenced their buying decisions the most.

In July of 2010, I wrote a brief answer stating that then-Googler Paul Adams' internal presentation about social (see: http://venturebeat.com/2010/07/0...) indicated that the state-of-the-art in thinking about social inside Google was much further behind than previously thought (see: Yishan Wong's answer to Should Facebook be worried about Google Me?). Rebekah Cox concurred with me in the comments and a few other people asked us to elaborate. We declined to at the time, because it's complicated.

However, this week, Google's early release of Google+ demonstrates why.

Let's first crack some myths:

Check out the full post over on Quora.

Touches on privacy comparisons between Google+ and Facebook, as well as a possible trend of changes in our socially accepted rules and norms for social behaviors online.

What do you think?

HootSuite, the social media dashboard and analytics tool, has reached a new milestone: 2 million users.

Invoke Media released HootSuite in December 2008 and it is widely used by individuals as well as organizations, governments and businesses. The White House, SXSW, Zappos and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia all use HootSuite, according to the company.

HootSuite hit the 1 million-user milestone in November 2010. Consumers and businesses have shared some 500 million messages to date.

The company shares some other statistics about its growth in a blog post.

I always feel better reading articles like this after singing an organization's or software's praise to a class or colleagues.

Cheers to Hootsuite for making strides and for contributing to the learning process!

It’s not even a week old and already there’s a power list out of Google+ users. You know you’re curious - so go on and click.

Hat tip to @SteveRubel for finding this list.