People just can’t stop talking about Google+, the search giant’s hot new social network. We know we can’t. And according to a report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, nobody else can either: For the week of June 26 through July 1, talk about Google+ accounted for 35 percent of all tweeted news links.
According to Pew, Twitter members “were mostly excited about the new Facebook competitor, especially when it came to the issue of privacy.”
The No. 2 topic was “global warming,” which accounted for 11 percent of all news links sent over Twitter. All of those links were from British publications, one of which was an article from the Guardian, which reported on a former chief scientific advisor to the government urging Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron to speak out about the dangers of climate change.
Next on the list is “hackers and al Qaeda,” says Pew. This was due to the British government hacking a website of the terrorist group, and replacing the directions for making bombs with recipes for cupcakes. British unemployment came in at number four, and Tea Party presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann was number five, with 6 percent. Most of Bachmann’s links were to a story about her husband receiving $137,000 from Medicaid.
News links are then only category Google+ won with regards to Twitter. As we previously reported, the Google +1 Button has already become more widely used on websites than Twitter’s Tweet button. (Facebook still beat both by a large margin.) This is surprising, considering the +1 Button is still only vaguely useful, even on Google+, where it’s functionality is most visible. Not just that, but Google+ is still in beta mode, and only open to a limited number of people. Once Plus opens its gates to the public, we have a feeling 35 percent of Twitter links is only the beginning.
