ReadWriteWeb

The social Web has a tendency to fold in on itself. Shortly after the launch of Google Plus, for example, users began to complain that it was only being used to talk about Google Plus. Drew Olanoff, currently the community manager for Get Satisfaction, would prefer that social networks revolved around their people instead of themselves. After being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2009, Olanoff built his experience into a Web phenomenon that offered connections, support, and some hopeful levity to people affected by cancer. His work is now bolstered by the launch of a new social network called I Had Cancer, which has created an engaging, Web-centric support system for cancer fighters, survivors, and their friends and family.

Google Plus has been live for a month, and some have already begun to fret about its health. According to Experian Hitwise, Google Plus traffic for last week declined 3% from the week before. This might suggest that some of the initial shine has worn off, but it's certainly too early to call it a trend.

Google Plus has surpassed 10 million users, which is impressive considering the service is still limiting sign-ups. Referral traffic from the service might be down in some parts of the Web, but it's quickly become one of our top traffic sources at ReadWriteWeb.

Here's an interesting and under-reported story: a developer by the name of Robert Norris Hills recently created a bot that automatically adds users to Circles on Google Plus. The bot runs until it reaches the friend limit of 5,000, then removes the Circle it created and starts again, keeping those who added it back.

Why would such a bot be a problem on Google's new social network? Because, like similar "auto-follow" behavior employed by Twitter spammers in the past, many users will return follow (or in this case, return "encircle") those who follow them. And that can be used to a spammer's advantage.

There is some good news to report, however: Google throttled the bot within days of it going live. But according to Hills, that may not be enough.

Twitter Lists are a beautiful thing, but the company limits what users can do with them. Presumably because of scaling challenges and a perceived lack of user interest, users who want to group together Twitter accounts into topical lists are only allowed to create 20 lists per account and each list can contain no more than 500 members.

Unless you are Twitter itself, that is. We wrote one month ago that Twitter's own staff list had hit the maximum number of members, 500. (It's not an unpopular list, either, almost 77K people are subscribed to it.) What would happen if Twitter hired more people, we asked? Would these limits be lifted for other users as well? Well, it turns out that the Twitter staff list is now at 545, another incredible growth of 10% in 30 days, and the list feature's limit appears not to apply in this case. Think these limits aren't important? Try making a list of employees at any large company, or of Women in Tech, or of People in Portland, Oregon.

Looking for people to Circle on Google Plus? Several new sites have popped up with ideas for "suggested circles." Unfortunately, Google Plus itself doesn't offer a way for users to share Circles with their friends, so for now, manually reproducing these Circles is your only option. But for those who are willing to put in the time, you'll be hitting that 5,000 friend limit pretty quickly.

LinkedIn has just announced a Web plug-in that lets employers add a one-click "Apply with LinkedIn" button to job postings.

Apply with LinkedIn allows applicants to adjust their LinkedIn profile information to suit the position before they apply. After they submit, the confirmation screen displays people in the applicant's LinkedIn network who work at the company, allowing them to connect or ask for a referral.

Google Plus, the new social network from Google, has been rapidly expanding. But contrary to early perception, it isn't just being used by techies to talk about Google Plus. Trey Ratcliff is a well-known photographer and already Google Plus has become his main social platform - despite already having large fan bases on Facebook and Twitter. Trey, a leading exponent of the HDR photography technique (high dynamic range imaging), runs a very popular travel photography blog called StuckInCustoms.com.

I interviewed Trey about how he's using Google Plus and why he's not focusing so much now on Facebook and Twitter. Below are his responses, including facts and figures about Trey's social media accounts.

For a service that is only officially available on a single platform (iOS), Instagram sure is doing well. In less than 10 months of existence, the photo-sharing app has managed to gain 6 million users, and its growth shows no sign of slowing down.

While using the service is itself pretty straight-forward, it isn't always obvious how to build a substantial following. Most users won't attract thousands of followers overnight, but there are a few tips and tricks that can get you there eventually.

Security software and analysis company BitDefender is stepping up its product suite with the release its Total Security 2012 application. In terms of complete security coverage, not many companies put it all together the way BitDefender does, with features including Android security, a desktop application, coverage of Facebook and Twitter and even its own small Linux operating system with a built-in browser.

We wrote about Safego, BitDefender's Facebook security application, when it was released in public beta last October. Safego remains one of the only third-party security applications that protects users, more or less, from themselves. BitDefender does not plan on stopping at Facebook though as the company will release a Twitter security app within the next several weeks and have ideas for both LinkedIn and Google Plus. Social spam is on the rise, and BitDefender takes a novel approach to keeping users safe.

I admit: it's taken me a while to warm up to Google Plus. Several of our team were early enthusiasts, one or two suggesting that it may even replace their use of Facebook or Twitter. That got me wondering: how many Google Plus users are spending less time on Facebook and/or Twitter? I surveyed people on Google Plus about it and also did a bit of unscientific research.

The feedback I received and results from my research show that Twitter usage is indeed decreasing amongst these early Google Plus users. Facebook seems at less immediate risk, because family and non-tech friends won't be abandoning Facebook for Google Plus any time soon. Interestingly, very few people said that Google Plus hadn't impacted their usage of Twitter and Facebook. In other words, Google Plus is clearly disrupting both Twitter and Facebook.