Last week, a new toolbar began appearing on Google for user and some took it as evidence of the ever-elusive "Google +1" or "Google Me" social network. Today, Google explained the appearance of this part of the bar as a simple method for users to keep track of what identity they're using as they browse online and use Google services.

In a blog post entitled "The freedom to be who you want to be..." the company explains that the toolbar help ensure users "know exactly what mode they're in when using Google's services."

We've been thinking about the different ways people choose to identify themselves (or not) when they're using Google--in particular how identification can be helpful or even necessary for certain services, while optional or unnecessary for others. Attribution can be very important, but pseudonyms and anonymity are also an established part of many cultures -- for good reason.

When it comes to Google services, we support three types of use: unidentified, pseudonymous and identified. And each mode has its own particular user benefits.

Whitten explains that unidentified is not fully anonymous, but rather tracked by IP. Nonetheless, Google doesn't "link that information to an individual account when you are logged out." Pseudonymous allows users a consistent identity, but "one that is not linked to their offline self." Identified is just that. It's for times when "you want to share information with people and have them know who you really are."

"Equally as important as giving users the freedom to be who they want to be is ensuring they know exactly what mode they're in when using Google's services," writes Whitten. "So recently we updated the top navigation bar on many of our Google services to make this even clearer. In the upper right hand corner of these Google pages, you will see an indicator of which account, if any, you are signed into. "

Could this be a step in the direction of the so-called "Google +1"? If, by that, we mean a social layer in Google, then certainly identity has something to do with a "social layer." Beyond that, it seems like a responsible move by the Big G to make sure users realize how the actions they're taking could be connected to their Google identity.

Ever since last summer, the Internet has been awash in rumors of a Google social network. First, it was "Google Me" and later it was "Google +1". Last September, however, Google CEO Eric Schmidt explained that the company wasn't working on a stand-alone social network, but rather the interweaving of social elements. ""We're trying to take Google's core products and add a social component," said Schmidt.

Today, Google is doing just that. The company is updating its Social Search feature, which it first launched in 2009, and bringing a tighter, deeper integration of social connections to Google Search.

Let's take a look at what these integrations will look like. First, there's the blending of social search results.

As you can see, the blog by Google's Matt Cutts is amidst other search results, rather than quarantined at the bottom of the page. It's a blog post that Cutts posted on his personal blog, which he links to on his Google profile. Next, you can see that search results will contain content that's shared, not created, by members of our social circle.

"Currently, Google social search is based on content your friends create," said Cassidy. "We're expanding that to content your friends share."

Next, we have the updated control over what you share and display on your Google profile.

As you can see, Google may find accounts of yours from around the Internet and suggest that you connect them. If you don't want to, however, you can make sure that the account is not publically connected.

So, Is This Part of 'Google Me'?

If the so-called "Google Me" is simply a social layer, then we'd have to say that this qualifies. Search Engine Land had an article this week about a report that found that Google Search personalization wasn't arriving at the expected results. That is, Google's personalized search wasn't acting based solely on previous search history and interests, it wasn't "subtle" as the company has promised, and it wasn't surfacing the long-tail results one might expect.

This, however, is personalization taken to another level. This is personalization in the form of looking at who you know, who you're connected to on various social networks, and ranking content according to who created it and who shared it. We were told that Google will even go a step further and look at content shared by friends of friends.

"All the content in Social Search comes from publicly available websites," explained a Google spokesperson. "For example, you can find content from a friend if that friend has created a Google profile and chosen to link publicly to other websites, such as Twitter or Flickr. You can also find content from public Picasa Web albums, public Buzz posts, and your own Reader feeds."

Your friends don't have to even have a Google profile for their content to show up in your search. If you're friends with them on Twitter and you connect your Twitter account, you can see what they share on Twitter in your search results.

Beyond the increased depth of these social results and how they're displayed, there's actually not much here that Google is doing any different than it has for the past two years. But it doesn't take much for a company like Google to have a big effect.

As Cassidy pointed out to us at the end of our conversation, Google's mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." A move to create another, stand-alone social network would seem like folly to some, especially with the company's track record when it comes to social. This move, on the other hand, feels just right. Gather the information and use it as yet another signal on what is relevant to your search.

Nonetheless, some are saying that Google CEO Eric Schmidt acknowledged the upcoming launch of "Google Me". Really, it looks like he acknowledged the coming of "layers", not the stand-alone, Facebook-killing social network we've all discussed.

As much as we want to see these words as the big battle between Facebook and Google, Schmidt said in plain language that this is not the case, according to Reuters.

"Everybody has convinced themselves that there's some huge project about to get announced next week. And I can assure you that's not the case," he said today at Zeitgeist, a tech event in Arizona.

In essence, "Google Me" will be an integration of social connections in much the same manner as we've seen with offerings like Facebook's "Instant Personalization", which allowed select partners like Yelp and Pandora to use social network connections and information to cater results.

"If you think about it, it's obvious," Schmidt told Reuters. "With your permission, knowing more about who your friends are, we can provide more tailored recommendations. Search quality can get better."

While we all love a good fight, this is becoming a bit more media-tastic than reality permits.

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Web Trends

The State of the Smartphone: iPhone is Way, Way Ahead

A new industry report from mobile analytics firm Flurry reveals some unique insights into the smartphone industry as of right now. Because their firm focuses not just on iPhone, but also on Android, RIM Blackberry, and JavaME, they have the ability to see platform-spanning trends, instead of just those tied to Apple. So what can we learn from their deep dive into their company's data? Anything surprising? Actually, what the report confirms is what we've been hearing for some time now: the iPhone is king, smartphones are the new laptops, and iPhone applications can and do make money.

Facebook Goes International: Sees Impressive Growth Rates in Africa and Asia

According to data compiled by O'Reilly's Ben Lorica, Facebook is currently seeing some very impressive growth outside of the United States. In Africa and Asia, for example, Facebook's active user base grew over 70% in the last 12 weeks, and in Indonesia, Facebook has finally displaced Friendster as the most popular social network. With regards to the basic demographics on Facebook, women still represent the majority of users (51% vs. 45%), and while younger users still represent the majority of active users on the service, users over 55 are driving most of Facebook's current growth.

Nobody is Making Money Online from Susan Boyle Video (Yet)

Unless you lived in an exceptionally dark cave in the last two weeks, you probably weren't able to escape the Susan Boyle phenomenon. According to some metrics, over 100 million people have watched the immaculately edited video of the 'frumpy' 47-year-old's performance on Britain's Got Talent (BGT) by now. While this is most definitely an interesting cultural phenomenon, the Times this week also reports that neither ITV, the network that shows BGT, nor YouTube have really been able to directly profit from this huge hit because the network and YouTube have been arguing about the terms of their advertising agreement.

Jimmy Wales: Social Web Marketing - Good for Some, Not for All

According to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, there are too many Indians and not enough Chiefs in the world of Web 2.0 marketing. "There is a lot of advice about how brands should be interacting [online]," he said in a keynote presentation at Ad:Tech San Francisco this week. "But, unless your brand is information dense, this highly interactive marketing is both expensive and useless." The good news however, is that communities offer the best bang for your buck in this miserable economy and Wales sees return on investment (ROI) as an "incredible steal right now," when it comes to consumer generated media.

Make Your Home Tweet Its Energy Use (Earth Day Project!)

Peter Troast, founder of Energy Circle, a company that sells energy-saving products, has created a new energy-monitoring system that sends his home's energy usage stats to Twitter. Inspired by the open source power monitoring kit from Tweet-a-Watt, Troast's system also sends his home's energy data to the web, but it's not in the form of once-a-day tweets like Tweet-a-Watt provides. Instead, his system uses a monitoring device called TED (The Energy Dectective) to create charts which are annotated by family members then tweeted for everyone to see. If you want to do the same for your home, we've got the info.

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

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ReadWriteHire

Who's Getting Hired in Tech? Q1 Numbers from ReadWriteHire

Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman says that hiring is harder in a downturn because the noise goes up but the quality stays the same. That's a pretty strong statement to make, but if it's true then it's all the more remarkable to see which companies are making hires now.

Our site ReadWriteHire covers new hires in tech and new media. We've just published our aggregate numbers for the first 3 months of 2009. Who's hiring? Software and IT companies, social media and social networking companies and marketing and advertising firms.

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Web Products

Now You Can Change What Google Says About You

Google me? I'll Google you! Google has become the de facto public record these days but most people remain in relative obscurity there and/or fear of what past indiscretions Google will expose to people who search for them. This week Google released a product, called Google Me, that aims to change all of that. For a price - though not a monetary one.

GeoCities Closure Signals End of an Era - Will Others Survive on Freemium Model?

Yahoo has announced that its website creation service GeoCities, which it acquired for $4.5 billion in 1999, will close later this year. Existing customers are being encouraged to "upgrade" to Yahoo! Web Hosting, which offers a site-building service and a personalized web address. The closing of GeoCities is the end of an era. Last June, we profiled the rise of "GeoCities 2.0" services, i.e. website creation tools for the Social Web. Many of them will attempt to pick up GeoCities' customers. Although, as Yahoo! itself indicated in its closure message, website building is mostly a 'feature' nowadays rather than a separate product. So, is this a viable business now for the likes of Weebly and Yola?

No Doubt About It - Oprah Brought Lots of New Users to Twitter

Oprah's well publicized first tweet last Friday was definitely a boon for Twitter. According to Hitwise, 37% of all visits to Twitter last Friday were from new visitors, and Twitter's overall share of U.S. Internet visits increased 24% on Friday. It is important to note, though, that Twitter, being the new and growing service that it is, usually gets about 32% new visitors every day, which definitely puts these numbers into perspective. Hitwise, however, also notes that Facebook's ratio of new visitors was only 8% in March.

Sunlight Foundation Funds Six "Apps for America"

Chips, dip and government data are everyone's three favorite things to take to a party, right? Ok, so government data is actually quite boring on its own, but in these exciting times of democratized programming, government data can be turned into some pretty exciting mashups. That's just what the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation is aiming to make more possible with its work to make government and related data more available with its new Apps for America contest. More than 40 open source applications and websites making use of that data entered the contest and this week the six fabulous winners were announced. We've got a five minute screencast tour of the winners below.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

Enterprise

IT Consolidation Blues: CHOI Does Not Spell Choice

Oracle is buying Sun, and bankers are looking forward to the next wave of consolidation. To somebody who remembers the innovation and excitement of earlier enterprise hardware and software start-ups, this is a bit gloomy. CHOI (Cisco, HP, Oracle, IBM) does not spell "choice" for buyers, employees, or investors. Choose your behemoth. If consolidation means lower prices -- and it will -- buyers will be happy. But, it all sounds like cost-cutting, layoffs, and less innovation to me.

Email us if you're interested in writing for ReadWriteWeb's Enterprise Channel, which will soon be getting a re-design.

SEE MORE ENTERPRISE COVERAGE IN OUR ENTERPRISE CHANNEL

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.