Google+ was, to my mind, all about creating a first-party data connection between Google most important services - search, mail, YouTube, Android/Play, and apps.

Google likely never cared if Google+ 'won' as a competitor to Facebook (though if it did, that would have been a nice bonus). All that mattered, in the end, was whether Plus became the connective tissue between all of Google's formerly scattered services. And in a few short years, it's fair to say it has.

I like Diaspora because it's audacious, it's driven by passion, and it's very, very hard to do. After all, who in their right mind would set as a goal taking on Facebook? That's sort of like deciding to build a better search engine - very expensive, with a high likelihood of failure.

The Nexus 7 is about the same size as a Moleskine notebook, and it just ‘feels’ like the right form factor for doing all those things you want to do on a smart phone, but can’t quite do in the right way. It’s not too big, and not too small – just right.

Search, a marketing method that didn’t exist a decade ago, provides the most efficient and inexpensive way for businesses to find leads.

It’s become something of a ritual – every year, Google publishes its year-end summary of what the world wants, and every year I complain about how shallow it is, given what Google really knows about what the world is up to.

Increasingly, search is our mechanism for how we understand ourselves, our world, and our place within it.

Making media companies that you hope to sell is not a lot of fun for anyone who cares deeply about making media.

The old internet is shrinking and being replaced by walled gardens.

WordPress makes it drop-dead easy to start a site. Take my advice and go do it.