Google Plus started verification badge program

Verification Badge

Google rolled out a new verification badge program Saturday, making it so celebrities, public figures and those who have amassed vast numbers of people in their circles can verify their identities with a check mark and a small banner that rolls out next to their names.


According to a Google+ post from Google+ team member Wen-Ai Yu, “We’re working on expanding this to more folks.” As you can see in the video, she doesn’t describe exactly how these verifications work.


The program, along with Google‘s insistence that user accounts be opened under a real name, aims to assure people that “the person you’re adding to a circle is really who they claim to be.”


Google’s Wen-Ai Yu explains:

Google + Hangouts now with YouTube:

YouTube Linking with Google+

Google has quietly rolled out yet another feature of its Google+ social network: Click on the Share button under any YouTube video to reveal an icon that suggests watching the video with friends in a Google+ hangout.

Google didn’t formally announce this new feature, instead revealing it via product manager Brian Glick on — where else — Google+, where he casually mentioned it like so:

"You can now start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, directly from YouTube. Watch with your friends. :)"

"Just click on “Share” underneath any video, and then click on “Start a Google+ Hangout” in the bottom right-hand corner."

A few weeks ago, YouTube Live product manager Brandon Badge quietly mentioned the upcoming ability to enable hangouts from YouTube with live streaming video, and this must be the first stage of that initiative.

As we mentioned then, it’s been possible to watch videos with friends since the beginning of Google+, through a more complicated manual process that must be initiated in Google+. But this new button allowing you to initiate hangouts from YouTube with a couple of clicks makes it considerably easier.

Google Buys Motorola with $12 billion Deal ...

Taiwanese Next Media Animation (NMA), creators of computer-animated reenactments of news events, released a new video on Tuesday depicting the news of Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola.

The video depicts Apple CEO Steve Jobs as Darth Vader and features Google co-founders riding a one-trick pony while “desperately searching for a second act.”

NMA is often on the ball with big tech news, having also animated Google’s woes with privacy and net neutrality last August, Paul Ceglia’s recent claim that he owns a large stake in Facebook and Cheezburger Network’s $30 million round of funding in January.

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