I’m not sure if this is something to be proud of or scared silly over. Either way, eBay Classifieds did some heavy lifting and dug into the phenomenon of adding your dogs and cats to social networks.

There’s nothing I can say about it really, since my dogs Rocky and Adrian are both on Twitter.

Apparently, Twitter isn’t as popular as YouTube pages for pets, which is a bit of a surprise to me. I guess 140 characters is too much to ask for from a pet consistently.

The below infographic about the socialization of our pets online was partly inspired about our piece on the matter in 2010. Enjoy!

Thanks to a company called SpinningHat, you can forever memorialize your favorite profile design forever. Or as many times as you plan on taking a shower.

The “Social Shower Curtain” will set you back $23, but it’s worth it for the “lol” factor. Plus, it’s retro already, isn’t it?

The unauthorized Facebook shower curtain comes complete with a transparent window where your profile picture would normally go. If someone dares to enter the bathroom during your morning splash-session, they’ll be able to check your status in real-time. The shower curtain is set to ship in February.

Let’s hope Facebook doesn’t plan on suing like Apple is over the Steve Jobs doll.

➤ Social Shower Curtain

Online privacy is one of those topics that come up on a case by case basis. If you’re really afraid about privacy on the Internet, you’re probably not using the Internet. Facebook got into some hot water last year over privacy concerns, not because it was doing anything harmful to us, but because they weren’t exactly transparent with what they were doing.

How important is your privacy, really? After thinking about Facebook’s Timeline, I wondered how many people would take the time to go back and add life events that seem super personal. Things like when they bought their first house, or past surgeries they had, left me wondering if Facebook was asking us for too much.

Since Timeline became live for everyone on the platform, I’m shocked at how much information my friends are adding to the social network. That tells me that they’re not too worried about privacy when it comes to Facebook. Otherwise, they wouldn’t share in the first place. For my friends, the risk is worth the reward.

The only troubling part of that mindset is this question; “What is the reward, exactly?”

Last year, political and Internet activist Eli Pariser spoke at TED about what Facebook and Google are hiding from us when it comes to what information they use and how they use it. Watch the clip below, starting at the point where Pariser discusses the “57 signals” that sites like Google uses to tailor your experience with its services:

In that clip, Pariser explains that Google uses data it collects on what we click and when we click it to make the service work better for us. I might be crazy, but that doesn’t sound like an invasion of privacy to me, it sounds like a great feature to make my digital life easier.

Similarly, Facebook is looking at what types of things you “like” on external sites and what links you click on within your Newsfeed in order to give you a better experience as well. Right now, whether you know it or not, you’re not seeing a true firehose of data coming through on your Facebook Newsfeed. In its previous iteration, you could toggle that feature. The company noticed that those who were viewing a live feed didn’t interact with content as much, so it moved towards taking a smarter approach at what it shows you.

Again, this sounds like a great thing to me. Since you aren’t required to use Google or Facebook, your interaction is completely optional. However, the more you interact, the more Google and Facebook learn about you. That freaks some people out until they’re reminded that you’re merely a blip on a map of billions of interactions a day. No one person is looking at your email, search results, or clicks. You’re merely a subset of data being churned through an algorithm that streamlines your experience on both sites.

In the video above, Pariser shows search results on “Egypt” being different among his friends. I think that’s cool because it would be a pain to have to mine through search results that simply rank higher than others. I want Google to take all of my time spent on surfing the web and turn it into action, and that’s what they’re doing.

While I do believe that Facebook can do a better job at teaching you how to use its privacy controls, and the FTC agrees, I don’t believe that the site is using us anymore than we’re using it. Facebook costs money to run, and so does Google, so advertisements are to be expected. Are these companies using the data and interactions we give them to make money for themselves? Yes, and they should. That’s how business works.

Remember, the best way to guard your privacy online, is to not share anything at all. There are no laws requiring you to add your first pet to your Timeline, but Facebook should absolutely be able to market pet products and services to you if they know you like dogs. You can’t have it both ways online, and while being aware of what companies do with your data is a good thing, don’t assume that it’s all bad.

Will you be more aware of your privacy in 2011, or are you OK with the rewards you get in return for your information? Tell us in the comments.

Now that 2011 is behind us, the new year allows for new players to step into the startup game with brand new ideas and visions. Even though companies like Facebook, Apple, Twitter, and Instagram had massive success last year, there are still areas that are just begging for a tech makeover.

Some of the innovation will most certainly come from giant companies with a lot of money to spend and huge teams, but I think we’ll be surprised by how many smaller startups will take on big problems in 2012.

If I were working on something new, these are the areas I’d hone in on with laser focus.

Private social networks

Path tried to set the world on fire last year with its app that allows you to interact with under 150 people. It’s the anti-Facebook, if you will. With version 2.0, Path is closer to creating an experience that I believe more people will want to participate in this year, but the companies mobile-only approach is leaving a lot of opportunities on the table. I’d love to see a few other teams try to tackle this concept using the web, since it’s a clear path to bringing in mainstream users like Mom and Dad.

Google is on to something with its “Circles” concept for Google+, but it’s difficult to escape the feeling that you’re on a platform with millions of other people. A simple and personalized web-centric alternative to Path could really make private social networking hot in 2012. What Path is lacking though is the feeling of collaboration that is commonplace in a small circle of friends or family members. The app is still focused on the concept of the stream, and I’d like to see someone else take a different approach.

Local

Look for the local boom to hit us at some point this year. With apps like foursquare and Facebook letting us share our locations and interact with local businesses, there is still an opportunity for someone to build a platform that is made only to interact with your favorite coffee shop or restaurant.

Imagine being able to know things about a restaurant in real-time, like how many people are there, what the specials are, and even what waiters and waitresses are working that night. Making your customers feel like they have insight into how you operate will build a better relationship with them and keep them coming back.

Telephony

Everyone jokes about how we don’t use the telephone anymore, and it’s not because we don’t like to talk to people. The lack of innovation when it comes to telephony is absolutely shocking. The hottest thing to happen to the phone in the past 5 years was visual voicemail from Apple. There are companies working on re-imagining our experiences on the telephone already, but this is something that will be on fire in 2012. Skype gave us VOIP for computers, added some video, and that’s about it.

In the near future, we should be able to engage in synced gaming, note-taking, and other interactions while we’re on the phone. If you’re an AT&T user, you know how great it is to be able to check your email or the web for something while you’re talking on the phone. Sorry Verizon customers. This type of interaction needs to be made easier, and you should be able to challenge someone to a game of Angry Birds right in the middle of a conversation.

The technology is there, it’s time to innovate.

TV and web integration

The various hacks for Apple TV have me excited about the future of the television. This innovation is Apple’s for the taking, but with the potential for a fully interactive TV from Apple, comes a whole new platform for developers to build on.

Start thinking about what apps you’d like to have open while you’re watching TV or a movie. Text messages, incoming phone calls, email, Tweets, and live chat are the easy ones. But if you think about all of the data on the web that can be pulled into a broadcast contextually, the possibilities are absolutely mind-blowing. I’ve played around with Google TV, and its widget approach is just not going to do it. A seamless interactive experience on the television will surely be ours by the end of 2012.

Photography

Don’t run away, developers. Instagram doesn’t own the universe yet. There is a lot of room for innovation when it comes to photography on mobile devices. While Instagram has built a fantastic community around streams of photos with filters, there are sure to be more things to do with photos.

I’d love to see developers that use photography for do-it-yourself animation or do smarter things with the meta data stored with your photos. For example, Apple’s Camera Roll could surely use its own refresh. It tells me nothing about my photographs. I’d also like to see apps that help me stitch together similar photos based on colors or objects in them. Again, the technology is there, but hasn’t been put to full use yet.

Small and fast wins

These are the areas that I see the most room for improvement and innovation in 2012. The platforms are there, technology is there, and the talent to build great things are most certainly there. It won’t be the big companies that wow us in 2012, it’ll be the smaller teams who eventually build something focused and user-friendly that will.

What areas do you feel are ripe for innovation this year? Tell us in the comments.

This year will be forever remembered as the year that we lost the most creative mind that Silicon Valley has ever seen, as well as one where a few rough Tech IPOs scared away potential future investors. We also said goodbye to some CEOs and tech founders, and Facebook stayed in the social networking driver’s seat.

Lets get into the year that was in Silicon Valley.

Steve Jobs

What can we say about Steve Jobs that hasn’t already been said? The founder and most memorable leader of Apple resigned as CEO in August, making way for the Tim Cook era. In his resignation letter, Jobs didn’t give an actual reason for leaving Apple, but suggested that Apple move on with its succession plan:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

Many assumed that the reason for Jobs stepping down was his failing health, and unfortunately that turned out to be the case when he passed away on October 6th. As a Silicon Valley icon, Steve Jobs brought Apple back to life, which launched the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 this year, showing that hard work and determination can indeed pay off. Even after his death, Jobs continued to make headlines, with his biography shattering records and topping charts.

Read all about Apple’s entire 2011 in our rewind.

IPOs

2011 was a big year for going public in the tech space. With much of the year being filled with rumblings about whether Facebook would go public or not, four other companies took the huge step of going for the IPO.

Here’s a timeline of big-name 2011 IPO filings:

• January: LinkedIn found a way to make money, so the time came to go public.
• February: Pandora went from nearly being toast, to becoming to the toast of tech.
• June: Groupon took the world by storm with its group buying model, but is the sizzle gone?
• July: Zynga relies heavily on Facebook for its revenue and game players, but that didn’t stop them from going for the IPO hailmary.

Unfortunately, most of these public offerings ended up tanking, but that shouldn’t stop companies from taking the leap next year.

Facebook and Yelp are the two companies to watch out for in IPO land next year.

Silicon Shuffles

A few major notable founders and CEOs left or were booted from their positions in 2011. Some of them included companies that were synonymous with “Web 2.0″, which was the beginning of the social web.

In March, Kevin Rose decided to resign from the company he started in 2004, Digg. After a short stint as CEO of the company in 2010, Rose decided to give the big goodbye to Digg this year. In many ways, Kevin Rose was a symbol of how cool it was to be an Internet entrepreneur, serving as a way more social and popular version of Mark Zuckerberg. His resignation came after an unsuccessful attempt to revive Digg’s community with a new version that everyone ended up hating. Don’t worry about Rose, he got funding for his new startup, Milk.

In September, Carol Bartz was fired as CEO of Yahoo!, over the phone no less. With Yahoo! seemingly having no leadership or direction, the rest of the year was filled with speculation on when Yahoo! would sell, and who it would sell to. Some of the names thrown around? Google, Microsoft, Aol, and Alibaba. No sale yet, and don’t hold your breath in 2012.

HP, which Steve Jobs had noted was “being dismembered, destroyed” fired its CEO this year, Leo Apotheker. However, Apotheker’s tenure didn’t even last a year and was replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.

But it wasn’t all about high profile departures, as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey came back to the company in March to split time as an adviser as well as CEO of his Valley startup Square, putting 8 hour days in at both companies.

Facebook gets competition, remains king of social

The existence of a Google social network had been rumored for years, but this year we finally got to see what the company had come up with. In a huge direction change for the company, Google has decided to go all-in with social by launching Google+. In doing that, it shut down previous social failure Google Buzz.

Even though Google+ shows strong growth, Facebook remained the king of social in 2011. The company told us that they had 800 million users, but what was more impressive, it had 500 million users on the site at once.

Facebook didn’t stand pat amidst numerous privacy issues and launched numerous new features this year including Timeline. But what made Facebook the real king of Silicon Valley in 2011? The fact that it could bank 1 billion dollars in net revenue this year. Growth in users is one thing, features are another, but bringing in that type of bank puts it light-years ahead of Valley darlings like Twitter.

These are the stories that in one way or another narrated the entire year of innovation in 2011 on the left coast. What were your most memorable moments in Silicon Valley this year? Share them in the comments!

In a comScore study posted today, we are reminded of what we already knew; Facebook is an absolute beast when it comes to cornering people’s time online.

For example, this stat seemed so insane, I thought it was fake at first:

Social networking accounts for nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online in October 2011

Social networking is a hobby of 82 percent of the global Internet population, which sits at around 1.2 billion users. Just a reminder, Facebook has over 800 million users. Facebook most definitely owns social networking.

Stats and Thoughts

In October, Facebook reached more than half (55 percent) of the world’s global audience and accounted for 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world and 3 in every 4 social networking minutes.

Facebook’s users aren’t just loyal, they’re obsessed. These types of numbers show that the features that social network is building have one goal; to keep you on Facebook, and not let you leave. If you take a look at the most recent changes on the site, such as the Ticker and Timeline, they’re built to keep you digging into someone’s profile and content.

In October, Twitter reached 1 in 10 Internet users worldwide, growing 59 percent in the past year.

Facebook’s game is engagement, while Twitter is surging to touch as many people as possible. It’s safe to say that Twitter will never get anywhere close to the engagement numbers that Facebook has, and it doesn’t want them. With its latest redesign, the site is becoming easier to use, as Facebook is becoming more complicated. Twitter is betting that simplicity will win out, and eyeballs for any amount of time is key. The company actually has a shot to get more eyeballs in 2012 than Facebook if it stays focused and keeps being integrated into every mainstream property possible.

People age 55 and older represented the fastest-growing age segment in global social networking usage, increasing nearly 10 percentage points since July 2010 to 80 percent in October 2011.

Have you noticed that it’s not just your friends and college buddies on Facebook anymore? Mom’s using it, grandma’s using it, cousins, uncles, everyone. This will be an interesting trend to watch, because I think that this particular age group will be the one that gets Facebook to 1 billion users.

Survey says? We’re obsessed. Seriously, and in some cases unhealthily, obsessed with social networking.

Will the obsession turn into dollars?

2011 was the year of data collection. Facebook and Twitter have made its services easier to use so you can share more. The sites know a lot about you based on the things you’ve told them, so 2012 will be the year of capitalizing on it.

Facebook will be placing ads in the News Feed next year, and is hoping to collect your clicks and crank up those ad dollars before it goes public. Twitter is planning similar advertising approaches, hoping to capitalize on your obsessive use of the service, with an ad that fits your likes.

We know that ads are coming, but “will they work?” is the true question. Seeing as Google AdWords have done quite well for the company, they probably will.

Why? Because Google was the first online service that people got obsessed with. “Facebooking” is the next “Googling”, and the money will follow. We’re obsessed with TV, too. Advertising on television isn’t what it used to be though, mainly because of the Internet. What are we doing instead of watching TV? We’re on Facebook.

Get the picture? Obsession = $$$.

Soon after Google+ released brand pages, all 30 MLB teams signed up. It looks like the NBA is following that trend, except for one team.

For whatever reason, the New Jersey Nets are the lone NBA team not to have a verified page on Google+. That’s a darn shame for a team partially owned by Jay-Z. Maybe it’s because the team is working on moving to Brooklyn and has no time for Google+. Either that or someone forget to tell them to set up a page.

Regardless, the Google+ team has let us know that you can now circle all of the NBA teams (sans the Nets of course), plus the NBA itself:

In typical Google+ fashion, it has made a big shared circle of NBA properties that you can follow in one click.

The lockout shortened NBA season of 66 games is set to start on Christmas Day.

Just when you thought Facebook owned every form of social networking, someone comes onto Apple’s app store and blows up. Voxer, a walkie-talkie app is currently the #4 top free app on the app store, and the #1 free social networking app.

Wow.

What does Voxer let you do? It’s pretty basic, but extremely well designed. Voxer allows you to create short little voice notes that make the experience similar to chatting back and forth on a walkie-talkie. You can chat one on one or in groups.

E.T. Phone Home

When you open up Voxer, you can log in with your Facebook account to bring up a list of all of your friends who are also Voxer users. While we know that group texting and chat apps were all the rage last year, it seems like Voxer is surging regardless with its turn-based voice note approach.

Just so you know, being the #1 social networking app means Voxer is seeing a ridiculous amount of downloads and new users right now. I reached out to them to see if they’d share some numbers, but haven’t heard back at the time of publishing this piece.

Once you log in, simply tap a friend and record a note:

The app also lets you share photos and chat the old-school text way. Voxer’s success proves that people are still not happy with communicating all of the ways that sites like Facebook, AOL’s AIM, and even the group chat apps have allowed us to. An app that takes a completely different approach like Voxer could see success. Of course, the onboarding of the app completely relies on Facebook’s social graph, but it’s proof that communication hasn’t been nailed by any one company.

Entrepreneurs, keep trying to put your spin on communication. You could top Facebook in social networking and communication as well on the app store. Just because Facebook has 800 million users, doesn’t mean that they own the way everyone communicates.

➤ Voxer

The proliferation of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter come mostly from success stories, and cross-over events with mainstream media. Once CNN started using tweets during live broadcasts, the platform was cemented in our minds as a destination to discover topical trends and real-time conversation. Once Facebook became a strong piece of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, we knew that the social network bohemeth wasn’t going anywhere.

Google+ came along, a little bit late to the game. A lot late, actually. Google’s service has a thing or two up its sleeve, though.

One of those secret weapons is Daria Musk. A musician small in stature, with a powerful voice and a brilliant ability to make a guitar seemingly sing backup to that powerful voice of hers.

How can one person be a secret weapon that could move the masses to take a second or third look at Google+? Masterful use of supporting tools and features, and leveraging a platform that doesn’t pander solely to mainstream celebrities. Google+ is truly a platform where anyone who wants to work hard can succeed. Daria Musk is living proof of that.

The tools

Google, and the Google+ team specifically, have methodically rolled out supporting features, that together revolutionize the way we interact online. Twitter gave us the 140 character brain dump, Facebook gave us the social graph, and Google+ has given us the action engine.

Daria Musk has amassed over 24,000 followers on Google+, using those tools. She released a song called “+1 Me” that catered to users of Google+.

Here’s how she did it:

Google Hangouts

Using the live video platform from Google+, Hangouts, Musk has been able to play hours of live music for an always changing audience. Consider what a musician has to do early on in their career to have even a handful of people listen to them play. Tours all over the U.S., uncomfortable dive bars, singing third and fourth in line to an opening act that nobody has ever heard of, and above all else, lack of money to pull all of this off.

Google Hangouts makes all of this free. Sure, its not the first live video platform, but its the first platform to have a social networking machine behind it. At any given moment of the day, Daria can play a “show” for hundreds of people over a period of an hour. Facebook has an integration with Skype, which only works for one-on-one conversations, and Twitter requires you to tweet out links to followers, with little hope that even a quarter of them will see it.

Photos, Videos, and More

With Google+, Daria Musk is able to share YouTube videos of her performances, share photos from when she did a live Hangout in Washington D.C., and more. The Google+ platform has an uncanny ability to let you embed everything into a stream, without it feeling out-of-place. When I use Facebook and someone pumps outside content into it, it seems like a nuisance to interact with it at times. Google+ has created a beautifully designed platform with all key features fully embedded and seamless.

Google Music

With the announcement of Google Music, and more importantly Artists Hub, Musk now has a platform that she can feed her hard work and newfound following into and actually turn her passion and talents into a career.

Google+ has a long way to go

Google+ still has a long way to go. Since the company doesn’t have to figure out a business model for the platform anytime soon, the team can innovate and listen to its users needs. Twitter is at a crossroads where every feature they introduce has to somehow set up the company for a future revenue stream. Facebook is also making many tweaks to learn more about you to make its ads smarter.

Google+ is clean, focuses on people and content, and has found a hole in the defense of other social networks that it can drive a truck right through. Musk is living proof that Google is building a service around people, which is the smart thing to do. The company is paying attention to usage patterns and success stories like Musk’s, and putting the pedal to the metal on bringing more and more useful features to its forty million plus users.

I talked to Daria Musk about how she got started with Google+, and how the platform has brought her a deal with Taylor guitars and thousands of loving fans who are helping her prepare her first album for Google Music.

Did you catch that last part? Her fans are helping her prepare her first album for sale. There’s probably a good chance that they’ll buy it, don’t you think?

TNW: How did you get started on Google+, and what interested you about it?

Daria Musk: This summer I was lugging my guitar amp through the rain, getting ready to play a dive bar in upstate NY, and my phone started buzzing… It was my big brother who lives out in California, he said, “Hey, do you need an invitation to Google+? Maybe you could be one of the first musicians on there.” I was like, “What’s Google+!? I gotta make sound-check!” Click.

The next day I signed up to Google+ and I saw this feature called the Hangout – A video-chat where you can see and interact with up to 10 people at once. And I thought, maybe I could use this to play a concert without having to lug my amps through the rain!

3 days later, on July 16th, I stood in my little make-shift studio in the woods of Connecticut and clicked start a Hangout at 8pm. And at 8:01pm there was no one there. But just then a face popped in, and another and another and they were from England and Sweden and India and Texas and The Dominican Republic and Portugal… And they said, “So are you going to play?”

That night I saw the sunrise in Norway through a guy named Martin’s screen. I saw little girls in Australia dancing to my songs with the Sunday morning light streaming into my studio when it was still Saturday night here. I got to tour the world in a night, and my heart, life and career were changed forever, in an instant.

TNW: What has surprised you the most about how people are interacting with you and your music?

Daria Musk: I had a wild and improbable dream of one day being a global music artist… My mom had always said, “Pick a dream bigger than a lifetime.” and “Don’t have a fall back, ’cause you’ll fall back on it.” So after singing, writing, practicing, pounding the pavement, paying my dues and believing… The first and most surprising thing was finding myself suddenly looking into the eyes of people from all over the world and seeing them looking back with my same excitement and wide-eyed-WOW!

They’re sitting there, countries and cultures and vast distances apart, but they’re clapping, laughing, dancing, holding up lighters during the ballads, singing my choruses back to me! They started requesting my songs! They helped choose my debut single, “You Move Me” and even sent in recordings of themselves saying the words “You Move Me” in their own native languages… So the intro for my very first single starts with their voices, not mine, saying “You Move Me” in French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Twi, Aramaic, Italian and more!

It’s thrilling and surprising to be a part of building, shaping and co-creating a whole new way of connecting through music that it’s totally inclusive, effortlessly global and moves us so deeply. I just had the honor of giving a TEDtalk (that’s surprising!) and 800 people were on their feet singing along with me and the G+niuses in my Hangout on-screen! The audience was clapping, dancing in the aisles, crying, laughing. Hangouts and music seem to be a game-changing / life-changing combination.

each wonderful interaction surprises me! I’ve been drawn by artists on Google+, I have tweets from people in Chinese, I have articles written in Portuguese, and when I open a Hangout it fills up with people from around the world! It’s wild! :-D

The surprises keep rolling in… and I’m grateful for every single comment, every moment, every shared experience. We’re crashing the music industry party and inviting everyone! :-)

TNW: How long have you been playing and singing?

Daria Musk: I started singing when I was about 9 years old, started playing guitar at 13 when I begged my mama for a baby blue Fender Strat and I started writing songs right away.

TNW: Does Google+ almost replace the need to tour the country with live shows?

Daria Musk: That’s a great question… I think both Hangout Concerts and Live In-Person Shows have really special qualities that are unique to each… I can tell you that I am personally really excited about the idea of fusing the two forums and experimenting with the first ever Hangout Concert Live Tour. Every single stop is a global stop. :-)

I ‘ve also always had a dream of making a global album by traveling to different countries, studying and collaborating with master musicians in each city or village, recording on-site and building the album track by track as I travel… That always seemed completely out of reach, but I held it in my heart all this time. Now I know people in Africa, Spain, Ireland, Norway, England, India, China through Hangouts… I think maybe it’s not such a crazy dream anymore. ;-)

TNW: You once did an 8 hour live show on Hangouts, how was that and how did you not pass out?

Daria Musk: The evolution of doing marathon-long Hangout Concerts happened organically in my first one – The Hangouts only fit in 10 people at once and about an hour into that concert, when I figured maybe it was time to start saying goodbye one person left and the newly opened spot immediately filled with someone saying, “There’s a line around the block to get in here! They’re banging down the door!” Word had spread on Google+ and there was a flood of comments on my page that I hadn’t seen! It’s every artists’ dream to have a line around the block, even if it’s virtual! So I said, “Tell them I’ll keep playing!!” So we started an etiquette of rotating the 9 “front row seats” in the Hangout. That night I played for 6.5 hours. My 2nd concert was 7.5 hours and was streamed live so anyone could watch from “outside”. 9,000 people in 100 countries watched that show live! My 3rd Hangout Concert was streamed live through YouTube Live – which inspired the new Hangouts On Air product by Google – and that night I sang and played for 8hrs straight!

Honestly when I’m interacting with everyone – singing and laughing – I don’t ever want to stop! Luckily I’ve studied with a brilliant vocal coach, Mark Baxter, and because of that training I honestly feel better the longer I sing! I don’t get horse, or sore or wake up grumbly sounding. ;-)

Growing up in small towns where I never really felt like I belonged, I also always daydreamed of finding people I really connected with in the world… I found that in the G+niuses on Google+! So getting to know them and sing for them is the greatest honor of my life! It’s too much fun! Having my dreams come truer and truer in real-time and sharing that feeling with people, it’s like we’re flying! It goes by so fast!

I actually had someone in Europe pop into that concert just before he went to bed and 6 hours later he woke up and on his way to grab breakfast he checked and I was still going! :-)

TNW: What do Hangouts mean to you and your career?

Daria Musk: It means where ever I go, whatever I’m doing, I’ll never be alone. I’ve got at least 10 global friends in my pocket, in my laptop and we get to share this adventure together.

I recetly took my first trip to perform and speak at Google’s Kirkland Offices, for TEDtalks in Seattle and more events in DC – I opened Hangouts everywhere! On the plane, which I’ve dubbed “The Mile High Hangout Club”, in my hotel room with the sun setting on Lake Washington behind me, on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial… I’ve got a brand new travel-sized guitar, the Taylor Guitars GS Mini so I can open up a Hangout anywhere, grab it and sing! :-)

I’m about to release a new single called “I Owe It All”, it started out as a gratitude song to my family for believing in me and supporting me for so long… But it had sat unfinished until my Hangout Concerts this summer. Then a new bridge hit me, the lyrics came so fast I had to scramble to write them down… “Suddenly I’m found in the world that you made, that I live in now. Suddenly I’m heard in the words that you say, so I’ll sing ‘em loud, sing ‘em loud.”

TNW: You’re crowdsourcing the creation of your artists page on Artists Hub, how’s that going?

Daria Musk: It’s been amazing! or amazinG+ as I would say on G+. ;-) So far everyone has helped me pick which photo to use as my main picture on my Google Music Store Artist Page. Although we decided that I should change it often for fun and also that I need new photos… So then some of the most popular and brilliant photographers on Google+ like Trey Ratcliff, Elena Kalis and Thomas Hawk said they’d be happy to do photo shoots with me! I’m so excited!

Another great help was in choosing me “genre” for The Google Music Store. I tend to call my sound “Fierce Joy”, but there was nothing for that in the drop down menu. ;-)

I like to think of my songs as little Trojan Horses… Looks like a pop song… feels like a pop song… just enough to break through the city gates (charts, ears, hearts) but once inside they bust open with melody and world-influences and unique moments and choices… So I thought pop? Nope! The G+niuses were unanimously decided that I should claim Alternative / Indie, and once I read their thougtful amazing comments I realized they were totally right. :-)

TNW: When does your first album drop on Google Music?

Daria Musk: The thing that excites me most about The Google Music Store platform is it’s flexibility and potential to be an instant delivery system for music!
I’m going to think of my Artist Page like a menu at my own restaurant! It can have daily specials, weekly sales, and special seasonal / in-the-moment creations! It will be a perfect platform for the real-time really genuine musical connection I have with people now! If I write a song inspired by a moment we share together I can record it and upload it and they can have it! So I’m planning some really cool exclusive content right away and it will all hit my Artist Page by Tuesday, Nov 22nd!

My debut, The “You Move Me” EP which features, “You Move Me” with the G+nius voices on it and a few other songs will available, along with that brand new gratitude single, “I Owe It All” and (we’ve been working on this all weekend) my first “Live Hangout Album” featuring highlight tracks from my first 3 Hangout Concerts including the laughing, talking and totally heart-busting moments we shared together on those nights! :-)

Google+ can win

With tools and features that don’t take a lot of figuring out or technical knowledge to master, artists like Daria Musk can take control of their own career from A-Z. From selling music, to distribution of music, to serendipitous shared content and searches, and live concerts, Google+ is the only social network that can become a user’s “home”.

Facebook and Twitter are machines where people are small pieces of data that make up the network. Google+ on the other hand focuses on the discovery of people and content, making the people the platform. It’s a huge advantage, and its secret weapon.

If Daria Musk can build a budding music career using the Google+ platform, what can you do with it? You could share educational materials, do live art events, raise money for charity, read poetry, or whatever niche you want to build for yourself. Google+ provides tools that give you limitless capabilities.

Facebook prides itself on astronomical numbers for “time on site”, but since Google has tools like search, YouTube, Music, and now Google+, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one place where everything can come together so seamlessly.

Not to mention, follow someones career trajectory and popularity in a series of Ripples.

Shoot, I can’t even see a tweet from before 7 days ago.

➤ Daria Musk on Google+

Enjoyed this? Read Why your brand should use Google+

If you’ve been under a rock or haven’t been using Twitter or Facebook during the month of November the past few years, there’s a huge movement involving upper lips to fight cancer. It’s called ‘Movember’.

To build awareness about men’s cancer and to raise money, people are invited to grow a moustache every November and share their progress.

From Movember.com:

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

Once registered at www.movember.com, men start Movember 1st clean-shaven. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Today, over one million people have grown a moustache during the month of November to support the Social Good movement, and here are some stats to get you inspired to start if you haven’t already:

Sortable The Hairy Truth About The Moustache. Go to Movember.com and make a donation today.