Google+

I haven't mentioned any new Web developments much recently. That's mainly because everything I've come across was just too sad to share - even for me! But now Google+ has arrived and it might just change things a bit.
Google+ is Google's attempt to muscle in on Facebook's action. The big selling point is that with Facebook you only have one category of contacts-you have to call everyone 'friends'. So everyone gets equal billing. Your sister, wife and some bloke you met once at a party 8 years ago who you got on with quite well are now all 'friends'.

Google+ offers more flexibility. You can customise different areas of your Google+ homepage and keep different areas of your social life separate. So, in theory you could even use it to organise yourself around projects which require groupwork. And that area could be just for academic information sharing. It's all in the very early stages but I wouldn't be surprised if you see lots of changes on Facebook in the next 6 months as they decide to steal lots of Google's features. That's what usually happens.

If you feel like learning a bit more about it, Rory Cellan-Jones is the technology correspondent for the BBC and he wrote a succinct piece about Google+ yesterday. Alternatively, there are already 1000's of video reviews on YouTube.