What’s the problem with Google+, you ask? Primarily it was that they didn’t allow
businesses to  create “fan pages” or even use clever screen names. Can you imagine? In fact, that was my only purpose for wanting to use it in the first place. Ultimately, it was relegated to our social media guru to muddle her way through it. I had insisted for weeks she should give it a shot, but something in her gut kept causing her to resist. Apparently, she already knew more about it than I did, even before she looked at it. Kudos, Theresa.

To be fair, Google has addressed the situation, but probably a little too late. As a competitor to Facebook, it’s probably lost it’s chance. To be sure, I’m a quasi fan of Google, but many of their projects/products are just not fully developed and succeed only because they have certain elements of appeal which actually cause people to learn to live with their limitations.  As more people use them their end user support forums grow, and more tools can be added to whatever application is popular. Gmail is a great example. I use it. It’s not as feature rich as some others and can be cumbersome to navigate, but it has plenty of great qualities that causes me to muddle through it and make it do what I want.

The same is not true of Social Media, and I’m afraid Google is just out of their league. Simply offering an “alternative” to Facebook, is not a compelling enough reason to force extreme users of Facebook to abandon all their albums, friends, groups, etc..

As well, excluding businesses in the initial run ran off many would be users, probably by the millions. That’s just not smart. Ultimately, I think will continue to be a major influence in the search industry. But, I don’t really see them transforming that success into a Social Media behemoth any time in the near or far future.

Among the 10% of Americans who own tablet computers, the proportion of app-downloaders rises to 75%, reflecting the heightened appeal of apps on the devices’ larger screens. About a third (34%) use apps both on mobile phones and tablets. But the study notes that having apps and using them are not the same thing.

Among those with apps on their phones, roughly half (51%) use a handful of apps at least once a week, while 17% report using no apps on a regular basis.  Almost a third (31%) are app “power users” — meaning that they use six or more apps weekly. When it comes to tablet users, 39% report using six or more apps on a weekly basis, while just 8% report using no apps regularly on the device.

In terms of content, the survey asked whether users had ever downloaded nine different types of apps. The most popular were those that provide regular updates about everyday topics such as news, weather, sports, or stocks (74%). That category was followed by apps that help people communicate with friends and family (67%) and ones that help people learn about subjects of interest (64%).

The Pew report noted that games continue to be the most popular apps in terms of use in the last 30 days, according to Nielsen’s quarterly mobile survey. The research firm also found that downloaders were more willing to pay for game apps than any other category.

The willingness to pay for apps has not changed much in the last year or so. The Pew study revealed overall that about half (46%) of downloaders had paid for an app at some point – about the same proportion as the 47% who said the same in a May 2010 survey.

The profile of those most likely to pay for apps are affluent, college-educated men age 30 and older, living in cities. The demographics of app downloaders more broadly is similar, and remains much the same since 2009. However, the gap between men and women has since decreased.

Despite the rapidly growing uptake of apps, the Pew report concluded that downloading and use are still fairly low, given the range of activities that people engage in on their phones.

“It’s too early to know whether by providing instant, direct connections to information, apps are a game changer,” said study author Kristin Purcell in a statement. “While they are a significant departure from search engines and web browsers, the basic needs apps meet are not revolutionary.”

The results come from a survey conducted from July 25-August 26 among 2,260 adults 18 and over, including surveys in English and Spanish and on both landline and cell phones. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus two percentage points.