Netpop quotes from the article:

"Google+ offers enhanced privacy controls and productivity tools via Hangouts and screen-sharing capabilities that all businesses can benefit from," Josh Crandall, principal analyst at Netpop Research, told the E-Commerce Times. "The service should be considered a social network for increased productivity rather than simply a social network."

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But not everyone is buying the findings.

“The jury’s still out on the effectiveness of Facebook Ads,” Josh Crandall, principal analyst at Netpop Research told redOrbit. “Our analysis is inconclusive at this point, but it seems that consumers are more focused on the news stream than the right column of the screen.”

Given that Facebook is looking to prove that it has a value to retailers it will likely continue to tweak its efforts.

“Facebook is still developing its ad model to see what sticks,” added Crandall.

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"Google's new feature helps shift the conversation from 'technical glitch' to 'government sensitivity,'" said Josh Crandall, principal analyst at Netpop Research. "While it's difficult to offer clear paths around the Great Firewall to information about censored terms, at least now, users will see the difference between a term that's been censored and an actual technical problem."

"This may offer savvy Internet users in China a new opportunity to game the government system to censor information," Netpop's Crandall told TechNewsWorld. "But more importantly for Google, it provides a solution to creating the best search experience possible in a highly regulated environment."

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Although it is legal, this puts a bad face forward for potential investors and even users of the social network.

"Regardless of the legality of sharing inside information with institutional investors, this story is another example of how Facebook overlooks the importance of winning the affinity of the individual investor -- the regular guy," Josh Crandall of Netpop Research told the E-Commerce Times.

"People stop and ask themselves whether they can trust this company to look out for their needs and interests," he said. "From a long view, whether Facebook meets a quarter's revenue expectations isn't nearly as important as the negative impact this episode has on Facebook's brand."

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While Pinterest is more than just images, image is still everything. This plays into the fact that the web has become so much more visual.

"Nobody wants to read anymore," said Josh Crandall, principal analyst at Netpop Research.

"Pinterest does a great job capitalizing on the ease of sharing pictures and categorizing interests on the Web," he pointed out. "As Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has proven, brands that associate with fashion, high design, and function succeed in the marketplace. Pinterest offers advertisers the opportunity to participate, and even encourage users to collaborate in image advertising."

Pinterest could expand beyond social networking and give the current search giants some competition.

"Companies vying for a share of users' attention, like Facebook and Google+, or image search, like Bing and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), will be concerned with the rapid growth of Pinterest," Crandall told the E-Commerce Times. "They are creating a destination that gets more interesting and time-consuming by the moment. It's a valuable database that users will think about first for images on the Web."

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"The big question is whether the company will be able to create a brand that users appreciate," said Josh Crandall, principal analyst of Netpop Research.

There are also those lagging privacy and security concerns.

"Will Facebook continue to undermine users' trust by exposing what they read, watch or listen to to their friends without explicit approval?" wondered Crandall.

"Does my friend even realize that I know they read '5 Reasons Why She Isn't Attracted To You' in The Washington Post? For me, this reflects poorly on Facebook and reduces my affinity for their brand," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Facebook has an advantage in that the lessons of past dot-com burnouts can be easily recalled, even if the general public has a short memory for such things. This could work to Facebook's benefit.

"Facebook will need to adapt as users become more savvy with social media," emphasized Crandall. "Consumer memories are short, and the mistakes that Facebook has made will fade quickly."

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While Yahoo has had a run of negative media attention, the fact is that it is still a powerful company.

"It's amazing that through all of the bumps and bruises, Yahoo is still the fourth-largest Internet property in the world," said Josh Crandal, principal analyst of NetPop Research.

"People who rely on Yahoo continue to use Yahoo because it is what they know," he told the E-Commerce Times. These aren't your tech fanboys, but rather average users who don't particularly care for technology , and it's very hard to change these users' behavior. They are loyal to Yahoo, and management needs to serve their needs first."

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"There isn't much to the FTC investigation," said Josh Crandall of Netpop Research. "The timing is unfortunate for Facebook, but the FTC is only following routine policy. This is just a blip on the screen."

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"Media coverage plays a big part in consumer attention towards privacy controls," Josh Crandall of Netpop Research told TechNewsWorld. "Consumers must be aware of how companies and the government store and use personal information. From civil liberties to the companies we decide to rely on, the issue of privacy will become more pronounced as we continue to shift our lives online."

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Facebook alone enjoys broad adoption across age groups and genders, reports Netpop research. As MarketingProfs described the findings, “Other social media sites do not have such ubiquitous appeal."

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