Awesome Feature: Google Plus Lets You Lock Your Photo Albums

Google Plus has added new photo privacy options that allow you to lock your albums so that even photos you share with only a few people or circles can't be shared again or made public.

"We're always trying to make Google+ a safer and more comfortable place to share your photo memories," wrote Matt Steiner, lead engineer for Google+ Photos.

Lock your photos by going to the "photos" section of your Google+ account. Under "your albums" you can see who has access to the photos under the album's title. You can modify who or which circle can see these photos and/or lock up photos you don't want others to see... 

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Find My iPhone App Locates Chilean Plane Crash Site

When a Chilean Air Force plane crashed on Sept. 2 near the Juan Fernandez islands, killing all 21 on board, search and rescue teams were unable to locate the plane's wreckage until a victim's family member used Apple's Find My iPhone app and shared the information with officials, according to Gizmodo.

"One of the passengers carried [an iPhone]. When it fell into the sea, it was located and one of the relatives sent us that information," a military official reportedly said.

Initially, an emergency beacon believed to be from the plane was found on Saturday, Sept. 3, but actually...

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Not Impressive: Twitter Finally Hits 100M Monthly Active Users -- Still Way Behind Facebook

[ Photo by Jennifer Lee via creative commons license. ]

Twitter now has 100M monthly active users -- 50M+ users daily --  worldwide, according to a Twitter blog post. 

Facebook, on the other hand, reached 100M monthly active users back in December 2009. Currently, Facebook has roughly 375M+ active users daily -- more than half of the users Twitter has monthly, according to Facebook statistics.

Considering that Facebook is the fastest growing site ever, nothing is successful compared to Facebook. Still, Twitter is the 15th most visited website worldwide, according to Google statistics. 

Facebook -- launched in 2004 -- has 750M+ users on the platform, while Twitter -- launched in 2006 -- has 200M+ users.

While the majority of Twitter's active users both tweet and read the timeline for newsworthy updates, 40% of them simply...

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Google Buys Zagat, Will Keep Brand and Subscription Model

Google has made one of its biggest content acquisitions to date by buying trusted restaurant-review publisher Zagat for an undisclosed amount. Google sources tell LAUNCH it will keep the Zagat brand and Zagat's subscription content model intact.

"We have spent enough time with Google senior management to know that they fully share our belief in user-generated content, and our commitment to accuracy and fairness in providing consumers with the information necessary to make smart decisions about where to eat, travel and shop," explained Nina and Tim Zagat, the company founders, in a post on Zagat.com.

In 2009, Google wanted to buy Yelp...

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Echoecho App Lets Friends Find Each Other Fast, Secures $750K in Seed Funding

WHAT: App that lets friends easily find each other and the shows them coffee shops, bars and restaurants where they can meet. Users can ask anyone in their address book, "Where Are You?" in one click. The friend can click "reply" to share their location or "ignore" to keep their location private.

Friends can use the map to select a location anywhere in world to meetup and use the app's chat function to discuss where they want to go. Users can share their location and find friends who have not downloaded the app with the web version of Echoecho or via SMS.

Available on four platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Symbian. Echoecho will launch on WP7 at the end of September.

Short-term, real-time tracking for continuous location updates, groups and tablet functionality are in the works.

LAUNCHERS: Nick Bicanic, CTO. Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar, Head of Product.

WHY: People always want to know where their friends are, but texting back-and-forth about where to meet can be time consuming. People want to find friends with the least amount of effort possible. Check-in apps tell you where you friends were -- not where they are.

WHEN/WHERE: Sept. 8, 2011/ Los Angeles and London.

BACKSTORY: “I was in a situation where I couldn’t find a friend of mine and it frustrated me that...

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