Google Researcher Looks at Real Friends vs. Facebook Friends - Digits - WSJ

I suspect this level of presentation publicity is potentially perplexing to Paul Adams, but it will also help to raise awareness of his forthcoming book

With competition heating up between Google and Facebook for viewers, a presentation with tidbits like “the word friends is unhelpful” and “If you give someone’s information more exposure than they expect, you may be violating that person’s sense of privacy” seems ripe for stoking rivalry.

But. Mr. Adams also criticizes Google’s chat feature, which like other services lumps contacts into one group. And he has been talking about this type of social-networking research for months on his personal blog, Think Outside In. His posts and the presentation address developers who might be designing social-networking products, giving them tips on what to think about.

Google also played down talk of the report as a guide to its plans, telling Digits that the presentation simply represents some of the “industry trends and observations” that researchers routinely discuss.

Google Researcher Looks at Real Friends vs. Facebook Friends - Digits - WSJ