It's been awhile since we've checked in on the progress of Google's Google+ social network lately, but the recent 1-2 punch of events functionality and mobile caught my eye this week. Google+ events, announced during the recent Google I/O event, integrates Google calendar invites with the Google+ service and allows a constantly updating "Party Mode" where event photos and info can stream live (see video).

Pretty cool, right? The bad news came when users realized that they could inundate anyone on Google+ with invites, including say...Wil Wheaton. According to this post on ITProPortal, "In response to complaints from actor Wil Wheaton, Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of social, promised in a Google+ comment to fix the problem. 'We should have contemplated and anticipated how people would abuse this and how painful this could be for celebrities with large followings,' Gundotra wrote."

It remains to be seen weather the bad experience will overshadow the benefits of the new service. Meanwhile, Google+ was also announcing Google its first optimized version of Google+ for tablets. According to PC Mag, the new version "leverages the larger screen size of such devices for richer, fuller presentation of the Google+ stream, face-to-face video chatting, and media playback. ...The features in Google+ for tablets are actually being included in an updated version of Google+ for smartphones that's also immediately available." And according to the Google Developers Blog "the Google+ platform for mobile, in early developer preview... includes mobile web optimized social plugins and Google+ SDK for iOS and Android (coming soon). With these new SDKs, you can integrate Google+ identity, sharing, and history into your mobile apps to create more engaging social experiences and connect with more users."


Elsewhere in Mobile, CMO of Denny’s Inc Frances Allen is encouraging mobile marketers to “be real in real time” when it comes to July 4th marketing on Forbes. MarketingProfs reminded us of the power of mobile websites with this infographic: 10 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile Site. And we got excited about the power of “Showrooming” with IBM's SmartPlanet writing "Why (and how) retailers should embrace ’showrooming’" and Mediapost noting that "Millennials Consider Mobile The Must-Have Shopping Companion."  Hopefully retailers are staying cool with their users this 4th of July with some innovative mobile campaigns - let us know if you've seen any worth a second look!

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Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a specialization in marketing. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com