Difference between Google + , facebook and twitter

In my eyes, Google+ and Facebook are way more similar than you could expect. After playing around for a couple of hours, to me Google+ is “Facebook with a twist”. Circles is a nice twist, hangout is kind of chatroulette among friends and so on. But at first sight, there are 2 major differences between Google+ and Facebook that I don’t really understand.

A) Asynchronous Adding
Unlike Facebook, you can add people without their permission. On Facebook, a relation is always mutual. I have to permit someone to add me. On Twitter, it is different. I can follow someone without him following me. On Google plus, it is more complicated. I can follow someone’s public updates and add the user to my circles without their permission – and therefore publish into their streams (as far as I understood it).

 

Probably this just makes it easier to get a network going – and the more friends you have (and just added without their permission), the more lively your stream is from the very beginning. But you can even add people that are not on Google+, and the chat keeps showing me my parents as available – the two people on earth from which I can absolutely guarantee they will not be in this network. And I remember how many people were really upset about being part of Google Buzz without really knowing it, so… I wonder what Google considered a take-away from this lesson.

B) No Fanpage Product
I don’t know why Google wouldn’t start with a fanpage-like product. Celebrities and brands bring great content into a network, and were one of the drivers to growth of MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, so we could say to modern social networks in general. Therefore, I have problems to understand this. Fanpages as such are asynchronous in the above mentioned sense, so with adding the way Google+ offers it, any company could go in and just add a million people. Which would be very strange. Keen to see if Google cooked up a special solution for this.

Circles, Sparks etc. are differences as well, but in my eyes nothing “structural” but just interface and mini-application differences. The deep android integration is an edge, but nothing a Facebook app couldn’t copy.

With link-sharing enabled just like in Facebook, Google might gain back some of the referral traffic market that they already lost to Facebook, and you can “+1” shared links which will also show up in the search engine. There are already numerous ways to import your Facebook friends and synchronize Google+ updates with FB or Twitter, the easiest ones through Chrome extensions. Although it is way too early to predict Google+ chances of success, I am struggling to see the conceptual or strategic rationale behind these two decisions mentioned above. Any thoughts?

Positions in Football

To get a sense of the tactics involved in football, you’ll need to understand the various positions on the pitch and the specifics of certain areas. Having a playmaker or a holding midfielder can dramatically influence a particular team’s style of play, so clue yourself up:

Gordon Banks

Goalkeeper

Permitted to handle the ball in his/her team’s penalty area, but also uses skills like punching to prevent the other team scoring. Identifiable by a uniquely coloured jersey.

Notable goalkeepers

• Lev Yashin (Russia)
• Peter Schmeichel (Denmark)
• Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
• Gordon Banks (England)

Central defender/Centre-half

Starting out on the edge of his/her team’s penalty area, the central defender’s role is to protect the goalkeeper and, by implication, the goal. There are typically two central defenders in a team, but some formations utilise three.

Bobby Moore

Notable central defenders

• Paolo Maldini (Italy)
• Bobby Moore (England)
• Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)

Franco Baresi

Sweeper/Libero

The sweeper or libero (meaning ‘free’) is an exceptional position which is seen irregularly today. The role of the sweeper is basically to act as an all-purpose defender who responds to any breach of the defensive line. As the last line of defence, he also initiates counter-attacks by bringing the ball out of the penalty area, thus necessitating some of the skills of the midfielder like passing, close control and dribbling.

Special mention must be made of Franz Beckenbauer. ‘Der Kaiser’ was captain of the World Cup winning West German side in 1974 and is today widely credited as the inventor of the sweeper position.

Notable sweepers

• Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)
• Franco Baresi (Italy)

Roberto Carlos

Fullback/Wingback

Although basically holding the same starting position, on the left and right of each central defenders respectively, the difference between the fullback and the wingback is the latter’s willingness to move forward and support attacks. This is achieved either by running with the ball or ‘overlapping’ the winger (running ahead) to add width to an attack. However, both positions necessitate strong defensive skills and the coaches Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho have been proponents in the modern era of strictly defensive full-backs.

Notable fullbacks/wingbacks

• Cafu (Brazil)
• Roberto Carlos (Brazil)
• Javier Zanetti (Argentina)
• Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy)

Central midfielder

Situated in arguably the most important area of the field, the central midfielder’s task is to provide support to both defenders and attacks. Such is the complexity of the position, it can be split into sub-categories which indicate unique defensive or offensive responsibilities:

Gilberto Silva

Defensive midfielder/Holding midfielder

The defensive midfielder sits just behind the centre circle and is primarily required to break down opposition attacks and augment the defense. However, because he is often in possession of the ball when the opponent has committed players to an attack, the defensive midfielder also initiates his team’s own attacks.

Notable defensive midfielders

• Gilberto Silva (Brazil)
• Dunga (Brazil)
• Claude Makélélé (France)

Xabi Alonso

Playmaker

The playmaker can be found in the same area as the defensive midfielder but this is to enable better protection for the player himself, whose role is to influence his side’s attacking game. Comparable to a sweeper in midfield, the playmaker takes advantage of the extra support to spray passes up to the attackers and instigate quick offense.

A typical benchmark for the position is Spain’s Josep Guardiola, credited for developing the modern conception of a ‘playmaker’ as part of Johan Cruyff’s famous ‘Dream Team’ Barcelona side in the early-1990s.

Notable playmakers

• Josep Guardiola (Spain)
• Andrea Pirlo (Italy)
• Cesc Fabregas (Spain)
• Xabi Alonso (Spain)

Roy Keane & Patrick Vieira

’Box to box’ midfielder

A true all-rounder, the ‘box to box’ midfielder is so called because he plays his football at both ends of the field, literally filling in everywhere. Usually in possession of exceptional stamina with remarkable defensive and offensive skills, the position is typically associated with the Premiership, where most of the great modern players have flourished.

Notable ‘box to box’ midfielders

• Patrick Vieira (France)
• Roy Keane (Republic of Ireland)
• Steven Gerrard (England)

Pelé

Attacking midfielder/‘Hole’ player

The attacking midfielder is situated in the space between the midfield and the strikers, directly influencing the attack high up in the field. Attacking midfielders are often called on to fill in as forwards due to their potency in front of goal.

Vital to the development of the ‘hole’ player was the impact of Pelé, considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the game. From a forward position and as an attacking midfielder, he scored an incredible 1087 goals in 1120 games for the Brazilian side Santos and 77 goals in 92 games for the national side (in the process leading Brazil to two World Cup victories in 1962 and 1970 respectively).

Notable attacking midfielders

• Pelé (Brazil)
• Kaká (Brazil)
• Michel Platini (France)
• Zico (Brazil)

Cristiano Ronaldo

Winger

Like their defensive equivalents, there are two wingers in a side, starting on both touchlines alongside the central midfielders. Their tasks include pressurising the opposition fullbacks, attacking from wide positions and providing crosses into the box. However, as the position has developed, wingers have increasingly been called on to score goals, as they have the chance to run from deep positions and cause problems for defenders. The result has been the erosion of the old style of wingers like Stanley Matthews, who hugged the touchline, and an explosion of wingers who play much of their football closer to the centre of the pitch.

Notable wingers

• Garrincha (Brazil)
• SirStanley Matthews (England)
• Robert Pires (France)
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Alan Shearer

Striker/Centre forward

The goal of the striker is exactly that; goals. Forward players start out just behind the opponent’s penalty area, with the number varying from one to three. However, there are subtle differences in the style of striker:

Target man

The target man plays his football in the penalty area and acts as a focal point for attacks. They are typically good ‘poachers’ (meaning they are opportunistic) and headers of the ball, but rely on chances made by the midfield.

Notable target men

• Ronaldo (Brazil)
• Gerd Müller (Germany)
• Alan Shearer (England)

Withdrawn striker/Deep-lying forward

Much like the offside rule, the withdrawn striker is one of the hardest things to explain yet also one of the most important, being the position of some of the greatest players in football history. It is roughly defined as a forward player with both goalscoring and creative abilities, often tending towards the latter. Popularised by Ferenc Puskás, the creative hub of the great Hungary side in the 1940s and 1950s, it gained further repute due to Diego Maradona (indeed, the term ‘Number Ten’ to define this position refers to Maradona’s shirt number for Argentina). Such is the peculiarity of the position that the chosen tag differs from country to country, being known as the trequartista in Italy, the ‘Number Ten’ in South America and the ‘9 and a half’ in France. However, most of the greatest teams in the game have revolved around this type of player.

Roberto Baggio

Notable withdrawn strikers

• Pelé (Brazil)
• Diego Maradona (Argentina)
• Ferenc Puskás (Hungary)
• Johan Cruyff (Netherlands)
• Dennis Bergkamp (Netherlands)
• Roberto Baggio (Italy)

N.B. Pelé also played as a striker for Brazil and Santos.

BY : HARMANJEET SINGH 

SRC: http://www.talkfootball.co.uk

Top 10 PC Games of 2011

The Witcher 2 

The Witcher thrust you into the role of Geralt, last of his kind--a Witcher. Genetically engineered and trained in the deadliest skills, a Witcher's task is do do battle against supernatural creatures

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The latest addition to the Elder Scrolls universe is expected to elevate the series to new heights. Featuring a brand new engine, Skyrim is shedding the poorly aged GameBryo. 

Players enter the role of the Dragonborn, an individual prophesied to take on the Sons of Skyrim, an army not unlike the Vikings of old. If you're wondering where Skyrim happens to be, it lies somewhere to the north of Cyrodiil in TES4: Oblivion. 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Fans of Deus Ex may be bemoaning it's recently announced delay, but the game remains highly anticipated nonetheless. Set decades before the events of the first game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel that promises to reinvigorate the cyberpunk setting and the Deus Ex franchise.

Rage

Coming from the godfathers of the FPS genre, Rage is set to be one of the most anticipated titles of 2011. Rage features expansive open world combat and even racing in its dusty post-apocalyptic setting that seems inspired by a Firefly motif. 

Portal 2

Unlike the cake, Portal 2 is no lie. Though, I suppose you could argue that there was a cake at the end of it all, but Chell never got to eat it. Slated for a Q1 2011 release, Portal 2 promises to contain over 9 hours of gameplay and two separate campaigns--one of which is cooperative for two players. 

Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 takes place a continent away from the first game. No longer in Ferelden, you take on the role of Hawke (who's either male or female, based on your choosing) and his/her rise to fame as the defender of Kirkwall. 

Mass Effect 3

Shepard's back. And so are the Reapers. Recently revealed at the terrible Video Game Awards on Spike, Mass Effect 3 depicts Earth besieged by an armada of Reapers, and the only hope of humankind's survival depends on Commander Shepard.

Diablo 3

Like Shepard, Diablo's back, too. But he's been gone for a much longer time. He might have been killed in the first two games, but there's little doubt that he's returned in some new form. It's probably that flaming iguana-looking thing in the trailer. But I digress. 

Dead Space 2

As if the first game wasn't scary enough with its monstrous dead babies and the protagonist's creepy girlfriend Nicole, Isaac Clarke is suited up again to take on even more undead nightmares, this time aboard the highly populated space station of Sprawl, plunged into chaos by the same outbreak of violence that occurred aboard the now derelict ISS Ishimura. 

Guild Wars 2

The first Guild Wars redefined the MMORPG genre with its free to play set up and competitive leagues. With a tightly knit cooperative gameplay experience, Guild Wars went above and beyond what most pay-to-play MMORPGs (with a few exceptions) accomplished. 

Posted by : Harman

Rankings by : gameranx