This is the first a new regular series of posts here at the Private Business Owner that will, quite simply, round up compelling and informative links from around the web that are germane to the topics written about and discussed on this site.
Let’s get right to it.
The latest rage on the Internet is Google’s new social networking platform Google+. The question is, how urgent is it for you to get involved? The answer: the long-term prospects are still unclear, but user adoption is not taking long.
Google+ Users: 20 Million by the Weekend? — PC Magazine
If the Google+ invites keep flowing, the search giant’s social-networking site could reach 10 million users by day’s end and 20 million by the end of the weekend, according to Tuesday analysis.
Google+, Digital Sneetches and Getting Real Value From A New Tool — Forbes
Self-promotion is a necessary element of social media. In an environment where millions of voices clamor for the audience’s attention, some level of eagerness to drive people to your sites and raise awareness of your name is almost mandatory for anyone wishing to be seen as an influential thinker or to generate business from their social media content. But there is a significant difference between drawing attention to one’s work and calling attention to one’s own perceived importance. The former is a requirement of doing social business; the latter is an embarrassing and pointless display of ego.
High oil prices widen U.S. trade gap to $50.2bn — Financial Times
The US trade deficit jumped to its highest level since October 2008 in May, as higher oil prices lifted imports and exports fell back from a record high.
U.S. May Job Openings and Labor Turnover Report — Bloomberg
There were 3.0 million job openings on the last business day of May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The hires rate (3.1 percent) and separations rate (3.1 percent) were again little changed over the month. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region.
Spanish banks more vulnerable that Italy’s — Wall Street Journal
If any doubt remained over how closely Europe’s sovereign and banking crises are intertwined, the latest contagion has laid the linkages bare.
Shares in Italian and Spanish banks have slumped as their governments’ debt costs soar; many now trade below their post-Lehman lows. But while Italy’s banks are a binary bet on a euro-zone solution to its debt crisis, Spain’s banking woes are more fundamental.
And here is a non-business article that is nonetheless interesting:
Alcohol and cancer: Is any amount of drinking really safe? — LA Times
In a piece published Monday, Paule Latino-Martel, a cancer researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, and co-authors argued that many countries’ alcohol consumption guidelines — which typically define a moderate, “sensible” level of drinking designed to help consumers drink safely — fail to take into account long-term risks associated with drinking.
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