Awwkward.

The service is still new, and quite obviously skews tech heavy, so once more invites open up we’re sure that Google celeb favorites like Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber who dominate Facebook and Twitter will kick the geeks out of the top 10 on Google+ as well. And really, if Google+ is going to be a Facebook (or Twitter) killer, that will be the surest sign of future potential.

Though having your primary competitor sign up to see what’s going on isn’t a bad sign either.

Photo credit: LinkedIn/ NYSE Euronext/ Valerie Caviness

LinkedIn began trading under the LNKD ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange today, pricing its IPO at $45 per share – the high end of the range expected by investors. That would have given the company a $4.5 billion market cap on $243 million in net revenue in 2010, but that’s not where the price has settled. Jumping as much as 173% above that $45 share price, the stock is currently trading north of $106 and has gone as high as $122.70 today.

When we outlined the reasons why RenRen would never be a Facebook equivalent, most commentators were convinced that we’d missed something that would make the Chinese social network an indicator of the market viability of social networking sites as a whole. We didn’t.

The simple fact is that RenRen has a number of challenges to overcome before becoming a good indicator of the viability of social networking companies in general, and in the days after their IPO the share price corrected to reflect that.

Today’s explosive open for LinkedIn has had a positive effect for RenRen though: for the first time in a week, RenRen is trading above it’s $14 opening price again. While we still think there’s some long term value in RenRen – particularly for partnerships – we think LinkedIn has a far better chance of being the other social network stock that defines the sector (Facebook, of course, being the primary one whenever they IPO).

Here’s why:

There will be even more debate as to whether LinkedIn is worth its share price: Google’s current market cap is approximately 6x 2010 revenue, LinkedIn’s current market cap is 42x 2010 revenue, but compared to RenRen’s share price – currently 74x 2010 revenue – it’s downright easy to reconcile.

If you have an idea for the next Facebook and are thinking of turning to crowd funding to get things started, under current Securities and Exchange Commission rules you’d actually run into lots of big problems for all those small issues of shares. It’s part of the reason platforms like Kickstarter don’t give supporters actual shares or ownership in projects. Good news though, the SEC is considering relaxing the rules around crowd funding to make actual investment less onerous for companies who’d prefer to take small amounts of funding from lots of investors (rather than large amounts of funding from individual investors). {WSJ via VentureBeat}

Fashion startups have been able to make crowd funding work largely through pre-orders, rather than actual investments, and Kickstarter’s most successful project to date was largely based on providing a platform for a large demand of pre-orders on a product. So while it’s always good to see a government body keeping pace with the times, we have to wonder if a startup without a physical product would actually be able to find enough investors to make crowdfunding a viable alternative to angel or professional investors.

The SEC is still in the early stages of considering any rule changes, and the chance of fraud is a big reason. While individual investments might be limited to $100, or something relatively small and unlikely to cause severe financial damage to crowd funders, there’s also some caution surrounding easing regulations given how easy it is for scams to spread online.

It’s not so far out there to think that “we’re creating the next Google, and for only $100 you can become a millionaire!” emails would start to replace those from deposed dictators who offer millions if you’ll only cash a large check for them and wire the balance.

Good news! You could win one of 10,000 pairs of jeans from the Gap by going on Facebook. The social network announced Wednesday that, with the help of a forthcoming Facebook app that will be similar to Foursquare, thousands of shoppers will receive free jeans for visiting Gap stores. The first 10,000 people to “check in” on a designated day will be the winners. {Fashionista}

Privacy - increasingly difficult to find on Facebook, but look at the positive side: you'll get free jeans or 40% off in exchange!

Shoppers will have to physically be inside a Gap store to “check in,” and those who are not one of the first 10,000 but “check in” anyway will receive a 40 percent discount on a pair of Gap jeans. To put this in perspective, the Gap has just over 3,000 retail locations worldwide, so about three pairs of jeans will be given away at each store. {The Cut}

It looks like the folks at the Gap are trying to wash the logo change fiasco taste out of the publicâ€s mouth, but apparently this is just one of many forthcoming giveaways and promotions Facebook will participate in. The Web site is gearing up to launch a “deals” program, which will be very similar to Foursquareâ€s “deals” program, whereby checking in at certain businesses earns you discounts for that business.

We absolutely love hearing about all the creative ways social media is being used for business purposes, and who doesnâ€t enjoy free stuff? It is a little creepy, though, to think about people “checking in” with Facebook – much like someone would check in with their spouse or boss at various points throughout the day. Then again, it does seem as if creepy has become Facebookâ€s middle name (anyone want to create a petition to change the name to Stalkbook?).

Location based social media has also already shown security risks, with one man reporting last May that his home was burglarized when he updated Twitter while on vacation, thus announcing the vacancy of his house. {azcentral} Facebook has an insecure login process that is not helping security matters, and a new Firefox plugin has made it easy to grab user logins over insecure wi-fi connections. {Valleywag}

In short, if you’re checking into your local Gap (or anywhere else) over a free wi-fi connection, there is a good chance that the busy-looking guy sitting on the nearby bench can see your password. While it might not seem like a big deal that a stranger can access your friends list, or that you’re a fan of cheese, if you use the same password for other accounts – like your email address or online banking - it can easily become a goldmine of information for stores in addition to online criminals and pranksters.

In case you’re still too enticed by the free stuff, weâ€ll be sure to keep you updated when a date is set for the Gap giveaway.

It looks like some of the rumors regarding iTunes that came out close to the event on Wednesday were true.  Apple has turned it’s attention to social networking, and has built it right into iTunes, making it almost impossible for many to avoid.

The new social network is called Ping, and it seeks to draw you together with your friends, favorite musicians and strangers through music.  To do this, Apple added Ping as a tab in the iTunes app for desktops as well as iOS devices.  The design of the service takes a few cues from Facebook, but also works in the realm of iTunes.  You can comment on any items in your news feed, as well as “Like” anything on the feed and albums on iTunes.  On your profile you can choose three genres that you enjoy (though unfortunately it follows the iTunes store model, so there’s no choices for techno, metal or indie, just to name a few), and it can show a collection of eight tops songs.  Those top songs don’t have to be there, Ping can choose them for you, or you can choose them.  If Ping chooses the songs for you, it only selects them based on songs you bought from iTunes. {Apple}

Therein lies the biggest fault of Ping: it doesn’t really take into account people who buy music from other services.  You might want to share your music with friends, but if you buy music off Amazon MP3, BeatPort, or even (gasp!) physical media, you need to go through extra steps to share it on Ping.

Ping does seem to address a problem that exists: sharing music with your friends.  It doesn’t always work through other social networks like Facebook or Twitter, nor in person.  Ping helps bring your music social network right next to where (Apple hopes) you buy your music.  At least it brings it to where you probably store your music, even if you pirate all of it.

Twitter, the one social network that most people love to make fun of before they join it, has always had a problem explaining exactly why people would want to tweet.  There’s always the allure of finding out what others are saying on the site easily, but not everyone feels the need or actually wants to tweet themselves.  Twitter has finally launched a way to simply follow users without having to sign-up.

The service is called “Fast Follow,” and it lets anyone follow any Twitter user by simply sending a text message to 40404 reading “follow [username].”  You’ll then get that user’s tweets sent right to your cell phone, no signup required.  Twitter is encouraging people to use it to follow brand names they see in everyday life, though its likely Fast Follow would also be used for following celebrities or other public figures. {Mashable}

This is actually a smart move that could potentially cut down on the number of passive Twitter users, who join and maybe tweet once or twice, but use the service to keep up with what people are saying. As it stands, 73% of accounts have less than 10 tweets. {CNN Money}

Or, perhaps it could serve as a way for pre-teen girls to follow every move Justin Bieber makes without having to actually use the service themselves.  It would probably get a bit unwieldy to use Fast Follow with a lot of users, but Twitter does allow users to stop following tweets from particular people at any time by sending “off [username].” {Twitter}

It might not do much for getting more people to tweet, but the option to respond is always there. If nothing else, Twitter has become more popular than feed reader services, and easier for more people to use. Next generation RSS service may not have been Twitter’s goal, but it’s not a bad end result.

So far, Buzz has its proponents – according to one TechCrunch headline “If Google Wave Is The Future, Google Buzz is the Present” – as well as its detractors – according to Microsoft, a completely unbiased source of course, it’s just “another social network.”

Image of Google Buzz from TechCrunch

But what’s the real answer? We all know that Google’s past endeavors into social have been, well, less than stellar (Orkut, OpenSocial, even – if you want to count it – the enigmatic Wave) and that, when it comes down to it, Facebook stubbornly reigns supreme . The question is: will the average user be drawn to Buzz (like bees to honey?) or just ignore it as a dull, unnecessary drone?

As far as we’re concerned, Buzz has two great things going for it, but it also has two major hurdles it will have to overcome if it’s serious about being Google’s piece of the social media pie.

THE GOOD

1. It’s Convenient

Frankly, one of the best things about Buzz is that it’s already there, sitting in your inbox, completely integrated into your Gmail, and calling out to you – “Try me! Don’t you want to see what I can do? Aren’t I exciting and novel?” Chances are that if you use Gmail, you’re going to try Buzz, and that you’re going to keep using it.  After all, it aggregates your Twitter feed, your Google Reader, Flickr, Picasa – making it a one-stop-shop for your social media needs.

2. It’s Smart

Buzz learns from you the more you use it. While you can control who you follow, it automatically suggests those you email and chat with the most. Plus, as you tell it what you “like” (or “unlike” as the case may be), it will tailor the content you receive so it’s both interesting and relevant to your location (it’s also got a nifty little Map function to pin point where you are as you post).

THE BAD

1. It Ain’t Your Facebook Friend:

You know who isn’t on the Buzz band-wagon? Facebook. Is it just us, or does the lack of data from Facebook, the world’s most used social networking Site, on Buzz, a service that supposedly aggregates all the social media you use on a daily basis, completely defeat it’s purpose for the majority of users? If you have to check your Facebook and your Buzz – why check your Buzz at all?

2. It’s A One-Way Tweet:

Another big no-no for us? You can post your Tweets on Buzz, but you can’t use Buzz to post your Tweets on Twitter. Again, that’s the kind of road-block that will keep people from investing in Buzz as a viable alternative to the Sites they already use.

The Bottom-Line?

Buzz has the potential to blow up – but only if it can work out these serious kinks.

Read More {BBC}

Read More {GeekSugar}

Read More {TechCrunch}