Google has launched a new project called Google Follow Finder, which is designed to help you to expand your Twitter network. The way that you use Google Follow Finder is similar to Twellow in that you can enter your Twitter account name and see a list of people that Google thinks you might be interested in following. Follow Finder will also let you enter other people’s Twitter names and get suggestions based on that.

The integration is based on Twitter’s new @anywhere frameworks, which make it easy for any site to add Twitter functionality.

What might seem a little strange is that Google is getting us to expand our Twitter network instead of pushing us towards their own social media platform,  Buzz. But then again, since your Twitter network can be integrated into your Buzz account it’s probably just another way of getting Twitter users to embrace Buzz, too.

A new report has revealed that almost three-quarters (73%) of on-line women are now active social media users. The study by BlogHer and iVillage shows that on average women are engaging weekly or more often with popular social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

The American survey also found that women increasingly look at blogs and message boards when seeking advice and recommendations. So it seems that even as the use of social media sites such as Facebook continue to grow, women are still looking to blogs as a reliable resource.

This study underlines the importance of blogs for businesses, and especially for e-commerce companies that might want to target the female buyer market.

Other highlights from the study include:
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*Among the iVillage community, 73% say they share topics on message boards/forums that they would not share on social networks.

* Of those, relationships (61%), health (45%) and work-related (39%) issues were the main topics they would not share on social networks.

Google is already huge – but it has become even bigger than many analysts could ever have expected. The latest report from the internet search giant reveals that profits during the first quarter of this year hit a high of $1.96 billion, or $6.06 a share, which amounts to an increase of 37% compared to $1.42 billion in the first quarter of 2009.

At the same time revenue grew 23% in the first three months of the year to $6.78 billion, assisted by an increase in on-line advertising spend. Figures showed that pay-per-click advertising rose 15% from the same quarter in 2009.

Google, which now has a 90% share of the European search engine market, also said it has taken on 800 new employees this year to date, its biggest increase in staffing levels since the first quarter of 2008. Google has a massive 20,621 employees worldwide.

Now that the Digital Economy Bill has become law in the UK it will be possible for internet users who illegally download copyrighted material from the net to be disconnected from their broadband service.

The new law, which was confirmed by the Government last week, is aimed at persistent offenders who infringe copyright laws.

The way the process of prosecution is likely to work is that copyright holders will be able to apply for a court order to gain access to the names and addresses of serious offenders and take action against them, while internet service providers will be able to suspend the accounts of illegal downloaders.

But there was opposition to the new Bill. Some MPs felt that while it was right to take action against illegal downloaders, the new powers may be too far-reaching.

Tom Watson, Labour’s former digital engagement minister warned of a “catastrophic disaster” with innocent people potentially having their broadband connections cut off because they lived in the same building as illegal downloaders.

What do you think?

The aim of Twitter for business people is to have as many followers as possible who are interested in what we have to say. They might want to see what we have to say because they want to learn something – or perhaps they just want to keep up to date with what our business is up to.

But the big question is how to get the right people following you on Twitter. Over the coming weeks we’ll be blogging about a range of tips for improving your Twitter following.

To start with here are a few things to think about:

* Take a look around Twitter, also look on Twellow, and start to follow people who you consider to be big in your business field. You’re looking for influential companies and people. Then start following these people and companies. The chances are a few will follow you back so you’ll start to build a bigger following yourself. You might want to set aside an hour per day to do this because it can be time consuming.

* After a few days check who is following you. Now is a good time to “unfollow” anyone who is not following you unless you think that what they are tweeting about is particularly relevant or important.

* A good tip is to create private lists (try Hootsuite or similar) so that you can keep track of all the people you’re following or who are following you.

* If someone has followed you then make sure you communicate with them. Reply to their tweet, fire off direct messages etc. In this way you should start to become involved in conversation with likeminded business people. And keep at. We told you it would be time-consuming!

* But if you do not have time to keep up with this great new on-line marketing tool then hire someone who can. Social media networking is becoming a really important part of business and marketing – and is only set to get bigger – so a little investment in hiring someone to keep at your social media campaign is likely to pay off in the long run. There are now a growing number of freelance professional bloggers and tweeters out there ready to work for you.

Link building is a vital tool for boosting your search engine rankings via a blog. Once you have your blog up and running then you need to fill it with great, engaging content. It’s also important to have links from relevant, credible sources.

Here we bring you the final blog in a three-part top tips series for link building:

PR: Sending out press releases via wire services with a link to your blog can be a great way to get your blog known about. Many blogs and some news sites will re-publish your press release exactly as it was distributed, including links back to your blog.

Be sociable: Get into chats on social networks with other likeminded bloggers. And then try to be useful! Share their links, retweet etc. Only do this where you genuinely want to but try to be communicative. In return it’s likely that other bloggers will start to engage with you, too.

Hire a blogger: Some bloggers now have guest blog writers on their own blog. This can be helpful in increasing cross-links to each other’s blogs.