Twitter, Google launch new services at D9 conferences

Both Twitter and Google have launched new services at the Wall Street Journal D9 conference, with Twitter starting a dedicated photo-sharing service and Google debuting its new Offers program.

The conference, which attracts some of the biggest names in the tech industry, also saw Google chief executive Eric Schmidt admit the company “screwed up” at social networking.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo confirmed several days of speculation by saying Twitter will launch a new photo-sharing service, in an answer to the various third-party networks already common among users.

The service will use Photobucket to host the pictures, which will show up in tweets rather than appear on third-party pages.

Google also made two specific announcements, saying it will be launching its new Offers program in Portland this week, while it will also expand the “+1” button to a number of new retailers’ sites – it works similarly to Facebook’s “like” button.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt also said the company “screwed up” over social networking.