This week sees London blaze up in riots through social media, people are spending more time on Google+, the social network vote, Zuckerberg sibling rivalry, Bantr with other football fans, Instagram hits 150 million uploads and more.

Social media to blame for London riots?
The streets of (predominantly) North London were far from quiet this weekend. As a second night of violence swept London on Sunday night, with riots breaking out in different parts of the capital, it was reported that the disorder was encouraged through Twitter and Facebook.

Nick de Bois, Conservative MP for Enfield North said: “There seems to have been a very well organised campaign over social media to try to engineer trouble here in Enfield. It has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he told London radio.

We certainly blame social media for us feeling somewhat tired this morning, as we stayed up far too late following the events on Twitter…

Users spending more time on Google+
Google’s latest social networking project Google+ has surpassed 25 million ‘users’ and according to comScore they are now spending more time on the service. Initial reports showed that users took a look at the service but didn’t spend much time using it. The latest comScore data however shows people were spending around 50% more time on the network in the week ending 24 July compared to the week that ended on 10 July.

The Social media vote: Which network is most popular?
First there was Facebook, then Twitter joined the pack for more instant natter and now Google+ is looking to take on both in the fight for the social media throne. As a result social media news blog Mashable has asked its readers which social media service has their support. Interestingly 39.29% of its readers say they prefer Google+ despite it only having been around for just over a month (Facebook and Twitter have 23.55% and 18.35% of the votes respectively).

Will Google+ prove to be a Facebook killer or is there room for everyone to live harmoniously? Google+ – which has over 25 million users already – has yet to introduce Brand Pages (scheduled for an autumn launch), something which is certain to add to the appeal of the service. Will it be a knock-out with Google+ being crowned heavyweight champion by Christmas?

Bantr – the social network for football fans
The football season is finally here again – and now it comes with a social network of its own. Bantr is a place for football fans to check into games, vote on the action, view live stats and as the name suggests ‘banter’ with rival fans in real-time as a match unfolds. One of its key features is the real-time interaction which not only enables fans to show where and how they are watching the game, but also to vote for substitutions – over time this will paint a picture if the fans agree with the manager or not.

Bantr is also gamified and will give points to users’ actions which in turn can alter the experience. Points can only be gained from positive actions relating to a user’s chosen club, e.g. posting a comment that receives x amount of likes. If you fancy becoming chairman of your club, best start posting and getting people to comment!

Check out the promo video here.

Zuckerberg starts another social media company – this time it’s Mark’s sister Randi!
Do we sense a bit of sibling rivalry? News that Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi has left Facebook to set up her own social media company. Randi Zuckerberg resigned from her job as marketing director of Facebook to focus on “building a company” – a source insisted there is “no tension” between the siblings.

Analysts have said she could end up working with some of her brother’s biggest competitors, which would make things really interesting for family get-togethers. Watch this space as new details about Randi’s venture are to be announced soon.

Pottermore and the Deathly Hacker plots
When J.K. Rowling announced Pottermore earlier this summer – the new social network for Harry Potter fans – we’re sure she didn’t think scammers would try to sell fake ‘early access’ accounts to the magical kingdom. With a lucky few who signed up to gain entry to Pottermore before the October launch, TechDigest reported on the scam to get ‘Pot-heads’ to part with info through info harvesting surveys and spam marketing. We even heard ‘early access invites’ were being sold on eBay. There is a lesson of internet security in here somewhere…

Foursquare gets photo facelift
Having announced it was revamping its Pages last week, geo-location based service Foursquare is now displaying photos users have uploaded in-line with check-ins on the site. So you no longer need to click to see images, making it a more visual experience. Funnily enough the update was announced via Twitter.

RIP Old Twitter – Long Live New Twitter

Nearly a year after introducing New Twitter, the social microblogging site is finally retiring the old version of its service. While some users have refused to do the switch, they are now being forced over to New Twitter. Personally we’ve been using the newer version for a while now and can’t really remember what was so special about Old Twitter. Do we now go back to calling it just Twitter again?

Instagram hits 150 million photo uploads

We’re sure Justin Bieber isn’t responsible for all 150 million photo uploads, but iPhone photo app Instagram sure got a boost in the amount of users after the pop darling posted a photo of… being stuck in traffic. Exciting!

The photo sharing service can reveal that its 7 million users worldwide are now uploading 1.3 million photos every day – that’s 15 photos per second! Since launching nine months ago the service has had 150 million photos uploaded, of which 80% are filtered.

The 150^th million photo looks like this and was taken by janefot: