What you need to know - 07/29/11

Why Groupon will succeed; Twitter rolling out Promoted Tweets in the stream

On June 28, the day Google+ was released as a public beta, shares sat at $493.65 a pop. Today, a month later, those shares have increased by $117.29 to $610.94, a 23.76 percent increase.

Also: the word around the Web on Google+ right now is that the Google+ party is over, exactly one month after the social network first opened up to a trickle, and then flood, of early adopters. But it’s just not true: Google+ is far from dead.

Read about why Topix CEO Chris Tolles thinks Groupon will succeed despite the quirkiness of its business model.

Also: Groupon is now offering deals in Chicago for groceries at all JEWEL-OSCO grocery store locations in Chicago.

In the U.S., Google’s Android is still the mobile operating system with the most subscribers and Apple has ousted RIM as the top smartphone manufacturer, according to the latest data from Nielsen.

Shooger, a Miami-based company that has developed a mobile community for local deals, secured $5 million in its first outside round of funding from Hudson Capital Group (HCG).

Twitter is starting to roll out Promoted Tweets in the timeline. It’s simple. A brand pays Twitter for extra exposure and followers of that brand will see the Promoted Tweet at or near the top of their streams.

Yext, a business listings company, raised a $10 million round of financing led by WGI Group, with full participation from existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).