Week in Review: What Google+ does better than Twitter and Facebook

Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

5 things Google+ does better than Facebook and Twitter — Google+ has only been active for a month, and tech enthusiasts can’t seem to get enough of it. There are a few concrete reasons why: A handful of new features that Google just does better than other social networks.

World of Warcraft subscribers fall for second straight quarter — The number of active subscribers for Blizzard Entertainment’s most popular online game, World of Warcraft, fell in the second quarter of 2011, the second decline in a row.

Microsoft undercuts Google’s Android patent tirade with 2 tweets — Google finally took its Android patent battle to the streets this week. And Microsoft’s response, in the form of two tweets, is sort of hilarious.

19 year old gets $1M to launch a social app. Watch out, Zuckerberg — He has $1 million in the bank, a promising new company and a rolodex that makes Silicon Valley swoon.

Could Google+ be the first prominent open social network? — Google+ has an incredible amount of buzz surrounding it at the moment. But one element the young network lacks is open standards compliance.

And here are five more posts we think are important, thought-provoking, fun, or all of the above:

Excuse me while I turn off your insulin pump — Diabetics beware. It is possible to hack your insulin pump, from a distance, so that it can harm you rather than save your life.

Tesla CEO: Model X unveil coming in December — Tesla Motors will unveil its sport utility electric vehicle sometime in December after finishing up development of an alpha model of the car, chief executive Elon Musk said.

Google self-driving Prius gets into first accident, thanks to human error — For the first time, one of Google’s much-hyped self-driving cars has been in a car accident. But it’s actually a mere human’s fault.

Google+ usability shows promise, but still has a few hitches — Google+ looks unlike anything Google has ever produced, and that’s a good thing.

WTF: Microsoft praised by hacker for “spectacular” security approach Yesterday, one of the independent security researchers at the Black Hat conference praised Microsoft’s progress on improving security.