by Darren Allan

It seems that Google isn’t the only big company with plans to tread on the social turf Facebook currently dominates, as Apple has made a move in this direction.

The latest version of iTunes 10 witnesses the introduction of a social function that goes under the name of Ping.

Ping has been designed to help iTunes customers discover new music, find out what their friends are listening to, and indeed what their favourite bands have in the pipeline.

It will function rather like Twitter in terms of having followers and people you’re following, so bands can set up their own Ping accounts for fans to connect with, or you can create your own musical social circle and share playlists.

Apple has also made reassuring noises about privacy, which is always a concern when it comes to the social stuff. Apparently privacy settings will be very simple to understand and set.

With a ready-made initial user base of 160 million iTunes users, it should be off to a flying start, but if it should somehow flop the social network has an equally ready-made headline: Ping Pongs.

Story link: Apple gets social with iTunes Ping