As tweeted last night, I spent part of last night exploring iTunes 10 and its new integrated social network, Ping.

Here are my first thoughts, the morning after, as I skim headlines on the topic on my CrackBerry and chug coffee.

Ping was to be one of the Eureka moments and cap stone of Apple’s music event this week. It received a cautious but warm reception from the audience and has, since, earned some mixed early reviews from the press.

For those that missed it (or don’t use iProduct), Ping allows iTunes users to showcase their tastes and activity to the Ping community and world at large. You can follow friends and artists, tap into a concert databases and more.

In its first two days alive, Ping has already surpassed 1 million users. And, Apple is stating today that more than one-third of those installing the new/improved iTunes 10 have activated a Ping account.

Some are noting that these numbers are typical of Apple’s loyal adopters: that they will always try the latest/greatest release at least once on Day One; the really interesting data is yet to come per Ping’s uptake with new iTunes users and their retention of active users.

Personally, I found the network very nascent and hard to navigate: I was constantly being pushed into the Store, seemingly leaving the respective Ping page in iTunes; a path breakdown at the top, however, always showed Ping as a subsection/facet of the Store, not a standalone feature.

That made my first few minutes of finding my way around frustrating. ‘How do I get Home? Is there a Home? That little House button takes me to the Store. Bah’

Buzz this AM is that Apple’s going to make Facebook integration happen. Add RSS feeds and [more] Twitter integration and the odds of success sky-rocket.

The odds of Ping being successful are already mile-high [or, inevitable]: iTunes has over 160 million users. (That’s five times the population of Canada).