I’ve been playing around with Google+ for about 24 hours now, and have a few preliminary thoughts. First, Google’s invitation system is arbitrary and frustrating. I managed to squeeze in at some point Thursday evening but I’m still not quite sure how.
I signed in with my Gmail address and it allowed me to sign up for G+. If I sign out, it appears that anyone can always sign in in this manner. So I post to Facebook, and I inevitably frustrate friends who are not allowed in. Very strange, very frustrating. After a few days of being left out, I got lucky. Hopefully Google takes advantage of the early buzz generated by the nerds (myself included) and opens G+ to a wider platform soon.
The Platform
The interface itself is a lot like Facebook. You have the very visible bar up top for notifications. You have the option to see a stream, or your profile where all of your posts and comments reside.
The big difference is in the circles, which is probably the concept that has been written about the most, involving G+. The circles allow you to organize your friend list categorically and send messages just to them. You could do a circle of strictly coworkers. The advantage to this is they don’t have to see when you went out for drinks last Friday night, or all the pictures of little Suzie in the bath tub. I know Facebook has lists, but they always felt a little convoluted.
Even though you organized this stuff on Facebook, there was a little uncertainty. G+ asks you every time you post something what circle you want it to go to. It will show you who the post is visible to. You do not have to wonder.
It doesn’t seem that there is a wall right now, which is a little strange. If you want to communicate directly with someone, there is an email option. When you are viewing someone else’s page, you no longer have the ability to write anything. There is also a voice and video chat, which I suspect has a lot to do with Facebook’s sudden desire to integrate Skype.
They also have something called Sparks, which offers the ability for you to find internet items that interest you, to feed them into your stream. I don’t think this does a lot that Google Reader doesn’t do, and it doesn’t seem like the most beneficial feature.
Everything feels a little cleaner and more organized than Facebook. The biggest difference is that there’s not 700 million people. Yet. It’s a little premature to know how this will play out. This is a cleaner, more organized social network that has generated a heck of a lot of buzz. When it publicly launches, I think it will fill up, and there will be more people at the party.
The Future
I’ve seen predictions that there will be 100 million on the network by Christmas. They’ll need a large number of people to make a social network like this relevant. Google’s strength will rest in tying it in with the other programs and features that it offers.
What does G+ mean for businesses? Right now, there’s no business pages, so there’s no strong branding advantage to G+ yet. That will come in time as well. One advantage for businesses could be in the practical, however. Is it tough to get everyone in one room at the same time for meetings? You could always build a company circle, and use the video chat for meetings. The advantage this has over using just a video client, is that you can stay in contact, sending messages within your circle after the meeting.
This is Google’s strongest foray into the social ever, though. Facebook has met its match. We’ve all heard the phrase that Social media is here to stay, even if the platforms change. I don’t think this will kill Facebook, but they are no longer the only dog in the fight.
This is a strong platform that builds on perceived weaknesses of Facebook. Hopefully it launches soon.
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