Google + [ Google Plus ]- thoughts? opinions?
Jul 8, 2011, 4:01 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA
Posts: 2,065
Google + [ Google Plus ]- thoughts? opinions?
Just got signed up for Google + (Google Plus ?) and started to explore. Its definitely an interesting concept that you can select your circles where you want your updates to be visible (i.e. family, friends, etc.).
Instead of having a work Google + account and a personal Google + account you could merge them into one and when you do status updates select which groups you are allowing to see you updates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Plus
The service launched on June 28, 2011...
Instead of having a work Google + account and a personal Google + account you could merge them into one and when you do status updates select which groups you are allowing to see you updates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Plus
The service launched on June 28, 2011...
Jul 9, 2011, 8:24 pm
#3
Join Date: Jul 2010
Programs: SPG Gold, Sixt Gold
Posts: 257
As someone who was invited back on the 28th, I am loving G+! It's so much easier to tell who exactly will see your post, that it makes Facebook look like a joke in comparison. I got invites if someone wants to try it out.
Jul 9, 2011, 8:39 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2006
Programs: WN Rapid Rewards, Delta Skymiles
Posts: 400
I think the success of Google+ will ultimately depend on market saturation. I have my account over there and have played around with it, but until more than one or two of my friends have accounts and use them on a regular basis there is really no reason for me to hang out there.
IMO that will be the biggest challenge - drawing people away from their established social media "homes" whether that be facebook, twitter, etc. It's like moving into the first house completed in a new subdivision - yes everything is pretty and shiny and new, but it gets awfully lonely.
IMO that will be the biggest challenge - drawing people away from their established social media "homes" whether that be facebook, twitter, etc. It's like moving into the first house completed in a new subdivision - yes everything is pretty and shiny and new, but it gets awfully lonely.
Jul 9, 2011, 9:18 pm
#6
Join Date: Jul 2010
Programs: SPG Gold, Sixt Gold
Posts: 257
I think that a lot of current Facebook users are sick with FB due to all their privacy issues, or lack of them and are just waiting to jump ship and follow their friends somewhere else. I believe G+ will provide that platform since it integrates everything together.
Jul 10, 2011, 2:50 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: SEA
Programs: A3*G, AC, IHG Plat AMB
Posts: 1,604
Started playing around with it on Friday (bit late to the party) and so far I'm really enjoying it. The circles are more or less a feature that Facebook really missed out on, and the individual privacy settings for every element are great. I'm also liking the ability to multi-sort people into groups so that, for example, I can quickly post to various circles during trips to organize just the people who live there. It's just more logical than having a big list of "friends" who are really just people you once knew in high school.
Also noticed the "local" stream (appears android only?) and thought it fairly useful for when you are somewhere and need advice like "where's a good place to eat". It seems like an interesting concept to be able to make individual posts public to the web for things like that or for events/fundraisers/etc but not have to select whether or not all posts are. +1 for that!
I'm still not terribly keen on the Picasa integration, because I have a fair number of pictures semi-private that I don't want to specify who to share with but don't want open to everyone. On the other hand, it's beyond handy that they decided pictures below a certain size don't count anymore and I gained 90% of my picasa storage back. And I guess that once it does get a bit more mainstream this functionality may be easier. I also had a problem with the fact that it forces you to share picasa albums during the app install and then manually disable them.
Had a few issues with the Android app where it constantly seemed to be firing up my GPS, which was a bit of an issue for battery life, but that seems to not have as much of an effect as I thought. That or it's stopped somehow.
Overall, this is absolutely going to replace FB for me because of the much better privacy and features and (yes, Google owns my soul) integration with pretty much everything else that I use regularly. This week's job, shooting invites to people who will be the most likely to populate my circles.
Also noticed the "local" stream (appears android only?) and thought it fairly useful for when you are somewhere and need advice like "where's a good place to eat". It seems like an interesting concept to be able to make individual posts public to the web for things like that or for events/fundraisers/etc but not have to select whether or not all posts are. +1 for that!
I'm still not terribly keen on the Picasa integration, because I have a fair number of pictures semi-private that I don't want to specify who to share with but don't want open to everyone. On the other hand, it's beyond handy that they decided pictures below a certain size don't count anymore and I gained 90% of my picasa storage back. And I guess that once it does get a bit more mainstream this functionality may be easier. I also had a problem with the fact that it forces you to share picasa albums during the app install and then manually disable them.
Had a few issues with the Android app where it constantly seemed to be firing up my GPS, which was a bit of an issue for battery life, but that seems to not have as much of an effect as I thought. That or it's stopped somehow.
Overall, this is absolutely going to replace FB for me because of the much better privacy and features and (yes, Google owns my soul) integration with pretty much everything else that I use regularly. This week's job, shooting invites to people who will be the most likely to populate my circles.
Jul 10, 2011, 7:45 am
#8
Join Date: Mar 2006
Programs: WN Rapid Rewards, Delta Skymiles
Posts: 400
I need to keep playing around with the circles features - right now I'm not seeing how it's different than the capability Facebook has to limit your posts to certain groups of friends you've set up, but that could be because I only have two people in my circles on Google+ 
Jul 10, 2011, 11:05 am
#9
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 620
I need to keep playing around with the circles features - right now I'm not seeing how it's different than the capability Facebook has to limit your posts to certain groups of friends you've set up, but that could be because I only have two people in my circles on Google+
Jul 10, 2011, 11:16 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Somewhere between here and there...
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Posts: 11,595
I need to keep playing around with the circles features - right now I'm not seeing how it's different than the capability Facebook has to limit your posts to certain groups of friends you've set up, but that could be because I only have two people in my circles on Google+
Edit: Hmm, I guess FB does that, too, but I have not set up groups as intently as I have with G+, which demands you set any new contact to a circle.
Jul 10, 2011, 11:28 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: West Africa
Programs: Flying Blue, Mileage Plus
Posts: 204
As with previous 'revolutionary' Google products, there is a lot of buzz and a furious wave of hands ('hey, send me an invite!'), but I'm not convinced G+ will go anywhere. It's going to need a much more critical mass to get it going -- right now I have oodles of people in my circles and none of them are posting much of anything.
Jul 10, 2011, 5:56 pm
#14
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: PDX
Programs: AS
Posts: 406
Google Plus is getting a lot of love from the early adopters but as far as a mainstream tool, I don't see the move happening with what's being offered now.
Features alone don't make for a social media transition... the experiences needs to differ. Google is making a stab at this with Circles which do allow for a much greater segregation and filtering of people and as users get more savvy about privacy, and more conflicted over who to let into their network, that's increasingly important. However that feature is in it's infancy [obviously] and getting usage of it from a mass market will not be simple. Google needs to increase the power and at the same time paint a picture of circles to make them a focus... But that can't be the whole show.
Facebook's advantages on the other hand are clear. 750 million users which means mom, jenny and your high school friends are all there. While this actually gives circles a better edge up [talking to everyone via Facebook is clearly not ideal] it also makes it very hard for Google to break free -- in order for me to stop using Facebook Google would need the vast majority of my network to move over, and that has to happen very quickly for most of them to stick around. Facebook, while very simple, also looks more "fun" than Google. Google has always been about absolute simplicity in their layouts and that leaves their sites feeling half way finished, even if everything works.
Add on to it Google's desire [need?] to implement their existing features. In some cases this is great... want email, they have that. But it's also a drag and can limit the doors by forcing a subpar or limited tool into the mix.
Google faces the adoption time issue. It's nice to converse with my early adopter friends and fellow marketers in one spot [segmented of course]. But the real "fun" comes from my less techy, but more exciting friends. They'll start to trickle over but if it's not fun for them immediately, they're gone and in turn their friends won't stick either.
On the plus side [no pun intended], there's no guarantee that Plus is intended to "beat" facebook. Twitter is in many ways a different service, Plus could be one as well. In fact, given the way Plus presents data and who uses it now, I'd say that it's more competitive with Twitter than Facebook at present.
The question for me is where Google takes this thing in the next 2-3 weeks. Do they go back to innovation or do they lift up the gates entirely. And if they lift them, who do they take aim at bringing over?
Features alone don't make for a social media transition... the experiences needs to differ. Google is making a stab at this with Circles which do allow for a much greater segregation and filtering of people and as users get more savvy about privacy, and more conflicted over who to let into their network, that's increasingly important. However that feature is in it's infancy [obviously] and getting usage of it from a mass market will not be simple. Google needs to increase the power and at the same time paint a picture of circles to make them a focus... But that can't be the whole show.
Facebook's advantages on the other hand are clear. 750 million users which means mom, jenny and your high school friends are all there. While this actually gives circles a better edge up [talking to everyone via Facebook is clearly not ideal] it also makes it very hard for Google to break free -- in order for me to stop using Facebook Google would need the vast majority of my network to move over, and that has to happen very quickly for most of them to stick around. Facebook, while very simple, also looks more "fun" than Google. Google has always been about absolute simplicity in their layouts and that leaves their sites feeling half way finished, even if everything works.
Add on to it Google's desire [need?] to implement their existing features. In some cases this is great... want email, they have that. But it's also a drag and can limit the doors by forcing a subpar or limited tool into the mix.
Google faces the adoption time issue. It's nice to converse with my early adopter friends and fellow marketers in one spot [segmented of course]. But the real "fun" comes from my less techy, but more exciting friends. They'll start to trickle over but if it's not fun for them immediately, they're gone and in turn their friends won't stick either.
On the plus side [no pun intended], there's no guarantee that Plus is intended to "beat" facebook. Twitter is in many ways a different service, Plus could be one as well. In fact, given the way Plus presents data and who uses it now, I'd say that it's more competitive with Twitter than Facebook at present.
The question for me is where Google takes this thing in the next 2-3 weeks. Do they go back to innovation or do they lift up the gates entirely. And if they lift them, who do they take aim at bringing over?