Google now has Google+, and sooner or later we will all get an invite (unless something untoward occurs…I’m just saying…). Last year I worked to get one of the early invites to Google Wave, and spent some time experimenting with it (it would be a great tool for an intranet…but that is another story…). For Google + I guess my age and gender predispose me to feel less inclined to join another version of Facebook… So for those of you who:
· Are interested in social networking
· Are Google-philes
· Want to join
Read over the next several quotes about this new online community. FI, however, you are just a bit jaundiced towards most of social networking…look over the last quote…it should make some sense to you.
Google Announces Their Facebook Competitor, And It’s Called Google+ [VIDEOS]
http://www.redmondpie.com/google-announces-their-facebook-competitor-and-its-called-google-videos
Google introduced a social network known as Google+ today, which aims to change the way we stay in touch with people online. The service emphasizes on how data is shared, and with whom, as well as privacy.
Google+ is organized into several five features, namely +Circles, +Sparks, +Hangouts, +Mobile and +Huddle; all targeting different social networking needs. While there’s some innovation here, Google has mostly taken good ideas from other social networks and implemented them in their own way. According to a blog post on the company’s site, Google expects to get more users involved in Google’s ecosystem:
The Google+ project: Circles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeMZP-oyOII&feature=player_embedded
The Google+ project: Hangouts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tku1vJeuzH4
Why Google+ Will Make a Splash, Not a Wave, In the Community Pool
http://www.fastcompany.com/1763832/google-plus
You would be forgiven if you took a look at Google‘s new social field test, Google+, and decided, “Meh”–especially given the amount of snickering on the Internet about what many presumed would be the search giant’s Facebook killer.
But you would also be wrong.
Google+ isn’t a new Google Buzz or Google Wave–giant new products tossed out into the wild with much fanfare, only to quickly fizzle out or, worse, wither under backlash.
Instead, Google+ is one element in a much larger strategy the company launched last year to gradually shift all of Google–Search, YouTube, Places, etc—from standalone tools to a set of services that operate much more socially.
"People are already on Google. We have billions of users," Bradley Horowitz, the product lead for Google+, tells Fast Company. "We haven’t provided them with a consistent and coherent experience of how they represent themselves and their relationships. We’re fixing that."
In fact, Google executives say they aren’t necessarily trying to replicate Facebook, per se. Instead, they say they are simply trying to make the experience of Google itself better–by making it easy for people to share the things they already use and discover on Google products.
"This isn’t really about trying something new," Horowitz says. "It’s about an improvement to the experience people have on the Google they know and love already."
Today’s iteration of Google+ is the first stab at this, and the company plans on building on it, adding new features and integrations with other Google products throughout the year.
How to Use Google Plus
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_start_with_google_plus.php
Create Your Circles
Imagine the ability to break down Facebook into its various constituent parts and keep them separate from each other as opposed to one giant feed. That is what Google has done with Plus. There is one main stream where all your friends updates show up then the option to see updates from only certain groups like "Work," "Friends" or "Family." This is the essence of Circles.
From the initial interface, you will see four buttons – Home, Photos, Profile, and Circles.
The first thing you are going to want to do is set up your circles. Click on the tab and it will bring you to an interface where all of your contacts in Gmail (not just Gmail addresses, but all of your contacts) are listed in a panel on top of the screen. Below is a panel that has your various circles. To add a contact to a circle, drag from the top of the list to the appropriate group. Contacts can be added to multiple circles.
One of the initial problems I had from the circles interface was that I added a couple of "Friends" into my "Work" circle and could not figure out how to get them out. You can do this from the user streams by hovering over the person’s name and hovering over "Add to circles" and clicking the appropriate boxes. Yet, from the circles interface, that was not readily apparent. To take people out of a circle, hover above the circle, grab their icon, and drag it back into the people plane.
Alt Text: Google+ Is the New GeoCities
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/07/alt-text-google-plus
Google has thrown its hat into the social networking ring with Google+. Or rather, it’s throwing the latest of several hats into the ring, the previous hats having been stomped into wads of filthy felt scraps. However, Google assures us that Google+ is nothing like Buzz, Orkut, and Wave: To begin with, it doesn’t sound like a rejected Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain. Secondly, I dunno, it has circles or something.
The most common response to Google+ that I’ve heard is, “Good, I hate Facebook.” This is from people already using Facebook… These people are praying for the death of a free service they voluntarily signed up for. And I know just how they feel, because I hate Facebook so much I only log into it about eight times a day.
So why are we all on Facebook, hating Facebook together? Is it our love of the mafia and their wars? Do we enjoy being notified every time someone we barely know is throwing a party on the other side of the continent? Is it that important we let everyone know we “Like” ice cream?
Of course not. We’re on Facebook because everyone else is on Facebook. In this way, Facebook imitates life.
Here’s a phrase I never hear: “Boy, I hope someone gets married soon, because I’m dying to attend a wedding.” Nor do I ever hear, “We should have family reunions twice a year!” And then there’s, “I don’t care if I win an award; I just love attending awards dinners.”
And yet, weddings, family reunions, and awards dinners occur with depressing regularity. We go to them because other people are going to them. Also because if we stay home and play L.A. Noire instead, we’re never going to hear the end of it.
