I finally got my invite to Google+ (which I am referring to as
Google++) Thanks Kim! I was in two minds about joining as I
was an early adopter of Google Wave which I liked (and look what
happened to that!)
So I joined. Because I'm a sucker for new tech. however the
problem I have at the moment (and the problem I know a lot of
people had with Google Wave) is that I can't find many people I
know on there... Possibly because I have no friends, or possibly
because I'm lazy and want it to tell me who I already know based on
existing contacts within Facebook, Twitter etc.
I'm guessing the reason why you can't search your Facebook,
Twitter or LinkedIn accounts is because they won't let Google do
so? Which is annoying as I'll have to start manually building up
contacts on there.
The other thing which is frustrating is that I can't see any way
to get a simple link to my profile (like
www.facebook.com/owenniblock) which would be nice for posting to
other places. However I will make one with my url shortner - so
there (when I work out what the actual public url for my profile
is?).
The big question is, what does Google++ give us that we can't
get from Facebook? Well it's probably better written and the UI is
certainly very nice. I'm guessing Google learnt a lot from the
initial usability and slowdown issues on the Wave and it all seems
pretty responsive so far. The video stuff looks exciting (not used
it yet) and so it's no suprise that Facebook have announced a Skype
deal recently...
I guess the other thing they're trying to show is
better/different is the privacy stuff. The concept of Circles is
smart and the UI is great (loving the drag and drop). Much better
than the Friend List concept in Facebook. I'm pretty sure this will
become a feature I love (much like the Labels concept in
GMail).
That's my first reaction to it. Google++ seems cool, very well
written and slick however time will tell whether (a) It gets enough
users to rival Facebook and (b) They sit it out and commit enough
to it that people commit to them. If they give up on it like they
did to Google Wave I won't be back on the Google train in a
hurry!
Will report back after I've been using it a while.