Google+ (their new social network)

[Phlashman]

So there's google+ now http://www.google.com/+

It's their new attempt at social network and, well it's pretty decent.

It's got all your normal social type feature but there are a few "highlights" to try and set it apart from Facebook and Twitter.

First, there's circles. So basically groups for your friends and family because you know you don't want you're mum to see some of your tweets and equally you might not want to share family stuff with your friends. You might have a group for workmates, old school friends... I think it's a really good idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if it proved popular Twitter and Facebook would copy pretty quickly (they might already have features like that).

Then there's "Hangouts" which looks to be group video chat done quite elegantly and simply. There also the +1 for link sharing and interest tracking called "Sparks" that seems to work like a Zite (if you've heard of it) basically it works out from the links you and the people you know/follow post (+1) what you're interested in and sends you sites based on that. The last big thing (that seems sort of hidden) is "Huddle" which seem to be Google's BBM or iMessage service, so group text/photo messaging service. But unlike iMessage and BBM it probably won't be device locked so could be more popular as all your friends don't have to have the same devices.

All in, compared to Buzz and Wave it seems like a really good product. The problem Google face is 1) getting people to sign-up and 2) getting people to use it. Why switch to Google+ if all your friends are on facebook/twitter?

I think given the recent Chrome adds there could be a big TV push for this which could help. If they can make it easy for people with Gmail and Android phones to use there contact lists to sign up that could help too. It's a big hill to climb, but if there's one thing Google can do it's climb hills: http://goo.gl/cPK3E

I'm just going to take a guess looking at past attempts (Google Wave and Buzz.) that this really wont catch on.

A good way for it to catch on though might be to include it by default on all Android phones.

Facebook does have circles it's just harder to do. You have to create a list and set the rules and permissions on what they can do, and then go though and add people into it.

Facebook has been losing members, so you never know. You could have equally of said why go on Facebook when we had myspace? There is no cost to me to switch from Facebook to Google+ and that's where social networks have a problem.

[Phlashman]

I'm just going to take a guess looking at past attempts (Google Wave and Buzz.) that this really wont catch on.

A good way for it to catch on though might be to include it by default on all Android phones.

Automatically putting gmail users on Buzz is what killed it. Having it as an default app is a good idea but I bet they don't sign people up by default!

Facebook does have circles it's just harder to do. You have to create a list and set the rules and permissions on what they can do, and then go though and add people into it.

Facebook has been losing members, so you never know. You could have equally of said why go on Facebook when we had myspace? There is no cost to me to switch from Facebook to Google+ and that's where social networks have a problem.

I think it was different back when Facebook Vs. Myspace was going on, at that time not many people had either so you generally went with what your friends had. Now pretty much everyone has a Facebook account so there's not much reason to go anywhere else.

[Born2beSlicker]

I can't really deal with Google anymore besides Gmail, as their ideas are always half baked or they over look one critical thing.

I can't see this making a real dent.

I am a bit tired of them throwing everything at the wall and waiting for something to stick. Then again they are so cash rich I don't blame them. At least they have some ideas rather than Microsoft who have none.

I can't really deal with Google anymore besides Gmail, as their ideas are always half baked or they over look one critical thing.

I can't see this making a real dent.

My exact feelings.

I still think that google wave tech could be introduced as a new way of interacting with forums. Sites could customize the look and feel of there specific wave and we would just need one login.

[Phlashman]

I can't really deal with Google anymore besides Gmail, as their ideas are always half baked or they over look one critical thing.

I can't see this making a real dent.

I disagree. Since Larry page took charge they seem to be finding their feet again. Have you watched the videos? it seems like it's very well thought out and they aren't over complicating it. They've been working on this for a long time, I heard about circles before way xmas and unusually for Google it does have the beta tag (even though it looks like it in invite only beta mode).

Yeah, Google have had some bad product recently, but you can't deny Android, Gmail and Chrome are all very good. As I posted in the first post this graph show they know how to make a great product: http://goo.gl/cPK3E IMO chrome is easily the best browser out at the moment and it's always getting better and at a faster rate than any of it's competitors.

I don't see it taking off, but I really want it too. I think it looks great, so I will be signing up when it becomes open. I quite like the look of the open video chats (Hangouts).

Is it me though, or after watching those videos does Google look like they are trying to become the new Apple? Not that that's a bad thing I love both Google and Apple

I like the idea of "Circles". Be good to restrict things via whether people are real friends / workmates / family / 'net friends etc. Twitter can't do that at all, while Facebook can sort of do it, but only in a half-arsed yet overly-complicated way.

I like the idea of Facebook dying.

I think it has a lot of potential. I like the intuitive visual interface which should make it a lot easier for new users to get to grips with how to use it. I dont see it replacing facebook as the biggest social network, but i dont give a shit i would rather have 20 i can interact with over 200 idiots who i click "hide" on. I think google has a lot more potential to intergrate google+ into other things. Eventually most things in android could be web based with everything you need intergrated into a simple front end. Its quite exciting really, in my opinion anyway.

Facebook's design is quite dated and still driven by a text/link/page based interface thats quite messy and involves multiple pages. Where as google have the benefit of starting from scratch based on the lessons learnt from its own and facebooks mistakes. People seem to be argueing that it will/wont kill Facebook when it doesnt really either to be successful, it can be a completly unique product and find its own gap in the market like twitter has. I admit i do like google and if i followed any of the new nerd brands it would be google. But thats because they have a grasp of the bigger picture and more importantly the infrastructure in place to grow into the bigger picture. All of these individual "cell" products they release will eventually intergrate nicely into one web based enviroment. (I really hate the word cloud.)

[Born2beSlicker]

Yes, I saw that this morning as well.

And I agree with it in every way

[Phlashman]

It seems to be getting some great reviews, even from techcrunch who are even hard on the things they like:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/29/google ... etty-good/

Hopefully I can get in soon.