Google+ Offers a "Do-Over" for Facebook Users
Google's latest attempt at a social network to rival Facebook is getting a ton of great buzz so far. Google+ invites are few and far between right now, as Google is slowly rolling the new service out. I've been dying for an invite, but have had no such luck yet. So, I've been reading everything I can get my eyes on about the features of the service, as well as the early feedback from the lucky users that have gotten in.What I've gleaned so far, is that Google+ is a lot like Facebook, right down to the design of the user interface. There are difference of course, and the most glaring one right now seems to be the intuitiveness of the service, and the grouping system called "Circles." The system allows you to separate your contacts into categories, and determine the level of information/content that you share with those groups of people. That to me is the single most exciting thing about Google+, as it gives me a chance to take what I've learned from using Facebook, and use that to create a brand new social network.
Think about it. How many of us wish we could go back to the beginning of our FaceBook days? Would you approach things differently? How many of us have blurred the lines between our personal and professional lives because we've "friended" everyone from general acquaintances to business clients, to our spouses? The biggest problem with Facebook for me right now is that I've reached a point of no return. It is what it is, and short of "de-friending" half of the people on my account, it's hard to back out of what I've already done there. To be fair, Facebook does have ways to separate your friends into groups, but it's not as intuitive as what Google is doing with Circles, and since I've never done it before, I would be going back through all of my current Facebook friends and trying to classify them, as opposed to doing it up front, as I'll be able to with Google+.
Knowing what I know now, and seeing the potential of Google+, I am really excited to get another chance at setting up my social network from scratch. I don't think I'm alone in that mindset, and I think that's one of the factors creating so much excitement around Google+. I don't think that people want another social network so much as they want a chance to start over.
What's your take on Google+, and why are you excited (or ambivalent) about the new service?
P.S. Here's a quick video about Circles:
So far Google+ is looking pretty good. The Terms of Service is not much better than Facebook's, of course, with respect to content creation. Content you post (photographs, literary masterpieces, musical compositions to make Mozart envious, etc.) are still sublicensable to 3rd parties and all that stuff.
For me, though, Google+, Facebook, et al, are about connection and relationships, and not so much about content sharing. I'll post occasional content; stuff I'm not worried about appearing in "other places"; important stuff stays on my site or on SmugMug.
The interface is nice, and I like that to "follow" people you *have* to put them in at least one Circle. This starts you out with grouping right away. And you can put them in more than 1 circle (e.g., Jeff and Allison would definitely be in my Photographers Circle, and if we were hanging-out-on-Saturday friends, would also be in my Friends Circle). For now, they'd probably to a Mentors Circle or something like that, besides Photographers. I think Google+ eventually plans to be able to have sub-Circles, too.
You can post to Circles, or to Public, or to just one person. Or several people. I don't think there's really a Message concept like Facebook has, but maybe I just haven't posted it.
The photograph posts are a little weird. I haven't played too much with it, but others post pictures, and some post albums. I'm still looking into the differences there, but the ligthbox seems much better (to me) than Facebook's or Lightbox's. I've seen some complain about not being able to post a single picture from Picasa; instead, they post an album. However, I know Trey Ratcliff and others manage to post single images. I'm just not sure what the difference is.
Overall, it has a nice, exciting, fresh feel to it, without being so foreign as to have a steep learning curve.
I somehow lucked out and managed to get a working invite, so I've had some time to play on + and I love the Circles concept. I think this network will be much more useful to me once an iOS app comes out because I do the majority of my social networking through my phone.
I think my favorite part so far about Google+ is one of the subtle aspects of the "friend" interaction: I never have to leave my "Stream" to interact with everyone. And when I visit someone's Profile, I'm not inundated with other people's interactions w/ that person. I get to see what they want me to see, and they probably had to do very little to curate that data.
Hopefully it all stays junk free over time. Although I have heard rumors of Farmville....