jodibess: Google + Me

15 July 2011

Google + Me

I've been using Google Plus for about a week now. It's pretty interesting and it seems to be contending well against Facebook. It's quickly growing and stirring up people's curiosity. Some actually think it might beat Facebook. I know some people who left Facebook completely and moved to Google Plus. I'm not about to do that anytime soon, but i must admit, Plus is doing much better than Google's previous attempts at social networking like Wave and Buzz, both of which i also tried and got bored with immediately.

What Google Plus has done is it took what already exists, put it together, added improvements and packaged everything really well. Add a little exclusivity in the beginning to make it more desirable, come in at a time when people are starting to get annoyed and bored with the existing social networking sites, and they are off to a really good start.

Just like Facebook, it lets you share photos, videos, links and whatever you're up to. People can comment on your posts and you can comment on other people's posts. Google improved it a bit by allowing you to disable comments on your post and muting other people's a posts so you don't get bugged by notifications.

Circles are just like Facebook's 'lists' except that Google made it a requirement, thus, encouraging it's members to manage their circles well and informing them that this is the way to filter your stream so it won't get cluttered and annoying. By clicking on "stream", you see the posts of all your circles. But if you want to see only the posts of the people that matter, just click the circle where the people that matter are included. How you segregate your contacts is completely up to you, and they won't find out so you won't have to feel guilty when adding someone to your "i can't remember who these are" circle. :p

Hangouts is actually fun and Facebook doesn't have it yet. It's a video conference, i don't know how many people can get into a hangout, but it's a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. You can also share videos from youtube while hanging out so you see each other, talk to each other, and watch the same video all at once. It's quite fun and i think it has great potential.

Sparks is another new thing that Google can do because they are also the leading search engine in the world. Basically, you enter in an area of interest and you see a list of links that fall under that interest. And since it's already right there, it becomes so easy to share it.

Of course there's also Chat which is faster and gives you the option of being invisible or busy.

Those are just some of the features that I like about Google+. There might be more i'm yet to discover. Oh, i read in this blog that you can actually edit pictures once you've already uploaded it. That's really interesting. :) Anyway, i'm no expert when it comes to social networking sites. I'm simply airing out my opinions and i might just be enjoying it because it's new. So don't take my word for it, try it out, and let me know how it goes. :)