Google challenges Facebook with a Plus
Internet giant Google has come up with a new social networking site that aims to take away from Facebook users: Google+. The site borrows some ideas and features from Facebook while offering new approaches to them in efforts to revolutionize online social networking
Google+ Hangouts are a kind of mashup of video chatting through Gmail, as well as the old 'chat rooms' when AIM was the only chat option. PCW photo
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Facebook has been dominating the social networking field online ever since its was made available to the public in September 2006. Now, however, the social network giant finally has a new competitor: Google+.
Created by Google under the code name Emerald Sea, Google+ borrows some ideas and features from Facebook while offering new approaches to content sharing and privacy management. PCWorld.com reports that “Google+ is a solid start to an insurgent social networking platform that is sure to be enhanced rapidly over the coming months and could soon offer a solid alternative to Facebook,” PCWorld.com has said.
According to PCWorld, Google+ is relatively simple to use, especially to users familiar with Facebook. For users of other Google products, much of previously provided information is automatically imported into a Google+ account. Picassa, for example, is linked to Google+ and allows users to select their Google+ profile picture from existing Picassa albums. There is also an “About Me” section, but aside from having the basic “gender,” “occupation” and “relationship” information, Google+ invites users to be more creative and saucy by adding “introduction” and “bragging rights” under the user’s profile. Users can also pin “places you’ve lived” on a Google map in the “About Me” section.
As a new online social networking site, Google+ closely mimics real life social circles on screen. For Gmail users, Google+ imports all of the user’s information automatically. Contacts from Gmail accounts will be imported to Google+ accounts as friends. Google represents friends or groups in literal social circles; users can drag squares with their friend’s email addresses into circles labeled as “friends,” “family” and “acquaintances.” Users can also add their own labels to a circle.
Google+ also provides the function to set privacy levels on each piece of content shared. When an article is shared or if a picture is uploaded onto the account, Google+ allows users to choose which circle of friends to share the content with, resulting in less, to borrow a Facebook jargon, “News Feeds.”
While Facebook calls “News Feed,” Google+ calls it “Stream.” The feature is nearly identical, save for the fact that Google+ users have to decide which circle of friends see the update. Controls at the side of the page allows users to choose the circles of friends who can contribute items to the user’s stream. People who can see each user’s stream updates can comment on them, and instead of “Liking” it Facebook style, Google+ users “+1” it.
A Google+ feature that Facebook lacks is “Hangouts,” a mashup of video chatting through Gmail and the old style “chat room.” Users can invite circles of friends or individual friends to chat, and up to 10 people can “Hangout” at the same time. Google places the image of the person who is talking at the center of the screen. If multiple people are talking at the same time, it moves the one who is talking loudest to the center.
Google also plays in what they already reign in: their search engine. With Google+, “Sparks” is a feature that allows users to choose from a list of possible interests (biking, sailing, sewing and more), or to enter their own specific interest. Google then gathers the relevant content from all over the web and allows user to share the chosen content with friends. Users can choose which friend circles or single friends to share the content with. The post then shows up in those friends’ stream.
Google also recently debuted two new mobile apps, both of which work directly with Google+ accounts. First, the main Google+ Android app (available for free from the Android Market) brings the core parts of Google+ to a mobile device. The app features a simple home screen with icons for the Stream, Huddle, Photos, Profile and Circles sections of Google+. Users can easily post notes and content, and comment on others’ shared materials from the app's Stream screen. It also asks users if they want to attach their current location to the post made by users.
The Photos section shows images shared by friends, uploaded from phones, stored in albums, and photos of the user shot by others and shared on Google+. A little camera icon in the top right corner brings up the camera app and allows users to quickly post a picture to a “From Your Phone” album at Google+. When reviewing photos, users can “tag” the people in them similar to Facebook. Users draw a little square around a person's face and type in their name in the box below (or choose one of the names Google+ guesses). Users can tag people who are Google+ users or just email contacts.
As long as they are from a phone or tablet, photo and video uploads are unlimited. Google has no restrictions on the number of albums, the photos, or the file size. Google only resizes photos over 2,048-by-2,048 pixels, and limits an uploaded video to just 15 minutes. But even then, Google allows up to 1080p resolution.
Google+ also adds this note: “Adding this tag will notify the person you have tagged. They will be able to view the photo and the related album” in an effort to warn people the they’ve been tagged (possibly in an unflattering or compromising photo), giving them an immediate chance to remove the tag.
The second app, “Huddle,” which is already included in the main Google+ app, is like a BlackBerry Messenger for the Android platform that allows for users to group chat.
Google makes it very clear that the information users contribute to the social graph as part of Google+ will be used to help refine search results and more accurately target web ads. While Google+ seems to emphasize giving users control over the way they share information among different circles of friends, it is not yet known whether Google will be more sensitive to the user’s privacy when it determines which personal data is public – that is available for use (in aggregate or otherwise) by Google and its advertisers – and which remains private.
Google+ has recently launched its test run to a limited number of users and hopes to outdo arch-rivals Facebook.“We’re transforming Google itself into a social destination at a level and scale that we’ve never attempted — orders of magnitude more investment, in terms of people, than any previous project,” says Vic Gundotra, who leads Google’s social efforts.
While Google+ is not available for public use yet, the Google+ Project offers a simple tour on Google+ features at
http://www.google.com/+/demo/.