Google just threw down the digital gauntlet, right in front of Facebook's feet, with the announcement of a new social sharing site called Google+.
The site is invite-only at the moment (cue hundreds of "Can anyone spare me a Plus invite?" requests on Twitter), so for those who can't get inside, the basic premise is this: Plus lets you create groups of people called "Circles", and you can share stuff among those groups in a more focused way than you might using Facebook.
So while you might share the news that you've got engaged with everyone in all your Circles, the other news - about how your engagement party ended up with three hospitalized casualties, your car painted bright pink, and your purchase of 20 square miles of prime Los Angeles real estate for just $20 and a can of Coke - might just be shared with your BFFs. Or maybe the subset of your BFFs who were invited to the party.
There are also "Hangouts", in which Google appears to have invented the chatroom. You can create one, or join one created by a friend, at any time. Participants are connected via video chat and can, you know, hang out. Another feature, Huddle, is much the same but for text chat between groups of people. Sorry, Circles.
There's also instant photo sharing and a feature called Sparks, which offers something new: auto-generated content feeds based on your chosen topics. It's like blogging never happened. You tell sparks what you're interested in, and it scoots around the web finding stuff it thinks you'll find interesting.
Google's created a Google Maps-style demo you can play with to get to know Plus a little better.
So will Plus out-Facebook Facebook? Will people care enough to sign up, assign buddies to Circles, join Hangouts, and browse Sparks? Or will they all be too busy on Facebook to notice?
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
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/.
didn't blah once introduce something like this long time ago? failed to launch like a 29 year old living in mommas basement falling flat on its face like the inventor of segue..
anyways...didnt read it word by word but still i dont think i am missing much....
and what kinda coke was the nerd sniffing to 'challenge' someone with a 'plus'.... eeee eeeeee eeeee.... *waving lightsaber* i shall destroy you with my pronouns... initiate 'plus' shield and equation launcher...
this invitation only thing is an old and crappy gimmick of google to get market attention which does not work anymore. see what happened to google wave. people had waited months for an invite only to discover a stupid halfdone interface
Originally Posted by Severus
this invitation only thing is an old and crappy gimmick of google to get market attention which does not work anymore. see what happened to google wave. people had waited months for an invite only to discover a stupid halfdone interface
Absolutely this reminds me the wave thing.
Still I would look for an invitation.
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I don't think we need an invitation to join Google plus. However, its not available to public yet. All they have given us a glimpse
By the time, Google plus will in full function, FB will definitely come up with some few and innovative features. So, it would be hard for Google to get attraction from FB users.
For me, circles, hang outs and huddles where i can chat with multiple friends same time in a same window just like conferencing which is missing on FB. But the only problem is to invite all my FB friends on Google+ as many of them may not be interested coming to Google+.
Everytime (it was too long the first few times) I tried to post this status update about Google+, Facebook gave me a captcha. You thinking what I'm thinking? ... that Facebook wants to discourage us mentioning Google+ on fb ... ?
Originally Posted by Mahmood
For me, its circles. I never got in to the FB fever as all friends did not make sense.
For now, g+ is invitation only. Hopefully one of our BC members will be able to take us in....
i'm on it, its slow going as i hardly have any friends on the thing. not sure if only certain members can invite or if anyone can invite, but if i can, just let me know.
i am willing to toss invites to all the senior BC members - don't have time to invite all the 10-post count members...sorry.
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This "invitation only" thing is to generate hype and buzz (not to be confused with Google Buzz ... we all know how that turned out). It is human nature to appreciate and seek what's hard to obtain. As of now, I personally don't see any good reason to switch to G+... but it does seem promising.