While the majority of the world may still be largely unaware of the shiny new social media option that hit recently, the web is abuzz with technophiles busy dissecting and discussing Google+; the pros, the cons, and everything in between. I’ve been spending a bit of time there myself and am impressed with how intuitive the experience is and of course, how well integrated it is with other Google services. At this early stage, there’s a lot to wade through, but here are my first impressions on a couple features.
Circles – Here Google has done a nice job capturing the best of its competitors – You can ‘Follow’ individuals in whom you are interested without the need for friending a la Facebook, but you can also have more reciprocal relationships with those in your social circle by including them in a ‘Friend’ or ‘Family’ circle. On the other hand, while excluding those you don’t want to share info with (circles of bosses and mothers-in-law, perhaps) is very easy here, being social now involves manual effort, as you must include those you do want to include in a post. On another note, don’t worry about how you label your circles or which you add people to because that information is not shared. You can safely create a ‘Frienemy’ circle to be used for deserving individuals with no fear of repercussion.
Sparks – This feature allows you to define your interests in order to view a somewhat customized news feed. It could be cool but it needs work as the content funneled is currently not as relevant or robust as it could be, perhaps because of the limited use of the platform in its beta phase.
Hangouts – As the name suggests, Hangouts are a place to, well, hang out. Invite your circles to use their webcams and host a video chat. Keep them private and share with only select individuals or circles, or make your little club a public hangout.
In a nutshell, I see some real potential in Google+. They’ve done a nice job capitalizing on existing platforms by finding ways to improve them. The real question about the future of social, however, has less to do with which platform is superior and more to do with where the herd feeds. I’m not sure it will be easy to convince 750 million (gulp) active users to change their habits and start over on a new platform, but I guess we’ll see. In the meantime, catch up with me on Google+. Or Twitter. Or Facebook. Or LinkedIn.
If you want to read more, the folks at Huffington Post have put together a nice guide for getting started on Google+ and Hubspot is offering up some handy Google+ shortcuts.
