Not another social network! Yep, another social network. Google announced today that they're soon going to be opening a service called Google+ which, hopefully for them, won't go the way of Google Buzz and Wave.
Here's a tour of the main features of the new service/network.
Don't feel like clicking on the link? Here's a brief overview.
Circles: Similar to groups of friends on Facebook, but much simpler, you can organize your friends into circles. This way things you post can go only to those you believe would enjoy it. For example I create a circle of AG friends and upon AG3's release trumpet my excitement to them and them alone.
TL;DR: Circles of friends.
Hangouts: Video chat! Basically you create a hangout select the circles of friends, or the individuals, you wouldn't mind talking to and they can join and leave as they please. Easy way to hang out with friends if you're doing homework or far away.
TLR: Video chat!
Instant Upload: Ever been annoyed by the way you have to do something to upload photos to your other social networks (me either)? If you have the application and an internet connection any pictures you take are automatically uploaded to Google+; I'm assuming this is optional.
TLR: Instant upload.
Sparks:Every been pursuing your newsfeed only to realize most of your friends are exceptionally boring? Well fret no more Sparks lets you select areas that interest you (Android, Politics, Video Games) and creates an aggregated stream of news stories, videos, etc so you successfully ignore your friends and actually be entertained. Would be fun to use with Hangout. And no I don't really get the name either.
TL;DR: Multimedia for your pleasure.
Huddle: This may be the feature that excites me the most, basically it allows you to group text with your circles. Going to a movie with 6 different friends? Why not group text them and save a bunch of time?
TL;DR: Group texting.
Another reason I'm excited is that I believe this will be a great asset to Android (Google's mobile OS) phones. Especially features like Huddle. Which brings me to my next point, it's going to be hard for Google to attract enough users to actually make it a viable Social Network. Luckily for them they have 3 giant advantages. Android, Chrome OS, and Chrome. 500,000 new Android phones are activated daily, what if Google pre-installed a Google+ application on every one of those phones? Even if only 10% of individuals create an accounts that still 50,000 new users every single day. Same goes for Chrome OS and the Chrome web browser. All they have to do is push a simple update that installs the Google+ application to all of Chrome's users and viola, more users.
I'm pretty excited about this, not only do I love the new features but I can see this creating a more mature social network experience. More than that this is going to foster competition with Facebook which is going to have to develop new features.
I know it's an OS hah :P what I meant by an ecosystem was that the Android ecosystem is competing with the iOS ecosystem. iOS is intimately linked to the hardware of the iPhone with Android has no specific hardware. Yes there are Google phones, currently 2 with a 3rd on the way, but there are hundreds of other Android phones.
I'm glad it's there, but I feel my jailbroken iPhone can take on Android all day
Eh, my phone is 4 months older than an iPhone 4 and it has, basically, the same internals; although the iPhone 4 does have a gyroscope and FFC. Also a jailbroken iPhone basically gives you an Android phone. But this is a discussion for another day ;]
I don't think it will be as huge as facebook. I reckon it'll probably be aimed at those older than college.
Agreed, well college level and up I would say but nevertheless.
Google knows what their doing.
Idk about that so far. Google Buzz and Google Wave got owned in the face :S
Oh true story but to be fair those were more social features added onto Google and less actual social networks. Still they managed to completely fail with those features.
I'm sure it will be booming in a couple months prior to it's release, though.
I was thinking maybe around 6-8 month before it gets a decent 500 000+ user base. After what happened with Buzz, it'll take a decent amount of time before anyone would be willing to join. Well that's my guess.
I already have a Facebook, so one social network is enough. It seems to have a bunch of stuff that Facebook has, but then its missing a few things that Facebook has.
Will it be good, may be. Will it replace Facebook? Doubt it.
Facebook is a steam roller. I can't really say whether it will follow the path of Myspace and Friendster. If that is to happen, it be sooner rather than later.
Facebook is a steam roller. I can't really say whether it will follow the path of Myspace and Friendster. If that is to happen, it be sooner rather than later.
Well Myspace was recently completely redone and is basically a website for small bands. Facebook doesn't serve a niche and it has a clean UI so I doubt it'll go away in the near future. I expect the two to coexist well if Google+ controls the college/Early generation Y individuals with Facebook containing Generation X and the Millennials.
I've been using Google Music Beta and I don't really like it or see anything much different than using another web based music service. I don't see how Google+ will be much different than FaceBook or any other social networking site. They all do the same thing. Google's ChromeBooks are the same thing another horrid computer that I really don't need. But we'll see.
