On the web or in person, staying connected to others is a basic need and what affirms that idea more emphatically than the 750 million Facebook users and the 200 Million tweets per day from Twitter. From letting everyone know what you made for dinner to organizing protests that lead to toppling governments, the rise of Social Networking has been astounding shifting how humans interact with each other, governments and corporations forever.
Google, for all it’s amazing technical innovations and ability to harness the power of networked computers to serve humans, when it comes to the people part of the internet equation they’ve been on the outside looking in trying to figure out how to be invited, sidle or crash the social networking party.
So now we have Google +, not Google’s first attempt at becoming more social (see Google Buzz) but it’s most all encompassing attempt. Per Larry Page, CEO of Google – “Our goal with Google+ is to make sharing on the web like sharing in real life, as well as to improve the overall Google experience.” With the recent invite only public trial launch of Google + on June 28th and with over 25 Million accounts already, Google + can lay claim as the fastest growing social networking site in the short history of social networking.
But is Google + different enough to make you want to leave the Facebook bash, do you have to even leave can you, should you do both and why would you? Nobody knows at this point so instead of trying to predict its place in the world, let me try to define what it is and has.
No new technology comes without its own vocabulary and Google+ has got it share of words they hope will be as familiar as “Wall” or “Like” or “Friending.” Streams, Sparks, Circles, Hangouts and the Huddle are the buzzwords of late.
Both Streams and Sparks are similar to Facebook’s Top News or Most Recent feeds of your social connections and interests but instead of a combined feed, the Stream and the Spark allows you to separate the information. The Stream focuses on you and your friends’ social interactions of personal posts of pictures, links and comments. While Sparks, based on Google Search, focus on feeds of information about your interests created by you with for example, updates on your favorite sports team, actors, musicians, technology, cooking or even your favorite real estate company. Sparks can spark a conversation topic.
The Stream can be controlled by the main differentiator between Facebook and Google +, the Circle. Think about when you first jumped on Facebook probably “friending” or accepting friend requests from everyone and anyone you may have come in contact with only to end up with an unrealistic amount of friends and a bunch of surprising pictures from your past. With Google +, not only do you get a friend-reset opportunity but you can organize your peeps of influence so your boss or clients or even mother doesn’t have to see that photo of you or your friend from “back in the day” or even late last night if you don’t want them to. Instead of having the largest group of friends on the block and sharing everything with everyone and their friends, you can start over and invite people to be part of your work, friend or family circles and post and receive posts to focused groups of friends, family, coworkers or acquaintances. Facebook has similar security and sharing options but I think the way Google + controls who you share with is a bit simpler and intuitive and the most alluring part of Google +.
The Hangout is simply a quick way to setup a live multi person video chat with people in your Circles. A Huddle is a real time group-messaging tool that can get everyone in your circle involved in a conversation.
So those are the basics, now what to do with Google +, well the best thing to do is try it and in order to try it you’ll need an invite because it’s still in trial, invite only mode. But if you know someone who has Google+ ask them to send you an invite and you’re in the party. Or you may also submit a request for an invite by going to the learn more about Google + at https://www.google.com/+/learnmore/.
Finally, here are some great sources of information on the topic including the official Google + blog and this article from the June edition of Wired Magazine, Inside Google + by Wired plus the latest from Website Magazine
What do you think about Google +, are you going to give it a try or are you already well on your way?
No comments:
Post a Comment