Google Launches Google+ Social Network
Google Launches Google+ Social Network
Posted 06/28/2011 at 2:36pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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Google’s Facebook killer has arrived, and it is called Google+. The limited beta product is currently invite only, so don’t expect it to have the same massive social graph as Facebook does right now (if you can even get in). But Google has included some interesting features to help people share content. Google+ actually seems to be a few different products all rolled into one.
Instead of one big friends list, Google+ encourages users to organize people into groups called Circles that can receive personalized updates. This system may help avoid the unpleasantness of accidentally sharing too much with family or work acquaintances. Within Google+, Sparks are basically status updates. When you share content with a Spark, different Circles can be included, or excluded.
Google’s video chat platform has been integrated with this new social service as well. Google calls this feature Hangouts. This is essentially a group video chat room that your friends can join and well, hangout in. As expected, there is also a lot of mobile integration. Android users have and app that includes a group messaging service called Huddle, automatic picture backup to Google+, and access to all the Google + desktop features.
This is probably Google’s last real shot at social. If this all out effort goes down in flames, the search giant might have to accept that the social web is out of reach. Still, we’re intrigued by what we’ve seen.
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ChatterboxChuck
June 29, 2011 at 7:34am
I'm not a big Facebook person, I use it occasionally. Maybe ebcause I use Google products more often this may be more useful to me. I'll give it a try, have nothing to lose anyways by trying it out. if you are online, your information is already out there so i don't understand why people are so paranoid when they already put info out there.
codepath
June 29, 2011 at 6:54am
Could you MPC folks find a way to standardize on the article tags? This article used "google+", but another one used "google+ project". This makes the content tags useless as articles about the same thing are not connected which is the whole point of the tags in the first place.
Walnut
June 28, 2011 at 10:33pm
This could be interesting. I don't like putting intricate details of my life on the internet and really just use social networking for keeping up with friends. Facebook is so fucking unintuitive that I'm never entirely sure what something is going to do until I do it and then there's no going back. If Google can make something simple and intuitive, which is what they're good at, I'd consider switching. However, they NEED to make it integrate with Facebook. I guarantee that not everyone I know is going to switch over which means if I switch and Facebook is not integrated I can no longer talk with my friends and the service is totally useless. This was the problem with Wave. Awesome tech with awesome potential but invites trickled out so slowly so no one had anyone to play with. It was also burdened with the assumption that everyone would stop using email at once in favor of new tech. Better Gmail integration would have kept Wave in the game.
tornato7
June 28, 2011 at 3:41pm
If my friends are willing to join and use the group chat features and stuff, this could be really great. Google really needs to give people a reason to switch from FB tho. I still know a few people who use google buzz, however.
PS. Obviously this is why they have the +1 sharing tool too.
PPS. I agree i hate captchas. They could at least take away captchas from people who have been members for over a year (making constructive comments), and give a daily comment limit or something. Sheesh.
PPPS. This is kind of old news already.
d3v
June 28, 2011 at 2:57pm
Bah! Who cares! If google wants the curse of social networking then maybe it should get it.
PS guys implement hash cash spam protection. I hate captchas.
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