Fun Stuff > CHATTER

Google+ - It's like a facebook where you can hide drunk pics from grandma

(1/19) > >>

thelightguy:

See circles aren't all that confusing guys. :psyduck:

Demo here


--- Quote from: google ---
Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day.

Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools.

In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.

We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project.

Circles

Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss.

From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what’s new—just like any other day.

Sparks

Healthy obsessions inspire sharing, and we’ve all got one (or two, or three...). Maybe it’s muscle cars, or comic books, or fashion, but the attraction is always the same: it comes up in conversation, we immediately jump in, and we share back and forth with other fans. Often for hours. The trick is getting things started, and getting over that initial hump. Fortunately, the web is the ultimate icebreaker.

The web, of course, is filled with great content—from timely articles to vibrant photos to funny videos. And great content can lead to great conversations. We noticed, however, that it’s still too hard to find and share the things we care about—not without lots of work, and lots of noise. So, we built an online sharing engine called Sparks.

Mobile

These days a phone is the perfect sharing accessory: it's always with you, it's always online, and it's how we stay close with our closest friends. We didn’t want “just” a mobile experience, however, so with Google+ we focused on things (like GPS, cameras, and messaging) to make your pocket computer even more personal.

Hangouts and Huddle

Hangouts: With Google+ we wanted to make on-screen gatherings fun, fluid and serendipitous, so we created Hangouts. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles. Face-to-face-to-face.

Huddle: Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone's on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they're not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Huddle, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what's going on, right this second.

--- End quote ---

I've been playing with it for a few days now, and it's really nice.  The built in privacy controls and the design of it make it really easy for me to share cat pics with with my grandma and pictures of last night's party with my friends and never the twain shall meet.  Unless I drunk post, but that's not something google or facebook can prevent.  Hangouts are like tinychat with less dick, which is spectacular, as it makes getting drunk with people on the internet and pretending it's normal social interaction that much less scarring.  I haven't had a chance to try huddles yet, mostly because google+ membership is still incredibly limited, and they only come in handy for coordinating with friends afaict.

It's kinda like twitter and foursquare had a baby and facebook was the black sheep uncle that kinda influenced the child but only in how they conditioned him not to behave.

Right now it's in closed beta (like real beta, not google beta) and people are being let in with no rhyme or reason. Shared posts occasionally take you to the signup page instead of the coming soon page.  

So I personally have two questions: A) Is anyone else here on google+? and B) Anyone want me to try to invite them? All I need is an email address.

Follow me! I post about what I'm cooking for dinner and obscure board games. https://plus.google.com/111263269271694146317

Tom:
So, like regular Facebook but more clique-y. If Hollywood has taught me anything, Mark Z. must be furious.

Lunchbox:
Mark Z has a Google+ account. There are a fair few of us QC/meebo people on, if you know one of our names you should be able to find some more. :)

TinPenguin:
I don't plan on making any switch to it but at some point I'll probably sign up, just to see what it's like. It looks interesting from what I've seen.

It's unlikely to replace the monolith that Facebook has become, but stranger things have happened. Facebook dealt a similar blow to myspace, after all. It will mostly hinge on which people decide to join up and whether those people are perceived as cool. With the increasing numbers of older people on Facebook, perhaps that will become the place where we leave grandma and the parents to play Farmville while all the hip youngsters migrate to Google+.

Of course, it's also possible to have two popular social networking sites. Hyves is still dominant in the Netherlands, Hungary has iWiW, and I'm sure most countries have their own little version. That's a little different as it's language-based, of course, but the principle stands. I expect a lot of Dutchies use Hyves for their Dutch friends and Facebook for everyone else. If Google+ (or any social networking newcomer) can wedge itself in as the site for a particular segment of your networking, there's its spearhead. With the 'circles' feature, though, that doesn't seem to be what they're aiming for.

McTaggart:
I really want everyone to switch to Circles because Facebook irritates the crap out of me. The UI is appalling and keeps changing each time I figure it out, the privacy settings are arcane really hard to find and I'm constantly afraid that everything I do on the internet is going to get spammed on all my friends' walls without my knowledge. Basically all I use facebook for these days is so it can email me when people send me messages there or post events.

I haven't used Circles yet, but it's hard to imagine something that would be even less comfortable to use than Facebook.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page