If you keep up with tech news, you are already probably annoyed of all the talk about Google's latest attempt to break into social networking. If you don't, well this will introduce it to you. I know I'm a bit late in the game on this one, but I didn't want to blog about it until I got my invite and had some time to play around with it. So in this post of Tech Update, I'm going to give my thoughts on the new, invite only site.
Just a few nights before Google announced its new Google+ Project, my brother and I were talking about the company's potential. Upon the announcement followed by the buzz from the media, I was eager to see if Google CEO Larry Page was stalking me and listening to my ideas (it turns out he wasn't, but I think Murdoch did), but the product isn't bad.
Although I will give a general review of the site and some of its features, I want to spend more time talking about its future.If you are looking for reviews on the site in more detail,
here is one. It is a positive review, but then again, it's tough to find a negative one.
In our discussion, my brother and I laid out the potential for a Google social network because it could spread it out to every aspect of its empire, and the Google+ Project is flexible enough to do just that.
The simplicity of the design was expected; Google is known for it, which is why I was so surprised when everyone went crazy over it. Yes, Google = simple. Have you visited Google.com? Have you ever used Chrome? or any other their other products?
Being an Privacy Settings Control-Nazi on Facbook, I found Google+ Circles to be extremely useful and refreshing. Of the friends I decided to invite, I quickly organized them in different circles and established my sharing rules, all of which is far easier than Facebook (for now).
There are many interesting features on Google, most based on previous/current social networking competitors (myspace, facebook,etc). Out of all its original features, I'd have to put Sparks in first and Hangouts in second. Allow me to talk in greater detail about both.
Sparks is basically a way for you to create a stream of news from Google's index on any given subject. I currently have two Sparks: Technology and Politics. When you set up a spark (it takes literally, 1 word's time to set up) you get a great stream of information relative to the words you put. This way I can alternate between my friend's streams, family streams, and other circles as well as my news about the world all in one place! Bravo!
Hangouts has received a huge amount of attention because it allows for 10 way video chat. After trying it myself, the video chat was pretty good but could use some minor tinkering. What I found most impressive about this, isn't that you are allowed a conference video call for free, forever (most others charge. Damn you Skype and Oovoo!!), what impressed me most was the fact that you can start a Hangout, and just... well.. hang out. If ever I'm bored, I can let people know, without begging on a status or annoying anyone that is busy, that I (perhaps with some friends sitting nearby) am open to online video chat to whoever wants it. It is the ultimate invitation to talk without annoying anyone that wants to avoid you, or is too busy to talk.
With this said, the network's potential is huge if Google heeds my advice: Google needs greater integration between its Google+ Project and the rest of its search, phone, tablet, and computer empire. The navigation bar is just one place where Google has began expanding the network outside of the website itself. The Google black navigation bar can be seen by everyone (go search anything on Google right now). When you have a Google+ account, it adds additional buttons to the bar to view notifications, your profile picture and home page. Most importantly, there is a share button that literally follows you whenever you are searching for anything on Google!
At the same time, some months ago, Google introduced its +1 button to be found on all Google Search results. Click it, and it acts much like a Facebook "Like" button (a clear rip-off). Now, whenever you give a website a +1, which has outnumbered the number of Tweet buttons out there, friends searching on Google can see what pages you recommend. Aside from the navigation bar and this +1 button, this is where Google stops its expansion, but it needs to continue it if it wants to compete with Facebook.
I know what you are going to say, Google+ is only 2 weeks old and its a "Project" in the works. Yet in those two weeks,
10 million have joined an
invite only website and they are sharing a BILLION pieces of content per day. Google should do well to move on and further develop the website.
So where exactly lies the potential? Google needs to bring more of its products into Google+ as well as export the social network outside (it has spent more time doing the latter). I was extremely impressed when my Gmail chat was imported into my Google+ account, but that is where Google stops on the integration (aside from replacing my old Google Profile). I believe that Google should work on better integration between Google+ and Gmail. Rather than keep Gmail listed on the top of the navigation bar, I want to be able to send emails from Google+ as well as create (with permission) a social environment within my email. Oddly enough, no one seems to care that you can't message anyone in Google+!
As with Gmail, Google Calendar would be an extremely useful add on to the Google+ profile (something else Facebook doesn't have). This would increase Google Calendar uses and allow people to organize their lives online, with Google+. Google News, Google Reader and Google Sparks should all be combined to create one major, simple, powerful, content feed that can be accessed on the Google+ Sparks page.
Youtube and Google Maps can also be greatly useful (the latter especially in mobile) and exporting Google+ to these services as well as making it easier to share on the network will increase content and product use. Maps could soon be used to provide daily deals for anyone traveling around the city.
Finally, lesser known Google initiatives like Google Groups should be fully integrated into the Google+ network and will likely gain much traction as a way for people to organize.
After all this is done, there is still a one major move Google must make: Pre-install Google+ Project App (doesn't exist yet) into every Android system (phone and tablet) that is produced. That's 300,000 phones with the app going into people's hands every day, and the tablet market is still fresh for Google's taking. Their default sharing, much like their search, will be to Google. These are all ways for Google to make smart business decisions as well as simply the life of one college student prayer for better integration between Google Products.
As with all this news, we should all be concerned about privacy settings. For the time being, Google seems to have solved that with Circles, although, admittedly, I haven't posted that much photo/video content just yet until I get a better look at how it differs from Facebook in its policy. For the time being it seems to be satisfactory, however, the outlook of this project is more magical than a double rainbow. It's a work in progress for Google, and there is much work to be done.
You can get all these page updates by "Liking" the Facebook blog page! here : http://on.fb.me/hWYYmi or by following me on Twitter! http://bit.ly/fIU3d7 Please Share on your network, email, comment or subscribe!
