Google+ is the latest product release by search juggernaut Google. The release went live in true Google style, invite only and it pretty much spread like wildfire in the social media scene where invites were even sold in eBay for about 27 dollars!
Good thing I didn’t pay for it or let others pay for an invite. Its a matter of time until everyone can enjoy the Google+ experience. So lets do an overview of what Google+ really is and where things connect shall we?
HOME
This is the field where all your friends, family etc are posting their news which ends up in your newsfeed / news stream.
You can organize your contacts in the various streams (Google calls these circles) and in these circles you can drag and drop your contacts. If I activate my “Friends” stream then a different feed appears on my home page.
Since not everyone is introduced to Google+ and I am not sure how many will be deleting their Facebook profiles over this but it is currently a bit slow on the news front.
PHOTOS
The photo’s are again a collaboration of all your circles and you can see who’s commented on the various images. As you can see my friend Wilco from www.Emarky.net has been travelling quite a bit so he has a few images from Australia, New Zealand and Kuala Lumpur.
You can create your own albums, like everywhere else, and go from there really. Just add them and you can select who can see them as you can set the parameters yourself.
In fact, Google+ links your account with Picasa, which means whatever you do with your pictures on Google+ will also happen on your Picasa. Funny enough this just popped up while I added a few people to my following Circle so thanks to Bish S for sharing 
So now what happens in Vegas can really stay in the Circle of Friends..
The +1 effect
The power of Google’s +1 button now comes into play a bit more. The +1 button is not only going to affect the searches (as the Like button on Facebook) but it also doubles as your personal bookmark button. This not visible for other circles, as far as I can see, but this the more people will start using this it will be a huge tool.
The power of the +1 button will become more powerful if this is visible for other circle’s, as you really start to share your bookmarks. Is this always relevant for your i.e. Friend Circle? Not really. Family? Doubt it.
So how do you share your website ?
The Buzz effect
Remember that other project of Google that kinda failed? This feature was turned on without your permission about a year ago now which is called Google Buzz.
This is the “share” functionality by Google. In my opinion it didn’t really took off and I must admit I hardly use it. Only friends of people who follow you can see what you write which is kind of annoying.
But if you put this all together Google has got some things right in their way of thinking. All the products they released are now in one place which could set them up for a good social network.
But again, just like Google Wave, the key issue is your friends. If they don’t change you won’t either. Who is going to see your pictures if nobody is connected to you?
Circles
The thing that I don’t really like is pretty much what everyone hate’s to do. Organizing their address list / book.
To fully enjoy the Google+ experience you would have to add your contacts to the various circles to make it work. The drag and drop feature is pretty cool I must admit and it does work well but I just don’t like to organize the whole lot and therefore I won’t use Google+ the way it was designed for.
Sum up
So if you are tired of using Picasa, Buzz etc and want a personal dashboard like Facebook where you can post to various friends as you could do with Google Wave then Google+ is your thing.
It also shows and updates everyone’s comments real time (like Google Wave) which is pretty cool and stops you from refreshing your browser it you want to know what is happening.
Play around with it for a bit and see what happens. I am sure that in the next few weeks it will ramp up quite a bit and more promotion will be done for the different features etc.
What is your Google+ experience so far?
Ralph
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