It may be just another step in Google’s bid to control the world, but Google+’s newest foray into the social networking world is here, albeit invite only for the moment. Looking like a cleaner version of facebook without all the blue, Plus looks like its developers just shuffled around facebook’s key features and gave them slightly different names (see: ‘like’ vs. ‘+1,’ ‘mutual friends’ vs. ‘friends in common,’ notifications being in the opposite corner, etc.) Coming into the world where facebook is so omnipresent that its vocabulary has entered the vernacular and its interface is fully integrated into our smartphones (read: lives), it was a smart decision for Google+ to closely resemble facebook in appearance. It is certainly smooth looking, and the prospects of its interconnectivity with other Google services like Documents, Reader, Picasa and gmail are enticing (Once activated, google+ becomes a button in the far right corner of the existing igoogle interface).
Yet, the new social network’s main departure of facebook is a big one. facebook’s dominant form of communication is the “wall,” a publicly visible but person specific area that other facebook users post on to prove how witty they are. Instead, Google+’s only way to interact is to broadcast a post akin to a tweet or a status update, directed at nobody in particular (although who you send it to is highly customizable, more on that later.) This not only reflects a worrying trend on the internet epitomized by twitter of people sharing pointless information that nobody gives a damn about, (ex. the app on facebook that shares where you are located at that moment,) but it clashes with the google plus mission statement of making internet communications more life-like. In the real world, we generally don’t just yell random observations from our life to our immediate area, we direct our conversation at individuals or small groups of individuals. While the ‘circles’ feature allows you to choose who receives your statement, it remains an awkward tweet-like item that seems shouted into cyberspace.
Circles is of course plus’s biggest idea, and there google finds their greatest success. It works like this: when encountering a new person on +, you immediately choose which circle to place the other user in. Default circles are: Friends, Acquaintances and Family, but you can create your own for whatever your needs. Then, whenever you share information, you choose which circles to share with. For example, if Juan is my boss and I learn that he has google+, I can add him to my “work” circle, and later when I share a picture of myself funneling a four loko, I will click the “friends” circle to share with, and my job will be safe. Meanwhile, on facebook, my grandfather is seeing pictures of me doing the Macarena in my underwear (the result of a dare, I swear.) The circle interface is a joy to use and exceedingly simple, with drop down menus and drag and drop fun to be had all over the place. Seriously about the drop down menus though, they are just everywhere; clearly the designers had some fun when they were making this thing.
Circles is the best of the Google+’s three main innovations, and it is by far the greatest contribution to the social network community. Sparks, which is weird and confusing, allows you to pick interests and then follow stories about them in a stream-like format. I haven’t really figured out how to use that yet, so I’m not going to talk about it. The third idea, “hangouts” is relatively straightforward. It allows you to “hangout,” which basically means you are available to video chat. Up to 10 other users can then hangout with you, making it sort of like a video conference, but with a chill name.
I should talk about the “stream,” which is like facebook’s news feed but with circles integrated into it. Not only is it nice and clean, and looks pretty much exactly like the newsfeed. By default it displays content uploaded by all the people you follow (everyone in all of your circles,) and on the left there is a menu allowing you to choose individual circles to display. Its pretty nifty and pretty smooth to use, which sort of sums up the google+ experience as far as I can tell. Its been reasonably easy to pick up, and has limited novelty appeal (making circles was fun for about 5 minutes,) but without the 700 million+ users, (not to mention all of their pictures) there is really no reason to choose it over facebook for the time being. The most promising thing about google+ is that it can at least provide facebook with its first serious creative competitor since it dethroned myspace.* With any luck this Zuckerberg and crew will find a way make it so that we can easily choose with whom we share our information, and we will all be saved a couple awkward conversations at family reunions.
*A quick google search notified me that myspace may in fact still be around, who knew? Next thing you’ll tell me is that Friendster is still up and running.
Mundsson
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