Yesterday I was finally able to receive an invitation to Google+ (thanks to Lisa!). After seeing it from the inside, I am convinced that this is the killer application that will stop Facebook. Google+ feels totally comfortable. It also allows you to make your communication much more effective.
When you login to Google+, Google already knows many of your friends (especially if you are a Gmail user). Like other social networking sites, the most central thing to Google+ is your social news stream. The difference to Facebook is that you can group your friends to different circles and now see the streams of those circles. You can also post updates only to certain circles. This is great because it makes communication much more private and efficient.
No Friendship Requests Necessary
There are no friendship requests in Google+. You just add people by email adress to circles. They will get a notification but if they don’t add you to one of their circles, they will not “follow” you. So the system is much like Twitter, where you decide who you are interested in and who not. This will probably prevent a lot of spam and take away all those nasty marketing opportunities to companies. I considered to be active on Google+ with my band but for what reason? Even if fans add a band to one of their circles it will probably not be the circle with their best friends that they will pay most attention to. But maybe we give it a try anyway!
No API Implemented Yet
What I am missing in Google+ right now is the opportunity to access this site via a strong API. I am sure that this will change once the site is successful.According to Rafe Needleman’s cnet Article the developer API will come once Google Plus is more mature.
The features and functions of Google+ will likely change substantially in short order. More functions will be definitely be added to the service, as well as increased integration with other Google apps. Giving developers access now might be premature, as some might built products that end up duplicating features that Google itself is just about to layer into the publicly available service.
Many Privacy Settings:
What other company but Google could know better about users’ privacy concerns. The network is centralized and not distributed. This of course is a huge privacy issue but one that most users don’t understand. For the average user who just wants to save his privacy in his social circle or extended social circle, Google+ is really great.
Great Usability Reminding of Apple:
The UI of Google Plus really is a strong thing. It just feels very good to use it. According to techcrunch especially the UIof circles goes back to no one less than Andy Hetzfeld one of the key designers of the first Macintosh software.
Hetzfeld, who has been working at Google since 2005, is indeed the one we can thank for the better-looking interface on Google+, as he’s the design lead on the project. You’ll likely recognize his name from his time spent at Apple (1979 – 1984) where he was a key designer for the original Macintosh software team.
Response to Critique on other sites:
I read some blogs and articles saying that Google plus will not be able to compete with Facebook, that it is to late to enter the market and so on… Well, I would say that Google already has many advantages
- a huge user base
- fans
- a similar yet superior social networking product
- together with other google products they have a complete product
- android to push their social network to the mobile market
- a lot of experience on how to do things viral
I would also guess that the similarity to Facebook is intended. Great usability comes from consistency in design. It doesn’t take much time to learn from using Facebook to Google+. Some new things like circles have excellent usability and due to the similarity to the Facebook UI, the rest feels just easy to use. So this is not stealing or a lack of creativity. It is just the amount of perfection that you expect from a company like Google!
So join me and start inviting your friends to Google Plus. Here is how it works.