I really hope they kick facebook's ass - Google is a company which allows other smaller companies to grow and build on their system, they're inclusive ... it's near impossible to build a serious business on a facebook app (outside of farmville type games) - any serious app (photo sharing, better socialization etc.) that gains any kind of popularity on facebook gets shut down without compromise.
It almost feels like a political issue--with all of the longterm controversy and animosity that Facebook has stirred up amongst us, we've been quietly waiting for something like this to happen. I'm glad to see that so many of us appear to be rallying around what appears to have the potential of being a "Facebook killer".
I shouldn't be so emotionally invested, but after years of Facebook acting like assholes to all of us, I hope Google lays complete and utter waste to them. Facebook has under no uncertain terms been trying to swallow up the web, and before seeing this level of competition I thought they stood a chance of accomplishing that goal. Perhaps not anymore.
I deleted my Facebook account a long time ago, and I honestly am not interested in social networking after that experience. I'm not sure whether I want to do the Google+ thing long term, but I'm definitely going to join if for no other reason than to get all of my friends to. Maybe I can get some of them to migrate completely. I trust Google a hell of a lot more than Facebook. (Perhaps I shouldn't, but I do.)
I wonder what this holds for their upcoming IPO? People are fickle and can ditch a service rather quickly (MySpace, hotmail/yahoo->gmail). Even with the wealth of photos and memories Facebook has accumulated for many users, I don't think it will be able to retain them by touting that data alone.
This is going to be very exciting to watch. What a good show you've put on for us, Google!
I can't express how sick i feel doing facebook apps in the past year, it has been nothing but disappointment and anger (but still makes the money due to huge traction).
Google has a much better track record of fostering developer ecosystems and a much better understanding of how to deal with app spam. Hope they do their best to create a good web app ecosystem.
"Cool" is actually a good adjective and a sign that Google will be competitive in "social". I like Facebook, but they haven't done anything particularly compelling (i.e. provoking me to say "Hey, cool") for me since they added chat years ago.
The speed of their product has improved impressively and the mobile site has achieved commendable parity with the "full site", but they're really not delivering new experiences. And that's a little bit damning. Great technology products can create mind-blowing new experiences and the lasting companies deliver those experiences regularly.
Plus looks cool, though. I've been Skyping for years, but the way they show you seamlessly jumping from the news feed to a video chat strikes me as something new. I'm intrigued by "Sparks". At least for me, Facebook is a deadzone when it comes to real discussion - if Google can make a format that combines social networking with Reddit-like discussion, they'll take over.
That's how I feel as well. Actually I never really thought Facebook's interface was that good - mediocre at best. But one thing I thought was cool was the way it handled recommendations. But because Facebook had this design flaw built in of allowing anyone becoming your friend, and then sharing everything with everyone, the recommendation engine has become a bit useless, since now it's more of a way to discover other people, rather than connect you to your real friends, the way it used to be in the beginning.
This is a design flaw of all previous social networks, including Facebook and I believe it's what led most of them to become irrelevant for the users, because it really weakened and diluted the types of relationships you can have on Facebook.
I also don't think this is something you can just patch up later on. They tried it with Lists and Groups, and it didn't work. Google+ has this built-in from the beginning and it's why I think it will succeed. I've actually noticed this is a huge problem about a year ago and I've been thinking ever since how this could be fixed. Google's solution is similar but even better than what I thought was the solution. It surprises me how well they got this.
I've actually been wondering what the hell facebook has been doing with all of these engineers. Most of the changes I've seen on facebook have been pretty minor, no significant feature launches in the past couple years. I guess they do only have 1/10th as many employees as Google does, but it still doesn't make any sense to have a couple thousand engineers and no visible progress; I feel like they must have a lot going on internally that is unannounced. If we don't see any big moves by facebook in the next year (especially if Circles manages to have a successful public launch in the immediate future) I would be really surprised.
facebook has hit that incredibly difficult point where they can't do anything cool anymore. the outrage that happens every time they introduce even the slightest change is huge; if they try to do anything cool they risk alienating a huge portion of their users. at with their current growth rate, they don't need to change anything.
I hope the idea of circles catches on, and that they are very expendable, I would like to have for instance a Circle called Music where I could add those friends which I share music with and that it would become a central hub which we could all update. I like this idea, rather than the mess that is the Facebook news feed.
Adoption will be slow I reckon as people don't have a huge reason to move this, but thanks to its integration, we will see a number of people use it almost unknowingly.
I like Google's full on approach here, and feels more complete than buzz and even wave.
Agreed. My problem (and it may just be mine) is that my 100 or so friends on Facebook (mostly IRL friends) are not that active on Facebook groups. They will update their status and post photos but will not share content on groups. I am part of a number of groups around my interests (tech, photography etc) but tends to be me and maybe one or two others that contribute content. Very little discussion occurs. I wonder if Google+ will change that with the ability to add in non friends around an interest (ala twitter) but without broadcast to all.
The Circles idea would be good if it auto generated people who should be included in Circles based on use patterns(mentioned here "It is a shame that there aren't any recommendations for people that ought to be grouped together automatically into a common Circle.")
It wouldn't be creepy if the interface picked up on behavior similar to how Gmail suggests people to cc on emails based on past email use patterns. People are ready for that.
Unfortunately I'm going to just watch people say about how cool or awful Google Plus is; because I'm a Google Apps user and am accustomed to being considered some kind of second-class citizen.
Surely they'll promise availability in a month from now or so, but it's going to take several months or years anyway.
Google Apps has a transition plan to make them all first-class Google Accounts. I enabled it in my domain, and I might have read some emails saying that they were all transitioned automatically in the last month, not sure though.
The changes seem to be up for my Google Apps account. Investigate your site settings panel.
Why is everyone jumping through hoops now, just because BigCorp is holding up another free fish? You are still in the fuckin' pool!
It is only bigger and has other bling
Is Google+ supporting the relevant 'Distributed Social' protocols, like OAuth, Salmon, FOAF, Activity Streams, so that I can interconnect from other social networks (like Diaspora)?
If not, then no matter how shmancy fancy it is, it is not something we should want.
I can email from yahoo to gmail to myownmailserver. Social Networking should be no different from this. Remember the times when you could only send messages from Compuserve to Compuserve and vom AOL to AOL?
Why repeat the same thing with social networking?
Google+ looks amazing but if you think Facebook won't have these features copied within six months you are wrong. In particular the circles features which seems like the most compelling feature.
Also the "average" person won't maintain 2 social profiles and will gravitate to where the users already are. If Google wants to compete in social it's need to do more than just "sharing". They must have features that people need to use. These features may come. I don't know what that is? Deep personalized search integration? Beat Facebook to their inevitable Skype/video integration? time will tell.
Also the "average" person won't maintain 2 social profiles and will gravitate to where the users already are.
The MySpace to Facebook transition shows that exactly this happened. I was in high school at the time, and I definitely remember people mentioning having both a MySpace and Facebook account, and wanting to get people to switch over to Facebook. I don't mean "tech people", I mean normal folk.
As for compelling features, I think Circles is a killer. When your relatives are on Facebook, a good portion of your personality has to leave Facebook. You have to think about what you're going to say, and generally stick to the blandest possible expression of who you are. If Google+ enables people to say what they want to who they want, it will be a hit.
Could Facebook really scale a massive group video-chat service to all (or even half) of its users in that timeframe? This might be advantage an (initially) smaller socially network has over a big one - highly resource-intensive things like videochat and real-time video watching are more feasible.
Features don't make the social network; customs do. FaceBook copied Twitter with its status messages in Twitter's infancy, and yet they didn't manage to kill Twitter.
I still dunno if Google+ will be a success, but if it is, I suspect it will be more due to the actions of early adopters than to Google.
Even if people wont move in droves to this, its still easier to get started with this because of circles and privacy features. For example, previously our tight nit group of college friends used to engage using email threads. Now hopefully we can move on to this.
Agreed, my group of friends organise stuff using email threads. Events (theatre, concerts etc.) are put in a Google Calendar for us all to see. It's really useful to e.g. keep track of people's travelling plans, birthdays and other such stuff. Unfortunately, Calendar does not have some desirable features such as seeing that an event is added, changed or deleted and by whom. I hope some of these features will be available in Google Plus.
I posted this in the comments of the article; but what I would like to see is a link between Google+ and Android Market such that each application I publish creates a dynamic circle. The dynamic circle would contain anyone that has installed my application, if they have chosen to allow it.
Create a system-wide setting in the Android Market around whether to allow this and then if someone wants to get more granular they can use Google Plus. Their email would be masked so that I could not see the address but it would let me contact my customers.
I think this would help address some existing issues while giving Google's android market a way to be very different from the existing app stores.
I also think using +1 on the Android market (especially the web one) will greatly help with app discoverability. Just imagine +1'ing an app on your phone or on the web (maybe after you install it?) and then your friends being able to see it.
But I'm not so sure about you proposed. Google needs to be very careful here and not turn Google+ into a spam fest of apps, the way Facebook has become. Google's main priority should always be the user, not the developers here. And as they said, Google+ should be much more about life-sharing rather than sharing how you got 5 more coins in some game, or whatever.
I'd only be afraid of checking the wrong box and sharing with one or more of the wrong circles. This could easily become much more then a fun social experience. I am very excited to see where it goes. With Facebook I'd be hesitant to add co-workers as friends or to make certain posts. Now I feel I may be able to keep family, friends, and work life separate in one spot. Facebooks goal of being a one stop website may have a strong competitor here and o truly hope it does.
Google+ is cool. I got an invite from a friend interning with Google and have been playing with this as much as I can, but it is boring right now as I have few friends to connect with on it.
However, the design is good and I think this is the first true competitor to Facebook. I personally would really like to see Facebook have so strong competition, especially on features like privacy which Google+ has done right.
Does anyone know what the plan is on letting it loose in the wild? I know it took me a long time to get a gmail account back in the day. I hope/imagine within a week or two they fully open the doors.
I'm absolutely in love with the idea of "circles." Although my opinion may sway when I finally get my hands on it, it seems as though there's a lot of value in being able to distribute my personal content to specific groups (granted this is possible on Facebook, but it seems like Google is curing the lazy factor). Can't wait to get my hands on an account and see what it's like. I just hope that their scarcity model doesn't box people out. I wanted wave to work so well but when none of my friends/colleagues could get an invite, it made it, well, pointless.
I think this has potential. Facebook over took Myspace because it solved the biggest flaw Myspace had, it was messy. Facebook offered a simple clean alternative. Now Google+ solves the biggest flaw Facebook has, confusing privacy controls. Perhaps that's enough to migrate people from Facebook? Who knows. I know I'd like to post something for on Facebook for my political friends without the fear of getting my parents foaming at the mouth.
Am I the only one who sees this going nowhere? I can't imagine this gaining any significant traction at all.
Edit: I just can't see how a sizable group will switch to this and either abandon facebook or maintain two profiles. Granted, these things have happened, but after Wave and Buzz I just don't see google as capable of doing this.
[+] [-] paulnelligan|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] possibilistic|14 years ago|reply
It almost feels like a political issue--with all of the longterm controversy and animosity that Facebook has stirred up amongst us, we've been quietly waiting for something like this to happen. I'm glad to see that so many of us appear to be rallying around what appears to have the potential of being a "Facebook killer".
I shouldn't be so emotionally invested, but after years of Facebook acting like assholes to all of us, I hope Google lays complete and utter waste to them. Facebook has under no uncertain terms been trying to swallow up the web, and before seeing this level of competition I thought they stood a chance of accomplishing that goal. Perhaps not anymore.
I deleted my Facebook account a long time ago, and I honestly am not interested in social networking after that experience. I'm not sure whether I want to do the Google+ thing long term, but I'm definitely going to join if for no other reason than to get all of my friends to. Maybe I can get some of them to migrate completely. I trust Google a hell of a lot more than Facebook. (Perhaps I shouldn't, but I do.)
I wonder what this holds for their upcoming IPO? People are fickle and can ditch a service rather quickly (MySpace, hotmail/yahoo->gmail). Even with the wealth of photos and memories Facebook has accumulated for many users, I don't think it will be able to retain them by touting that data alone.
This is going to be very exciting to watch. What a good show you've put on for us, Google!
[+] [-] ralfd|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m_eiman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ignifero|14 years ago|reply
I can't express how sick i feel doing facebook apps in the past year, it has been nothing but disappointment and anger (but still makes the money due to huge traction).
Google has a much better track record of fostering developer ecosystems and a much better understanding of how to deal with app spam. Hope they do their best to create a good web app ecosystem.
[+] [-] saturdaysaint|14 years ago|reply
The speed of their product has improved impressively and the mobile site has achieved commendable parity with the "full site", but they're really not delivering new experiences. And that's a little bit damning. Great technology products can create mind-blowing new experiences and the lasting companies deliver those experiences regularly.
Plus looks cool, though. I've been Skyping for years, but the way they show you seamlessly jumping from the news feed to a video chat strikes me as something new. I'm intrigued by "Sparks". At least for me, Facebook is a deadzone when it comes to real discussion - if Google can make a format that combines social networking with Reddit-like discussion, they'll take over.
[+] [-] nextparadigms|14 years ago|reply
This is a design flaw of all previous social networks, including Facebook and I believe it's what led most of them to become irrelevant for the users, because it really weakened and diluted the types of relationships you can have on Facebook.
I also don't think this is something you can just patch up later on. They tried it with Lists and Groups, and it didn't work. Google+ has this built-in from the beginning and it's why I think it will succeed. I've actually noticed this is a huge problem about a year ago and I've been thinking ever since how this could be fixed. Google's solution is similar but even better than what I thought was the solution. It surprises me how well they got this.
[+] [-] esrauch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notatoad|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Newky|14 years ago|reply
Adoption will be slow I reckon as people don't have a huge reason to move this, but thanks to its integration, we will see a number of people use it almost unknowingly.
I like Google's full on approach here, and feels more complete than buzz and even wave.
[+] [-] rakkhi|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ralfd|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kfalter|14 years ago|reply
It wouldn't be creepy if the interface picked up on behavior similar to how Gmail suggests people to cc on emails based on past email use patterns. People are ready for that.
[+] [-] bxr|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bad_user|14 years ago|reply
Surely they'll promise availability in a month from now or so, but it's going to take several months or years anyway.
[+] [-] nextparadigms|14 years ago|reply
It's so they make sure it's a very polished service by the time it gets on Google Apps.
[+] [-] ljlolel|14 years ago|reply
The changes seem to be up for my Google Apps account. Investigate your site settings panel.
[+] [-] notatoad|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsilence|14 years ago|reply
Is Google+ supporting the relevant 'Distributed Social' protocols, like OAuth, Salmon, FOAF, Activity Streams, so that I can interconnect from other social networks (like Diaspora)?
If not, then no matter how shmancy fancy it is, it is not something we should want.
I can email from yahoo to gmail to myownmailserver. Social Networking should be no different from this. Remember the times when you could only send messages from Compuserve to Compuserve and vom AOL to AOL? Why repeat the same thing with social networking?
/rant
-jsl
[+] [-] cdcarter|14 years ago|reply
If Twitter goes under, I'm not going to want my tweets back or my friendlist back. I'm going to want Twitter back.
[+] [-] lachlanj|14 years ago|reply
Also the "average" person won't maintain 2 social profiles and will gravitate to where the users already are. If Google wants to compete in social it's need to do more than just "sharing". They must have features that people need to use. These features may come. I don't know what that is? Deep personalized search integration? Beat Facebook to their inevitable Skype/video integration? time will tell.
[+] [-] jokermatt999|14 years ago|reply
The MySpace to Facebook transition shows that exactly this happened. I was in high school at the time, and I definitely remember people mentioning having both a MySpace and Facebook account, and wanting to get people to switch over to Facebook. I don't mean "tech people", I mean normal folk.
As for compelling features, I think Circles is a killer. When your relatives are on Facebook, a good portion of your personality has to leave Facebook. You have to think about what you're going to say, and generally stick to the blandest possible expression of who you are. If Google+ enables people to say what they want to who they want, it will be a hit.
[+] [-] saturdaysaint|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nostrademons|14 years ago|reply
I still dunno if Google+ will be a success, but if it is, I suspect it will be more due to the actions of early adopters than to Google.
[+] [-] lachlanj|14 years ago|reply
Any guesses as to how long it takes for Facebook to copy G+ circles?
[+] [-] meow|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dlib|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kadrith|14 years ago|reply
Create a system-wide setting in the Android Market around whether to allow this and then if someone wants to get more granular they can use Google Plus. Their email would be masked so that I could not see the address but it would let me contact my customers.
I think this would help address some existing issues while giving Google's android market a way to be very different from the existing app stores.
[+] [-] nextparadigms|14 years ago|reply
But I'm not so sure about you proposed. Google needs to be very careful here and not turn Google+ into a spam fest of apps, the way Facebook has become. Google's main priority should always be the user, not the developers here. And as they said, Google+ should be much more about life-sharing rather than sharing how you got 5 more coins in some game, or whatever.
[+] [-] jshort|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joejohnson|14 years ago|reply
However, the design is good and I think this is the first true competitor to Facebook. I personally would really like to see Facebook have so strong competition, especially on features like privacy which Google+ has done right.
[+] [-] beck5|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] netrus|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rglover|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ericmoritz|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jccodez|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] VMG|14 years ago|reply
Edit: I just can't see how a sizable group will switch to this and either abandon facebook or maintain two profiles. Granted, these things have happened, but after Wave and Buzz I just don't see google as capable of doing this.
[+] [-] stanleydrew|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]