I'm trying it out, but I can't invite any of my friends and family. That kind of defeats the purpose. It's social networking without the network or social aspects.
* I'm sick of the hype already and I can't be bothered to try it.
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ADDED IN EDIT: Oh, goody. Down-votes. I'd be really interested to hear from someone who thinks this isn't a valid reaction to the whole thing.
Let me just say - I really don't care about Google+. I'll wait and see what happens, I'll wait to see who uses it, I'll wait to see what people say, and I'll wait to see if it looks useful.
I'm not going to go "OOOO! SHINY THING!!" and immediately jump all over it.
Allowing that as an option in the "poll" seems reasonable. Certinaly none of the options presented represent my point of view.
Of course, maybe you think my point of view isn't worth bothering about, and that everybody should be interested in the latest shiny thing from Google. That's called selection bias.
It's a perfectly valid reaction, just not a valid comment on HN. This page is clearly for people who want to discuss this topic, if you're not one of those people, don't click the link.
Ironically, I'm sure you don't go into every single topic on HN and comment when you don't care about the subject, yet you complain about the hype that made you bother to write a comment about it.
My parents have a rule about new TV shows: They won't watch anything in the first season. Instead, they record the entire season, and once it is picked up for a second, they'll watch the first season and then become regular viewers.
I have the same rule with social networks. I'll sign up right at the beginning, but I won't participate until I see a good chunk of my friends are on it. I don't want to invest the time if it is going to flop.
I don't like that rule. Sure, it sucks when a show you love gets cancelled, but I'd rather have a little bit of something awesome than nothing.
Great example, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a 2005 comedy show written by Aaron Sorkin. It's ratings weren't great and it was canned, but I think it's amazing, and I rewatch that one season at least once a year.
Shows are cancelled because the people are not watching it. What is the logic to dont watch it because it can be cancelled? If everybody do this every show will be cancelled.
i like your parents approach, but there are sometimes good shows that get cancelled after the 1st season. if you let the masses make decisions for you (as your parents are doing in this situation) things tend to slip through the cracks.
I like it, prefer it to FaceBook, but won't switch until all my friends do.
I think the make or break of G+ is in mass migration of circles of friends (pun intended). Facebook takes enough time out of my life as it is. Managing 2 separate sets of 'social networks' seems a bit over the top to me.
All of your friends? That's a little extreme, and will ensure that you'll never switch. I have friends that will just stop using Facebook rather than switching if all of the action moves to G+.
G+ will be popular with the tech set (and probably their freinds), but I can't see moms, dads, grand parents really switching to it. Nor can I see it becoming as popular until there are games, etc. For better or worse, the vast proportion of FBs users will not move over.
Take a look around, how many people still have yahoo, aol, and MSN email addresses? Yahoo still is a very popular destination for people (groups, etc).
I said "I like it but don't prefer it to Facebook", but that needs some explanation.
At the moment, Facebook still has the edge because it has all my friends on it. I also am less than 24 hours with +, so I haven't gotten to fully explore. But when more people join and I figure out all its quirks, I believe I will prefer it to Facebook (as I haven't particularly liked Facebook for quite some time now).
I just don't like the Google's Like button, a.k.a. the tiny +1 rectangle. It's just not obvious. It looks almost like a logo and I'm afraid Google is making the same mistake as Microsoft Office 2007 (the big office globe button on the upper left that many thought it's just for decoration). My fear came true when a friend of mine yesterday told me she wish she could 'like' my posted photos.
I hope Google can change that button, right now it's just not as obvious and psychologically commanding as the Like button of Facebook.
I like it and prefer it to Facebook, but as long as I have years of history in albums, photos, videos, tags and notes...it'll be hard to warrant a complete switch without a mass migration of my friends over to Facebook.
That being said, Google+ has some neat features, so I may use it occasionally-- but just taking a look at Facebook's history: they're probably going to copy many of Google+'s features.
Remember when Facebook didn't have deals and didn't even have status updates?
"I have years of history in albums, photos, videos, tags and notes..."
This is primarily why I don't use facebook today. It's not easy to get that stuff out. I don't have API access to G+ yet, but my hope is that I can move data in and out pretty freely. That will make me quite comfortable to use the service.
I like it (UI-wise). As an experiment, I updated on both Facebook and G-Plus that I just celebrated my wedding anniversary (yay!). I also tweeted it, for good measure.
This is why Slashdot has multiple reasons for +1/-1 mods. More flexibility.
Congrats might be appropriate, but should that count as a +1 making your update more visible? It's hard to say. Perhaps it should differ by user - being a +1 to users who tend to congratulate others.
But anyways, your experience might lead me to try G+ where I haven't tried their competitors.
Given I've not been able to invite hardly any of my friends, I haven't really gotten to make much use of it. I think, for me at least, this is a mediocre entree to the platform, since my first impression is that it has almost no utility, they really should have just opened it up to everyone so I could quickly have my FB buddies on here and be having fun and socializing.
I go back and forth on this. On one hand Google of all companies should have no problem scaling a new service up to a huge number of users, and quickly.
But I think the real issue is they want to tease out problems early, with people who are likely to be a bit more forgiving. I've been using G+ for almost a week now, and I've heard of a few bugs that were easy to fix with a small userbase, but could have caused trouble -- and a lot of negative opinions/press -- if it had been open to a wider audience.
So yes, it's a little frustrating that I'm missing chunks of my real-life friend circles, but I totally understand why they're rolling out the service as they are.
It's not really a Facebook killer IMO. I like Facebook because it's just my friends (since it requires a two way confirmation). It more seems to fill a gap between public and private friendships. So most likely it will just be yet another social network I'm on all day in addition to Twitter and Facebook :)
I like Facebook because it's just my friends (since it requires a two way confirmation)
You may use Facebook like that, but lots of people don't. The majority of Facebook users have 300...400...800 friends. Very very very few people are actually friends with 500 people in real life. I trimmed my friend list down from 380 to 40 a couple months ago and it's already crept back up to 60ish.
I think part of the genius of G+ is that it isn't a two way mutually agreed on relationship. You get to decide what you share with who. Facebook you're either friends, or your not. Everything generally gets shared with everyone of your 800 friends. Thats not the case on G+.
An imho better poll would have looked more like this: "a) Google+ > Facebook b) Google+ < Facebook c) Couldn't try it out yet d) Don't care", since the way mrspeaker asked the question, a lot of people get left out.
[+] [-] kloncks|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpk|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mstolpm|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimmarq|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] padobson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdorfman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ColinWright|14 years ago|reply
* I'm sick of the hype already and I can't be bothered to try it.
========
ADDED IN EDIT: Oh, goody. Down-votes. I'd be really interested to hear from someone who thinks this isn't a valid reaction to the whole thing.
Let me just say - I really don't care about Google+. I'll wait and see what happens, I'll wait to see who uses it, I'll wait to see what people say, and I'll wait to see if it looks useful.
I'm not going to go "OOOO! SHINY THING!!" and immediately jump all over it.
Allowing that as an option in the "poll" seems reasonable. Certinaly none of the options presented represent my point of view.
Of course, maybe you think my point of view isn't worth bothering about, and that everybody should be interested in the latest shiny thing from Google. That's called selection bias.
[+] [-] corin_|14 years ago|reply
Ironically, I'm sure you don't go into every single topic on HN and comment when you don't care about the subject, yet you complain about the hype that made you bother to write a comment about it.
[+] [-] look_lookatme|14 years ago|reply
There is an overwhelming anti-Facebook sentiment on HN. Disproportionate in almost every sense, actually. It's just the way it is.
[+] [-] sahaj|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jedberg|14 years ago|reply
I have the same rule with social networks. I'll sign up right at the beginning, but I won't participate until I see a good chunk of my friends are on it. I don't want to invest the time if it is going to flop.
[+] [-] corin_|14 years ago|reply
Great example, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a 2005 comedy show written by Aaron Sorkin. It's ratings weren't great and it was canned, but I think it's amazing, and I rewatch that one season at least once a year.
[+] [-] mcdowall|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juliano_q|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ditojim|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shandrew|14 years ago|reply
And you can't relive that new social network experience on DVD.
[+] [-] davidells|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buzpnick2|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] harel|14 years ago|reply
I like it, prefer it to FaceBook, but won't switch until all my friends do.
I think the make or break of G+ is in mass migration of circles of friends (pun intended). Facebook takes enough time out of my life as it is. Managing 2 separate sets of 'social networks' seems a bit over the top to me.
[+] [-] Goladus|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bryanlarsen|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reaganing|14 years ago|reply
Hopefully, Google will open it up soon. And not ruin it with games and other annoying applications.
[+] [-] generalk|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jmspring|14 years ago|reply
Take a look around, how many people still have yahoo, aol, and MSN email addresses? Yahoo still is a very popular destination for people (groups, etc).
[+] [-] jarek|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] winsbe01|14 years ago|reply
At the moment, Facebook still has the edge because it has all my friends on it. I also am less than 24 hours with +, so I haven't gotten to fully explore. But when more people join and I figure out all its quirks, I believe I will prefer it to Facebook (as I haven't particularly liked Facebook for quite some time now).
[+] [-] pandaassembly|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtogo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] KirinDave|14 years ago|reply
Which is pretty much the opposite of what you did. So presumably you're asking for such an option for "a friend." ;)
[+] [-] jarin|14 years ago|reply
I think it will probably take off, just based on the fact that I'm actually still using it (unlike Buzz or Wave).
[+] [-] lugia|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaronykng|14 years ago|reply
That being said, Google+ has some neat features, so I may use it occasionally-- but just taking a look at Facebook's history: they're probably going to copy many of Google+'s features.
Remember when Facebook didn't have deals and didn't even have status updates?
[+] [-] dlsspy|14 years ago|reply
This is primarily why I don't use facebook today. It's not easy to get that stuff out. I don't have API access to G+ yet, but my hope is that I can move data in and out pretty freely. That will make me quite comfortable to use the service.
[+] [-] webwright|14 years ago|reply
results: Twitter: 2 @replies Facebook: 8+ likes, 3 comments Google Plus: Nothing
I have ~80 people who have put me in some sort of circle (versus 200 or so facebook friends).
So how do I feel about Google Plus's efficacy as a place to share stuff? Jury is still out, but it doesn't seem too promising.
[+] [-] wnight|14 years ago|reply
This is why Slashdot has multiple reasons for +1/-1 mods. More flexibility.
Congrats might be appropriate, but should that count as a +1 making your update more visible? It's hard to say. Perhaps it should differ by user - being a +1 to users who tend to congratulate others.
But anyways, your experience might lead me to try G+ where I haven't tried their competitors.
[+] [-] ericmoritz|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joegaudet|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kelnos|14 years ago|reply
But I think the real issue is they want to tease out problems early, with people who are likely to be a bit more forgiving. I've been using G+ for almost a week now, and I've heard of a few bugs that were easy to fix with a small userbase, but could have caused trouble -- and a lot of negative opinions/press -- if it had been open to a wider audience.
So yes, it's a little frustrating that I'm missing chunks of my real-life friend circles, but I totally understand why they're rolling out the service as they are.
[+] [-] ry0ohki|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stanmancan|14 years ago|reply
You may use Facebook like that, but lots of people don't. The majority of Facebook users have 300...400...800 friends. Very very very few people are actually friends with 500 people in real life. I trimmed my friend list down from 380 to 40 a couple months ago and it's already crept back up to 60ish.
I think part of the genius of G+ is that it isn't a two way mutually agreed on relationship. You get to decide what you share with who. Facebook you're either friends, or your not. Everything generally gets shared with everyone of your 800 friends. Thats not the case on G+.
[+] [-] eps|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Daniel14|14 years ago|reply