notarant's comments

The first application for Google, should use link submissions in subredits on reddit, to filter your link submissions to target them to users that subscribe to those subreddits (as to not bore or off put others). Or that filter everyone's links submissions to only include links that appear in a subreddit you subscribe to.

It's like tags, but instead inferring link interest from reddit subscriptions.

Do we believe in a complete coexistence between Google+ and Facebook?

Google+ : Facebook :: Facebook : Twitter

Facebook allows some directionality in posting that offers you some assurance. Twitter offers you none. Google+ offers a whole other control.

The problem is, I've had to explain the difference between Incoming, Following and more. I think Google needs to be explicit in their comparisons:

1. Circles allow for directional sharing. You can target an album of photos to your family easily, or pics from the bar to your friends just as quickly and safely if you setup your default Family and Friends circles sanely.

2. Incoming shows posts from those who are sharing with you, despite you not having added them to a circle of some sort. This is like Twitter, basically, except for you can also take it a level further and share only with certain people on certain posts, depending on the type. (I think they can extend this with tags and be able to have more focused and detailed sharing patterns between people.

3. By combining the long form and discussion-prone posts of Facebook, with the public conversation space of Twitter... they have a strange mass-forum quality. I'm following Googlers that are posting about all sorts of things. I've commented, and even been added by others (and some who seem to be from Google).

I'm not sure Google has clearly articulated all of the ways that their offerings are unique or better. I hope they do, it's so funny, I thought of Picasa as neat, but for others. Today I was given an SD card and asked to copy the photos. This is for a fairly tech illiterate family. I could easily upload to Picasa from my chromebook, and then from Google+ I could share it to my Family circle. I have no doubt that relatives could use this and get value from it. I think with a slight bit more integration, Google will have a wide and fairly smoothly integrated offering, and one that brings value to a diverse set of people.

Google+ allows me to share bits of news among my friends quickly, and they want to converse about it in a smaller space that is determined based on post to an automated degree. Imagine if, instead of "adding friends on reddit", you share link on G+ to a select group of people who share those interests. It could be reddit but tags instead of subreddits, if circles or circles+tags are done right. If this is the case, why would I use Facebook, it seems like shouting... like, uh, Twitter.

If this usage of Circles is too complicated, why would G+ have a shot?