Ok, we all love the shiny new toy over the worn stuffed animal- But that shiny new toy may have a lot of sharp edges, faulty wiring and even just fall apart after a few uses.
Google+ is definitely the shiny new toy today. Only a few (as in about 10 million users) have started using it and the hype around it is intriguing, consider all the other Google social successes (sarcasm)-
Our very own Jennifer Hitchens asked last week what were our thoughts on Google+: After playing around with G+ myself, I came to the conclusion that I like it. You probably have read countless articles on what G+ is, how to use it, why it’s the next Facebook, etc. So I’ll just offer my review of G+ instead of an overview of each of its offerings
Circles was great- It let me easily separate my friends, family, co-workers and so-on into neat little groups. Facebook has this feature as well, I can categorize my friends and family and so on and when I make a status update I can specify who sees it and who doesn’t. They also have Groups, which I love (but don’t use enough). However, with over 400 friends, I don’t feel like sitting and categorizing all my friends- With G+, it’s like a fresh start, so as my friends start to add me, I can easily categorize them as I see fit.
Hangouts. Umm have you heard about Facebook & Skype? The only difference is that it can be done with a group of people instead of just a one-on-one. Who does this though? (Please comment below and let me know if you think this is an awesome feature) I usually use an event or message on Facebook to gather my friends and figure out what works best for everyone. I don’t know any group of people who have the time to video chat at the same time much less to figure out what time to go to a movie. I do, however, think it’s great for companies because it’s still tough to find a good conference call system. If this works the way it’s supposed to… it’d be perfect.
Huddle = Facebook groups- A great feature to have for sure.
Sparks is also pretty cool, however, I worry about how much spam might get into my feed once I start adding more and more interests. I like StumbleUpon a lot and probably wouldn’t even use this feature. But if spam is not an issue, I see a lot of people loving this.
Backing up data- this is my favorite. I’m really bad at backing photos up or anything else for that matter. Google Takeout will allow me to download all my data so if G+ ever crashes or disappears, I won’t have to worry about losing all my uploads. As far as my over 2000 photos on Facebook, I will probably lose them forever if anything ever happens *cries*
Mobile. Mobile apps are great, easy to use on the go and great for checking in. However, the photo sharing policy worries my heart. Apparently G+ wants to making-photo sharing as easy as possible, so images and videos taken on you phone will upload themselves automatically to your Google+.
Seriously? Automatically? Privacy issues anyone? I mean it automatically uploads to a private album and you get to share it with whomever you’d like after you assign the image, but what is the point of that?
For businesses- G+ has already told businesses to hold off on creating an account. They have some super secret cool things for businesses, so I am interested to find out what those are. You can file an application to be one of the 1st to try a business page here!
As for G+ being the next Facebook, I don’t think so- I’m not one to make predictions, but there are some huge companies with huge followings, why would they jeopardize that to try something so new? (Especially with Google’s past social failures) I say give it time before jumping on this wagon.
I don’t know, call me a skeptic-but I prefer the worn out stuffed animal over a shiny and new toy any day.
