Google+ – the next social networking hit or a messy mashup?

Google+ – Google’s newest attempt to delve into the world of social networking on a scale that it hasn’t done before. Orkut looked promising but enthusiasm died, Google Wave flopped (even though I quite liked it originally, I never used it after the first day), Google Buzz fizzled out. I hope that Google+ will be the hit in Google’s track record of social networking misses.

But the announcement of Google+ – Google’s new social network – isn’t even what intrigues me the most. It’s knowing that in a “rolling thunder” approach as described in Steven Levy’s article on Wired, Google will be rolling out more releases that tie the whole shebang together – more than 100 releases in total, in fact, making Google+ just the tip of the iceberg.

Google+ features

+Circles

A way to organize your relationships, kind of like Facebook’s lists. Your family and friends can be in one circle, colleagues in a separate circle, etc. Circles will allow you to share your information selectively with whatever group you choose and, from the sounds of Google’s official blog, not slap the “Friend” sticker on anyone and everyone. I might make a circle for my most annoying acquaintances…

Sounds like: Facebook lists

+Sparks

Sparks are topical feeds that are presented to Google+ users on their selected subjects, aiming to trigger conversations amongst people with similar hobbies and interests.

Sounds like: RSS feeds, Quora interest feeds

+Hangouts

I think Hangouts is meant to be video chat. Not really interested in this one, to be honest.

Sounds like: Skype video chat

+Mobile

An easy way to use Google+ on the mobile, featuring things like location tagging, group messaging, photo upload on the go, etc.

A strong set of features or a messy mashup?

Really it seems like Google is taking a bunch of features that other social media platforms already have and bringing them together into one social network, hoping to make them better. The question is, are they biting off more than they can chew? I mean, sure, it’s Google – they can pretty much chew anything. But trying to get people to use their mashup of services and stray from solutions that already specialize and hone in to a particular feature, such as Skype, might prove to be tough for even the big G to swallow.

What do you think of Google+?

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  • Jarrad

    It reminds me of the SGIO? insurance add

    "Plus!"
    "Plus!"
    "Plus!"

  • http://www.wrongtown.org Troy

    I know you haven't used yours much, but I've been pretty active on mine. The only problem is that I don't know very many people who are on G+ so there's not a lot of stuff for me to do until they let more in… But I'm all over anything that DOES happen. I haven't got into it myself but hangouts is a bit more involved than just video chat as I understand it. We're talking 10 person at a time video chat, and they can do things like share a youtube video with others in the Huddle, syncing so they all get to see it at the same time. Oh the Android app Huddle works differently, more like a chat room sort of vibe.

    The Circles feature feels better than FB lists to me, and of course as it's implemented from the beginning the sorting process seems a lot less work, you can just add people to appropriate circles as they come along. Lots of small bites instead of one big one.

    I think it's superior to twitter in many ways, but of course I'm not as attached to twitter as others are. I think facebook does superior links, eg: when you post a URL on facebook it grabs info but that info is editable, so if it's grabbed the wrong text (or just non-sensical text) or if the page title is similarly rubbish you can click to select and update it. Unfortunately G+ currently does everything right up to letting you edit the text (and doesn't grab an image/let you add one).