Google's new social move: Google+

[cap10Ibraim]

https://plus.google.com/up/start/?sw=1&type=st

check the list of videos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwnJ5Bl4kLI&feature=BFa&list=SPF3DFB800F05F551A&index=1
ars technica review:
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/06/inside-google-how-the-search-giant-plans-to-go-social.ars

what do you think ? :popcorn:

[Bandit]

Interesting.

I didnt sign up for it, but wouldnt mind reading others feedback when they get to try it out. I really cant stand facebook even tho I use it.

[cap10Ibraim]

.

[Dustin2128]

Social networking meh. Just a data mining project like facebook, but controlled by google? It's a privacy nightmare waiting until release date to happen.

[aysiu]

They claim that privacy will be better, but they don't explain how.

The two ways they should be doing this (and publicizing Plus with) are 1) making new "features" that expose more of your information opt-in instead of opt-out (Facebook is notorious for using opt-out of just about every new privacy setting change) and 2) having any privacy settings start off reasonably conservative, since most users do not change the defaults.

[8_Bit]

I will switch to it if it allows CSS customization of your profile. That was one thing I really liked about MySpace and miss in Facebook.

As for the crticism about social networking, they can only mine what *you* provide them. I only use social networking to keep up with close personal friends and never add anyone I don't know. I don't add any information I wouldn't share publicly. In fact my profile picture and "full name" on Facebook are completely fake. :p As are some details in my bio. Figured I could throw off any would-be spies by faking my favorite music and current school of attendance. ;)

[Ric_NYC]

Expose yourself online.

[handy]

Expose yourself online.

I agree, social networks are for flashers.

I'll never touch any of them.

By the time a young person matures enough to truly understand the way that social networks do work, & to appreciate the possible effects relating to the amount of immature crap that they had put up on the internet for the world to see indefinitely, it is too late...

[CraigPaleo]

I didn't realize the flasher that I am. I only flash my friends though. :P

[nmaster]

i kind of like it. having the "share" within my gmail makes it easy to post news articles. the obvious downside right now is that there aren't many people. its just my friends who work at google.

[Alwimo]

The ability to show particular groups of people particular things looks great.

I won't use any of it, but that bit is nifty.

[reyfer]

I like the idea, it is a step in a "right" direction for social networks, sharing only certain things with certain circles.

I don't understand people dissing social networks, and especially those that look down on people that use them. Humans are social animals, and in a way, being part of a forum like this one is being part of a social network...you're sharing with a group of like minded people. And in my opinion there's nothing wrong with social networks "per se", it is the use people make of them that may be wrong or not.

Personally, I use FB to stay in touch with family that is spread all across the world, and it works for me. If social networks don't work for you, that's ok, but please don't get a "superior" attitude towards those who do find them useful or even fun.

[el_koraco]

Why not, Facebook has been a buggy mess for the last couple of years.

[handy]

...
I don't understand people dissing social networks, and especially those that look down on people that use them. Humans are social animals, and in a way, being part of a forum like this one is being part of a social network...you're sharing with a group of like minded people. And in my opinion there's nothing wrong with social networks "per se", it is the use people make of them that may be wrong or not.

I'm not looking down on anyone. I'm stating that most people that use social networks don't appreciate that what they put there stays there & that there is an enormous amount of data mining going on, which is being manipulated by extremely sophisticated software for the benefit of those that want to direct people one way or another.



Personally, I use FB to stay in touch with family that is spread all across the world, and it works for me. If social networks don't work for you, that's ok, but please don't get a "superior" attitude towards those who do find them useful or even fun.

A superior attitude was not intended. You misread me & are being defensive where there is no need, I had no intention to get personal. :)

I'm all for freedom of choice, & I don't like other people using underhanded means to push & strengthen unhealthy paradigms in the various populations of people that exist on our tiny little planet.

[cap10Ibraim]

Just if they can keep the clean interface ad free , because Facebook now with the small fonts and lots of ads is a total mess

[Copper Bezel]

Google will be much better at this than Facebook, and everything they're publicizing about it sounds like the great ideas that went into Diaspora, who never sent me my bloody invite. I use Facebook now exclusively for family members, and I wouldn't have had to make that decision if not for the lack of built-in sharing control. I'm very interested in this group-centric approach to social networking and very interested in this service, and I'll happily replace my nigh-useless Facebook account with it if it lives up to the dream in the ways that Diaspora didn't:

Sufficient market penetration to make it relevant (questionable,) and

some decent degree of dependability and stability (which is a given with Google.)

And if there's a universal "app" block, I'm sold.

[whatthefunk]

All this so that people can post pictures of what they ate for dinner and change their relationship status every two days. Social networks arent very social if you ask me.

[Copper Bezel]

It's a tool. It's all about how you use it. Social networking tools are the best option at present for coordinating for events, and it's nice to have something in between an e-mail and a text message.

[johnnybelfast]

+1 for invasive data mining project.

[el_koraco]

http://xkcd.com/918/

[Copper Bezel]

No, I think that needs to be posted inline.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17749392/googleplus.png (http://xkcd.com/918/)

And yeah, that's pretty much it. = )

[Hansholz]

I also fake my own personal data online when specifically asked for it by a website. I figured most of my real friends know my birthday, where I live, what school I went to, who my siblings are, etc. There's no need to give this information away to any would-be hackers. This kind of information is used sometimes to verify credit card details. Why give this info away?

As for Google Social Network, I'll give it a try. I use FB to stay in contact with friends back home (I live overseas) But it's only going to be as useful as Facebook to me if my friends also join it.

[Thewhistlingwind]

Still waiting on diaspora.;)

And to the person who said diaspora never sent them an invite, part of the point is that you can go join one of the community run pods instead.

As it stands though, diaspora isn't really at a 1.0 release yet (Last I checked on it.) so it'd be sorta buggy anyway.

I never really liked facebook, I always thought myspace would win out against them.
(They're doing a great job shooting themselves in the foot though: http://forum.developers.facebook.net/viewtopic.php?id=103438&p=1)

[Kimmik]

Does anybody have an invite left? I'd love to try it...

[lzfy]

Does anybody have an invite left? I'd love to try it...

Me too :)

[8_Bit]

Me three.

The superiority attitude is really annoying. Like I said before, social networks can't mine you if you don't give them the info in the first place. Fake your name, your background, etc. That's what I do - all my friends and family know who the guy named "French Toast" is on Facebook, they don't care. As long as I get to coordinate and communicate with them long distance, it's still a useful tool.

I also have Adblock Plus enabled on it, so I don't get to see most of the ads. Sometimes some slip through, and they are usually the question "ads." Just now I had the following question on the right side of the page:

"Have you or are you anywhere near the zip code 81645?"

It gives me 4 or 5 options to choose from. I always give fake answers to these questions. They usually show up a few times a day. Just beat them at their own game. :p

[edit] Though, since Google+ would have direct access to all your Google apps and mail, it would be much harder to fake your life on there. You'd have to create an entirely separate email address first. I definitely wouldn't use my current gmail account with it.

[CraigPaleo]

Circles isn't anything new. Facebook has had friend lists for years. If you share something with one list, the others can't see it. Alternatively, you can keep one list from seeing something while letting everyone else. You can even choose individuals to share it with or choose individuals to keep it from. Why all the hype when Google does it? :confused:

Edit: You can also sort your streams as in Google+.

[whatthefunk]

If anything, this is showing the extreme limitations that social networking has. There is really only so much you can do. Facebook does most of it so is there really a need to join another social network? Do I need to join four different social networks and have all the same friends on them?? No. I sometimes wish I had never joined even one...

[Random_Dude]

I never cared much for social networks. Actually, I've never been registered in one.
It will probably reach a state where eventually I'll have to join one.

I find the circles idea quite interesting. I don't know if facebook has something similar (since I don't use it) but I might give Google+ a try when it releases to the main public. I already have a google account anyway.

Cheers :cool:

[esc1]

Looking for an invite too. If someone is gracious enough to pm me that has an invite I would appreciate the help. Would love to leave Facebook behind.

[coolbrook]

Facebook pushes a lot of news from the official pages of the traditional outlets. That's web 2.0. It does tend to take up a lot of time, but I've won a few contests on there and it's nice to share updates within a circle of true friends that are globetrotting. I'm anxious to give Plus a try.

[undecim]

Google+ seems to me like a Facebook for less pretentious users, because of the "circles" feature. (I was actually looking into making a Facebook app that would do something similar)


I agree, social networks are for flashers.

I'll never touch any of them.

By the time a young person matures enough to truly understand the way that social networks do work, & to appreciate the possible effects relating to the amount of immature crap that they had put up on the internet for the world to see indefinitely, it is too late...

A forum is also a social network. Welcome, fellow flasher!

[ScionicSpectre]

I'll be using Diaspora for now, but it seems to add some functionality some who enjoy social networking might find useful. The social 'people' aspect of the internet may not be going away, and it may become a core part of the experience, but if so I think it's very important that it isn't necessarily accessed through any single company's services. So long as these changes are vendor-specific, they won't gain the popularity of things like CSS and Javascript.

If people could only have a universal, personally-owned ID to use across websites, that would be favorable. It could allow people to give as much or as little information as they wish to a site, rather than simply having to fill in information for each individual website.

I think all of this nonsense will look quite idiotic to our children when we finally do embrace a free, private social identification mechanism on the 'net. OpenID is getting there, but I think we can do better than that.

Google+ seems like one of those things that would be awesome if you needed it, but pointless otherwise.

[aysiu]

Google+ seems to me like a Facebook for less pretentious users, because of the "circles" feature. (I was actually looking into making a Facebook app that would do something similar)



A forum is also a social network. Welcome, fellow flasher!
Yeah, this forum is far more public than Facebook is.

[handy]

...

A forum is also a social network. Welcome, fellow flasher!

I agree up to a point. The usage of the two are quite different though, & the Facebook name is really quite appropriate imho.

Facebook is a far more centralised & personal exposition of an individual than the random ramblings of members of a forum.

[Copper Bezel]

It's also sorting by geography and prior association rather than by topic and interest. I mean, that's the actual fundamental difference between discussion forums and social networking. There are local area forums, but it's still not built on association.

None of that makes one or the other more "exhibitionist," of course. They're just different things.

[handy]

It's also sorting by geography and prior association rather than by topic and interest. I mean, that's the actual fundamental difference between discussion forums and social networking. There are local area forums, but it's still not built on association.

None of that makes one or the other more "exhibitionist," of course. They're just different things.

They are different things.

You don't think that people having their own page on Facebook, & making all of the connections that they do, that usually include multiple personal expositions & too & fro repetitive connections, photographs & such is far more revealing than people using a false avatar name & helping out on various sub-forums & communicating socially in others.

I consider Facebook & the like to be centralised containers of personal information, whereas forums are very much more decentralised in that way.

[smellyman]

Google wants to own all data....and they pretty much do.

duck duck go and anything but google for me.

[SoFl W]

Social networking meh. Just a data mining project like facebook, but controlled by google? It's a privacy nightmare waiting until release date to happen.

HEY NOW. Goog£e's motto is "Don't be evil", so how could they EVER be evil? Just because they want to control all your data, and personal information doesn't make them evil. Micro$oft is evil, remember? Sure Goog£e said, "they decide what is evil", but how could they be evil, they are coooooool!

[aysiu]

I don't get all the Google hate. They hand over information about users not any more than Yahoo, Bing, or any other mainstream search engine. And Google knows what about me? What directions I'm searching for? What I'm searching for? My name? Whoop-de-doo.

My ISP knows all that and more. My ISP knows every single website I go to and every Google search I type in. They know everything. And my ISP will cooperate with the government and other corporations same as Google or Apple or Microsoft or Facebook would.

[whatthefunk]

I don't get all the Google hate. They hand over information about users not any more than Yahoo, Bing, or any other mainstream search engine. And Google knows what about me? What directions I'm searching for? What I'm searching for? My name? Whoop-de-doo.

My ISP knows all that and more. My ISP knows every single website I go to and every Google search I type in. They know everything. And my ISP will cooperate with the government and other corporations same as Google or Apple or Microsoft or Facebook would.

Does your ISP use that information to better advertise too you? Are they driving through your neighborhood taking pictures of you? Do they read your emails?

[aysiu]

Does your ISP use that information to better advertise too you? Are they driving through your neighborhood taking pictures of you? Do they read your emails?
Google doesn't "better" advertise to me either, as I turn off the feature that customizes ads to suit your interests, so I just get random ads. I like Google Street View, and I've used it many times. No problems with that.

If you host your emails anywhere except on your own server at home (very few people have such a setup), someone else has the ability to read your emails. I don't see Yahoo! or Comcast or SBC Global or Hotmail get attacked as much for "reading" your emails, even though they have just as much ability to read your email as Google does.

Frankly, it's not in Google's financial best interests to read my email anyway. Who has the time? What financial gain does it get them to read my emails? Do you really think there's some bored Google employee who's trolling through my personal emails and having a laugh?

[smellyman]

Google wants to own everything about you. Monopolize the web. When one company is taking over everything it is a bad thing.

[infestor]

actually i would like to see the migration from facebook to google+.
seems more mature/serious. hope doesnt fail like buzz and wave.
as for the privacy concerns: i don't think google tampers with it any more than facebook.

[Copper Bezel]

smellyman, as aysiu is saying, it's not your information that Google wants, but your business, same as everyone else.

Google monopolized searching outright. They've possibly overtaken other map services. In every other service they provide - e-mail, photo sharing, office productivity, ISP, browser, OS - they're just another minority contender in a flooded market. Social networking is just another of those things.

If they do monopolize the web via their evil non-monopolistic policies, by keeping everything interoperable with existing services and not giving users of one service favors in another, it'll be a nice lesson for the rest of the software world. And, of course, it leaves them open to being pushed out when another, better service comes along.

[Dobbie03]

I really like Google+, there is something about it I prefer over Facebook.

[pimentel28]

I was invited, love G+, sure it has it's kinks, but regarding privacy, we'll have to wait and see. But so far, so good. Thumbs up from me.

At least I find that you have a simpler way of sharing your data with people by using circles. Google Takeout is also a nice function.

[PartisanEntity]

I think it all boils down to how much data you are willing to feed into the system. By system I mean internet services.

In this modern day and age of ours, data is very important. Using it, companies can monetize a service and sell tailored ads.

In order to tailor ads, a company must be able to offer analytical data that can be drilled down. In order to drill down, all aspects of your interaction with a specific service must be analyzed and monitored and stored.

It is up to you to use these services sensibly. Just as you would not shout out your name and address in a public place, you should try to minimize the amount of data that you plaster all over the web.

I don't use Facebook personally, but many people I know use it to keep in touch with friends and family.

Of course a good deal of people also use it to publicize their lives, this is their choice.

I would use social networks if they protected my privacy. I like aysiu's idea, that features should be opt-in and not opt-out.

Opt-out settings and features are mean towards the user, it is like going to sleep with your front door closed, and then Facebook decides to open it over night and give you the choice of closing it again.

Why?

Why not roll out changes that are turned off by default and allow users to turn them on if they choose to?

(Of course here we get into the topic of privacy being an obstacle to the business model, which it is from the point of view of FB, Apple, and others for example. Privacy is an obstacle to their being able to market your data.)

I think the reason why Facebook gets so much hate, and rightly so, is because they seem to be the most aggressive and invasive. All companies and services want to market your data, but Facebook seems to be coming at its users with a sledgehammer.

[YeOK]

I like Google+, circles is fantastic. I love how I can choose who to share information with. Huddle looks great and the overall layout is typical google, simple and none cluttered. Privacy settings are simple and easy to use.

Its still missing users, so I can't say its very interesting at the moment but it is miles better than Facebook, I just hope if and when google add games, they don't let me get bombarded with spam.

[Noz3001]

Anyone who wants to join, F5 the homepage every now and then and if a login box shows up, try to log in! Two of my friends have managed to join by watching the home page. Also, if you have a friend on G+, ask them to share a post to your GMail address and you might get an invite.

[madmathigan]

I like it so far. I use Facebook strictly for keeping in touch with family and friends. I don't play games or anything like that. I like the Circles feature; while Facebook has the separate Lists thing, to me it's just too clunky to work with. I have lots of students who ask to add me on Facebook, and I always tell them "No", because Facebook is where I can be myself, not be their teacher. With Google+, I have no issues adding them, because I can toss them into a "Students" circle and not worry about my bantering with friends appearing to them.

The only downside is that I only have a few friends using Google+ so far. I'm sure that there will be more features added as the roll-out continues, and more people will start using it. I'll keep using Facebook unless all my contacts migrate over. I somehow doubt that will happen; too many of my friends are obsessed with Farmville or other games.

[aysiu]

I like it so far. I use Facebook strictly for keeping in touch with family and friends. I don't play games or anything like that. I like the Circles feature; while Facebook has the separate Lists thing, to me it's just too clunky to work with. I have lots of students who ask to add me on Facebook, and I always tell them "No", because Facebook is where I can be myself, not be their teacher. With Google+, I have no issues adding them, because I can toss them into a "Students" circle and not worry about my bantering with friends appearing to them.

The only downside is that I only have a few friends using Google+ so far. I'm sure that there will be more features added as the roll-out continues, and more people will start using it. I'll keep using Facebook unless all my contacts migrate over. I somehow doubt that will happen; too many of my friends are obsessed with Farmville or other games.
Same deal. At first I thought Circles was just a semantics trick, since you can dump Facebook friends into various lists as well (granted, not as easily as you can in Google Plus). But it really is a different and very necessary paradigm Google has set up.

With Facebook you alsways have the dilemma of the friend request--is this person really my friend? Do I want to approve this friendship request? If I make a friendship request will it be requited? Do I just make friends with only my real friends... or just anyone I know?

And I also work at a school, and lots of teachers and staff have strict rules about not adding students as Facebook friends until the students graduate.

This isn't anything close to how real life works.

In real life, you connect with all kinds of people, and you don't have to accept friendship requests. Google has it closer to how things work in real life with Circles. Anyone who has ever tried to figure out a wedding guest list knows this.

This way a student can add you to her Circles and you don't have to add back. If you decide to share something publicly, she'll see the updates, but otherwise she won't. You can also add her to a students Circle and never share with that circle, and Google makes this easy to do (unlike how Facebook does it).

I'm a big fan of Google+, and as more and more of my real-life friends and acquaintances are joining, I can definitely see myself using Facebook less and less. If the floodgates open on Google+, though, I think a lot of people I know will still be using both, even if they favor Google+.

[PartisanEntity]

I am completely new to social networking, I have never used Facebook.

I have been using Google+ for a day or two now. At the moment only one of my best friends is part of it, so it has been a rather quiet experience, hopefully the service will be opened soon.

For those who are seasoned Facebook users, if you have used Google+, what do you like about and what do you dislike about it? (Or maybe I should say what else do you like/dislike, about it).

[aysiu]

For those who are seasoned Facebook users, if you have used Google+, what do you like about and what do you dislike about it? (Or maybe I should say what else do you like/dislike, about it). This is what I can think of off the top of my head: Circles are far easier to manage than friends lists, especially when it comes to sharing updates, photos, etc. The interface just looks cleaner, much like Google's search engine compared to Lycos, Altavista, etc. when it first appeared. There's inline styling for posts (italicization, bold type). Google has an easy utility for exporting your data in case you ever want to leave Google+ and take your posts and photos with you. I know a lot of forum members here think Google is evil, but I happen to like them, and I think they're a lot better at protecting user privacy than most other similar corporations (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/technology/20google.html). Facebook certainly has done nothing to make me trust them more than Google. In fact, the whole opt-out instead of opt-in approach of Facebook has been really annoying. I like that you can share posts with email addresses--not even necessarily people who are on Google+. As far as I know, with Facebook you either share it with people already on Facebook or the general public at large. The Android app is much better than Facebook's Android app, and it also has the option to instantly upload all your phone pictures, which you can share at your discretion once they're uploaded. Things I dislike: Google throttling the membership. We know Google has powerful servers all of the world. They have the technology to handle high traffic. Even though Google Plus is "beta," it's also totally useless if "no one" is on it. The whole point of social networking is that it's social. Gmail could get away with invite-only and exclusivity because you could still email people at Yahoo and Hotmail with a Gmail account. You can't get the full Google+ experience if you aren't on it and if none of your friends are on it. Sometimes if you select a new set of Circles to share with, you have to click outside in some white space to make the dropdown menu go away so that you can actually click the Share button.

[CraigPaleo]

I do like the implementation of Circles better than friend lists on Facebook. Predefined Circles are set-up for you and easy to use. They're so well hidden on Facebook that most people don't know they exist.

I like that Google+ allows the editing of posts and the disabling of comments and sharing on a post by post basis.

I'd like to either see my friends move to Google+ or have Facebook come up with a more user friendly interface with sane defaults.

[JDShu]

I'm optimistic about this. Google+ takes the best part of Diaspora and builds on it. It also helps that I trust the competence of Google's engineers more than a couple of recent grads.

[markp1989]

I definitely like the circles feature, im having a bit of difficulty deciding where i draw the line between friend and acquaintance

currently there are only about 4 people I know in rl on plus.

I think that google are making it invite only so people can hear about how good it is but not be able to use it as people often want what they cant have.

looking forward to the proper release so I can use it properly.

[doorknob60]

I'll for sure start using it, but until my friends start using it, there's not much point. I'll be wherever my friends are at, and for now, that's Facebook.

[Copper Bezel]

I actually left Facebook and later started with an almost blank account to stay in touch with my family, all for lack of these kinds of controls. I was very excited about Diaspora*, but after getting my data dumped three times on community pods and never getting invited to the main hub, I gave up on it. + is the best possible outcome; it's Diaspora* with name recognition, and actually the non-reciprocal "following" aspect goes a bit beyond what Diaspora* did to work in a bit of Twitter sensibility as well. I'm quite thrilled. It's really nice to think that I can keep my family, local friends, and online contacts all sorted and yet spam them equally with reposts from NPR in one place, and it does create the possibility of using social networking for class purposes at well at some point in the future.

Now I just need to make some friends. = P

[el_koraco]

From what I've seen, it's not nearly as clunky and spammy as FB. Facebook has slowly started to look like one of those porn pages, where stuff keeps popping out at you from all directions.

[donniezazen]

Plus is tightly linked to gmail, picasa, etc. It worries me a little. One wrong click and you are open to world.

On other hand i like that black Google title bar. It has everything you need to communicate.

Buzz and blogger profile is redundancy at the moment.

[pwnst*r]

It's tightly linked, but you have the options for privacy.

[nrundy]

I hate Facebook.

I just read that it is one of the most hated companies in the world. So why do so many people keep using it if they hate it? I can only assume because there are no alternatives that offer comparable service.

[pwnst*r]

Where in this thread did someone say that hated it but still use it?

[dummy910]

google, hotmail, yahoo and the other pimps of the free-email world are spiking their customers drinks with yet another date-rape drug called "social networking", ha ha ha ye suckers, keep following the bits of cheese your masters put out for you little mice... Me, I'd rather pay a few bucks a month for peace of mind...

[aysiu]

I hate Facebook.

I just read that it is one of the most hated companies in the world. So why do so many people keep using it if they hate it? I can only assume because there are no alternatives that offer comparable service. People use it because right now it's the best way to keep in touch with friends and family, to share pictures, and links... and to keep acquaintances in the loop but also at arm's length.

If Google Plus takes off, people will dump Facebook the same way they did MySpace and Friendster. When it comes to social networking, people go where the people are, not where the software is.


Where in this thread did someone say that hated it but still use it? I don't know, but I have Facebook and still use it.


Plus is tightly linked to gmail, picasa, etc. It worries me a little. One wrong click and you are open to world. Which wrong click would that be?

[KIAaze]

I haven't started really using social networks yet, but it seems it will (or has?) become as unavoidable as e-mail and phones.

And if that's the case, I hope it will be so that you can choose any social network and still communicate with others, while protecting your privacy. Just like with email: If you use hotmail and want to send a mail to a person using yahoo or gmail, you don't need to create a new email account.

Here are 2 lists of projects working on distributed social networks:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtXMsLaocacrdDAwTzdPeGdPNlhZSHFMelg0MnQ2N 2c&hl=en&pli=1#gid=0
http://we-need-a-free-and-open-social-network.wikispaces.com/Distributed+Social+Network+Projects

Diaspora seems to be the most famous one, but there's also Friendika.

Google+ doesn't sound too bad. At least it seems to use opensocial (https://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/), which looks like a step in the right direction: http://blog.balfes.net/2011/07/05/google-uses-opensocail-its-looking-so/

I am just a bit wary about giving even more info to Google... ^^

[gotsanity]

For those of you looking for invites I have a few available that I am willing to send out. PM me an email addy and I will try to send out as many as I can. First come first serve but please help out the community by giving out a few of yours back to the community.

[Fawk3s]

Will never understand the tendency of man (including me) to throw away all the personal information into public domain! But I sometimes wonder.... Seriously, is it worth it?

[scouser73]

I've not really been one for Facebook/Twitter having deleted my accounts when I've become bored with it because of the games & advertising, but I think I will be keeping my Google+ account. The whole look seems uncluttered and Circles is amazing as well as the Hangout feature.

They've really done a good job and I suspect this will have a serious impact on Facebook later on.

[aysiu]

Will never understand the tendency of man (including me) to throw away all the personal information into public domain! But I sometimes wonder.... Seriously, is it worth it?
I guess you just don't understand how social networking works. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ all have the ability to make your posts and information private. Unless by "public domain" you mean the companies that host the social networking, in which case you'd better go after anyone who has an email account that isn't hosted in their own home.

By the way, you're posting in a public domain--that's what a forum is.

Is it worth it? That's for each individual to decide. I know a handful of people who still absolutely refuse to create a Facebook account, and they actually get through life okay. That said, there are definite advantages to social networking tools: I've known people who have actually gotten jobs through social networking online. The best way to get a job is through connections (not ads), and it's just one more way to connect. There are some people you want to keep in touch with but at an arm's length. When you get older there are friends you just aren't as close with and don't see every day, every week, or even every year--friends you still care about. Facebook (and now Google+) are great for these varying levels of connection. Not everyone in your life has to be either very close friend or totally out of touch. I grew up in the days of writing letters and postcards. Then I moved on to email when everyone went to email. Now people let me know what they're up to through posts and online pictures. If I want to know what people are up to, this is how it works. I still enjoy meeting people in person and catching up and chatting, but again--I don't know how old people are who strongly object to social networking--if you're in your 30s you likely have a lot of people you know and would like to interact with, and it's very difficult to meet with them all in person regularly. Social networking gives you more control over messaging. Back in the old days (email/snail mail), you had to choose exactly who to send a message to, and either no one would get the message or everyone would. Mass emails and mass mailings are annoying. With social networking posts, you as the recipient have the choice to filter out people... or to see their posts if you want.

[CraigPaleo]

I am just a bit wary about giving even more info to Google... ^^

I didn't give any more information to Google. As soon as I was invited, I was able to log in.

[donniezazen]

They already know everything through my emails. I am more concerned about internet trolls than Google itself. Keep an eye on things that you make public or may be in your circle like the things that you use as password reset or your date of birth, or your location logs, etc.

I don't mind custom ads but i hate spam from deepest corner of my heart. A legit custom search or ad saves time. That's what you use search for.

[Random Lemming]

speaking of google, what other kind of search engines do people use day to day? in comparison w/ google how does it rate?

[JDShu]

speaking of google, what other kind of search engines do people use day to day? in comparison w/ google how does it rate?

In China, they use Baidu since Google pulled out. I believe thats the second most used engine, population wise.

[fireflower]

I've switched to Google+ and I'm waiting for it to open up so anyone can join. Until then the network effect is limited, and by limited I mean I have 14 contacts. This is of course because Google is actively preventing people from signing up: I got in via a minor hack, and invites may or may not be working at any given moment.

So far it seems to be a nice replacement for Facebook. The "circles" feature has been much championed by Google and much lampooned by the userbase, and deservedly so. Its just an overwrought way of having all your friends in one circle and your mom in another.

The real features of Google+ that set it apart from Facebook are:

1. You can combine your email, search, and social networking in one umbrella. Yay?

2. Its not Facebook.

Item #2 is of course only relevant if you have Strong Opinions on:

1. Mark Zuckerberg is a ****/thief/organized crime boss.

2. Minor censorship of the oh-noes-two-men-kissing type.

3. Major censorship of the lets-give-dictators-personal-information-on-activists-so-they-can-be-killed type.

4. Wanton and gratuitous privacy violations, turning privacy into a game they play with their userbase.

Google itself has had privacy issues in the past, but those seem to be accidental or due to a rogue employee. I do still trust Google and their "don't be evil" policy, not because I am an idealist but because I am a cynic: Google is being investigated by the US Federal government. Evil corporations don't get investigated.

[silex89]

I have a Google+ account and it's really nice!, actually, I'm seriously thinking to close my Facebook profile.

The Hangouts are the best feature so far (to me) :P


Best Luck

[MonolithImmortal]

I have a Google+ account and it's really nice!, actually, I'm seriously thinking to close my Facebook profile.

The Hangouts are the best feature so far (to me) :P


Best Luck
The Hangouts are definitely awesome. Some friends and I just got done watching the first episode of elfen lied together on youtube.

[KIAaze]

speaking of google, what other kind of search engines do people use day to day? in comparison w/ google how does it rate?

I tried using DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/) for a while, but ended having to use Google to find what I wanted quite often.
Google is just still the best so far.

Also tried Bing, but not long enough.

Otherwise, you can always use https://ssl.scroogle.org/ if you don't want to be tracked.

I don't like the idea of using Google for everything, but their services are just really great compared to the competition: Google search, mail, docs (alternative: Etherpad (http://etherpad.com/), now acquired by Google ^^), maps...
I even use Chromium (not Chrome) sometimes, as it is faster, more lightweight and renders some pages better (notably easyjet's where we fly page) than Firefox, although Firefox remains my main browser.
And, well, the integration of all services does help, even if it is scary. :/

So if Google+ is so much better than Facebook, I can definitely see it succeeding.
Hopefully personal servers (plug PCs!) and the necessary software will become more commonplace in the future, solving the privacy problem.


Google itself has had privacy issues in the past, but those seem to be accidental or due to a rogue employee. I do still trust Google and their "don't be evil" policy, not because I am an idealist but because I am a cynic: Google is being investigated by the US Federal government. Evil corporations don't get investigated.
:lolflag: I like that argument.

[CraigPaleo]

Look who's (https://plus.google.com/104789808992022844427/)on Google+.

Is he narcissistic enough to think Google+ will fail or will he try to replicate it? The Facebook deal with Skype has me thinking.

[Random Lemming]

I tried using DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/) for a while, but ended having to use Google to find what I wanted quite often.
Google is just still the best so far.

Also tried Bing, but not long enough.

Otherwise, you can always use https://ssl.scroogle.org/ if you don't want to be tracked.

I don't like the idea of using Google for everything, but their services are just really great compared to the competition: Google search, mail, docs (alternative: Etherpad (http://etherpad.com/), now acquired by Google ^^), maps...
I even use Chromium (not Chrome) sometimes, as it is faster, more lightweight and renders some pages better (notably easyjet's where we fly page) than Firefox, although Firefox remains my main browser.
And, well, the integration of all services does help, even if it is scary. :/

So if Google+ is so much better than Facebook, I can definitely see it succeeding.
Hopefully personal servers (plug PCs!) and the necessary software will become more commonplace in the future, solving the privacy problem.


:lolflag: I like that argument.
thats what i was looking for, i'll check out scroogle...thanks! and maybe google+ won't keep changing your security options everytime they update the site lol

[reign1231]

Google wants to dominate everything. From search engines, it is now competing with all other programs.

[Fawk3s]

I guess you just don't understand how social networking works. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ all have the ability to make your posts and information private. Unless by "public domain" you mean the companies that host the social networking, in which case you'd better go after anyone who has an email account that isn't hosted in their own home.

By the way, you're posting in a public domain--that's what a forum is.

Is it worth it? That's for each individual to decide. I know a handful of people who still absolutely refuse to create a Facebook account, and they actually get through life okay. That said, there are definite advantages to social networking tools:

I've known people who have actually gotten jobs through social networking online. The best way to get a job is through connections (not ads), and it's just one more way to connect.
There are some people you want to keep in touch with but at an arm's length. When you get older there are friends you just aren't as close with and don't see every day, every week, or even every year--friends you still care about. Facebook (and now Google+) are great for these varying levels of connection. Not everyone in your life has to be either very close friend or totally out of touch.
I grew up in the days of writing letters and postcards. Then I moved on to email when everyone went to email. Now people let me know what they're up to through posts and online pictures. If I want to know what people are up to, this is how it works. I still enjoy meeting people in person and catching up and chatting, but again--I don't know how old people are who strongly object to social networking--if you're in your 30s you likely have a lot of people you know and would like to interact with, and it's very difficult to meet with them all in person regularly.
Social networking gives you more control over messaging. Back in the old days (email/snail mail), you had to choose exactly who to send a message to, and either no one would get the message or everyone would. Mass emails and mass mailings are annoying. With social networking posts, you as the recipient have the choice to filter out people... or to see their posts if you want.


Initially, I wanted to refute all your points above, but I think it was a stupid off the cuff remark on my part! I could and should have put my point across in a better manner! ( It was prolly the excitement of being on such a wonderful forum on the first day, that I totally forgot about the rules! ).
I think you taught me a good lesson there! Thank you very much! And I whole heartedly mean that!
I also loved some of the articles onhttp://www.psychocats.net/. (I'd also prolly like it on FB :) )
Thanks once again!

[gotsanity]

Look who's (https://plus.google.com/104789808992022844427/)on Google+.

Is he narcissistic enough to think Google+ will fail or will he try to replicate it? The Facebook deal with Skype has me thinking.

He would be a stupid business man if he didnt get in on the ground level. With any business it pays to check out the competition. Facebook recently started adjusting their chat to keep up with google+ as well. Take the new sidebar for example.

On a side note... I only got one person who wanted an invite. I have plenty of invites available (the dont seem to be throttling me, but the invites take about a half hour to an hour to show up). Just pm me an email addy and I will shoot an invite your way.

[BrokenKingpin]

I have never been into this social networking stuff, but at this point it is just becoming so hard to avoid it. I think I might give Google+ a try (a friend sent me an invite). At this point I have had a facebook or twitter account. It will feel very uncomfortable using my real name on a website like this.

[KIAaze]

@gotsanity: Thanks for the invite.

Now, as for privacy on Google+, here are some screenshots of the joining process:
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/fl5ryxdt/thumb/Selection_010.png (http://www.imagebanana.com/view/fl5ryxdt/Selection_010.png)
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/sfyo60i9/thumb/Selection_011.png (http://www.imagebanana.com/view/sfyo60i9/Selection_011.png)
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/l40cqufb/thumb/Selection_012.png (http://www.imagebanana.com/view/l40cqufb/Selection_012.png)

The "Google may use my information to personalize content and ads on non-Google web sites." checkbox is optional, but you have to specify a gender and specify your date of birth if Google doesn't know it yet.
However you can choose "other" as gender and of course a fake date of birth.

Clicking the help button next to the checkbox option leads to this page:
http://www.google.com/support/profiles/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=1364508&answer=1152622&rd=1

The other thing which is not optional is linking the account to picasa. (The photos become attributed to "Name Surname" instead of your google username.)

I would have preferred it to be optional, since I already find it quite bothersome to have my youtube account linked to the gmail account. This means that every time I log out of my gmail account (to use another one or simply to not be constantly logged into Google), I am also logged out of youtube and can't favorite/bookmark videos there.

It's also worth noting that when you invite someone to Google+, they can't get your email address!
For instance, I couldn't send an email to gotsanity after he invited me (or I was just unable to figure out how). :)
But after the invite, you of course get the option to visit their Google+ page and add them.

[fireflower]

Google wants to dominate everything. From search engines, it is now competing with all other programs. is this your pitch for Tron 3 because if so it sounds awesome

[NCLI]

@gotsanity: Thanks for the invite.

Now, as for privacy on Google+, here are some screenshots of the joining process:
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/fl5ryxdt/thumb/Selection_010.png (http://www.imagebanana.com/view/fl5ryxdt/Selection_010.png)
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/sfyo60i9/thumb/Selection_011.png (http://www.imagebanana.com/view/sfyo60i9/Selection_011.png)
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/l40cqufb/thumb/Selection_012.png (http://www.imagebanana.com/view/l40cqufb/Selection_012.png)

The "Google may use my information to personalize content and ads on non-Google web sites." checkbox is optional, but you have to specify a gender and specify your date of birth if Google doesn't know it yet.
However you can choose "other" as gender and of course a fake date of birth.

Clicking the help button next to the checkbox option leads to this page:
http://www.google.com/support/profiles/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=1364508&answer=1152622&rd=1

The other thing which is not optional is linking the account to picasa. (The photos become attributed to "Name Surname" instead of your google username.)

I would have preferred it to be optional, since I already find it quite bothersome to have my youtube account linked to the gmail account. This means that every time I log out of my gmail account (to use another one or simply to not be constantly logged into Google), I am also logged out of youtube and can't favorite/bookmark videos there.

It's also worth noting that when you invite someone to Google+, they can't get your email address!
For instance, I couldn't send an email to gotsanity after he invited me (or I was just unable to figure out how). :)
But after the invite, you of course get the option to visit their Google+ page and add them.
I'm quite certain it asked me whether I wanted to link my Picasa account when I signed up, are you sure it's not optional?

[KIAaze]

Look at the picture again.
Yes, it does, you have the choice between linking and not joining. :rolleyes:

[gotsanity]

To be honest I feel its one of the better social networks to come out. I have however found an ubuntu specific bug with it: When using unity the hangout feature has issues with minimizing/moving the webcam feed. It stays on top of the screen no matter what.

[Superkoop]

I really really like the way G+ is looking so far! There are a few things that still need some brushing up, but from what I've looked into those things are being worked on. The privacy is exactly what I wish FB could have been, and with such tight integration of Google products it will bring so many features to G+ that would take forever for FB to ever integrate. It has all of the best features from Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Stumble, Picasa, etc. When this goes public, that will be great! I hope people will migrate over to G+, I've been inviting lots of friends over for them to check it out... especially because I would like to switch to G+ from FB when things get more solidified.

[CraigPaleo]

To be honest I feel its one of the better social networks to come out. I have however found an ubuntu specific bug with it: When using unity the hangout feature has issues with minimizing/moving the webcam feed. It stays on top of the screen no matter what.

That's not a bug. It's a feature of Unity. ;)