Useless Information

I’ve spent about 10-15 minutes on Google+ and I decided that now is the time to write my review of it. Most people won’t spend any longer than that when they check it out and make their own decisions about it. I’m sure the good people at Google would prefer me to spend a couple hours checking everything out, but that won’t be what the vast majority of people do.

Competition

Facebook has a legitimate competitor now. They’ve had a good run of dominance but now they need to be careful. Google+ is very similar to Facebook. In fact the Android App looks almost identical in many ways. Facebook has a history of making changes that are usually for the best, but the user base always resists them and complains (I still think the font size is 1pt. too small). Now Zuckerberg and company will need to think twice about a major change without user input and/or flexibility.  I don’t think people would have any problem moving over to Google+ in a mass defection.

Circles

Google+ groups your contacts into “Circles”.  Facebook does this with “Lists”.  But Google+ makes it much easier to put people into “Circles” and much easier to designate which of your “Circles”can see your posts and pictures.  I would feel much more confident about making sure only my family can see a picture of my 7 year old in her bathing suit on Google+ than on Facebook.  But Facebook has everything in place to make “Lists” as easy to use as “Circles” so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a change very soon on Facebook.

Instant Upload

Google+ has a default feature that automatically uploads your cell phone pictures to a private web album and waits for you to choose which “Circle” to expose show your picture to.  I think Rep. Anthony Weiner has proven why this is a bad idea.  I am absolutely certain that this will get someone in trouble.  I immediately turned the function off as soon as I could figure out how.  I don’t take pictures of anything that I’d be worried about anybody finding, but I can’t even fathom the idea of all of my pictures being immediately posted to the internet.  I wouldn’t be surprised that most people using Google+ will be unaware that this is happening.  Expect negative fallout from this feature.

Non-Users

My mom is an extreme-early-adopter of social media. Her kids live all over the country and she knows this is the best way to stay in touch with us. Right away she started adding people to her “Circles” that were not yet using Google+, including me.  I discovered that even though we weren’t on Google+ we were still seeing all of her posts because Google+ was emailing them to us.  This is both kind of cool and kind of annoying.  Imagine if it was someone other than my mom. Granted I still occasionally get non-Snopes approved conspiracy emails from distant acquaintances, but there’s something that seems more powerful about those emails being sent from a social networking site.

Conclusion

The main thing Facebook has got going for it over Google+ is the user base.  Everyone you might want to connect with is already on Facebook, if not, it’s unlikely you’ll be finding them on Google+.  But given how simple and similar Google+ is, that could change.  Competition is a good thing and if I were Mark Zuckerberg I would be just a little scared and a lot excited for how this will push Facebook.