Great googily moogily
So, I finally gave in to peer pressure. I finally created a Google+ account a few days ago. I had planned to give it a look eventually, but didn't see any reason to rush, especially when it was still in Beta. A couple people on Facebook have already jumped ship and moved over, more I think because of a biased perception that Google poops cupcakes and rainbows then for any practical, concrete reason. It took me a while to find an invite code online since I didn't want to actually bother anyone on Facebook for it.
My first impression is that I'm not overly impressed. The main feature which Google+ seems to offer over Facebook is the ability to more easily organize incoming and outgoing information. You can sort your friends/family/acquaintances into as many 'circles' as seems appropriate and then adjust just how much information they have about you and how much you see from them. This is no doubt useful for people who heavily compartmentalize their lives. If you're constantly sending messages you only want certain batches of people to know, then Google+ is the social networking site for you. As for me, I think the problem is that about many things I'm an oversharer. I don't really care much at this point who sees what I'm writing about many things. Past a certain point though I'm a no-sharer, which means compartmentalizing doesn't matter since I don't share those thoughts with anyone anyway.
The main problem I'm finding with Google+ at the moment is that it's incredibly troublesome to find all the friends you want to add. You can have it trawl through your email addresses for people, but they only pop up if they've used that specific email to sign up for Google+. You can't import people from Facebook at all and the search feature is so crappy as to be almost completely useless. I guess I could spend my time individually searching for every single person I'd like to add, hoping the search engine actually spits them out, but it would not only take forever it would be completely potshot. Instead, I seem to have found my Google+ ID link and I'm just posting that to Facebook and elsewhere. So rather then spending my time searching for people individually, I figure anyone who wants to add me can just click on the link and I'll get a notification. If this sounds like you, the link to my profile is HERE.
There also doesn't seem to be any functionality to import Livejournal through RSS or any other means either. That means that for now, the Google+ community will have to do without my ramblings. God only knows how they'll manage to survive.
My first impression is that I'm not overly impressed. The main feature which Google+ seems to offer over Facebook is the ability to more easily organize incoming and outgoing information. You can sort your friends/family/acquaintances into as many 'circles' as seems appropriate and then adjust just how much information they have about you and how much you see from them. This is no doubt useful for people who heavily compartmentalize their lives. If you're constantly sending messages you only want certain batches of people to know, then Google+ is the social networking site for you. As for me, I think the problem is that about many things I'm an oversharer. I don't really care much at this point who sees what I'm writing about many things. Past a certain point though I'm a no-sharer, which means compartmentalizing doesn't matter since I don't share those thoughts with anyone anyway.
The main problem I'm finding with Google+ at the moment is that it's incredibly troublesome to find all the friends you want to add. You can have it trawl through your email addresses for people, but they only pop up if they've used that specific email to sign up for Google+. You can't import people from Facebook at all and the search feature is so crappy as to be almost completely useless. I guess I could spend my time individually searching for every single person I'd like to add, hoping the search engine actually spits them out, but it would not only take forever it would be completely potshot. Instead, I seem to have found my Google+ ID link and I'm just posting that to Facebook and elsewhere. So rather then spending my time searching for people individually, I figure anyone who wants to add me can just click on the link and I'll get a notification. If this sounds like you, the link to my profile is HERE.
There also doesn't seem to be any functionality to import Livejournal through RSS or any other means either. That means that for now, the Google+ community will have to do without my ramblings. God only knows how they'll manage to survive.