They do have a chance!
To one doubter I said,"
Mark Moriarty Are you on it? ...thought so. It's in trial mode. Yeah, it's attracted a lot of sarcastic comments, esp given Wave/Buzz fail, but since I'm such a Google addict anyway I'm quite excited to give it a shot. Notifications straight from gmail w
hich I'm in all the time, group video chat (that skype charges for) with YT, a much more selective feed (called "stream"), better online photo editing, and a bunch more features show they're taking this effort seriously. They're defo taking FB head-on this time, unabashedly copying what's worked, but also trying to improve. We'll see. Anything Googlish gets my vote. Thanks Akshay for getting me into it!"
Integration with Google is a huge plus for me, though not a general attraction to the same extent.
Most outstanding is how easy it is to share with select people, and find out about the people you care about. Like you, this is an issue I've given A LOT of thought to - though I failed to make any world-famour blogging/publishing/reader service from my idea. I knew it was a matter of time before someone got it very right, (I figured Google would be the first to do it really right) and it seems that moment has now come. I'm relieved as well as happy!
Attached I show you how if I was in "Feed" view I can select who I want to hear about, and when I post on my own wall I can easily see who gets to see it by seeing which "circles" of friends I'm publishing to. You see I did one publicly, then one restricted to specific people.
I think a fair summary of G+ is copying what they see is working, combining other people's ideas, and throwing in a few of their own. After Microsoft buying skype for 6bn they won't be happy to hear Google offering free group video calls! Google voice is already similarly priced to skype (though I get free SMS messages on my laptop through GMail / GVoice here in the USA, and some free national calls too). Skype has the edge in terms of quality and smoothness and nice features - for now! I love to see Google taking on so many things though. How they try to shoulder Skype out of it will be interesting.
The thing that the "hangout" feature offers is the public (or selective) broadcasting of the fact that, say, "Mark and Phelim are hanging out" - whereas if we were just skyping each other, no one else would know. This excites me. On its own, "Mark is hanging out" means, in skype talk, "Mark is online" - but it'll get far more interesting if you can track people beginning to talk.
Success attracts success too, as always... The more Google-Glued I am (I mean the more different things I do through Google) the more the friends' circles will be beneficial, the more I'll appreciate getting G+ updates in my gmail inbox, the more +1 badges (or YT thumbs ups) around the place will contribute to my "profile"... I'm now beginning to see why the luanchers at Google were calling it more of an "extension of Google... Google+" rather than a brand new separate "sharing site like Facebook". I actually stumbled onto G+ territory once or twice today without planning to, just by clicking!
Your link raises an interesting issue about ownership - that was the last thing on my mind... which is very bad...
Tell Mom to join Google Plus so, she'll have fewer things to complain about now!
I hope, esp with the hangouts, that it doesn't get so good that I end up rushing home to my computer to socialize! (It definitely happened tonight!)
Love,
Mark
I'm going to copy this to my blog now to see if it integrates automatically with my G+ profile!
On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 4:08 AM, Thomas wrote:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/five-things-to-love-about-google-/1216
Mark,
My first reaction was that Facebook was so established that there was no way for Google to take the market from them. But I like what I'm hearing about Google+ so far. They've already implemented a couple of "my" ideas, including circles, so you can share some stuff with some people, other stuff with others. I like the policy that says I still own my copyright. And I like the idea that I can download all "my" stuff. They may have a chance.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Moriarty
In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd. - Miguel de Cervantes
