Google Plus Reviewed

Image via CrunchBaseLast week I was invited to join Google + which is the social networking app from Google available on the web, iphone and android.

If you have a gmail address- it is a cinch to log in. I don't but I did have a google account-that was just as easy! Automatically my blogs were listed on my Google+ page.

Google+ seems to have seven main features:

1. A main profile page 
2. The ability to easily organise friends into groups called "Circles".  I have groupings (circles) for friends,  family, acquaintances, people following me and work contacts. I love this feature. You can then send and share content with specific people in those circles. Facebook lets you organise people into groups too but Google+ makes it simple.
3. Sparks is like Google alerts combined with Google Reader. You select topics you want eg volunteer management, not for profit, trains, aeroplanes. Each topic gets its own sparks page and then thanks to the magic of Google, every time an article, posting or news report appears on the net with that topic, it will appear in my Google plus. I can then share any of that content with one or more individuals or circles.  I am thinking I can even set up a circle with all my A380 interested friends in it and share A380 stories with them quickly!
4. Photos can be uploaded in the same way as Facebook but sharing is a lot easier. I can easily share photos for a specific group eg niece's christening photos with my family only or pictures from a particular training with people from that training. Yes, you can do it on Facebook but Google+ has made it so much easier.
5. Streamlined video chat...this is also cool..its  a bit like Skype embedded into your browser
6. Huddles....a group messaging video chat..where you can get a group of up to ten friends who are in a circle to chat to each other...if it works well, this could be a great boon in our sector
7. The Google+ bar, which appears at the top of everything Google now, lets you add comments about anything you see on the web to your google+ stream (feed). It lets you switch between google documents, photos, calendar and mail.

So all in all, I like Google+ so far BUT I have around 2000 people connected through Facebook page and 543 on my Linked in. Why would I want to start again with this entire site? Well for a start Google has already got me. As I already use a Google blog, Google docs, Google calendar etc, then incorporating Google + is akin to falling off a log. So imagine when all the people with gmail add Google+ to their suites.

I do wish Google had taken that power and enhanced other systems. For example, I would have preferred to have Google add Sparks into Linkedin and Facebook asa feature rather than create a whole new site. To my thinking, if Facebook adds similar things as circles, huddle and sparks then the appeal of Google+ is reduced.

Finally, Google has a bad habit of dumping things that do not takeoff.  Look at Google Wave,  for example. Great idea but didn't take off because of its complexity. Google+ is much simpler but faces the formidable competition of Facebook. How long will Google allow plus to grow before it pulls the plug. Remember GoogleVideo?  Google Catalog search? Google Notebook? Google Mashup?

Anyone using it now? What d you think, will it take off?

Want an invite? email me!