Google+

[ans]

I was passed a link this morning and thought I'd add it to whatever Google+ thread we had going. Imagine my surprise when I found there was none!

 

I'm guessing then that not a huge amount of people here have heard about it so I thought it's probably worth sticking something up to let people know, or at least give people a place to discuss it.

 

http://www.google.com/+/demo/

 

It's obviously a stab at making inroads into Facebook's dominance in the social networking sphere. It's not Google's first stab either, Buzz being their most recent example. But here, Google really do seem to have got a lot of things right. Whether they've got it right enough to take market share away from Facebook is another story but before Facebook there was Myspace so it's happened before, although we're on a much larger scale now.

 

This isn't the place for "rawr, facebook rulez, g+ sukks" though. Each have their own advantages although Facebook does appear to be a little worried, blocking the export of friends lists all of a sudden etc.

 

Google+ is at the moment am invite only beta but there are currently 20+ Million users so they're not exactly rare. Like most G+ users, I have over 150 sat spare right now if anyone wants one, just drop me a PM with your email address.

 

Anyway, one of the big attractions for a significant number of the Facebook demographic is all the games and stuff you can play. The link I came in to post originally announces some games being rolled out for G+ today which could really be a tipping point in getting wider usage outside of geeks and techies. The games include Angry Birds and Bejewelled.

 

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/games-in-google-fun-that-fits-your.html

[The Old Git]

It seems to be a mix of Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. I've only been on it a week or so but quite like what I see so far. Circles is a handyt way of organising family, friends and interests. Not had a hangout yet

 

ETA I thought the lack of games was a plus. None of the stupid updates about someone needs a barn, etc. Also have 150 invites as well

[ans]

Yeah, the game spam would be a distraction but it's much, much easier to filter it out completely in G+ because of the way it's been designed.

 

Unfortunately, I think it's a necessary evil if it's to get a bigger market share. Even those Farmville player numbers are in freefall, they still have more active players than G+ entirely. And I assume those people who've left Farmville have gone to whatever the newest game trend is.

[Slim]

It's interesting to see the demographic that's developing there. It's nothing like Facebook not because of functionality but because of who's using it, it's all middle aged opinionated tech oriented blokes.

 

It's certainly not replacing facebook here, and I can't see my mum using it any time soon.

[enCrypt]

Been on it for a while and I suppose I fit into Slim's description apart from the opinionated bit (couldn't give a stuff about most things me!)

Having never done 'the' BookFace (yes I know, probably one of about 10 people in the world) it was all a bit new to me, but it looks pretty good so far.

 

But I agree, just a tech heads hangout at present. I can see it probably staying that way too as once its out of Beta, I cant see many 'ordinary' users wanting to leave behind their beloved FaceTube TBH...

[Minxie]

but because of who's using it, it's all middle aged opinionated tech oriented blokes.

I might be middle aged, but I'm not a bloke

[ans]

It's certainly not replacing facebook here, and I can't see my mum using it any time soon.

 

Games is a big step towards the "mass market" trying it and getting them trying out things like Hangout and Huddle. Integration into GMail is key too.

[slinkydevil]

It's certainly not replacing facebook here, and I can't see my mum using it any time soon.

 

For now yes. I've been using Google+ now for a while and like it. Agreed that there are more techies than ever using it, but that's not such a bad thing in it's early days.