Some First Impressions of Google Plus
I’ve had a couple weeks now to dive in and play with Google Plus, and, to echo what others have said, unlike Google Buzz and Google Wave, this feels like the real deal. G+ takes the best features of Facebook and Twitter, adds in some better ones, and cuts bait with some of the worst.
Why G+ promises to be great can be summarized in one word: flexibility. You can use it however you want to.
How about a Facebook replacement to interact with friends and colleagues, but with the added privacy and broadcast control of Circles? Definitely. How many times have you had to censor your comments or photos on Facebook because of concerns over who might see them? With Circles, your contacts are grouped and you can interact with them in different ways.
How about an alternative to Twitter to connect with celebrities, other professionals, and get news as it breaks? Once the adoption rate is there, yes. Many savvy Twitter stars are already on G+, and it’s easy to connect with them. And following intelligent discussion on Twitter can be cumbersome and restrictive because of the format and 140 characters limitation. Consider this public G+ thread started by Social Media expert Paul Holmes to see how much cleaner G+ can handle an idea exchange about, of course, G+.
How about a business interaction and project management tool utilizing Huddle discussion threads and Hangouts for video conferencing? In our office, we use a mish mash of Basecamp for project management and collaboration, Skype for video, and various other messaging platforms and office tools. Coupled with Google Documents and Calendar, Google wraps all those functions into one seamless package.
So what now? Well, we wait for everyone to jump on board the G+ train, because, as Paul points out in his thread, until the critical mass is there, all this promise won’t be fully realized.
I’m off to send some more invites.
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