Google+ Immediate Reaction

Thanks to an awesome friend, I just got a Google+ invite, and I've been messing around with it for a little bit. Here are some quick thoughts.

Brief intro to Google+:


Con: Google+ works with the assumption that most of the things you share are meant for only a certain group of friends.

For kids who don't want to let their parents see they were drunk last night, this is nice. However, in my experience, the majority of the posts on our social networking sites aren't about getting drunk or kicking babies. They are about sports, school, frustrations, and general emotions - things that most people won't have a problem sharing with other people.Google+ makes you make the conscious decision who to share things with, which is a good thing in most cases, but really just ends up being extra clicks when you don't really care.

Con: Assuming Google+ gains some momentum, the content shared to us will be very limited.

One of the awesome time-wasting qualities about Facebook is that when you go on it, there is almost always a new update. There's always something to look at or comments on or read. Because others select what groups to share their update with, if you aren't in a group that someone shares with often, you may just end up not ever getting updates from that person. This seems intuitive (because that's generally how friendships work in real life), but it really takes away from the general feeling of connectedness I feel with my friends on Facebook. There are many times when I see an update from an acquaintance about something random that is interesting or beneficial to me. There are times when an acquaintance posts pictures of travel somewhere, and even though I may not know the person well, I could go look at the photos just to see what New Zealand looks like. It is equally satisfying when someone seemingly random "Likes" a post of mine, even if it wasn't necessarily intended for them.

My prediction is that Google+ will end up as everyone sharing things to only one or two groups, and just neglecting the other ones. This may connect us to maybe around 40-50 people, which is far less than who we are connected to Facebook on. Say what you will about Facebook, but there is always stuff to do and things to look at on Facebook, which is why we keep going back. I doubt Google+ have enough content to keep us interested and coming back.

Con: Lack of features

This is something I'm willing to give Google a pass on, simply because it is still so new and in development. That said, one of the things people like about Google+ over Facebook is how uncluttered it looks. I hate to say it, people, but if you want more features, there inevitably is going to be more clutter. Do you want to integrate Google Groups, or create events, or even integrate Google Calender? Do you want any sort of applications, the ability to play games with friends, see others' birthdays, or sell football tickets at a Marketplace? All those features need to be put somewhere, and Google+ will need to make a decision on how many features it wants to integrate.

Also, don't forget that there will definitely be ads. Where are those going to go? All I'm saying is not to expect Google+ to be this simple and bare for a while. And if it remains this way, we may be deprived of some basic and essential features.

Hopefully it doesn't end up looking like iGoogle:

Pro: Integration

This is probably the only reason I can see Google+ succeeding. Integrating Gchat and video chat into one nice spot is very nice and convenient. Could this be the Skype killer? Who knows. That said, Google Buzz and Google Wave were also pretty well-integrated, but those failed majorly too.

Really cool: Google+ integrated in your Google search menu

Conclusion

All in all, Google+ looks like a nice tool for video chat and very specific kinds of updates, but I don't see it replacing all the features and friends of Facebook. I can see people use Google+ to stay in touch with a close group of friends or a very specific network, such as a frat or a fellowship, but I doubt that anyone with over 100 friends on Facebook will find Google+ comparable to the real social networking that happens on Facebook. In the end, Google+ could be a good tool to keep in touch with friends you already know and people you normally keep in touch with, but I don't think that it will be as effective for branching out to acquaintances and people you just met (aka social networking).