Why You Shouldn't Write Off Google+ Just Yet 286
TheNextCorner writes "Cmdr Taco writes for The Washington Post on why you shouldn't write off Google+ just yet: "Google+ is technically better than its rivals in a number of key ways. The user interface is comfortable and friendly. It's easy to maintain circles of contacts, and to segregate what you share with each group. Discussions of small-to-medium sizes are manageable and readable — even in real time. Facebook wins when it comes to the open graph and app ecosystem, but a lot of people don't care about that stuff.""
Okay? (Score:5, Interesting)
and it provides advertisers with one stop snooping (Score:5, Interesting)
Facebook hasn't screwed up...yet (Score:5, Interesting)
What killed MySpace was allowing the level of customization to a profile page such that the result was GeoCities. I stopped going to MySpace because I valued my eyesight.
Until Facebook makes me not want to look the main page or other people's profiles, it's not going anywhere.
Features aren't going to win people to Google+ because Facebook has a perfectly solid team of developers that will happily spend their days copying the things that make the user experience better.
Re:Google What? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yesterday Google-Youtube asked me for my real name. Well actually they already KNOW my real name via my email account, but they wanted me to start using it on youtube so everybody else would know too. (Posted by cpu6502, Bill Smith)
I refused.
Now I can't reply to comments. I can post new ones on videos, but the reply button is disabled. What a crummy thing for Google to do (try to take-away my anonymity). I don't want thousands of posts hanging-round with my real name for the next 60 years.
And here's another reason to dislike google: Quoting Rob âCmdrTacoâ(TM) Malda article: "Google doesnâ(TM)t really need you to use Google+ to post status updates with your friends as much as they simply need you to log in and tell them your age. If you do this, suddenly they can tie together your iPhone, your work machine, and your laptop. Your 3 machines become one person. You. And you are broadcasting signals all the time. If you don't* explicitly tell Google where you live, what you do, and how old you are, they will be able to make fantastically informed guesses."
On facebook almost everything is faked. My age, my location, only thing's that real is my name & my school (to reconnect with alumni).
*
*Why is Opera telling me that don't is mis-spelled?
*:-o
Re:So? (Score:4, Interesting)
Google+ Hangout are the killer feature. (Score:5, Interesting)
I've used at least a dozen video conferencing solutions, and Google+ Hangouts seems to work across the most platforms, with some of the highest quality video, and it's free. I can communicate with folks inside and outside of the company without any special clients or problems. It really is a killer video conferencing solution.
But it's buried inside Google+, and I am amazed how many people I meet have no idea it exists, have never tried it, and so on. Everyone I make use it the first time instantly falls in love. Google could easily sell Hangouts as a stand alone video conferencing product.
Which is why I think Google+ may make it yet. There's some really cool stuff buried in it. Not enough to unseat Facebook on its own, but if Facebook stumbles, Google+ could pick up the market. Much like when myspace fell behind Facebook moved in.
Re:Google What? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, see, that's the thing. Telling people that they can maintain their privacy if they learn how to figure out which cookies they can keep and which they cannot is like saying your money is safe in the bank, but only if you can solve ten partial differential equations in under 10 minutes.
Privacy should not be conditional on you having to engage in one-upmanship with the designers of Facebook.
Of course, nobody has to use Facebook, and I strongly recommend that my friends do not use Facebook at all. It's easy enough to contact one another and no matter how careful you are, you're always going to get someone on facebook from grade school bothering you to be their friend and it just all becomes sad and unpleasant. I've managed pretty well to wean a few people off facebook and convince then to use online communication tools that are not "social media" (which is Latin for "sandbox for stalkers". Yes, they still exist, including good old IRC.
My daughter, who from what I can tell is one of the cool kids, and her friends manage to stay on top of what's happening without ever touching facebook or twitter. I showed her IRC and now she and her friends think it's retro but cool. I heard one of the kids explaining how "Facebook spies on you and shit" so apparently the message has gotten through.
As for me, Facebook and Google+ have only served to teach me just how much I enjoy not being constantly in touch with a lot of people. My friends know how to find me, and they know that I don't always carry a communication device. In the past year, I've even stopped checking email every day, which was a big step for me. My wife, who's a mathematician and professor, refuses to own a mobile phone. For a while people looked at her like she was from mars, but now I see more understanding and appreciation for her position on these things. Now, for a lot of people, work requires them to use social media (for some reason) and 24/7 mobile communications. but that affliction has been lifted from my shoulders, praise Jesus.
My life is full of technology still, some of it more advanced than 95% of the population, and I enjoy it, but I don't feel that I have to use every new thing that comes along, especially if it's just a cover for marketing and social engineering. Discernment is good.
Re:What social network existed in 1998? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, there was Classmates. If they hadn't tried to monetize (or monetize so soon) they could have been Facebook years earlier.
But it looks like [wikipedia.org] they started all the way back in 1995!
Re:Google What? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Google What? (Score:5, Interesting)
On many phones (like mine) this app is pre-installed and actually uninstallable it was the main reason i switched to cyanogenmod