Like a Tsunami: faster than expected, exponential growth, with little to no warning: that’s how Google+ entered the Social Media Arena.. I wanted to touch on some great info about G+ and some other bits that are more my observations. This first post I’ll start with a great informative excerpt from +Josh:
Aug 4th 2011 post of +Josh Sarz on Sagoyism
What makes Google Plus so special? Why is everyone flocking to it? Google Plus could not have come at a better time, where Facebook is being ridiculed by numerous people and personalities for a number of reasons. One of these would be the Facebook-Zynga marriage, and that Facebook decided to sell/share your info to third party companies.Why should you care, anyway? It’s not that you’re sharing your home address or your phone numbers, or your personal information on Facebook. You can actually block people, or switch your security settings to hide the information that you only want your friends to see. Not to mention the fact that you’ve spent literally years on shaping your Facebook credibility, building up online relationships, connecting with loved ones and old friends from high school or even elementary school. Another reason why Facebook could have an upper hand is that it has been an established name among the Internet community. Let’s be honest. EVERYONE has a Facebook account! Facebook has the ever-famous Farmville, and a plethora of other games in it’s bucket, as well as helpful features. What does Google Plus have that Facebook doesn’t?
Nothing much really. Google Plus is still in it’s early stages, and the huge influx of members are probably just that it’s new and it looks cool. It doesn’t really have all the glam and the glitter that Facebook has…. yet.
So what does Google Plus offer? These are the little things that are making people sometimes beg for G+ invites.
1. Better privacy for your data. With the concept of circles, you can choose who sees your content, and who cannot. You can choose who you share information with when you post something in the stream (Google’s equivalent for your “Wall”). Your boss can be in a totally different circle than your work buddies, so he wouldn’t have to see your rants about how much of a jerk he is.
2. Hangouts. Think of a video call except you can do it with not just one other person, but with nine. Many people have already started brainstorming on creative ways for using Hangouts, and here is a short list of ideas from G+niuses.
3. Integration with other Google products. It’s not completely up yet, but soon Google will be connecting it’s other products like Google Reader, Google News, Google Documents, Youtube, and a whole lot more to improve the user experience.
There’s going to be a whole lot more, and a bunch of other people (25 million+) are hanging on for a good ride. And because of all the attention on Google Plus, Facebook has somewhat taken matters to keep their populace strong and numerous, even resorting to giving people who would want to migrate contacts, pictures and videos over G+ a hard time. You can read all about it in this article.. Right here..
Next post will discuss Circles…