<p>Just joined Google Plus social networking site yesterday. It has a nice simple layout - but as it is still basically in testing stages - it is not fully open for registration except for some random people. Is anybody here on it? What do you think? Maybe one day it will replace Facebook’s monopoly, but first we’ll have to see if users go on board. The key of course is always where your friends are. The best, most capable social networking site is usually if none of the people you like are on it.</p>
<p>I am on it. So far, not many people I know are on it. I like the idea of it, the grouping of people in circles. I think it allows you to more fluidly select who is going to see what content. I can keep my daughter from seeing some of the R rated content I might exchange with my college aged son. My son can keep his aunt from criticizing him on some of his posts (she thinks she’s being funny).</p>
<p>I sppose you can do some of this with facebook by going in and setting permissions, but the circle concept is intuitive and easy to grasp and implement</p>
<p>It could even be used for professional networking. I did not friend coworkers on facebook because I didn’t want to share pictures of me at the beach with my family or my interactions with close friends or family.</p>
<p>My son says there is a great app for uploading pictures from his smart phone.</p>
<p>Facebook’s Zuckerberg is a creep. He was hired to create a social application for two other Harvard students. After listening to their idea, he lied to them, stole their idea, and created his own social application. I guess America has changed over the years, but I didn’t think people should become rich by stealing other people’s intellectual property. </p>
<p>Facebook has had so many instances of misusing its user information it isn’t by accident. It’s their corporate culture. </p>
<p>Facebook is spammed to death. Every time you click on something you are at risk that your content will be taken over by some third party and used for their purposes.</p>
<p>Facebook even hired a media firm to plant false stories about Google. Facebook is a rotten company and its reflects its founder’s vision.</p>
<p>Google+ is better than Facebook. It lets users create circles of friends which means separating friends by groups so that you can have several conversations going on with different friends without the others knowing about it. What I am waiting to see is if business start using the huddle feature which allows up to ten people to have a video conference at one time. That means office groups can have instant meetings with people being all over the country. </p>
<p>Although it is not a feature of Google+, I just started using Google music. I uploaded my CDs of music and can now listen to them anywhere any time. I love cloud computing.</p>
<p>I am using Google + and am still learning the basics. I like the idea of professional networking and I also like the availability of content without having to “friend” someone. One of the first things I did, however, was link to my facebook account so I can also see that feed and content from various pages I like that currently aren’t on G+. I have not yet explored the Hangout feature as I really don’t have a lot of people to hang out with yet. I’d love to see CC posters get together and have a hangout.</p>
<p>I really like it as well, though I am still learning. I was never on Facebook (after reading about Zuckerberg and some of the Facebook policies, I did not want to be).</p>
<p>razor… google routinely gets hacked by the Chinese, so I don’t think your data is really any better protected there.</p>
<p>Actually, the Chinese government is able to hack Chinese dissidents because they use Internet Explorer and are failing to change passwords frequently. Using current versions of Chrome or Firefox and changing passwords frequently prevents even the chinese government from hacking. </p>
<p>Google just reported earnings and they said that they had over 10 million people sign up for Google+. That’s pretty amazing given that it has only been offered for two weeks and has been offered only on an invitation basis. If you remember, Android started with a very small market share of the smart phone market and now it is the leader and will probably eliminate all competitors other than Apple. I truly hope Facebook goes under. What a horrible company they are.</p>
<p>Facebook lets you sort friends into groups and change viewing permissions based on groups too, just as easily if not moreso than the way google does it. I’ve only looked at Google+ for a few moments, I have it but am not particularly interested, but I didn’t see anything different enough from facebook to be worth switching. I don’t pretend to know about data security issues, but I don’t really care about that. I assume nothing I put on the internet is secure anyway so it’s neither here nor there to me. The hangout huddle stuff looks interesting but I am skeptical that my friends will make the jump, so I doubt I’d get to use that feature anyway.</p>
<p>Facebook’s privacy issues are yesterday’s news to me. The solution IMO is simple - don’t share what you don’t want to.</p>
<p>I use it, and I like it a lot. I’m sure it will get even better with time.
the "circles"make a lot of sence, and are easy and intuitive to use.</p>
<p>I’m on it but I’m not sure I really get the point of it yet. But I’m learning.</p>
<p>I love it!
I love the control it gives the user from the beginning. I always hated FB, because I constantly felt overwhelmed with information.
The two things I like best are the easy peasy way you can organize people into Circles – you can click and drag folks into Circles (groups) that you create at any moment (I hate having to go to my obscure settings on fb to change everything – on + you can create a circle when you find a person and say, oh, I know this person from when I lived in Ohio, I should have a circle for Ohio friends, and then you add the person to your circles for “all friends” “ohio” “dumb jokes” “outdoors.” You may also have Circles for “college buddies” “CC” “work” “church” “lefty birkenstock gender radicals.” So if you want to post a column about transgender mountainclimbing lolcats you can share with only the relevant circles very easily.
I also like Sparks. You get to use the Google super power to create personalized searches for clever things to share. I never knew how to find and post clever things on FB! And it is very easy to cross link to other blogs and social sites.
Finally, the whole format just feels more open and free. FB always had too many fill in the blanks, and “do it this way” places for my taste. As an example, on the bio type page, there was more “say what you want about yourself” and less “create tags.”
I do feel a little lonely though. I am looking forward to having more people on it.</p>
<p>One thing that I don’t like is that it brings up everyone I’ve ever emailed with gmail to suggest to add to circles, even if they’re not on an email list. I really, really, REALLY don’t want to accidentally add the vice president of my company to any circles at all, or the woman that rejected me from a job a month ago. XD I haven’t really been adding people because that SCARES me, when I go to the circles page it brings up 50 really important work people I don’t really know and only like two of my friends because I only use gmail for work.</p>
<p>Not a flaw in the program, but SCARY!</p>
<p>It confuses me! I think I am sticking with FB</p>
<p>Son thinks it will “blow up” and he’s usually right. Besides; I always love the “underdog!”</p>
<p>Excuse my ignorance, Shrinkrap. What do you mean “blow up”? I can’t figure out from the context if you mean Google+ will become big or will implode:-( Sorry.</p>
<p>In a good way…
from urbandictionary, minus the unmentionables . .
"1. blow up </p>
<p>To become famous, successful, and respected usually within a small amount of time."</p>
<p>"4. blow up </p>
<p>To rapidly achieve fame, stardom, cash money, mad props, etc. after being relatively unknown. It is more of a rapid progression than a gradual rise in fame and fortune…"</p>
<p>My son and his friends have decamped to Google+. I think the college aged will adopt it since the fogies are on Facebook in force.</p>
<p>So far I just have two contacts on Google+ - my son and his girlfriend.</p>
<p>I was shocked that my son added me right away on Google+
Neither of my kids would add me as a friend on facebook, and looking back I think that was a good thing.</p>
<p>So if I find people and place them in some of my circles, they have no say about it, right? But I can’t see their stuff unless they put me in one of their circles. Hmm… And there’s a “block” feature that I haven’t explored yet.</p>
<p>My son, who never friended me on FB, will “circle” me on Google+. I suspect people find it easier to group people here than on FB.</p>