<p>My son told me that he joined Google + which is the “new social networking site that moms will not be invited to.” Guess he was wrong if some of you are on it.</p>
<p>Even though I understand that anything you post on the Internet can potentially be discovered and exploited, I nevertheless am very attracted to the idea of a social network that does not blatantly declare that privacy belongs in the junkyard and does not claim to own your posts and allow your words to be coopted if anyone wants to put them in an ad. I don’t want my social network to be able to sell my words. It’s shocking to me that there hasn’t been a serious, more-semi private competitor to facebook. Heck, I would even be willing to pay for a social network that values privacy. I’m not sure google+ is private enough to be the ideal network, but the circles sound good. If I can’t get my 18 yo college freshman to quit FB or my 14yo not to join FB, I’ll have to stay on FB (she friended me) to check up on others’ careless posts that might threaten her privacy, her safety or her good name. I would worry less if there were circles. For my personal networking I’ll use anything but FB.</p>
<p>google already reads your email, and knows what you search for.</p>
<p>explicitly telling them who you know is the next step, I guess.</p>
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<p>Hmm, my daughter’s the one who invited me! Guess she didn’t get that memo.</p>
<p>Yeah, my adult son invited me. :)</p>
<p>It will only work well as a social network if a LOT of people are on it…</p>
<p>Hmmm…</p>
<p>Orkut (google’s other social network) was a disaster. While I am on Google+, I am not going to hold my breath. </p>
<p>Early shouts that it’s a FB killer are as premature as calls that Android was an iPhone killer…</p>
<p>New tech stuff always intrigues me!</p>
<p>I see that you can’t just “join” now, you have to be invited and those are currently limited. I did sign up on their list to possibly get an invite as they continue to roll out the website.</p>
<p>Did a demo of the features - looks pretty cool and user friendly to me. Question is, how many people will be willing to make the leap from/or in addition to Facebook.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the demo -do some clicking, there are some good interactive demos to show you how it works:
[The</a> Google+ Project](<a href=“http://www.google.com/+/demo/]The”>http://www.google.com/+/demo/)</p>
<p>Yes, DS who said “moms will not be invited” just might be disappointed by one of his three siblings. Or, gasp, a non-relative. But I do get that some of the younger generation do feel their playground was taken over.</p>
<p>There is something I don’t understand about FB groups. I have to invite someone to be in a group, right? I don’t want to do that! I just want to be able to group my friends so that I can choose who sees what.</p>
<p>Apparently none of the young people I know got the memo about excluding old people on Google+ either. All three of mine added me, plus a bunch of their friends who are not friends on FB.</p>
<p>timely I think you misunderstand “groups” on Facebook. They are not for “grouping” your friends…you have to go to privacy settings to adjust what of your stuff can be available to which people.</p>
<p>I was reading a post by a guy on Google Buzz who said he was creating a circle he called “The Inner Circle”.</p>
<p>Do you need a Gmail account to participate in Google+? I got an invite but can’t join unless I have a gmail ID. True or false? The kicker is I have a Google apps account but it seems like they have not migrated to Google+ yet. Go figure…</p>
<p>I believe the answer to your question, ccreader, is that you need a Google account to have Google+, but you do not need to have a gmail email address. If you get a gmail account, it involves setting up a Google account, but you can set up a Google account without also setting up a gmail address. In other words, if you want Google+ you can set up a Google account but not get gmail. (I might be mistaken on this, but I believe I am correct.) </p>
<p>Right now you need an invitation from someone with Google+ in order to join Google+.</p>
<p>D1 and S2 are both on Google+ but refuse to invite me. Hopefully I will know someone cool enough to invite me at some point. I think the young people might gravitate towards Google+ because it is new and different, but the old people will stay with FB since they tend to be more resistant to change.</p>
<p>20 million users in 3 weeks! Amazing!</p>
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<p>Read more: [Google+</a> Pulls In 20 Million in Three Weeks - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904233404576460394032418286.html#ixzz1SnNotxdS]Google+”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904233404576460394032418286.html#ixzz1SnNotxdS)</p>
<p>razorsharp, I think this thread is the first time I have ever heard someone say they read something on google buzz… lol</p>
<p>Google Buzz standing alone was pretty much a flop. I liked it more than Twitter because I still do not understand Twitter. Twitter seems like a way to follow certain celebrities or a few important friends. Google Buzz seemed to do allow that option but also allow one to see what people in your area are posting or people in other areas are posting. I sometimes read posts by people in Brooklyn and San Francisco just to see what is going on locally. Now that Google Buzz is an option under Google+ it seems even more useful.</p>
<p>I tried Huddle and it appears to be a solution for empty-nest parents. You can have up to ten people in the video conference at one time. There is one large screen showing the person talking and the other people on the conference are shown in smaller boxes below the larger box. If you have a computer with a camera, a parent can visit with all the children at one time much like having a family dinner without the food. I can also see this technology helping businesses hold meetings without having to travel to the office. </p>
<p>The quality of the images seems to depend a lot on lighting. The better your lights are positioned on you, the better you look on the screen.</p>
<p>And all of this service is within my price point – free. I can remember looking at video conferencing ten years ago and was amazed at how expensive it was to hook up two people, much less ten.</p>
<p>My next attempt will be to try Huddle on my smartphone.</p>
<p>Ok, so I signed up for an + account via the invite from a fellow CC’er (thank you!). Didn’t add too much to it yet - but so far haven’t found anyone I know on it! </p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that 20 million people really signed up in 3 weeks! Like who???!</p>