Google+ Discussion Thread

teddy b123

So, now that a good few of us are on Google+ what does everyone think of it! I must say I like it, or should I say +1 it :P
Anyone experience any bugs, notice they've gone to the wrong place on screen for something, like where chat used to be on facebook?

heebusjeebus

I'm a little bit confused but its all good. Also, do you have to select circles each time you post?

403 Forbidden

I Like it two, It is like Facebook but privacy is so much better

voxpop

any way to show the email address of ppl, instead of just their name - when adding to a circle? sometimes if I hover over the email address pops up but not always

jester77

Not a bad start. Really looking forward to how this progress's once the API is released. The hangout/video chat is amazing. Tried it out with a few people with a mix of ubuntu, windows and osx machines. Windows had a few driver issues but once sorted the quality was fantastic, the others had no issues. Windows were at max, video was fluid and we could even hold up documents and it was readable to people on the other side.

PogMoThoin

The beauty of it is that when you add people to a circle, they don't get notified which circle you add them to

abelard

The interface is generally very nice.

Love the way it displays images and galleries.

The privacy options don't seem to be better than Facebook as such, but just much easier to manage.

It seems (though I might be wrong) that you see no content that is not directly shared with you. This is a good thing in many ways, privacy being the obvious one. However, it removes a bit of the social aspect of Facebook. For example, I like how I can see photos/posts/etc my friends are tagged in on Facebook even if the photo belongs to someone I'm not friends with.

What is the google+ equivalent of "writing on someone's wall"?

On the whole, really liking it so far, I do wonder to what extent it's a honeymoon period though. Hope it goes from strength to strength anyway.

Also, if I add someone to a circle via their email address, but they don't actually sign up to google+, do they then get emails about stuff I share with the circle they're in?

PogMoThoin

It will be great as long as they dont allow stupid apps and games, FB is ruined with this shít that seems to attract assholes

ironictoaster

Anyone know how to send an invite?

PogMoThoin

ironictoaster wrote: »

Anyone know how to send an invite?

Its down at the moment, I've sent some friends an invite, they get the email but they can't sign up. Some say if they keep trying it, it will work eventually, read some kept trying for 4 hours before it worked. None of my invitees would have that patience
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20075805-285/how-to-invite-your-pals-to-google/

Zascar

Good overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiqDr7CFmZQ

Almost seems more like a better twitter than facebook. I assume having brands on here like 'facebook pages' is going to be big - so then you can have a group for various companies etc you want to follow and have that kept separate from your friends etc. Nice touch

ironictoaster wrote: »

Anyone know how to send an invite?

Easiest way is to 'share' something on your wall, and when you are picking who to share it with, type an email address, and/or a circle, and hit share. They 'should' get an email invite.

Pygmalion

Pretty good so far, it essentially seems like a less awkward Facebook.

The Circles thing seems great.
I really like the idea of being able to post college-related things to people I know from college only, technology related things with relevant friends only etc.
At the moment I'm pretty much just sharing things with everyone, but that's because so far all the posts have mostly been about my experience on Google+, and are kinda relevant to everyone on there trying it out.

Haven't used Sparks yet and I can't imagine I will, I have Google Reader and Reddit for that kind of stuff.

Had a hangout (with 4 people including myself) the other day and really hope it catches on, works great even on my relatively poor connection at home in Wexford.
I'm using Linux (Ubuntu atm) and it worked perfectly. I installed the plugin (the .deb automatically adds their repository for updates if you allow it). It detected my camera and microphone without any setup required and auto-adjusted the volume level on the microphone. It's usually very difficult to get applications to properly pick up sound from the microphone without leaning in or talking loudly, but I was able to just talk normally while using the laptop and be heard.
It's also quite good at detecting who should be centered. It automatically places the person currently speaking in the large area of the screen, with thumbnail views of the others beneath them. IMO a grid layout where all people are of equal size but the currently talking one is highlighted would also be good, but I guess that's awkward if you don't have a certain number of people.
Most importantly it doesn't require Flash or Java :P.
This feature was the one that amazed me the most, but it's also the one that kinda requires people that are willing to actually use it though, if people don't bother installing the Talk plugin or just never start a hangout then it becomes pretty useless. I imagine some people will be using it all the time and some people will never use it.

kravicecreama

lliking it a lot so far.And I have never had a facebook account but the missus lives on hers.
I hope they keep the interface clean and it doesnt get complty corrupted by farmvilles and ganster crap.
so far,so good.

ROS123

Looks good so far, don't have enough people to link with on it yet, just following some techie people. Are invites still down or has anyone uncovered a new method of inviting people yet.

teddy b123

PogMoThoin wrote: »

It will be great as long as they dont allow stupid apps and games, FB is ruined with this shít that seems to attract assholes

Problem with that is
With apps and games, the masses that are on facebook might migrate to google+, google+ becomes popular and google maintains it

Without apps and games, those 'assholes' will remain on facebook, google+ remains fairly quiet and ends up going the same way as wave

kippy

Kinda getting sick of all these social sites to be honest.
I had a myspace account, then a bebo account, now a facebook account and have just started a Plus account. Even have a twitter account that I rarely post on but find ok for following people.
Mainly been using facebook over the past few years.
I honestly dont intend migrating my photos , friends etc over to plus or anything like it.
Will be sticking with Facebook for the time being and if I see a major move to plus I'll just remain with facebook.
Its a bit of an information over load, on these social sites and if you dont want information overload you have to spend an not inconsiderable amount of time faffing with privacy settings etc.

I think Google has missed the boat on this one tbh no matter how "good" it is.

Edit: also tried "buzz" and "wave" - useless.
The boat has been well and truly missed.

Zascar

I can't see this working, if Buzz ad Wave failed, this will follow I think. It's less social than Facebook but more complex than twitter. I'm already getting followed by loads of people I don't know - no idea how they found me. Due to its tight integration into the rest of the google stack it will get usage, but just how much we'll have to wait and see. Restricting the invites I think is a bit silly as they should get loads of people on in the first place otherwise existing users get bored. Only a few people I know have posted anything, I'm bored already. The idea of circles is good but no doubt facebook will come out with something that does the same (better than it does now) and then why would you bother using Plus? Maybe I'm wrong but if I had to bet i don't see this taking off to the extent that it would need to for Google.

gouche

teddy b123 wrote: »

Problem with that is
With apps and games, the masses that are on facebook might migrate to google+, google+ becomes popular and google maintains it

Without apps and games, those 'assholes' will remain on facebook, google+ remains fairly quiet and ends up going the same way as wave

I'm pretty sure Google invested about $100m in Zynga, the creator of Farmville and all the other *ville games so I'd be very surprised if there wasn't any games on it if it gets any way popular.

As long as it doesn't automatically post invites to your wall about your friends exploits. I'm sick to the teeth of disabling messages from all these games.:mad:

kravicecreama

Interesting reading from a blog post by a facebook worker and ex google+ employee. Also the rest of his blog is not too bad either.
http://www.thinkoutsidein.com/blog/2011/07/just-the-beginning/

kravicecreama

kippy wrote: »

Kinda getting sick of all these social sites to be honest.
I had a myspace account, then a bebo account, now a facebook account and have just started a Plus account. Even have a twitter account that I rarely post on but find ok for following people.
Mainly been using facebook over the past few years.
I honestly dont intend migrating my photos , friends etc over to plus or anything like it.
Will be sticking with Facebook for the time being and if I see a major move to plus I'll just remain with facebook.
Its a bit of an information over load, on these social sites and if you dont want information overload you have to spend an not inconsiderable amount of time faffing with privacy settings etc.

I think Google has missed the boat on this one tbh no matter how "good" it is.

Edit: also tried "buzz" and "wave" - useless.
The boat has been well and truly missed.

I agree with most of what you are saying.I tried bebo and myspace and hated them. I gave facebook a really good go for a year but eventually it just p***ed me off to much.It was the lack of controll I think I desliked the most.A lack of controll that was allmost built into it from the start.
I had given up on any notion of joining a social network..unless it was an anti-social one!
In the mean time I had a gmail account I liked. I used Picaso and Picaso web cause it was easy to use. I used google maps cause they easy to use and intergrate. So i think this google+ is just a natural progression.
As regards the privcy settings thing....it is very straight forward on g+.
The thing is I think g+ is not aimed at being a facebook killer. Facebook too big and ingrained in peoples mind at this stage.I defo think it is for people like me who just dont like Facebook and who are allready comfortable with google services up to know.A twitter killer...now maybe.