Google+: my two cents

For someone with limited real-life socialization, I sure have made the rounds of most social networks. Currently, I maintain active accounts in Facebook and Twitter. In the past, I also had profiles in Friendster, MySpace, and Multiply. So it should not come as a surprise that in true geek fashion, I got a Google+ invitation only a day or so after its beta release.

Over a month and 20M+ new users later, there have been hundreds of opinions on Google's latest attempt in the social networking scene.  Early on, some have readily dismissed it as another Orkut or Wave which were both unsuccessful in widely catching on.  But most reviews have been positive, overwhelmingly so. However, most descriptions concentrated on it being a killer of some sort: Facebook killer, Twitter killer, Microsoft killer. That sounds all very exciting, but I'd rather much prefer to not attribute any bludgeoning violence to Google+.

Just to get it out of the way, I think Google+ is awesome. I feel like it has taken the list of everything I find essential in a social network and implemented it. I actually require very few things: a venue where I can share links, photos, blog entries, and thoughts; where I can also see what my family and friends shared. Also a place to find interesting sites and people to follow their news and opinions. 

But then you ask: If that's all there is to it, then what's the point in "migrating" when Facebook and Twitter already cover those features?

The clincher is that Google+ chose to emphasize on privacy. Privacy is the proverbial card up Google's sleeve. Sharing revolves around "Circles". It is a feature wherein users are able to categorize their contacts into groups and with that, the ability to share specific things only to specific groups. 

And before anyone else can yell, "But Facebook already has Lists and Groups!", let me just stop you right there. Believe me, I know this because I've used it. I actually took the time to categorized all my contacts into specific lists. And the process was far from pretty. It works but it was tedious. 

Any heavy object can hit a nail, but a hammer is designed to fit in your hand and to hit efficiently and with much better precision. Google+ was designed with Circles in mind. You can effortlessly group your contacts to however you see fit: family, friends, co-workers, or "crap! They found me!". The process is intuitive. And it doesn't hurt that the interface is sleek.

Also, truth be told, I'm like most people who had the misfortune of being guilted into approving everyone's friend requests in Facebook. And I had to pay for it by wading through a newsfeed with entries that are irrelevant to me. I don't need to know if one of my friends commented on the post of a person I have never met. I don't need to know if someone reached a new level in a game I have no intention of playing. I am not very interested in where people are "checked in" and am most certainly not keen on sharing my whereabouts. Burglars don't need my extra help to know if I'm out of the house.

The way I see it, Google+ has given us the chance of a do-over. Now that you know which of your contacts post vague and inane remarks every hour, and which ones share interesting stuff - you are now armed with the knowledge on how to proceed. You have the option of adding them in a circle or just let them follow you. It totally takes out the risk of offending anyone, because you "follow" people (as in Twitter) but you don't "friend" them (as in Facebook). It is up to you whether you are willing to share what you post publicly or only within your circles.

So if you're still up for more of my chatter, here's my take on some of the features:

Technology

Hangouts is the group video chat feature of Google+. It allows at most ten people to share the same room with the host. Others have used this feature for discussions or interviews. Some people even do yoga and meditation together. Unfortunately, the extent of my experience with this is when my housemate and I just tested the interface and video called each other while we were lounging in my room. It worked fine and it looks like it has a lot of fun potential. The cool things about Hangouts for me is that all it takes is a browser plugin. No fussy software installations, just a teensy plugin. Very nice.

Facebook has its "like", Google+ has its "+1". Now if you have a Google account, you will notice that this notation is ubiquitous. It appears in the stream, search results, articles. The rationale is that when you go to a site or a service that one of your contacts have approved (plussed one? incremented?), you will be able to see it. It's a networking review of everything online.

Google Chrome is my browser of choice. It's fast, it's uncluttered, and best of all, it has great available extensions in Chrome Web Store. There are the basic things like dictionaries, screen cap tools, and then there are also extensions that hide YouTube comments (this would do wonders for your sanity). When Google+ was made public, it literally just took hours for developers to release related extensions for it. Some can change the colors, the layout, or scrolling behavior -- basically a load of things that have not been natively supported yet.

Now, since Google+ is technically still in beta, these extensions can actually be submitted as feedback. And Google's Feedback Button is such a nifty litte tool. The whole feedback mechanism is a great app in itself. Coming from a software development background, I really appreciate how one can send comments and automatically attach a screenshot with highlighted or blocked portions.  You can just imagine this tool being reused and plugged into a totally separate app.

User Interface is streamlined.  I'm sure others find it ugly, but I personally like the minimalist, low-key design. And after the horrible, horrible chat panel/eyesore in Facebook, G+ became way prettier in comparison.

Google Integration

The infamous Google bar in the browser is the quick access of your Google existence. And I have to admit, it made me realize how reliant I am of anything Google: Gmail, Images, Translate (such a lifesaver in global support), Reader, Documents, etc. This just goes to show that the cloud is where it's at, people. It's scary and exciting at the same time. Just imagine: all these data are accessible just by logging into a Google account anywhere, with any device. I say take advantage of the tools, but it is prudent to back things up.

Google+ can be integrated into Picasa and Blogger accounts. So if you stuck with these services for your photo sharing and blogging all these years, that's an advantage.  And there's also the mobile OS Android whose users gloated for a good few weeks for having the Google+ mobile app way before the iOS iPhone users.

User Base

The concept of "following" users instead of "friending" them allows ordinary people to be privy to the updates of the celebrities they follow. This was more of a Twitter advantage because Facebook's Fan Pages just seemed a little impersonal. So millions of people follow actors, athletes, and politicians on Twitter and feed on their 140-character updates. However, microblogging limits what can be shared because of its brevity constraint.  And discussions in Twitter seems a little awkward because of the lack of continuity.

In Google+, celebrities have the option to share whatever they want publicly or privately. And they can share not just text or links, but also videos, photos, paragraphs of text. And also, it has a commenting system to interact and discuss efficiently with their followers. They can even host Hangouts. Personally, I follow dozens of public personalities in my Circles - some from the tech industry, some photographers, some Google engineers.

Unfortunately, I am having a hard time convincing anyone from my family to switch from Facebook and so my Family Circle remain empty for now. Facebook's ace remains with its huge user base. 750M people using the system is no small feat. And it will take a while for most of those users to switch to another social networking service, if they even switch at all. 

Since I had to end this very long litany at some point...

Finally, some tips on how to retrieve your data from these two social networking services (at least, whatever data they would allow you to retrieve).

For Facebook, you will have to go "Account" > "Account Settings" > below that page, click on "Download a copy of your Facebook data." > reenter your password > after a few hours, you will get an email from Facebook notifying you that your data is ready for download > go to the link and download. 

For Google+, go to google.com/takeout and click on the "Create Archive" button. Reenter password and download.

Anyway, here are wise words oft-repeated in the halls of the internet: "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold". Well at least, they try to make it worth our while.

Happy social networking.