Google+ Catch-All

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Google's answer to Facebook is here... while the usual warnings regarding Google products apply... as usual... I hope, 1) it takes off, and 2) they don't let it whither and die. :p

Ars has a pretty good article on the... initiative. Google+ tour.

What I noted from the Ars article:
-"legendary" Mac designer Andy Herzfeld is lead UI designer. I have no clue but I've been told it's very good. :p
-there is only one or two head honchos. This isn't a design-by-committee thing.

What I noted from the Google site:
-Hangouts look fun for family communication (we're all over the country)
-Instant Uploading of pictures and videos? YES PLEASE. I've been manually uploading to Picasa and sorting them from there, but if there's a way to keep them private until I sort them, and get them over to Picasa, ohh I want this.

I really hope that Android and iOS integration is tight, since many of my family and friends use one of those platforms... here's to hoping. Looking forward to trying it out.

Anyone scored an invite yet?

The thing is -- does Facebook have the critical mass to be able to stomp new, better social networking ideas just due to its size? I migrated to FB not because I like it, but because...well because everyone uses it. And I'm not super interested in concurrent social networks.

Here's hoping. It looks cool.

Seth wrote:

The thing is -- does Facebook have the critical mass to be able to stomp new, better social networking ideas just due to its size? I migrated to FB not because I like it, but because...well because everyone uses it. And I'm not super interested in concurrent social networks.

Here's hoping. It looks cool.

From what I've read, it seems Google's focus is rather smart, they're making web content relevant to your tastes and adding the usual roster of FB functions; friends, groups, fotos, videos, links (and sharing all of these). So there should be something to actually do past the myriad of trivialities people keep posting.

Also, I will trade Wave Invites for a Google+ Invite.

I'm in the beta. Note that I do not use facebook, so my opinions may be weird.

I like the circles and the mechanisms for choosing privacy levels on things so far. Pretty darned easy.

It did a reasonably decent job, of presenting people to me based on their presence in my address book or their history of communicating with me. Made it nice and fast to shovel people into different circles, without putting anyone in a circle for me.

I approve of the fact that I don't have to share information about who's in my circles, even to other members of my circles.

One big thing I'd like to see, though, is the ability to configure that feature a bit more. Right now, it's basically "Which circles show up on my profile?", "Are your chosen circles' members visible to everyone, or just to members of your circles?", and "Do you want to show people who have put you in a circle?" I wouldn't mind having the ability to have certain circles able to see people in certain circles. As it is, I just have that turned off completely right now.

The Sparks thing is not impressing me much at the moment. I should watch one of these "What Google+ is about!" videos and see if I can figure out WTF it's supposed to be good for.

Oh, and: No invites available for beta members yet. Presumably that will come some day, but not yet.

I just finished the entire Ars article -- sparks sound great. I will join Google+ for that gimmick alone.

Plus, it sounds like Google is actually significantly more on the ball in terms of allowing people to segregate their acquaintances into proper relationship. To paraphrase their example, my coworker, my mother, and my dogsitter are not all necessarily my "friends."

Please put me down for a Google+ invite, if anyone gets them early. I'll return the favor if I'm in the blessed early round.

I noticed that Google itself, the actual search page, has a clean new look, and you can now "+1" a result to socially vote it up. What I've been dying for is a way to block domains from appearing in search results, permanently. So that when I search for "John F Kennedy", I don't get hits from dealcouponssaver.com with text that reads 'find coupons for John F Kennedy'. Some spammy sites are very good at getting their site to the top of google search results almost no matter what you search on. At least now with the social voting, maybe that will help the results.

Btw, if any of you that are already in get invites to pass out, I'd like one, pretty please.

Sweet, now all my friends and family can see how much porn I Google.

Seth wrote:

The thing is -- does Facebook have the critical mass to be able to stomp new, better social networking ideas just due to its size? I migrated to FB not because I like it, but because...well because everyone uses it. And I'm not super interested in concurrent social networks.

Here's hoping. It looks cool.

I think facebook is on its way out. I've seen a lot of younger people (from teens up to my age, ~30) really paring back both their friends and usage or just deleting their account altogether. Nothing is ever so big that it can't be felled. Remember MySpace?

I would gladly take an invite if anyone can score one.

I'm in - got an invite from a friend yesterday. Like it so far, though it hangs when I'm dragging contacts into circles after a while. As I've yet to receive a status update, I'm not sure how that will go, but the integration with my Google account is pretty tight. I've an extra tab on the top left on my iGoogle page and all my GMail contacts are available to be drug into circles. I've created one custom circle so far. You can't drag circles into circles.

Supposedly, contacts in circles that aren't in Google+ get an email with your status update, though that might be configurable.

The native Android App is pretty slick. One cool feature is the Photo Upload feature. With it on, it automatically uploads any photos you take to a private album from which you can then make public or publish to various circles. The feature is fully configurable so you can choose to allow it at all, whether only to work when in Wi-fi only, Mobile and when in roaming or not. You can also disable it when on battery. You can also allow photos or photos and videos for each choice. No setting for size of photos, though it does re-size photos greater than 2k x 2k.

No invites to give out

Jeff-66 wrote:

I noticed that Google itself, the actual search page, has a clean new look, and you can now "+1" a result to socially vote it up. What I've been dying for is a way to block domains from appearing in search results, permanently. So that when I search for "John F Kennedy", I don't get hits from dealcouponssaver.com with text that reads 'find coupons for John F Kennedy'. Some spammy sites are very good at getting their site to the top of google search results almost no matter what you search on. At least now with the social voting, maybe that will help the results.

Btw, if any of you that are already in get invites to pass out, I'd like one, pretty please.

1. Search for John F Kennedy.
2. Click the dealcouponsaver.com link.
3. Hit back.
4. Click Block All dealcouponssaver.com results.
5. Dance like there's ass in your pants.

One thing to remember is that Facebook now allows to export your whole persona into some form of an XML file. It'd be cool if Google offered a way to hoover that in, importing all of your interests, friends etc.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

One thing to remember is that Facebook now allows to export your whole persona into some form of an XML file. It'd be cool if Google offered a way to hoover that in, importing all of your interests, friends etc.

This will not be cool until I can download that into a cybernetic entity and escape this primitive shell of flesh and bone.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I noticed that Google itself, the actual search page, has a clean new look, and you can now "+1" a result to socially vote it up. What I've been dying for is a way to block domains from appearing in search results, permanently. So that when I search for "John F Kennedy", I don't get hits from dealcouponssaver.com with text that reads 'find coupons for John F Kennedy'. Some spammy sites are very good at getting their site to the top of google search results almost no matter what you search on. At least now with the social voting, maybe that will help the results.

Btw, if any of you that are already in get invites to pass out, I'd like one, pretty please.

Maybe they're working on it, but massive trolling could allow for Amazon-review-like downvotes that could hurt their biz model.

Also, to Hypathian, I'll send you a Facebook invite for your Google+ access.

I have invites to give out.

Send me your emails...

I also just got in. Invites seem to be unlimited? Ping me in IRC if you want in.

Indeed. I'm easy to find on google+ (It'd be easier if I could skip the last name, too....) I've gotta be the only Kannon Null around.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

Maybe they're working on it, but massive trolling could allow for Amazon-review-like downvotes that could hurt their biz model.

Well, I don't mean social down-voting, I'm talking about the ability to personally block domains in my search results only (like a cookie or whatever).

The search engine Blekko.com has this -- you can mark a search result as spam, and you'll never see that site again in your (personal) search results. Plus blekko does a very good job of pushing off spammy content farms from their first few pages of results.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

1. Search for John F Kennedy.
2. Click the dealcouponsaver.com link.
3. Hit back.
4. Click Block All dealcouponssaver.com results.
5. Dance like there's ass in your pants.

Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something, that didn't work, at least not in Firefox 5.0

Ah, might be a Chrome thing.

I've got invites for those that want.

Invites seem to be gone for now.

thelordofruin at youknowwhat .com if you want to add me to your GWJ circle. :p

If you install the Android app, apparently there's a known bug where only one Google account will show up in the list of accounts.

For those of you that already got in, did you just get a random email from Google, or do you know (or are someone) in the know? I've never seen a "sign up for this beta" thing before.

I got my invite from a dude handing them out in an IRC channel I was in, but I don't know how he got in. I'm pretty sure there's a "request an invite" link on the main Plus page though.

After reading the Ars page, I look forward to a "circle" formed from folks at GwJ, and the array of focused and relevant gaming news that would result from such a stream (not sure if I have all the + lingo correct).

Well, that didn't take long. A brief break for dinner and my invite button has disappeared.

Be rest assured. If it returns (as I'm sure it will), I'll invite the rest of the emails I've received, plus any others that come along. I promise I'm not harvesting them....

As an aside, I saw this occur during other Google product rollouts. They throttle the number of users to match the availability of servers assigned to the product. I'm guessing there's a bunch of engineers frantically working right now to switch over capacity. "Code Yellow in the 'Plex"

Well, since I sold my soul to Amazon and Google (*hail Techno Overlords) I'd certainly appreciate an invite for Google+.

So far I've avoided Facebook for a variety of the usual reasons but I like trying out all the crazyness Google puts out there. And in an entirely unrelated note, anyone notice you can now apply your Amazon credit card points directly to Amazon purchases at checkout? My wallet weeps!

Cheers and have a good July 4th weekend to all the Americans out there. The rest of you just have a good weekend.

Would like an invite as well if anyone has one..

So how is it? Do you feel like it's enough for Facebook users to switch?

I would appreciate an invite! gorilla800lbs at gmail dawt com.

BNice wrote:

So how is it? Do you feel like it's enough for Facebook users to switch?

anecdote warning: given the mass amount of excitement running through my facebook newsfeed about google+ -- excitement that didn't happen with Buzz or Wave -- it may do well. Granted, I (like most of you, I bet) run a pretty tech-savvy friends list on FB, but it's still encouraging, considering when wave launched everyone basically posted, all at once, "wtf do I do with this now?"

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