New social network - Google Plus (Google+)

Did anyone catch this yesterday... again being kind of a tech nerd i find this interesting. I'm still trying to grab an invite

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

But I really like the idea. It's like Facebook but it feels more decentralized. There are some neat ideas that I think set it apart from FB, for example the Circles where you can group your contacts into more logical order. I.E. instead of 200 "friends" you have groups - like family, close friends, acquaintances, etc. - so you can share with specific groups. Facebook kind of has this (I have people grouped) but it's a PITA to organize them.

The web conference / hangout thing looks kinda neat too. I have a webcam on the computer but almost never use it. But it would be kinda cool to have it available so people can just chat with you whenever, and I think it supports 10 people.

Anyone get an invite yet to try it? Looks like it could be promising. I don't use FB all that often now. I guess I like some of the smaller chat and discussion features that are more ad-hoc - , I always find it annoying when you want to go do something with friends and there are 1000 emails flying back and forth.

It will certainly be interesting to see if this gains some traction. What was their first attempt at a social network? I can't recall the name right now.

Glenn said:

It will certainly be interesting to see if this gains some traction. What was their first attempt at a social network? I can't recall the name right now.

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Buzz, it was horrible.

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Good timing, I think I heard on the news recently Myspace is laying off a lot of their workforce.

These guys seem pretty happy with it so far: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/29/google-plus-is-actually-pretty-good/

Interface looks slick but mostly looks like it suffers from all the things that make Facebook suck still. At the least, it should provide for some innovation since Facebook really did not have any competition and dominated by default due to mass adoption rather than having the best product. Looks like Google is going more with a Twitter approach of short hits even worse than Facebook. Those videos were more conversational IM's. IM has been around forever and suddenly it is new again because it is in a browser instead of an IM client? The real power Google has is linking services into this like Picasa, YouTube, Blogger, Docs etc. They are really working towards a completely dominant platform. And since their platform isn't tied to an OS, they won't get in trouble for it like MS did, heh. Oops, I guess there is that whole Droid thing.... uh oh. :lol:

I think overall that social networking is moving away from both social and networking into straight up 24/7 communications. Networking involves depth and response and involvement. I didn't see anything like that in those Google videos and you certainly don't get that in Facebook. Facebook is scary how well it can map your past relationships but it fails at creating future one's. I've met tons of people from forums but I have never created a single new acquaintance in Facebook. Facebook is far better at connecting and networking you with businesses than anything else at this point. Opt in marketing and brand allegiance. Maybe it is just all my friends on Facebook are just boring and never post anything interesting? Or perhaps the concept in idealization is always better than in practice, thus most people I know put down FB while still using it heavily. All very wacked out stuff. I just hope it progresses and does something interesting.

I guess I am just pissed off that Facebook stole the life out of LiveJournal where I used to be able to read post and thoughts of interest rather than banter and live updates and mostly crap I could care less about. FB actually works great as a RSS feed aggregator.

I'd love to work for Google, right now they have to be one of the most innovative companies out there.

I just got an invite !

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If anyone wants an invite just launch me a PM with your email address and I'll send one your way.

Nick said:

If anyone wants an invite just launch me a PM with your email address and I'll send one your way.

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Temporarily exceeded their capacity try again soon. :-(

I read that if it says that you can just try in a few hours and it might work. I wonder what the criteria is for that.

I tried to send a few messages out too, and they got the same message. Guess I just barely made it in before they locked it down. I wonder if this is going to turn out like that Google Wave invite I got a while back??? :-?

Yeah, I was on Wave too, which turned out to be a bust. I could have seen it being very sueful for work related communication but alas, it went the way of the Dodo.

It's boring there, someone else join already.

How do I join?

Yeah pretty much me, Brian and wa-loaf on there haha

o3jeff said:

How do I join?

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Apparently you have to get lucky and try to join when they have it open.... :-?

Gotta say, I found the tour interface much more interesting than Google+ itself.

o3jeff said:

How do I join?

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pm, your email to me. I'll see if I can make the invite work.

wa-loaf said:

pm, your email to me. I'll see if I can make the invite work.

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I'm in, Brian sent me an invite. Thanks