Google+..bye bye Facebook!

[Jr Mouse]

From the videos and screen shots I love how clean and well thought out it looks. Facebook has got a bad case of the ugly these days and is a mess in terms of UI design.

 

[grundletaint]

i have a feeling that by the time this gains any momentum, FB will have come up with some sort of counter-solution.

remains to be seen, but i've already tried wave and buzz and didn't even make it longer than 5 minutes on either.

also, facebook has become the word for connecting with people like google became the word for searching things. it's so ingrained in people now it's gonna be hard to switch them. i heard someone say "bing it" the other day and i nearly fell over laughing at how odd it sounded.

google+ me, dude.

 

[Stazy]

Originally Posted by P. Bateman

I've been using it for the last 24 hours, it's awesome! No more invites avail to me at this time unfortunately. This plus the +1 button is powerful. Circles is so intuitive, such a better way to share content.
If you've got an invite you should send it my way

 

[StephenHero]

I'm looking for technology that helps me become more disengaged from society. This doesn't appear to be the answer.

 

[Stazy]

Originally Posted by StephenHero

I'm looking for technology that helps me become more disengaged from society. This doesn't appear to be the answer.
Isn't that what myspace is for?

 

[Jr Mouse]

BTW, look for FB to launch a "circles" type feature match within the next few weeks. They are quick on their feet and won't take this without a fight.

 

[Stazy]

Originally Posted by JMRouse

BTW, look for FB to launch a "circles" type feature match within the next few weeks. They are quick on their feet and won't take this without a fight.
That's a good point. Google's soft launch is a huge benefit to FB.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Originally Posted by Stazy

That's a good point. Google's soft launch is a huge benefit to FB.

It's actually the biggest difference between what was Myspace and what is Facebook. Myspace was slow and didn't innovate, FB on the other hand has shown themselves willing to try new ideas and add features that competitors have.

 

[embowafa]

Originally Posted by JMRouse

BTW, look for FB to launch a "circles" type feature match within the next few weeks. They are quick on their feet and won't take this without a fight.

Apparently, Facebook got wind of Circles as far as a year ago. Their answer to this challenge was, in fact, the current iteration of Facebook Groups...you know, that thing no one uses.

 

[CouttsClient]

Originally Posted by JMRouse

BTW, look for FB to launch a "circles" type feature match within the next few weeks. They are quick on their feet and won't take this without a fight.
They already created groups for this purpose but they suck. It isn't so much having the ability to separate the categories but how the whole thing works together. Facebook doesn't seem adept at building smart applications. Maybe the problem is that Zuckerberg doesn't care how we really socialize/interact, but cares about creating a world where HE feels comfortable. The result is a huge platform that doesn't seem to consider the human element. I feel like I'm fighting with the UI all the time

And then there is the elephant residing only minutes from the Google campus: Facebook. Last year, Smarr went to Facebook to gauge whether it would be open to allowing their users to export their connections if they so wished. “They said in theory they’re open to it, but they’re also scared that we’re trying to kill them,” he told me last fall; Facebook’s CTO Bret Taylor, also a Google veteran, says that in general he does believe that people should have freedom to share their Facebook information elsewhere.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Originally Posted by embowafa

Apparently, Facebook got wind of Circles as far as a year ago. Their answer to this challenge was, in fact, the current iteration of Facebook Groups...you know, that thing no one uses.

Yeah, groups is a pain ********** and doesn't really work. One of the biggest problems with FB is the platform is geared to making it's users over share. It's hard to limit who sees what, and you get the impression they would rather just have everything be public, all the time. If Google + provides easy to use tools to limit sharing to the people you want, while still allowing you to keep a large personal social network, they are on to something big. Frankly, I hate status updates on FB because too many people see them that I would rather not.

 

[CouttsClient]

LinkedIn might also have a problem because Google can tie all this together with Google Apps. Put that together with being able to easily and intuitively control your 'circles', video chat with groups, sharing documents, youtube, etc and you might just be able to get rid of all the different sites.

 

[otc]

Originally Posted by Stazy

That's a good point. Google's soft launch is a huge benefit to FB.

Don't forget though...facebook's success grew out of a slow launch.

They dominated the elite universities first--focused their efforts and were accommodating to the early adopters until everyone at those schools became heavy users. Then when it became the cool thing that kids at elite schools can use and have told all their jealous friends at state schools, they started to roll it out to other schools...drawing enough people in before expanding.

Then they started letting high school kids join if invited by a college student from their high school...then they had people graduating and still using facebook out in the real world so they started adding some "business" networks until they finally made it open to anyone with an email address.

Trying to launch to everybody at once (like buzz) in a market where every potential user is a switcher from a competitor (as opposed to say...twitter's launch where they were something new) has a risk of everyone ignoring it at once...or of any misteps turning off people right away. Buzz had a few big privacy issues and annoyances that turned casual users off to the whol concept. If this new thing has a bunch of people in on the beta who love it and tell their friends (but know what being in a beta means and don't get too hung up on initial weirdness that can be fixed), the hype will let them spread it out slowly. People would rather be invited to "this awesome new platform by their tech savvy friend who totally got the invite hookup" than have something show up in the corner of their gmail window.

 

[otc]

Originally Posted by CouttsClient

LinkedIn might also have a problem because Google can tie all this together with Google Apps. Put that together with being able to easily and intuitively control your 'circles', video chat with groups, sharing documents, youtube, etc and you might just be able to get rid of all the different sites.

I got a hint of this last night...on my home computer, they rolled out a new side bar to the gmail conversations window. In the sample documentation, they definitely showed a participant and I found it odd that it mentioned their job title (more like a linked in banner than an email contact).

Apparently it is a feature in testing and has not been rolled out to my work computer (maybe it is tied to IP ranges rather than accounts...I had the same issue with a really buggy youtube beta that I got at home that made it unusable but I never saw a glimpse of it at work).

 

[Jr Mouse]

Interesting criticism of the strategy Google is using here:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...oogleYawn.html