I’m playing around with google+ this morning. I’m not quite certain why I should need another social networking productivity and time black hole, I guess it’s more curiosity at this point.
They say that google+ is invite-only for now, but getting an invite sent from someone on Facebook took me about 30 seconds this morning, so I think that might be more of a marketing ploy.
The only real difference to FB I can see so far is the “circles” thingie, where you can put the people you know into categories, depending on how much you are willing to share with someone, from friends to acquaintances, family, and people following you.
The privacy settings of google+ seem to be different from those of your google account, so editing who sees what, for example the visibility of your google+ profile in search engines, is not very straightforward. And I haven’t figured out yet how to prevent anyone from adding me to their circles, it looks like anyone can just add everyone they like. Maybe someone in the comments can point me to how this can be restricted.
Then there is the +1 thingie, where you can like websites or posts that come up in search results, pretty much the equivalent to FB’s “Like” button. Of course google wouldn’t be google if it wouldn’t remember the things you “+1″ on the net, and besides logging those clicks, it also customises your ads and search results based on those preferences.
I’ll stay with FB for the mainstem of my social networking for now, but I will keep an eye on google+ to see how it develops from the current test phase.
What do you guys think about google+ so far ?
