As of June 28th Google+ (G+) will be officially a year old. This social hub has come a long way and now has over 170 million users which is not a small fete. Its privacy settings, its intertwined nature with Google services, its layout, and Circles are what attract users to this flourishing social hub.
The app does its parent website proud…The updated app though makes for a lovely viewing experience but one can say it displays too many images, many have suggested there should be a blend of images and more text. This might have impact on data plan but I’m yet to see one. All in all I love the app and the presentation of it.
The major & attractive features about Google+ are:
1. STREAM – occupies the middle of three columns on the page, users see updates from those in their Circles. There is an input box which allows users to enter a post. Along with the text entry field there are icons to upload and share photos and videos. The Stream can be filtered to show only posts from specific Circles.
2. CIRCLES – enable users to organize people into groups for sharing across various Google products and services. Circles is a nifty tool allowing one to filter Streams to the extent of favouring some circles to others. Each Circle has a “slider” configuration item with four positions: nothing, some things, most things, and everything (for filtering into the stream).
3. HANGOUTS – are places used to facilitate group video chat (with a maximum of 10 people participating in a single Hangout at any point in time).
4. MESSENGER – (formerly: Huddle) is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating through instant messaging within Circles. Additionally, users can now share photos in Messenger between their Circles.
5. SPARKS – a front-end to Google Search, enabling users to identify topics they might be interested in sharing with others.
Reasons why I use it:
1. Cause its less congested compared to Facebook…..
2. Gives you the best of both worlds, Facebook (like Stream) & Twitter (#hashtags & Timeline exclusivity)
3. Integration with other Google Apps.
4. Circles… need I say more
5. Instant Upload – specific to mobile devices; it stores photos or videos in a private album for sharing later.
Things I don’t get:
Messenger….don’t we already have Google Talk?? (Wouldn’t it make sense to unify the two experiences so users could just as easily chat with someone in Google Talk and Messenger without having to switch between apps or worry about where they communicated with someone?)
Where are the women & children? (On facebook) According to statistics, early adopters of Google+ have been mostly male (71.24%). The dominant age bracket (35%) is between 25 and 34.
~DGM
254tech 