Google+ (Plus) Discussion Thread

sarahisainmdom

If anyone has already gotten a Google+ account, what are your thoughts on it?

Will it be the death of Facebook/Twitter?

Please don't ask for invites here, go to the invites thread for that craic.

(Sorry if there's already a thread for this, I couldn't find one.)

ShaneU

Biggest advantage it has over facebook is segregating who your updates go to. I'd expect facebook to implement something similar soon because it's very useful.

And the lack of horoscope and farmville spam is another plus (pun intended)

Big Lar

Agreed, if face book brings in the circles thing like Google+ then I cant see any reason to move.

iMax

Tried it, don't like it. FB will incorporate the same things soon enough & this will wither & die apart from a small amount on nerdy elitist chaps using it.

PogMoThoin

The people who spammed everyone with stupid text messages 5 years ago, (you know the type, the ones who if you met them on the street they wouldn't talk) now spam everyone for free on FB. People are tiring of FB, its stupid farmville games and apps etc make it very very annoying. Hopefully Google will keep this free of all that crap and hopefully all the a$$holes that make FB terrible with those apps and games will stay on FB.

hobochris

my only gripe is the lack of android app in the marketplace for Ireland.

iMax

PogMoThoin wrote: »

People are tiring of FB, its stupid farmville games and apps etc make it very very annoying.

You know you can block these, right ?

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Hopefully Google will keep this free of all that crap and hopefully all the a$$holes that make FB terrible with those apps and games will stay on FB.

Highly unlikely. Farmville made $456 million last year up from $240 million the year before for it's creators Zynga Entertainment. That's just one of several games they control. You think they're going to ignore a different platform ?

ShaneU

hobochris wrote: »

my only gripe is the lack of android app in the marketplace for Ireland.

the android app only came out a few days ago in the U.S.

JohnK

hobochris wrote: »

my only gripe is the lack of android app in the marketplace for Ireland.

ShaneU wrote: »

the android app only came out a few days ago in the U.S.

Yeah its a bit of a stupid move on Googles part but you can just download the apk from the web to your phone and install it that way. Granted its not ideal but it works.

PogMoThoin

hobochris wrote: »

my only gripe is the lack of android app in the marketplace for Ireland.

App is here
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/56355/Google%2B%20com.google.android.apps.plus-1%20%28Google%20Plus%29.apk

iMax wrote: »

You know you can block these, right ?

Course, but there's new stupid apps weekly, and then those fake video links.

iMax wrote: »

Highly unlikely. Farmville made $456 million last year up from $240 million the year before for it's creators Zynga Entertainment. That's just one of several games they control. You think they're going to ignore a different platform ?

I would hope Google wouldn't allow these apps, its lovely and clean as it is, a fresh break from FB.

kippy

Aren't there a few threads on this already?

I'll say what I said on the other thread.
They will do well to dislodge Facebook/Twitter.
I know I wont be transferring friends/photos etc over.

gouche

PogMoThoin wrote: »

hobochris wrote: »

my only gripe is the lack of android app in the marketplace for Ireland.

App is here
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/56355/Google%2B%20com.google.android.apps.plus-1%20%28Google%20Plus%29.apk

iMax wrote: »

You know you can block these, right ?

Course, but there's new stupid apps weekly, and then those fake video links.

iMax wrote: »

Highly unlikely. Farmville made $456 million last year up from $240 million the year before for it's creators Zynga Entertainment. That's just one of several games they control. You think they're going to ignore a different platform ?

I would hope Google wouldn't allow these apps, its lovely and clean as it is, a fresh break from FB.

I think Google invested about $100m in zynga not so long ago...

kippy

gouche wrote: »

I think Google invested about $100m in zynga not so long ago...

Yep, they have a stake in Zynga alright and possibly a few other companies that build apps for social networking sites.

PogMoThoin

It could be more of a Twitter killer than Facebook killer, Twitter is a waste of time, 45% are “nonsense”, 40% of tweets are fragments of conversations, 25% of users have no followers and more than 40% of users don’t publish anything. http://blogs.forbes.com/traceyjohn/2011/07/08/is-twitter-turning-us-into-twits/

BlastedGlute

I think the advantages and disadvantages of G+ over FB/MS/Bebo etc, is does to the end user. Everyone uses these platforms in a different way to eachother.

Some are there for the base level social networking, liking posts, describing hangovers etc. Others are there for groups, events, forums and using it as an organizational outlet to get the most control over flash mobs,gigs,charity events etc. Some people use it for business to promote themselves and their skills/products etc.

A lot of websites I visit daily are directed to me through my feed, linking articles and such. It acts like an open "reader" in some ways. But again, it depends on the user.

Personally, I'm a bit of a casual artist and weekend photographer, and I want my digital output to be presented in the best possible way. The current photoalbum setup on facebook is beyond brutal. Not only is it an uninspired layout and presentation, often making it difficult to peruse albums without getting lost in a profile pictures/tagged in/actual album flurry(where am I??Ah ill just click the FB and go back to my stream)

Also, and my main point, the quality reduction and resizing if images is painful. It's truly shocking to allow people unlimited uploads of their feet if they want. But I can't even have 10 high quality, untouched uploads a week as lets say a "photographers" business "page". It's a major oversight, and one that has me at my wits end.

G+ on the other hand has fixed these issues right now in beta. Im allowed 2042x2042 images with no quality loss in a seamless and enjoyable picture viewer, with easy comment access, editing of pictures including rotation and creative filters. All right there in the browser.

I'm not arsed typing anymore. G+ is kick ass right now and ties together all of Googles current apps and presents them in a different way than ever before

vonbarracuda

hobochris wrote: »

my only gripe is the lack of android app in the marketplace for Ireland.

I downloaded it there no problem:D

sarahisainmdom

I s'pose I should give my opinion on the whole thing while I'm at it!

I prefer Google Plus to the other 'social' networks right now. It's like Skype, Facebook and Twitter all in one.

The circles are a lovely idea I think, I far prefer them to the groups on Facebook as they're far easier to manage. And they help you to make things more private.

The hangouts feature looks amazing. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet but can't wait to. Facebook only has one-to-one video calls now, but with Plus you can have up to ten and it seems to work very well from what I hear. This is my favourite thing about Google+ (aside perhaps from the circles), however, large group video calls are not something I'll be using all of the time. At most I'll get to use this every month or two, and I'll probably only want to call two or three other people at most. The fact that I've finally got the option of making free group video calls is brilliant though, and really makes me favour Plus over any other site.

The photos do seem better on Plus, and the editing option is quite cool. I'd just hate it if it was used by people just to airbrush photos of themselves because that'd be an awful waste.

My only problem with it is that there is no way of knowing if a user is actually a real person or not (as of yet). Google+ haven't introduced any kind of verification like that of Facebook and Twitter.

That and the fact that it's slightly harder than it should be to disable sharing on a post. (If you share a post with two friends and leave sharing on, one of them could easily share your post with the world if they wanted to.)

Overall, Google+ is by far my favourite social network. It's a lot better than Facebook and Twitter from what I've seen, and it's only problem is that there aren't enough people on it yet! The design is a lot more appealing than that of Facebook too, but at the same time it's very simple.

Love it.

kippy

BlastedGlute wrote: »

I think the advantages and disadvantages of G+ over FB/MS/Bebo etc, is does to the end user. Everyone uses these platforms in a different way to eachother.

Some are there for the base level social networking, liking posts, describing hangovers etc. Others are there for groups, events, forums and using it as an organizational outlet to get the most control over flash mobs,gigs,charity events etc. Some people use it for business to promote themselves and their skills/products etc.

A lot of websites I visit daily are directed to me through my feed, linking articles and such. It acts like an open "reader" in some ways. But again, it depends on the user.

Personally, I'm a bit of a casual artist and weekend photographer, and I want my digital output to be presented in the best possible way. The current photoalbum setup on facebook is beyond brutal. Not only is it an uninspired layout and presentation, often making it difficult to peruse albums without getting lost in a profile pictures/tagged in/actual album flurry(where am I??Ah ill just click the FB and go back to my stream)

Also, and my main point, the quality reduction and resizing if images is painful. It's truly shocking to allow people unlimited uploads of their feet if they want. But I can't even have 10 high quality, untouched uploads a week as lets say a "photographers" business "page". It's a major oversight, and one that has me at my wits end.

G+ on the other hand has fixed these issues right now in beta. Im allowed 2042x2042 images with no quality loss in a seamless and enjoyable picture viewer, with easy comment access, editing of pictures including rotation and creative filters. All right there in the browser.

I'm not arsed typing anymore. G+ is kick ass right now and ties together all of Googles current apps and presents them in a different way than ever before

To be honest - it's getting all too much for me - too many social sites, too many apps, too much time online and tied into the internet.
There are gonna be some major social/health side effects "in the real world" down the line because of what is currently happening.
And this is coming for a guy in the IT business.

hobochris

vonbarracuda wrote: »

I downloaded it there no problem:D

good for you..

You more then likely have a rooted device, I went back to to stock firmware/Rom for stability.

@PogMoThoin: thanks for the link.

einshteen

BlastedGlute wrote: »

G+ on the other hand has fixed these issues right now in beta. Im allowed 2042x2042 images with no quality loss in a seamless and enjoyable picture viewer, with easy comment access, editing of pictures including rotation and creative filters. All right there in the browser.

As a photographer, you should be aware of some clauses in Google's TOS:

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS

maggy_thatcher

vonbarracuda wrote: »

I downloaded it there no problem:D

They added it to the Irish Android Market on Friday - at least that's when it appeared for me.

cosanostra

Theres an awful lot more stuff to be added to google plus yet eg music, shopping,business pages ,games etc I think google have the ability to get the greatest potential from social networking and in the long run facebook wont be able to compete with googles monstrous hold on the web!

Nichololas

cosanostra wrote: »

Theres an awful lot more stuff to be added to google plus yet eg music, shopping,business pages ,games etc I think google have the ability to get the greatest potential from social networking and in the long run facebook wont be able to compete with googles monstrous hold on the web!

I really, really, really hope they don't add games etc.

There are plenty of platforms to actually play (actual) games with people, it doesn't need bastardized non-social pokemon-without-the-charm 'games' cluttering everything up.

cosanostra

Nichololas wrote: »

I really, really, really hope they don't add games etc.

There are plenty of platforms to actually play (actual) games with people, it doesn't need bastardized non-social pokemon-without-the-charm 'games' cluttering everything up.

But is that not the beauty of the circles concept you only need to view what you want on your stream? Its inevitable that there will be "games" considering google own a chunk of zynga

grumpytrousers

anybody having problems signing in on different computers. I got an invite on Friday and signed up, created circles, added friends, posted content, commented on others and downloaded the app for the Phone, which I also used to add content.

Now, at the work pc, I can't sign in. I can access mail, but Plus is off limits. Any thoughts?

BlastedGlute

kippy wrote: »

There are gonna be some major social/health side effects "in the real world" down the line because of what is currently happening.
And this is coming for a guy in the IT business.

I worked for Blizzard on World of Warcraft. If you want to talk about social side effects then I can say that the clinical trials are well underway hahahaha.

It all depends on the person.

Big Lar

PogMoThoin wrote: »

25% of users have no followers

That's me

PogMoThoin wrote: »

more than 40% of users don’t publish anything.

Me again

Cathaoirleach

Check out the state of this guy - he's on boards!

https://plus.google.com/104982850887434

lord lucan

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Check out the state of this guy - he's on boards!

https://plus.google.com/104982850887434

Didn't click on it but i'll hazard a guess it's a redirect to your G+ profile.:pac:

roast

PogMoThoin wrote: »

The people who spammed everyone with stupid text messages 5 years ago, (you know the type, the ones who if you met them on the street they wouldn't talk) now spam everyone for free on FB. People are tiring of FB, its stupid farmville games and apps etc make it very very annoying. Hopefully Google will keep this free of all that crap and hopefully all the a$$holes that make FB terrible with those apps and games will stay on FB.

Are these people your friends? :pac:

PogMoThoin

roast wrote: »

Are these people your friends? :pac:

Not really, but thats the point, social networking needs to allow you to accept those you don't really want to, but without their knowing keep them at a distance, like circles. We all have friends, work acquaintances etc. that we have to accept, to keep the peace if you like, its easier to accept and ignore.