Google+ or Minus: A Comparison to Facebook
As an employee of an Arizona real estate agency, it's often I talk to real estate agents about how/why facebook can be beneficial for their businesses. In anticipation of their questions about google's new social network, I've begun my exploration.
Full-disclosure: I've played with Google+ for a total of 3 hours. It wasn't until I left the iPad mobile version for the desktop version that I was able to get a good handle on it. That's also when I really started to +1 it.
Is Google+ a facebook killer?
Holy users do they have a long road to travel before that happens. What I actually think will happen is it will be a facebook improver. Healthy competition makes everyone better. I will say google+'s focus seems to pick on facebook's weaknesses. A brilliant strategy.
Lists vs Circles
Are you using facebook lists? I'm pretty sure they are one of the most underutilized features in the social network. Lists allow you to separate friends into categories so that you can share pictures/updates with specific groups/people. They also allow you to have more granular privacy controls. I think they are a little too hidden to make a huge impact on number of users.
Google+ introduces circles, basically the same as lists. Only Google+ makes them a main focus. You are constantly prompted to add people to circles, create new circles, drag and drop people into your circles, etc. I like that they are leading with contact segmentation. Let's be real, we all talk differently to grandma than we do to college friends.
Skype meets Facebook
Creating "hangouts" aka "group web chats" is far too simple. I don't think facebook even has this feature... yet. In google+ you click a button on your home page, select the circle you'd like to hangout with, check your hair in the web cam, and you're off! Up to 20 people can video/audio hangout together from their offices/rooms around the world. Slick.
Continued on the next page
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