Google + The Ins and Outs
Google wants to compete with Facebook and Skype with it’s new service Google Plus. Will it work? Not sure but it looks like the best version of social that they have ever done. They have put together a core group of social products and a new navigation bar that integrates sharing and conversations into every single Google Product.
The design and UI is much better than normal Google products, but it still retains the “normal” Google look with plenty of white space.
The usability of the interface looks easy enough and it seems like they sat down and made it as good as possible. They have also rethought simple things like adding people to your Circle of friends, this makes the whole experience much more streamlined.
They are calling it a Project rather then a Product to allow for movement and changes rather than saying this is the final product. This will allow them to add new features and combine features if needed.
These are a couple of the elements that Google has put forward in this Project.
Google + Stream
This is the main section of Google Plus. It doesn’t bring anything that we haven’t seen to the table, it is rather like the Facebook or Twitter stream, but it is well done and doesn’t feel as crowded as my Facebook stream.
Google + Circles
Circles are cool. Just select the friends or colleagues and drag them to an existing circle or a new circle and you are done. This is much easier than using the lists and groups features on Twitter and Facebook.
Google + Profiles
Google profiles used to be quite boring and I hope that this makes it better. It looks like it will and you can port your existing profile over into the new profile.
Google + Hangouts
This is one of the coolest things. Google plus Hangouts are where you can hangouts when you have 2 minutes free and you want to talk to your friends. Any friends that hangout with you you can see on a group chat. If Google plus gets going this might be the best feature. I am sure that they will have a notification system at some point that will allow you to see on your navigation bar if someone is hanging out. This I would say is a direct shot across the bow of Skype and of course now Microsoft.
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