Tag Archives | social networking

My First Thirteen Questions About Google+

I’ve been using Google+ a lot since it was announced last Tuesday, but I haven’t written much about it yet. There are a number of reasons why I’ve been semi-mum. For one thing, I have a lousy track record when it comes to gut reactions about Google social services. I thought Buzz was intriguing, and I didn’t instantly figure out the privacy issues. And I had visions of Google Wave leading to an epic war between Google and Microsoft.

I don’t completely blame myself for failing to instantly figure out that Buzz and Wave would be very nearly DOA. The most important part of social networks is the social aspect, and that’s impossible to judge from a demo or a closed beta test. And since Google+ still isn’t open to the general public, it’s still early to be rendering any sort of long-range verdict on it.

Still, after almost a week, I’m beginning to form impressions of this service–mostly positive ones–and even if I don’t have all the answers, I have lots of questions.

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The Google+/Picasa Connection

One of the big questions about Google+ is “how does all this new stuff relate to all of Google’s old stuff?” In some cases, new features (like Google+ photo sharing) will be connected to existing ones (such as Picasa Web Albums). In others, I’m pretty positive, Google+ will replace weaker Google offerings (you can read Buzz within G+, which just makes it all the more clear that Buzz will be redundant if G+ catches on).

For now, things are a tad confusing. Over at ReadWriteWeb, Sarah Perez explains how Google+ interconnects with Picasa. The good news is that you can now get unlimited photo storage; the bad news is that there are catches and complications.

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Google Plus: The Early Reaction

I’m in at Google+, Google’s new offering that’s less of a monolithic “Facebook killer” and more of a loose network of socially-oriented services. Right now, Google has opened it up to only a small number of folks: it’s an odd world in which nearly everyone is a journalist, a blogger, or a Google employee. But it’s engaging in ways that Buzz and Wave never were–thanks in part to an inventive interface designed by Mac legend Andy Hertzfeld.

(“Often inventive” is probably the better way to put it–there are also parts of + that are borrowed directly from Facebook, like the organization of the home page.)

This post isn’t a Google+ review–I’m cranking away on an unrelated deadline which I’m behind on, in part because I keep taking breaks to check out +. For the moment, here are some other folks’ impressions, most of which are guardedly positive. (The “guardedly” is pretty much a given, considering Google’s patchy reputation when it comes to anything relating to social networking.)

Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan: “…this is a much better and more thoughtfully designed product than Buzz.”

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler: “I’ve spent the last several hours using Google+. That’s a good sign.”

PCWorld’s Megan Geuss and Mark Sullivan: “In general we thought the service borrowed some good ideas from the reigning king of social networks, Facebook, but also offers some cool new approaches to sharing content and managing privacy.”

PCMag’s Mark Hachman: “Put simply, Google+ is a social network for geeks.”

More thoughts to come…

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Google Goes Social (Again) With Google+

Google has announced its most ambitious Facebook killer clone rival alternative to date.  It’s called Google+–which is kind of confusing since it’s not the same thing as Google’s +1–and unlike the unfortunate Google Buzz, it’s not just one thing. It’s a bunch of services–both desktop-based and for phones–and it sounds interesting, at least. I can’t get in yet, so I’m reading up on it via Danny Sullivan’s coverage. If you’re in, let us know what you think.

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Zuck Says Letting Tweens on Facebook Not a Priority

Don’t worry about hidin’ yo kids, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t after them. Several news outlets made a lot of hay out of the Facebook CEO’s comments at an education conference last week, seemingly suggesting that the company was ready to remove its requirement that users be over the age of 13.

Not that it matters: a recent study indicated that a third of those under 18 were below that minimum age, and often using Facebook without any parental supervision. That’s a problem, since estimates say that about a million children were cyberbullied on Facebook in the past year.

Zuckerberg argued that the press had taken his comments out of context, and rather he meant that bringing children online on Facebook was not a priority for the company. The site may consider doing so in the future, but not now. It may not really matter in the end anyway, given parents are already allowing their kids on the site regardless of its rules.

In the end, it’s the parents’ responsibility to know what their kids are doing online. Facebook’s not meant to be a babysitter.

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Maybe Bill Keller is Just Doing Twitter Wrong

So help me, I’m not the kind of person who insists that anyone who doesn’t like the things that I like is a dolt. Reasonable people can come to different conclusions; not everything that’s appealing to me is interesting to everybody. That’s fine. Makes the world a more interesting place, in fact.

But I’m still fascinated by New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller’s latest New York Times Magazine column. Keller isn’t a Twitter fan. Actually, he thinks that it–and Facebook–may be bad for humanity. A few tidbits from his piece:

But my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity.

My mistrust of social media is intensified by the ephemeral nature of these communications. They are the epitome of in-one-ear-and-out-the-other, which was my mother’s trope for a failure to connect.

Following an argument among the Twits is like listening to preschoolers quarreling: You did! Did not! Did too! Did not!

I buy the idea that Keller is describing the Twitter he experiences. One of the defining things about the service is that it’s all kinds of things to all kinds of people. It all depends on who you follow and how you follow them.

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Bing Adds Facebook Social Features

Microsoft’s search site Bing just got a whole lot more social with the addition of a bunch of new Facebooky features so you can “bring the Friend Effect to search” (Bing’s phrase, not mine).

What’s the Friend Effect? According to Bing, it’s the way that “90 per cent of people seek advice from family and friends as part of the decision making process.”

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