So, I’ve been playing a bit with Google+ the new social media site from you know who. (Clicking on images will show you the full size, btw…)
Is it a Facebook Killer?
At this point, I’d say no for a variety of reasons:
- There is no page functionality. Alot of us (including me) use pages to network and share without having to have a personal connection (the argument for Google+ would be that you could just create a separate group for those people).
- There is no EASY way to get content out of Facebook into Google+. You can download your information from Facebook (here’s how to do it); for photos, you can then batch upload to Picasa (here’s how to do that) and then you can share with your circles (networks in Google+). Video is going to be a little more manual process (select multiple files to upload) Kind of alot of work, no?
- You can’t tweet from within Google+ Circles. OR at least I couldn’t find a way to do it. I want to be able to share within my circle and with my Twitter network (which is much more robust at this time).
- Games? Seriously. Where’s my scrabble?
- The profile is kind of limited in terms of types of information and organization. If I want to network professionally, I would much rather use LinkedIn.
- Sparks (interest groups?) didn’t work the way I thought. I would like to see recommended circles or be able to start a public open circle, e.g., an art circle.
- Needs more customization overall. In my stream, I couldn’t find a way to customize which circles I see (although I can choose to see any stream). I also would like to know what circles other people put me in (like being able to see a twitter list).
- So, no, not yet.
Here is what google has to say about their new project
I do like the idea of data liberation and the circles are a nifty visual way to see your network (or lists or groups or whatever you want to call them).