I’ve spent a little time with Google+ (Google Plus) in the past few weeks, so I thought it proper to document some initial thoughts on its functionality as well as how it stacks up to Facebook.
The Design & Functionality of Google+
We, collectively, have been with Facebook for about seven years now and, when you look at how it has progressed over the years, the overall core design has changed little. Facebook is great at innovating, but we still have the same color palette, which now appears slightly tired.
So right away it’s refreshing to see Google taking things in a slightly new direction.
Google+ looks a lot like Facebook, and yet its feed feels somewhat Tumblr-like. And rather than “friending” someone, it’s more like “following” them in Twitter. So functionally, it blends elements of several existing social sites.
I do prefer some of Facebook’s infrastructure a bit more than that of Google+, namely how comments are added, “Likes” are added, and management of Pages.
Organizing with Google+
Ever wonder how to effectively navigate your hundreds of Twitter followers easily using Twitter Groups? Or maybe segregate your Facebook friends to inform only those closest to you of personal details? It’s possible on both, but not always intuitive.
With Google+ it’s downright simple.
“Circles” are core to the Google+ design, so organizing those you follow is easy. The same goes for adding friends and sorting them into your newly created Circles.
Google also makes monitoring Circles super simple. Just click on what you want to “Stream” in the upper left corner. Google’s “Stream” is on par with Facebook’s wall.
In the image below, you can see by the orange highlighted Stream that I am viewing everyone I am currently following. Clicking “Friends” will highlight that stream and display only posts by individuals I have sorted into that particular Circle.
Finally, Some Privacy!
So organizing people into groups is easy, but what about posting to your wall (again, what Google+ calls the “Stream”)?
Yes, limiting posts to specific groups, too, is super easy with Google+. You just select which group you wish to post to in advance of hitting the “Share” button. It can be public, or be limited to select Circles, or shared only with one Circle (see image below).
Per the image above, one just needs to click “Add more people” to add Circles. A user can also select “Public” which means anyone browsing your Google+ page can see the post.
Privacy. Here is where Google+ shines. And here is where Facebook has been heavily criticized.
Integration with Other Google Products
Being a regular Gmail user, the advantage is obvious in that I can see all of the people who have messaged me in the past currently using the new social platform.
Like many using the email platform, I am always logged into my account and use Google Docs excessively for personal items. But Facebook has an advantage on the integration side, thanks to the widespread popularity of their “Log in with Facebook” website add-on.
This could change as more people enter Google+. The “+1” feature is popping up everywhere on the web as early adopters swarm to Google+ (currently numbering well over 20 million), so we should be there soon.
Google+ For Business
One key issue with Google, in the past, has been the individuality of email addresses. Previously, users could only be logged into one account at a time, making it cumbersome for those with a personal account and a business account.
I experienced this first hand with my personal account and the one for my blog; so much so that my personal account is ignored most of the time. Thus my personal Google+ account was created with my blog’s email address.
Google has finally made a multiple account log-in easy to manage. By setting your Google+ account to multiple log-in, users can easily toggle between two or more Gmail accounts.
As Google+ is currently closely tied to Gmail, this is a very good thing.
However, there is the issue of hitting the +1 for items around the web while logged into one account. Hitting +1 will post it to your Google+ section for +1s for whatever account you are logged on in, personal or business. Allowing those with multiple check-in the ability to select which of their Google+ accounts to attribute the +1 would be nice.
At this early stage, I still favor Facebook as there’s a clear distinction between types (i.e. Profiles, Pages and Groups), but only slightly. With Facebook Pages, we can easily see all the business and organization Pages we administer. And they show statistics, which are beautiful.
With Google+, they’re all the same. I have yet to see a way to associate several Plus streams with a single email address, or vice versa — attribute several email addresses to administer a single Plus stream. This makes things a bit convoluted and complicated for those who enjoy the Facebook Page functionality.
The Business Advantage
Don’t count Google out in this area yet. Google has a huge advantage in tools like Google Places and Google Analytics. Integrating these into Google+ is a no-brainer.
The big question is how (or even if) they will differentiate a business stream from a personal one. Given the various business tools available, it would make sense to segregate the two in some manner.
If they do create a Google+ stream specifically for businesses and integrate Analytics and Places, this is where Google+ becomes very exciting.
Conclusion
Facebook is great. Pretty much all my friends are there. I can check out great music and become a fan of local businesses. It is, for the most part, pretty easy to use.
But being an early adopter, I’m ready for something fresh and new. And that’s Google+.
It’s not so bad; already, I have over 40 people in my various Circles — and I’m being selective.
Google+ wins over Facebook on privacy, organization, and overall newness (a big +1 for early adopters). This early in the game, it’s hard to tell if they will win on innovation and integration, but don’t be surprised if they meet Facebook head-to-head in this area.
Google+ has a few bugs to work out, and they know it, but the social platform shows immense promise. They’ve broken social media records for growth. They take the good elements of competing social sites and mash them into their own unique offering.
Personally and professionally, I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next…