Apex Internet Blog

Google+ : Google Is Getting Social

Back in March of this year, I wrote about a Social Media platform of sorts that Google were supposedly working on. At that stage there was rumour that this platform was going to be called “Google Circles” – well in the last week, Google have released a Beta platform called ‘Google+’ – this is different to Google +1 as talked about in another blog, but still could be closely related it seems. 

There have been a lot of comparisons made between Facebook and Google+, however it seems that Google are trying to keep ahead, by offering something a little bit different. Google+ currently consists of five different areas:

Circles (there was some truth in the rumours after all!) : This appears to give you a ‘grouping’ ability. For instance put your family in one ‘circle’, friends in another and so on and so forth, so that you can share relevant things with the right ‘circles’ of people.

Hangouts : Here you can let people or entire ‘circles’ know that you are ‘hanging out’, they can then choose to join your “hangout” for a face-to-face chat. More than two people can join this face-to-face chat too. It’s a bit like video conference calling.

Instant Upload : This one is fairly self-explanatory. Basically, you take a photo/video on your phone and they auto upload to a private album on Google+ - you then just have to decide who you are going to share the photos with.

Sparks : Sparks seem to work a little like alerts in a sense, where you tell Google+ what ‘Sparks’ you and it will then send you things that it thinks you’ll like. For instance you might be interested in Search Engine Optimisation, just tell Google+ and it will send you things to read or watch.

Huddle : Huddle seems to be like the modern day chat room for your mobile – where your ‘circle’ of people can all come together in one group chat. 

From what I understand the integration of other Google products e.g. +1, Gmail etc is relatively seamless. It is also said that the privacy settings are easy to locate and tune – something which has irked Facebook users for some time. 

Google+ has some great features but whether or not users of other Social Networks such as Facebook or Twitter want to explore yet another Social Media platform is the question. I don’t see any immediate value in switching from one to the other. 

Last week when the Google+ field testing was released there were a lot of ‘Tweets’ about what seems to be a loophole in the testing field, meaning that once a ‘test user’ had access they could then invite anyone else that they liked to access the platform. Rather than just those who were ‘invited’ by Google. We were able to gain access via this and are currently learning how to navigate around. The initial login area isn’t quite as straight forward as I was thinking it would be. Which makes me wonder how many non-web industry users will find Google+ easy to use.

We will watch this space and see what comes of Google+.

Categories: Social Media Marketing
Posted on: 5th Jul 11 by Lizette Bretherton
Post Comment

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Please Enter This Verification Code: