Google+ Is Showing Promise Over Twitter & Facebook
Posted by Tony Meister on Mon, Jul 11, 2011
I just have to get out a few quick reasons why I'm liking Google+.
First, I realize that Google Buzz was the buzz over a year ago when Google bragged of "Millions of Buzz Users..." So I won't get to enamered since the platform has a way to go before crossing the tipping point of usage enmass compared to Facebook. I think Social Media (SM) users all over are getting tired of managing multiple platforms and Google+ seems to have a lot in one place. Right now the buzz is whether Google will dominate Facebook as exemplified by Google+ VS. Facebook banter all over the web.
Here is what I like about Google+:
Pictures
Having Google+ grab every photo as an automatic upload is awesome and I appreciate being able to simply snag one of these for any post at whim. I also like the ease of photo tagging which seems a bit less cumbersome than Facebook's.
Realtime Posts
I noticing that Quora style comments appear in real time. Although it is a bit frustrating to have things bump down on you when the stream is updated, I love the responsiveness of G+ compared to rivals.
Positive Feedback
The +1 feature is nice to offer kudos on those above average comments or posts. And although Facebook offers this with Likes, Twitter forces you to provide feedback with a reply, retweet, or mention.
Incoming
This allows anyone to view posts in the stream from those that are following you, without having to follow those you don't know or are uncomfortable associating with for whatever reason. A nice feature for Internet celebrities who want to interact with their fan base. I only have a few of these so far but I can see this apply to the big hitting celebs out there.
Circles
Circles are so easy to manage. You can have people in multiple circles and post based on circles. You can even create virtual computed circles by combing two categories.
By combining these two with "AND" you can intersect two circles and identify those who are both Facebook and Twitter friends for example.
The overall user experience seems to flow and I also like the ability to be able to Hangout which automatically switches the video to the person talking. Although I haven't tried this on my mobile phone yet it seems to be pretty slick.
There is a novelty factor with all new SM tools but I could see Google+ being used as the tool of choice and from what I can see I'm not alone.
What are you liking about Google+ so far?