Google+

Take Facebook, put it in your Blendtec blender with Twitter and then throw in a whole lot of Google services for flavoring.  Will it blend? Push the mashup button and what you get is Google+.

I've been fortunate to have access to the limited beta of Google+ for about a week and I owe a big thanks to a friendly stranger on Twitter that was handing out invites.

Google+ is another social networking platform, but they've made enough changes that it feels really different. Go ahead and finish your moaning and groaning about another social media platform, but I'm telling you this is different.  There is a lot to tell about this brand new service, but for this blog I'm just going to focus on the pieces that I experienced in my first week.

The basis of setting up your contacts is circles.  All of your contacts are not equally your friends.  Everyone doesn't have the same interests.  Some are coworkers, some are friends, some you hardly know.  So you create these circles and title them as you please. Nobody will ever see these titles, so have fun!  Once you have your circles of contacts set up you can manage who will see what you post.  If you want to post about your party from last night but don't want your mom to see it, then don't include your "parents" circle.  Mom won't see that post but your "party" circle will.  If I'm going to make a lot of posts about the Nascar race and don't want to irritate my Yankee friends then I will post it only to the "racing" circle I created.  Only my friends that I think are into racing will see it.  You can also post to "public" which is what it says, anyone that finds you will see those posts, even your mom.

You have total control of who can see the posts you make and you make that decision with every post.  It's very easy.  Don't worry.  Your Nascar buddy that likes to party can be placed in both circles.

One of the things about contacts that reminds me of Twitter is that you can "follow" anyone.  They don't have to approve and they don't have to add you to their circles.  You will see anything "public" that they post.  Find a celebrity or other interesting person, then you can add them to a circle and their "public" posts will show in your timeline.  There is no approving or need for them to add you.  I love it!

One of the other elements about Google+ that I've really had a chance to try this week has been working with photos.  I have it set up to auto upload any picture I take on my Android phone to a private folder in Google+ (Picasa).  That means my photos and videos are instantly available for posting.  For me, this is a lot more convenient and I have been using my photos a lot more in my posts.  When I am at home in the evening, my photos are already there and ready.  I don't have to go back to my phone for them.

Here's the Google overview page that explains all of the features and elements of Google+.  There are some great videos there that explain what's going on.

Here's my profile, and  you can see the public posts that I have made so far there.

I have to say, my first impression of Google+ is that I really like it.  A lot. That mashup button I mentioned at the top sure did a great job.  It obviously will get better when more people I know are using it and Google is already making a few tweaks to improve things.  Will this be the next big thing that takes Facebook down a few notches?  Will this be the new service that slows down the growth of Twitter?  It could happen.  Do you still use MySpace?