Okay Geek Farm
A look inside Google+ and everything that we love/hate
Brandon Davenport
It was just a few days ago that Google officially announced it’s leap of faith into the social game, and of course it exploded into a whirlwind of speculation. “How would Google beat Facebook at their own game?”. That was the big question after the announcement, and after a short spurt of observation, I realized that people were already packing their bags, ready to jump the Facebook ship — but haven’t we seen this all before? And didn’t it all fail?
Well, here’s where it starts to make a bit of sense — Google owns a large majority of the major online brands we use every day (Youtube, Google Search, Gmail, Android and Google Music) and until now, they have been separate from each other. Sure, most folks have a “Google Profile”, but it wasn’t a viable, social solution for Google. What Google needed to do was take all of these awesome services, and make them work together, and give people a new place to connect and share things they like… so they gave us Google+ and people seem to like it.
Circles make sense. They actually do!
One thing we hate about Facebook is the way you sort people into groups — it doesn’t feel as if you’re doing something significant, only building lists of people’s names. With Google+ you take people and drag/drop them into “Circles” where they are sorted. The action of dragging and dropping them into the circle is pretty cool, but it also really reinforces the fact that you are sorting your connections (friends, family, co-workers etc.) and makes sure you understand how the system is structured.
I realized this when setting permissions for my personal info. It was really easy to grasp the concept of where my friends were, and who was going to see my stuff, and speaking of privacy, Google+ also allows you to view your profile as the public would see it. On top of that, you can also create “Hangouts” where you and your friends (from circles) can chat on webcams and just have a jolly-good time.
Notifications and Sharing
Sharing on Google+ is almost identical to Facebook aside from a few (very important) things. First off, you can share things from your profile page, or from within any other Google page and it’s pretty simple. You can drag/drop a video or photo from your computer or a URL, right into the share box, and if you’re feeling a bit old fashioned, you can just type away.
Something very different about sharing with Google+ is that you can limit your sharing to certain circles, so feel free to share those crazy college party pics with friends, and that lovely dinner at home with family. You can also add your location which is pretty standard for social networks these days, but it’s a nice touch.
The notofication system on Google+ is particularly satisfying, showing avatars, text and icons (much like Facebook), but somehow it feels cleaner. There is also a page dedicated to notifications and it’s always available in the sidebar. You can also filter notifications.
By default, Google+ is set to spam you with every notification possible, but you can fix that by going to your Google account settings, then go to the Google+ settings and you can turn off Email notifications, or leave a few on if need be.
Something that I like about the settings is that there’s no “Apply” button — it all happens in realtime.
Overall look and feel
Everyone saw the Google homepage redesign that was switched on recently, and the world loved it — the case is identical with Google+ with it’s look and feel. If you were to compare Google+ and Facebook side-by-side, Facebook would begin to look like an old Geocities homepage. Seroiously, Google+ really looks slick, and I am so happy to see they managed to keep that “Googlely charm” — it just feels really familiar. The way it feels is fantastic — with the drag/drop circles and the photo album UI effects, Google really went all out to make this feel like a proper web-app.
The attention to detail is also noticeable, with thin blue bars sliding up and down your news feed as you select different posts, crisp icons and subtle animations. Google+ really feels solid, and the whole experience is lightning fast. We are genuinely impressed.
We love it, but here’s what we hate
I really like the static width of the main page, keeping everything in form and consisitant, but certain instances the widtn of the page stretches to 100%, and it’s very awkward on a large screen, so it would be nice if they kept a consistant width for all pages. Also, it’s nice that Google pulls all of your info from your Youtube, Gmail and Buzz profiles, but it was frusterating to update all of my information on the spur of the moment (really outdated and mixed up) when I could have started fresh, or had chosen to import my info.
In summary
Google+ has surprised me. It feels finished, simple and understandable. It also looks and feels much better than Facebook and houses a lot of cool tricks (cute animations, drag/drop and other small touches), but it still needs to earn it’s title as a social network. It’s fast, the photo viewing is awesome and sharing content is super easy, but Google failed with Wave and Buzz, so will Google+ be their shining moment in the social space, or will it be swallowed into the sea of failed social networks?
