Google targets Facebook with new social service

[Jasonkoh82]

Google targets Facebook with new social service


Google Inc is making its boldest move to take on Facebook in the fast-growing social networking market and to maintain its dominance on the Web. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc is making its boldest move to take on Facebook in the fast-growing social networking market and to maintain its dominance on the Web.

Google, which has been frustrated by a string of failed attempts to crack the social networking market, introduced a full-fledged social network on Tuesday dubbed Google+. It is the company's biggest foray into social networking since co-founder Larry Page took over as chief executive in April.

Mr Page has made social networking a top priority at the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, whose position as the main gateway to online information could be at risk as people spend more time on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

'They had the luxury of making mistakes in the past with their social initiatives. They don't really have that luxury now,' said Ray Valdes, an analyst at research firm Gartner, referring to Google.

'Companies that are successful with the social web will get the page views, they'll get the engagement and they'll eventually get the advertising dollars that are so important to Google,' he said.

Google+, now available for testing, is structured in remarkably similar fashion to Facebook, with profile pictures and newsfeeds forming a central core. However, a user's friends or contacts are grouped into very specific circles of their choosing, versus the common pool of friends typical on Facebook. --REUTERS

Source
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_685171.html

[Jasonkoh82]

Google+ is GOOG’s latest foray on social networking, is all about social circles and hanging out
June 29th, 2011 byPeter

Google has had several attempts at cracking social networking and it’s fair to say that they weren’t terribly successful (there were lawsuits involved). The latest project, called Google+, however looks like it could be a winner.


XKCD describes Google+ in a nutshell

After having a quick look at it, it’s a lot like Facebook (as XKCD so eloquently put it) but it also differs from Facebook in some respects.

The Google+ project is actually a collection of several +apps and there are more in the works. Google+ is still undergoing testing so its’ invite-only for now.

There’s a Stream section of Google+ that is equivalent to Facebook’s Wall. You can read updates from your friends, comment no them and even +1 them (*cough*like*cough*). The difference here is +Circles.

Circles lets you organize your contacts into social circles – e.g. family, classmates, book club, colleagues, whatever you like. Sharing is done on a circle level – what you share is with your family is different from what you share with your friends and its different from what you share with your colleagues. This way you’ll avoid awkward situations where Mom reads something she wasn’t meant to see, but also encourages you to share more – something you wouldn’t share with hundreds of “friends” most of whom you’ve added, but barely even know.



Circles also come into play when it comes to hanging out – +Hangouts is a video chat service for multiple people (up to 10). It’s more like a chat room than a call – you join the hangout and talk to your friends who are there. The idea is, if they’re hanging out then they’re free to chat – you’re not bothering them with ringing and calling.



Google’s algorithms don’t have much chance to shine in Circles or Hangouts, but they power +Sparks – you enter your interests and Google will find and show you interesting content on those topics. If something is really good, you can share it with your friends (and they’ll, of course, be sharing with you). This is bound to find you conversations starters and maybe cause a few things to go viral.



Google is not ignoring the mobile world. There are simple things like geo-tagging your posts (only if you want to, Google makes it clear it’s very careful about privacy this time around) and photos you snap with your phone are automatically uploaded to the cloud (again, only if you want to). Later, you can share them from any device.



Then there’s +Huddle. It’s a group chat app that is based around Circles.



For now Google+ is invite only and it’s not clear when it will be ready for primetime. Google+ is available in the browser and as an Android app and it will be entering the App Store for iOS soon.

This time around Google seems to be doing everything right – making privacy and discretion inherent to Google+, they will even let you easily download your data from Google+ if you want to move it.

If you get an invite for Google+, drop us a line in the comments – we’d love to here what you thought of it.

Source
http://blog.gsmarena.com/google-is-g...d-hanging-out/

[Curt]

One important difference, IMHO, is that unlike Facebook, where you share your information, and pass it on, via "Apps", Google mines you info and has their merry way with it.

[paul_au]

My space has almost died out even with the backing of news corp pty who payed US$580 million for the site several years ago, it was recently sold by news corp for US$35 million. I think facebook is like a run away train now, it's not likely google could take over now.

[Jasonkoh82]

Mark W. Smith: Google+ is serious Facebook competitor
1:23 PM, Jul. 1, 2011


Circles are a way to organize your friends, making sure updates are only seen by your trusted friends. / Google+

It's the hottest ticket in town: Google's new invite-only social network.

Google+, a serious Facebook competitor, was launched this week with access given to just a few early adopters and their connections.

I've been using it for a little more than a day, and it's easily the best social offering from Google to date (which is not a high bar to clear).

In recent years, Google -- the undisputed search leader -- has tried in vain to wrest from Facebook some of its dominance as the first stop for online relationship building. Facebook's lead is huge, with more than 750 million users worldwide.

But with Google+, the search giant is making its most aggressive play for a sliver of that online social pie.
Grouping connections

Google+ is built on grouping online connections together in Circles, Google's term for lists of people.

The basic behavior on Google+ is very similar to Facebook. Users can share text, photos, videos, links and check in to physical locations. Each Google+ post can be shared with the entire Web or a specific Circle of people you have defined.

For many, this is a chance to start anew as Facebook friend lists have grown large and unruly.

It's clear in Google+ that Google really wants you to be thoughtful about how friends are characterized. As connections are made in Google+, you're asked to assign each person to a Circle: friends, family, acquaintances or any other customized list.

On the social Web, the word "friend" has disintegrated into something that often doesn't mean much as we connect with people we know little about.

But on Google+, the word friend is much clearer: "Your real friends, the ones you feel comfortable sharing private details with," a note on the Web site reads.

It's an interesting step for Google, not known as a storied protector of privacy. The failure of Buzz, Google's most recent social platform attempt, was marred by the search giant making a user's e-mail contact list public by default.

But the Circles in Google+ do offer a more concrete way of knowing exactly who can see what from the very outset. I found grouping friends to be surprisingly satisfying, confident that my list of "friends" was just that: people I could trust.

I also made a separate list for just my five very best friends that will allow us to send messages to one another and to participate in super-slick group video chats, which Google+ calls Hangouts.

To be sure, there are other services out there that do each piece of this. And Facebook has long had a feature that allows friends to be separated into lists.

But no one has, until now, put it all together in such a convincing and polished way.
A great experience

The obstacles are clear for Google+.

Building a following to rival Facebook's will be nearly impossible. And convincing millions that there is a better social network to use -- especially if all their friends are not there -- will be difficult.

But, in a decided shift for Google, the experience here is great. And it brings with it that intangible attraction -- "sticky," they call it -- that will keep people coming back often to see what their connections are saying and sharing.

It's a powerful enough experience to draw a significant number of users in a climate littered with emerging social networks, each competing for our time.

Google+ is a joy to use and, as more people join, it will become a fully featured social network that will easily be worth stealing time away from the other options on the Web.

And, in perhaps the most concrete sign that Google+ is on to something big here, it instantly became my first stop online upon waking Thursday morning.

Sorry, Facebook.

Source
http://www.freep.com/article/2011070...ook-competitor

[Jasonkoh82]

Google+ Circles: Illusion of privacy
The Brunei Times
Extracted from Asiaone
Tue, Jul 12, 2011

Privacy control is one reason Google+, the new kid in the social media sphere, is getting rave reviews. It's intrigued me enough that I've signed up. But I'm not quite convinced that what appears to be a growing obsession with privacy will power the search engine behemoth's push in an arena dominated by Facebook which in 2010 had users comprising 10 per cent of the Earth's population.

In a Time edition in which Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was named The 2010 Person of the Year, Richard Stengel wrote: "All social media involve a mixture of narcissism and voyeurism. Most of us display a combination of the two, which is why social media are flourishing faster and penetrating deeper than any other social development in memory."

Signs of this abound on Facebook.

Why Facebook is popular?

Alone in your room at night, you open your News Feed, click on a post by a friend you've met through work correspondence, and find out she's enrolled in a pole dancing class. You marvel at the "discovery" for a few seconds or minutes, depending on your level of voyeurism and move on to important tasks.

Some Facebook users want more privacy controls on things they share, while others are glad the Zuckerberg idea of privacy clouds their stream of posts to blow their own trumpets.

Here comes Google+, a social media project that appears to be giving users the dial to regulate the level of their own narcissism and others' voyeurism. It is touted to be the archrival that is taking the cue from Facebook critics.

Introducing Circles. In Google+, you assign people to Circles. When you post, you indicate the people you're giving access to it by specifying a Circle. If you're the type who believes that everything you share is relevant to anyone, you pick "Public" before you click on the share button.

It works in cases when you want a discussion among specific people in your social graph. If you're the type who fusses about unintentionally giving the idea that you are vain, choosing Circles assures you you are not so egotistical to believe that what interests you is worth everyone's time.

It has flaws.

Once you indicate a Circle before posting, yes it may wall off voyeurs. But just because you did not include William and Kate in, say, your Rock Climbing Circle doesn't mean you classify them voyeurs in a discussion on muscle injury. You haven't seen them for two years and you don't know they may have been considering taking up the sport.

If you're not very selective when sharing on Google+, you could be the person who would usher William and Kate into the world of rock climbing. And that chance "encounter" is possible on Facebook where Zuckerberg encourages users to connect and share.

We learn or discover new things on Facebook, sometimes useful tidbits that a friend did not intend to share with us but to her other friends.

Inday Varona and Stella Arnaldo are two Facebook friends of mine. The comments on their Walls have become my yardstick of sorts on what has become a burning topic back home in Manila. Inday, I suspect, does not know who I am. I sent her a friend request.

Her list of Facebook friends is a roster of personalities politics, media, academia, civil society whose opinions can be a gauge of whether a bill is likely to cause a storm. If we all left the Zuckerberg world and moved to Google+, and Inday opted to group friends, I wouldn't make it to any of her privileged Circles.

Granting I were one of Inday's coffeetime friends, she'd drag my name into her Google+ Circles. Does that assure us we can privately mock the odd couple that William and Kate make?

Circles isoverrated.

Circles can give people the illusory impression that they are holding a conversation safe from an unwelcome presence. Your guard down, the person you are denigrating, or his cousin, may be in the same Circle with you.

You can be cautious if you wish. When you read a post meant for specific Circles, you will see a button that says "Limited".

Click on it and a pop-up tells you who can view the comments. If you're happily unemployed, you could do this precautionary step each time you comment. Plus (pun intended), anyone who views the post and its comments thread can share the entire thing to his own Circles or to everyone on Google+. Not unless the person who created the post disabled further sharing.

Don't expect the social media sphere to perfectly replicate the privacy we create when we huddle at the corridor in the workplace.

You can dislike Zuckerberg for despising privacy. But if there's anything that you do not want someone to know, don't do it in the social media space. Like in conversations in a tight group offline, it's not impossible for somebody to turn out to be a rat.

The views are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.The Brunei Times

Source
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2...12-288703.html

[Jasonkoh82]

When I went to google search engine today, I noticed google+ is up and running. But it's still Beta...Does anybody here tried it out?

Oh best of it all is it's integrated with your existing gmail...so there's no need to have multiple emails

[Jeroensky]

Google+ is open for public usage. (nomore beta).
Everybody can use it now.

plus.google.com

[xfiles20001999]

i have the google+ it takes time to get use to, I still like FB better, maybe its just that I am a creature of habit.