G+ is a good grade to
social media
What can I say; I am a Googler. Gmail,
Google docs, Google calendar, Google reader, android, you get the picture.
I was quite excited and apprehensive when last year an early invite
landed in my mailbox from a friend to try the newly hyped service of Google+.
My apprehension came from Google previous attempt at social networking; Buzz.
This was Google’s bland attempt to get in on twitter styled status update
service, which was dull, lifeless and has since crashed and burned.
With my G+ invite a click away I moved my trackball and began. I was instantly faced with a stream of media trickling down the middle of my screen from random strangers as well as my one and only friend (on G+. I do have more than one in real life).. “Oh” I thought “This is not much of a threat to Facebook” I played with a few of its early basic features, read some posts, watched some animated gifts of people getting hurt,then got bored and went back to Facebook to see what my friends were doing.
Over the next few months I would remember on occasions that I has this new social network at my disposal and would occasionally dip my toes back in through technical curiosity. I’d see a few new people I knew (see! more than one friend), checked some posts in the endless thread and then went back to Facebook. The need for this site was growing less and less as I could not see any use for what the media dubbed a a Facebook alternative. I then came across a blog talking about Google+ Features and how powerful it’s search function is. “Search... hmmmm, this is something Google knows about” I pondered. With the motivation of nothing better to do and slight intrigue I therefore logged in. and searched on a single word that interested me; Photography. Bam! Reams and reams of wonderful photos from professional and amateur photographers alike. The more I read the more I was adding people to my newly created circle of acquaintances, (to class them as friends at this point seems to be a bit desperate). Without any additional motivation I became an active member to the G+ community. I found a subject I loved and a stream of people who also shared in my passion. As I floated down the stream I would come across amazing photographers combined with vibrant discussions and insightful articles that kept me wanting more. No offence to anyone but this was a far cry from my Facebook friend posting a picture of his full English breakfast. As you have probably gathered by now I am a photography nut. I love learning new styles, technology, what people are doing, how they do it, the whole kit and caboodle. I was officially hooked in to what G+ people had to say and was even inspired to participate more myself.
One day I remembered how I use to search the Internet jumping between different photography forums and blogs to learn what’s new or on how-to’s. On these sites I would sometime register (if I could be arsed) and leave comments. These would either go unanswered or sometimes get lost in a stream of chit chat from a close knit community. It suddenly dawned on me that Google+ was not trying to be the New Facebook as the media described it and was in fact being a dynamic cross of search, blog and forum. The combination of searching on subject matter and picking and circling the interesting people from that search allows you to customise your view down to a very specific set of people. It also enables you to fire off any questions you have to a selective set of people too. I currently have have over one thousand people and around 20 circles. The beauty of grouping people in circles is that it allows you to filter and group people through shared interests. For example for photography I have one general circle containing everyone (over 1000 people), This same group of photographs is then grouped into smaller circles for landscape, portrait, wildlife photographers, and others. For those photographers that I have found are geeks like me, I also add them into my geek circle so I can share with them when some new gadget is released. A new feature since writing this blog as been a slide bar you can set to say how much priority each circles has in your general news feed. With all this awe and praise to Google they do still need to look at better ways of streaming feeds. As you can tell with over a thousand people posting sometimes if you see and message and then lose it after scrolling it could be lost forever.
Wherever you go on this Internet there are nice people and there are douches, that is just the way it is. I have found that in the world of Google+ I have managed to meet, or should I say select some very nice people. Most of my activities on Google+ include checking out the latest eye candy (photo’s not women... OK sometimes the photo’s are of women) and +1 the ones I like (it is the equivalent to the Facebook Like button), leaving comments and questions to the photographer to get further insight in to how the shot was achieved. I am also co-curating a weekly themed photo thread that works in the same way as twitter hash tagging. This is another amazing addition to G+ that was ripped from the beating heart of Twitter. So if you do decide to venture in then you can search on #StreeetArtSunday and say Hi. I’m also throwing my own images on to Google Picasa so they can be shared and critiqued. As someone who uploads photos’ a lot I have to mention how was amazed I was at the improvements Google introduced around Halloween to their photo service. They call it the creative kit and it allowed a vast amount of adjustments and effects that has basic layering capabilities. That’s right layers!!. It is seriously a powerful free photo kit that should be checked out.
Some of these functions are nothing new in themselves and I have been a member of sites like Yahoo’s Flickr for a while. While Flickr offers a rich bed of content and functions I have often found it like a gallery; Lots of things to see, but very few people want to talk. This is my opinion and I can admit that my own lack of inspiration to interact may have been to blame, but that is partly my point. Google+ and its community have inspired me. While the social side to Flickr, was one of nice and friendly yet sporadic comments and sometimes an elitist atmosphere. Since Google+ replenished my thirst for discussion I feel I owe it to Flickr to revisit its community and give it one more chance before any final judgement.
So; there you have it. As I said at the begin this maybe a one sided argument for me, but if you take anything out of this is to realise that Facebook and Google+ have suprisingly different agendas and can be both used for your needs. Facebook’s for who you like, Google+’s for what you like.
With my G+ invite a click away I moved my trackball and began. I was instantly faced with a stream of media trickling down the middle of my screen from random strangers as well as my one and only friend (on G+. I do have more than one in real life).. “Oh” I thought “This is not much of a threat to Facebook” I played with a few of its early basic features, read some posts, watched some animated gifts of people getting hurt,then got bored and went back to Facebook to see what my friends were doing.
Over the next few months I would remember on occasions that I has this new social network at my disposal and would occasionally dip my toes back in through technical curiosity. I’d see a few new people I knew (see! more than one friend), checked some posts in the endless thread and then went back to Facebook. The need for this site was growing less and less as I could not see any use for what the media dubbed a a Facebook alternative. I then came across a blog talking about Google+ Features and how powerful it’s search function is. “Search... hmmmm, this is something Google knows about” I pondered. With the motivation of nothing better to do and slight intrigue I therefore logged in. and searched on a single word that interested me; Photography. Bam! Reams and reams of wonderful photos from professional and amateur photographers alike. The more I read the more I was adding people to my newly created circle of acquaintances, (to class them as friends at this point seems to be a bit desperate). Without any additional motivation I became an active member to the G+ community. I found a subject I loved and a stream of people who also shared in my passion. As I floated down the stream I would come across amazing photographers combined with vibrant discussions and insightful articles that kept me wanting more. No offence to anyone but this was a far cry from my Facebook friend posting a picture of his full English breakfast. As you have probably gathered by now I am a photography nut. I love learning new styles, technology, what people are doing, how they do it, the whole kit and caboodle. I was officially hooked in to what G+ people had to say and was even inspired to participate more myself.
One day I remembered how I use to search the Internet jumping between different photography forums and blogs to learn what’s new or on how-to’s. On these sites I would sometime register (if I could be arsed) and leave comments. These would either go unanswered or sometimes get lost in a stream of chit chat from a close knit community. It suddenly dawned on me that Google+ was not trying to be the New Facebook as the media described it and was in fact being a dynamic cross of search, blog and forum. The combination of searching on subject matter and picking and circling the interesting people from that search allows you to customise your view down to a very specific set of people. It also enables you to fire off any questions you have to a selective set of people too. I currently have have over one thousand people and around 20 circles. The beauty of grouping people in circles is that it allows you to filter and group people through shared interests. For example for photography I have one general circle containing everyone (over 1000 people), This same group of photographs is then grouped into smaller circles for landscape, portrait, wildlife photographers, and others. For those photographers that I have found are geeks like me, I also add them into my geek circle so I can share with them when some new gadget is released. A new feature since writing this blog as been a slide bar you can set to say how much priority each circles has in your general news feed. With all this awe and praise to Google they do still need to look at better ways of streaming feeds. As you can tell with over a thousand people posting sometimes if you see and message and then lose it after scrolling it could be lost forever.
Wherever you go on this Internet there are nice people and there are douches, that is just the way it is. I have found that in the world of Google+ I have managed to meet, or should I say select some very nice people. Most of my activities on Google+ include checking out the latest eye candy (photo’s not women... OK sometimes the photo’s are of women) and +1 the ones I like (it is the equivalent to the Facebook Like button), leaving comments and questions to the photographer to get further insight in to how the shot was achieved. I am also co-curating a weekly themed photo thread that works in the same way as twitter hash tagging. This is another amazing addition to G+ that was ripped from the beating heart of Twitter. So if you do decide to venture in then you can search on #StreeetArtSunday and say Hi. I’m also throwing my own images on to Google Picasa so they can be shared and critiqued. As someone who uploads photos’ a lot I have to mention how was amazed I was at the improvements Google introduced around Halloween to their photo service. They call it the creative kit and it allowed a vast amount of adjustments and effects that has basic layering capabilities. That’s right layers!!. It is seriously a powerful free photo kit that should be checked out.
Some of these functions are nothing new in themselves and I have been a member of sites like Yahoo’s Flickr for a while. While Flickr offers a rich bed of content and functions I have often found it like a gallery; Lots of things to see, but very few people want to talk. This is my opinion and I can admit that my own lack of inspiration to interact may have been to blame, but that is partly my point. Google+ and its community have inspired me. While the social side to Flickr, was one of nice and friendly yet sporadic comments and sometimes an elitist atmosphere. Since Google+ replenished my thirst for discussion I feel I owe it to Flickr to revisit its community and give it one more chance before any final judgement.
So; there you have it. As I said at the begin this maybe a one sided argument for me, but if you take anything out of this is to realise that Facebook and Google+ have suprisingly different agendas and can be both used for your needs. Facebook’s for who you like, Google+’s for what you like.
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