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Google Launches Google+ Social Network
Randyll writes "Today, Google announced its decisive entry into the world of social networks by introducing Google+, a social network tied around Google services. Its aim is to be different from other networks with emphasis on privacy and a different kind of social networking. Instead of connecting with your friends, Google+ aims to center connections around specific groups—colleagues, projects, or groups of friends—with the ability to use high-quality video chats and a unique and rich web-based user experience. It is currently in beta with opt-in invites."
Several other readers submitted speculation about another mysterious new Google service as well.
It is currently in beta
Am I to understand that this is notable information?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It couldn't possibly be worse than Facebook. With Google's transparency with privacy, and already working business model (has facebook ever posted a profit?), I'd trust them over Facebook in a heartbeat.
Facebook screws me over daily. No, I don't want any facebook credits. No, I don't want to play farmville. Disgusting...
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
because I had to wipe the milk (sue me, I'm a wimp) of my screen first when I read "emphasis on privacy" about a google product.
This is going to be just like Google Wave. Only Bigger!
Google is taking over the world. Though I admit this is probably better than Facebook.
BS on the "mysterious new service". A basic check on the whois data says that somebody is faking the Google association.
how did this name ever make it through marketing? are they that dense?
being nerds, maybe call it ++ or plus plus at least? i get that they're trying to knock off the "like" feature, but really....
moox. for a new generation.
Presumably the +1 button rolled out a few months ago will become the "Like" of this new network.
I have to wonder...is this an attempt to salvage or replace Buzz?
...when I'd jump on any new service, especially if it was from Google. Perhaps I'm jaded, but I have 0 desire for this.
Why don't they just BUY Facebook, maybe fix it to be less loathsome, and work from there. I see nothing new or innovative, which suggests that this too will crash and burn.
Aside from which, Facebook seems to have peaked, MySpace is in decline, and I'm betting that Twitter is about to begin its own downward slide.
IMHO the problem is that the things that make social media really attractive are not the things that make them really profitable.
Well, except Farmville.
Three Squirrels
Google seems to fail at social networking. Didn't they learn from the flop that was Google Wave? Granted, Wave was a collaboration-based network, but it was still focused around a small group of friends or colleagues. The fact that it's based around real-time communication is interesting (and really cool for businesses not using MeetingPlace), but it would seem like this approach will fail just like Wave did.
This is probably a scenario far better faring for us than Facebook's global domination.
Why don't they just BUY Facebook
For one thing, what's the asking price? And for another, would government agencies that regulate competition in each of Facebook's markets approve?
So far, photo sharing doesn't work right for me (I think it's an issue with window sizing interactions with the HTML5/CSS), but otherwise the interface is pretty slick. The GUI for adding contacts to "Circles" is very slick and intuitive. If this makes it as easy to do on-the-fly easy content sharing permission groups as it seems, I think this could really take off...but I'll reserve judgement until there are more people using it.
The Humblest Mollusk on the Net
Except for the part where Google hosts all the data, a lot of the features sound a lot like Diaspora. That project sounded quite interesting. Too bad it seems to have not moved anywhere in a very long time.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
about another mysterious new Google service as well.
Google's new "What do you love" service was particularly useless when I entered pussy. Most of the results were "no results were found", and the geographic suggestions were out by more than 1000km!
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
It's the polar opposite of Buzz. You have to add friends manually, and manually assign them to one of four "circles" (Family, Friends, Acquaintances, Following.)
Then with EVERY damn thing you post, you have to assign to one or more groups.
So you get very fine-grained control, but at the cost of usability. It really is the opposite of Buzz in that way.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Circles sound like a really great way to accidentally (by Google's fault or my own) to share info with the wrong people. No thanks.
Just keep swimming.
Im interested in testing google+, if someone here has an invite for it please PM me.
def greetings(x): return {'friend': 'Howdy', 'enemy': 'Dye [sic]'}.get(x, 'g0 4w4y, l4m0r')
welcome our new social networking overlords!
Honestly though, if this thing succeeds, which is no guarantee, it'll take a while. I imagine that they'll integrate it heavily into Gmail, which will certainly help.
Personally I have absolutely no problem closing out my Facebook account in favor of Google+. I hate Facebook as much as the next guy (privacy concerns being the major sticking point). My Facebook profile has nothing really about me, aside from my name and a picture of my hat (my hat is custom made and very distinguishable).
Now if only I can get friends to use this service instead of Facebook, I'll be able to actually use social networking without cringing every time I log in.
I should have been a girl, with the way I can dance... my moves are amazing!
They are not your fucking friend.
Looks like you could use a fucking friend.
Don't over look the Instant Upload feature, it allows you to store photos and video directly to your Google account from your phone.
Handy in situations when the cops see you recording them and try and destroy your phone
as well?
And yet you still use Facebook, daily?
Do I have a choice? Co-workers/Friends (use the term "friend" losely) get insulted if I don't "like" or comment on their inane ramblings at least 3-4 times a week.
Yes, you have a choice. And your "friends" sound more like bullies than friends. Tell them to sod off and communicate via email like most of the world. Big hint: email users vastly outnumber facefuck victims like yourself.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Is there a Not Like button?
I regularly defend* Google, but I'd agree. TBH there's nothing noteworthy coming out of these corporations (Google, Microsoft, Apple) to justify a story except maybe twice every three months. At 1-3 per day it's become ridiculous.
* on average. I've flamed them occasionally and I think most of their online services suck.
If you have the ability to take something back it might not be so bad. Also, it seems like it would be pretty easy to tell who you are sharing with and avoid sending the wrong people (like your gay black boss) your inflammatory homophobic racist rants.
Facebook has been making too many mistakes. This is the perfect opportunity to bring back wave in a context that fits. Like Facebook though, I don't think I'll participate. I've never understood the desire to make personal information about yourself public. I had a near miss with an employer that wanted everyone constantly available through skype, twitter, and facebook. If I wanted to share my personal life, phone conversations, and listen to someone's pointless babble I'd get back together with an old girlfriend.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
http://www.wdyl.com/#boobies
Interesting.. Could be handy once they get everything working...
Best thing ever: go to the WDYL thing and put in "sex" for double-entendre fun.
"Have a debate about sex!" "Find sex nearby!" "Watch videos of sex!"
Bonus points for doing it with "goatse".
I write bullshit
not me
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
.. but I guess Marketing people didn't like it. A change for the worse, methinks
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
Facebook specifically benefits from the lack of privacy of its users to generate attention grabbing content to as many users as possible. The endless time people spend on Facebook is not spent creating content or communicating - it's spent stalking other people. Facebook is like a super-tabloid or like gossip on crack.
Businesses everywhere promote Facebook by requesting users to Like them. Most users are blissfully unaware that by Liking they aren't just anonymously adding 1 to the Like count, but they are also endorsing the business and giving permission to the business to spam them. The friend counter is like an addictive game with the aim to accumulate as many points as possible with shame built-in if you don't have as many points as others have.
Facebook is a useful communication tool, but it's also evil. It takes advantage of its users in order to promote itself and its interests. If Google isn't ready to go full evil, they have no chance to compete in that arena. Sure, people will use the new awesome services Plus will offer, but it's not enough to get the attention Google wants for its advertising needs. People who can't kill will always be subject to those who can. Same thing applies to businesses who won't turn evil.
Google needs to focus on improving search. Blekko is doing a better job in some areas, especially health.
Ads which appear in search results appear when the user is actually looking for something. This makes those ads valuable. On "social" systems, ads are annoying interference while talking to your friends. Facebook has a fraction of the ad revenue of Google.
Facebook's period of growth is over. Facebook, like all its predecessors from AOL to Myspace, has peaked on user count and is now shrinking. They should have gone public before that happened. Now their value is far less.
They are starting to rack up a nice stack a corpses made from discontinued Google services. Google Wave, Google Translation API, Google Health, and Google PowerMeter to name a few.
I would hate to get too invested in a Google service only to have it disappear on me. As far as I am concerned, Google Search and Gmail are their only sure bets.
Facebook to me has always seemed like hi-tech note passing. This thing seems to understand how *I* actually communicate with associates and friends. Of course, it will require all parties to be participating, and advantage fb has in spades.
This does look promising.
If they truly allow group video conferencing using a browser, I will certainly use it.
If they truly implement voice chat, I would gladly replace Skype, possibly even Vent. (Depends on how it gets implemented)
If they implement group chat that works across cell platforms, I will certainly use it. I would love to use something like this to organize weekly spontaneous events instead of massive text messages. (Email is too slow and unreliable for the last-minute changes, phone calls takes too long.)
However...
This must be painfully easy to use, no special invites and 10 day waiting lists. If this thing gets rolled out using small groups, it will die.
Here's hoping the number one result that people love is "Bing".
Decisive "entry"? Then what was Orkut?
that the service isn't called Google-Spot.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Relevant: Google research on social networks
It looks like Google Plus is a direct result of this research.
Since I seem to be the last person on earth without a Facebook account, I think I'll sign up for this and start sending invites to all of those people on Facebook who keep spamming me to join.
Anyone have any invites to spare?
Steve
Ars Technica did a write up of this also http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/06/inside-google-how-the-search-giant-plans-to-go-social.ars/ I read this in their article:
"Right now, Google won't even suggest who should be in your circles. But it has the technology to do so (it's already making suggestions on who you might include on Gmail mailing lists). So in the future it's conceivable that Google might indeed provide plenty of nonbinding suggestions for who you might want it your Circles. "We've got this whole system already in place that hasn't been used that much where we keep track of every time you email someone or chat to them or things like that," says Smarr. "Then we compute affinity scores. So we're able to do suggestions not only about who you should add to a circle, or even what circles you could create out of whole cloth.""
A little concerned over the "things like that"
Who loves boobies? (now that's pretty funny)
Engineering projects are normally based on projects. That means each person often has several projects going, with a different group of people involved in each project depending on particular needs and workloads. This could be very handy to build a group for each project to ease communications.
As far as I am concerned, Google Search and Gmail are their only sure bets.
Add Calendar, Docs, Photos, Reader, Photos to that list. I have a difficult time imagining those vanishing any time soon.
Reply to That ||
They want to set a *.google.com cookie that contains identifying social data. That would greatly enhance their ability to data mine useful, and profitable, information from the combination of your social profile and your searches. It's a marketers wet dream: detailed demographic data with detailed personal interests (every search you do). All they need to do is sell ad space that matches you up with buying habits of people in your demographic and having the same interests. An advertiser would pay a lot for that high quality sales lead.
Isn't Google already guilty of all the issues people complain about in Facebook?
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Kudos to Google on the timing-- if they deliver the technical goods (I can't check yet), this is not only clever because of what it does, but also because of when it does it. What they are doing here is effectively integrating an improved Facebookish thing with an improved Skypeish thing. Let's recall that Facebook (and Zynga) have not gone public yet and won't for a few months, that Microsoft only just bought Skype for a ridiculous amount of money, and that Microsoft wanted to grab attention today with its Office 365.
If they'd done this earlier, Microsoft would almost certainly have saved money on Skype. If they'd done it later, Facebook would have had more resources to counter-attack.
(Disclaimer: I will be on their payroll soon.)
This is exactly the social networking I want. I have my professional face, my personal face, my friendly face, my political nutjob face, and my horribly bad joke face. Never should they mix...
/me sips his coffee and ponders a new sig...
Hi, I just found this website "Slashdot" using "Google Time Machine" app. I'm posting from here in the year 2078. Google says I'm 234 bitcoins away from getting my children back, and I can earn credit by doing this research, polling Geeks of the Past about what efforts they may be hatching to keep this Google Universe from occurring (or slowing it). By the way, I see many references to something called "facebook", what is it? And what's a farmville?
Gently reply
I must admit that "circles" is a much nicer term than "aspects" which diaspora uses. ;)
"Huddle", however - as a term for a group chat - is a bit silly. Perhaps it will appeal to football fans, though.
heya,
I get the following error when I click "Keep Me Posted":
404. That’s an error. /intl/en-GB/+/learnmore/notifyme.html was not found on this server. That’s all we know.
The requested URL
Perhaps the link only works for US users?
Still, it shouldn't give a 404. You'd think somebody at Google would at least check these things *sigh*. And this is why Google fails - they're good at "cool" things, but that last 20% of polish/QA is what they lack - see iPhone vs Android (Disclaimer: I'm an Android user).
Cheers,
Victor
so we upload all of out data there, and in a few years they say it's not profitable and close it like they have closed.. let me remember: "Google Translation API", "Google Wave", "Google Health", "Google Power Meter", "Lively" , I mean it's hard to believe in a company that just tests and tests and tests, then decides to close anything whenever...
Is it really an entry if this is their third attempt or did everyone just forget Wave? How about Buzz?
According to the meta description, the mystery Google service does this: "Get more of what you love by searching across numerous Google products with one click."
It seems to do pretty much what it describes: It ties your search term into numerous Google products to see if there's anything interesting/useful.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Unless they have something NEW and different, they are just playing "follow my leader". ANd when you do that, you lose.
/., with your name, address, age, etc from Microsoft. Sad, but true.
If google is going to win this, they need something truly unique that is worth while jumping for. At this time, my wife is placing all of our pix on Google rather than Facebook since facebook will not only own the pix, but they have shown a propensity for selling ALL of our information. OTH, Google does not sell our information. They sell ACCESS to us, which is a very different thing. You can go to Facebook, MS, Apple, etc and get anything that you want from their customer list. I will have to pay for it, but I CAN get a list of everybody that uses MS and
It was past due, i might add.
Read radical news here
Google's transparency with privacy
In what possible universe is Google transparent about privacy?? Can you go somewhere to see what data they have collected about you? I think not.
You have literally no idea what data they have in the no doubt comprehensive profile they have built about you based on search and gmail. If you read their privacy terms there are an alarming number of "outs" for them to basically use that information however the hell they want. Add to that their creepy wifi data collection, creepy streetview cars, etc etc. Hell, a Google search is a pretty good record of your thoughts.
I consider Google one of the biggest threats to privacy going around. By comparison Facebook is child's play.
Read Pynchon.
Or a hand, at least!
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Hey, I'd love and invite, but can't seem to fine one. Anyone got one?
I remember what felt like 10 years ago we were griping about Google keeping search logs. At the time they didn't have a use for them, they just wanted to keep them around just in case.
So I never log in to google because I want to minimize how much they know about me. Of course they can still see my IP so who knows how effective this is, but at least I can try.
Except, wait! Then they bought youtube, and eventually merged the youtube and google login systems, so not only did you use the same account to log into both, but being logged into one meant you were logged into the other.
Now, youtube I was never that paranoid about the privacy of -- about them tracking what videos I watched. They could, but I didn't care much. So I had an account and I kept it logged in all the time, so I could see what my "subscriptions" had added recently and a few other useful things from being logged in.
But no, because google is so dedicated to privacy, if I wanted to stay logged in to youtube, I had to let google log every search I did under my own username. So to preserve my minimal privacy with google search, I had to stop logging in to youtube.
Those are the only two google services I use, but I bet there are similar stories for the rest of them.
So yeah. Google marketing a service based on "privacy"? No thanks.
So I'm thinking Google marketing must have been driving all of those More Users Are Shunning Facebook "news" stories recently.
Of course everyone in the US remembers Wave and Buzz, but Orkut was modestly successful in India and Brazil, wasn't it?
Your laptops are part of the personality you flaunt. This is the hi-tech gadget that everyone wishes to have, no matter whether a commoner or a tech savvy person. Laptops, besides its multi-utility facility, have turned into a fashion accessory. One can drive into www.rightgadgets.in/Items.asp?Category=Laptops_India_Online&cid=3 to have ample options of laptop offerings.
When you are planning to have the dream laptop for you, it's the details that you need first. So many companies, each ha
So does Google have 4 different social networks now? What happened/is going to happen to Orkut and Buzz and Wave?
You've got to be kidding me. Google's privacy policy is far worse than Facebook's, in fact Eric Schmidt said he wished Facebook would release more personal info about its users.
Google's entire business model is based on violating people's privacy and selling personal information. I won't touch this service with a ten foot pole.
I have read about Google Circles for awhile now but it is actually Google +. The name is awful. But from what I have read from posts that it might be pretty good. Hopefully they have figured out their privacy issues, and have figured out that Gbuzz is a complete copy of Twitter.
I sent business proposals to Google executives 2+ years ago and I suppose they read them. From this interview with AllthingsD. "..So we’re going to continue to make Google dramatically better and reward you for spending the few minutes it takes to say this is my family, these are my real friends. And we think the process of creating circles is a breakthrough. People don’t like cumbersome processes."
It's pretty basic stuff, but Google could not figure it out with Gwave, or Gbuzz. Give back to the people using your site and making you money. That was in the proposals I sent. Circles connect with who you want to connect with. In my proposals. And cumbersome processes, make it easy to navigate and use. Google still has major issues with this, but we will see with Google+.
Did they steal my ideas from my proposal, well I am not sure yet, as I have not got an invitation to G+, but we will see. :)
I am not worried, I did not give all the details of how to do my site.
I do find it interesting that they launched before the site was ready. Maybe, it is because they know who I am very soon going to send my proposals too.
If you want check out 7slocal.com.
thanks,
lance damon bliss.
Fb or Google plus/buzz are social database, not social network, because everything is centralized on provider servers.
For a real social network, use XMPP with your own server or friend to friend software like Retroshare.
Another one for the junk pile, along with Wave and Buzz.
It is still in testing, and is invite-only. That is not what it means to be "launched."
It couldn't possibly be worse than Facebook. With Google's transparency with privacy, and already working business model (has facebook ever posted a profit?), I'd trust them over Facebook in a heartbeat.
Facebook screws me over daily. No, I don't want any facebook credits. No, I don't want to play farmville. Disgusting...
And yet you still use Facebook, daily?
Do I have a choice? Co-workers/Friends (use the term "friend" losely) get insulted if I don't "like" or comment on their inane ramblings at least 3-4 times a week.
How old are you, 15? Grow the hell up. If they get insulted, that's their problem, not yours. Or better, yet, just accept and ignore forever thereafter. If you can't do this online, chances are you cannot do the same in real life... and that's a behavioral problem right there.
First. You can always delete your account. It's not like you are using it with gun in your head. I use facebook to stay connected with family and friends across the states and overseas. For twitter, I use it to follow up colleagues and very specific peoples and topics. Linkedin, as a good Rolodex for job-related contacts. Inevitably I get invites from people I deal with everyday that are not friends or colleagues. I typically accept them and ignore what I don't want to see/deal with it (or simply ignore the request... which surprisingly doesn't affect my sleeping patterns one bit!!! Hahaha!)
When it comes to facebook, it's not like a "farmville" invite is something that is right there between my door and my car, and I can't fucking turn the ignition and go to work or go to the toilet and take a dump until I finally click the accept button. Just fucking ignore it. That's what I do, even if it is from my beloved cousins.
Seriously, this is such irrelevant minutia, that the only annoying power it has over you it's the one you give it to it. It's not rocket science man. These are just little, irrelevant stupid things of no consequence at all.
Similarly, I have friends of mine who simply don't do facebook, and guess what?? They live well, and guess what else, their friends that have a facebook account actually interact with them (and viceversa) by other means. Mind boggling, ain't it.
Facebook is just a tool, and you get what you put (or do not put) in it. You can delete it at any time. You can exclude or include people to see your info as you wish, and you can subscribe and ignore shit you like or don't like.
To claim that you use it daily while at the same time annoy is just retarded. Either delete it, or grow up a little and don't let irrelevant e-shit annoy you. You can delete Again, it's not like
Hmmm... why?
If Google were to buy Facebook, that might give Google too much market power in social networking, web advertising, and federated authentication markets.
Hahaha... Don't you mean re-re-entry after utterly failing twice?
I think it could be good, they've already effectively replaced Skype for video chat & PC-to-phone voip. We'll see. There's something to be said for momentum, and google lost an awful lot of ground with the embarrassing failure of Buzz, and I don't even remember hearing about Wave (and I work for an internet marketing company). Maybe they were just working out how not to do it.
What kind of technology is behind google+ ?
IHMO it's more important than all these features.
Is it centralised?
decentralized ?( like email or wave )
peer to peer ?( like bittorrent )
What kind of protocol do they use? OpenSocial? XMPP?
How can 3rd party integrate? How can they innovate on top of g+? What's their dependency on google ?
With an open infrastructure ( like Wave ). They could really change the way internet is used.
With a semi-closed on, it'll at best be a better facebook,
I was writing about the potential for regulatory interference and then happened to notice the GET.
Google|IBM|Apple|Microsoft|Oracle|Facebook is a fucking corporation you fags.
They are not your fucking friend|nanny|soulmate|idol|savior|SecondComing
FTFY
I think it is great that Facebook now has competition and competition focused on privacy as well as ease of configuration. Hopefully the competition will push Facebook to clean up its attitude and its code.