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The Google+ API Is Released
An anonymous reader writes "Developers have been waiting since late June for Google to release their API to the public. Well, today is that day. Just a few minute ago Chris Chabot, from Google+ Developer Relations, announced that the Google+ API is now available to the public."
I can't wait to see all the interesting ideas developers have for using this read only API.
And nothing was lost.
They used a chatbot to launch the API?
What for?
iTx Technologies: Open source development in Montreal
Until they reverse their stance on real names, sadly I have no f*cks to give.
Until they discontinue it.
Now maybe there will be something interesting to use Google+ for...
TFA: [[Nothing great is ever built in a vacuum ]]
Dyson would beg to differ.
NASA is also clearing its throat.
Google+ didn't bring the gamechange.
It's a ghost town.
You can see Linus Torvalds and the Google Twins there, but hardly anyone else ever posts. And they don't much either. Linus' last post is 9/6, and Sergey's is 8/28, and Larry's is 8/13...
Google needed more than a convention hall. It needed to emcee the convention. Now we have an API, and maybe some people to P it, nobody to A it.
It only has "get" person, "list" activities and "get" activity. You can't post or do anything interesting with it yet. Hopefully they'll open it up more soon.
Just because they don't post to you doesn't mean they don't post. I have hundreds of posts, but each one of them is private so my public profile looks empty. I don't know anyone who makes public posts. That's kind of the entire point, which you appear to have missed.
Wish Google would stop all these failed attempts at social and try to innovate somewhere else. IMO most of social is done and over, which is a good thing...it's now integrated into peoples lives and there are plenty of players in the game with no pressing need for another. Only until those companies get too fat and happy should you strike..not while the already popular platforms continue to push the boundaries.
The media hype made it seem more important than it really was. Same happened with Wave.
John Scalzi praised it highly, and I was interested, right up until the fine print swam into view.
IMO, the killer was the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned "Real Name" requirement. I have a google account I use for my Reader, Mail, Calendar, and Docs/Notepad the last three of which are also synchronized on my phone for mobile access. There was and is simply NO way in hell I would risk losing those under google's draconian "Right name or die!" policy, and I rather suspect an awful lot of people just walked away from the threat.
Wtf are you talking about? I have tons of traffic on my g+ account and see tons of interaction.
Ironically, the people I know that like it most hate facebook, and consequently aren't used to using social media (myself included).
Read only makes it easy to start with. Maybe now tweetdeck and others can get view capabilities. If I can see things on G+ I am likely to go over and post.
The trick with Write is the authentication. Now google has to figure out how to do an authentication scheme it likes (read "they developed to take over the web") for that to happen.
Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.
I don't know anyone who makes public posts. That's kind of the entire point, which you appear to have missed
There are many I've found who use G+ as they use Twitter, IOW all public posts, like a broadcasting station/soapbox. I find what you say to be generally true of most other users though (including myself). I post daily but you wouldn't know it from my profile.
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...if they ever got around to fixing google apps so it worked with google+. Instead, all we ( us google apps users ) get are false promises...when we get anything at all.
Can anyone recommend a decent competitor to Google Apps?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
The piecemeal "lab" releases that were functional but only 75-85% complete were okay 10 years ago. Anymore, they just give the appearance of not really giving a crap. Overlay that with an Apple-esque approach to usability and terms of use and it just becomes gWorld over and over again.
http://windows.scares.us
The July 28th blog post on betashop.com tells a bit of a different story. ( link to Google cache, the regular site seems to be off atm. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Kro0IOBNR3IJ:betashop.com/page/2+site:betashop.com+betashop+google+plus&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us - It's toward the bottom below the "Make the logo smaller" t-shirt)
It was (at the time) their single highest traffic day and 5% of that traffic came from Google+. That's nearly 9000 visits in one day to a site that is one of the fastest growing e-commerce sites on the planet.
It's not facebook. It's not twitter. But it has certainly contributed enough to fab's bottom line that I have a difficult time believing they are ready to ditch the +1.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Games on G+ can also reward you for spamming/recruiting your friends. Angry Birds on G+ for example will keep levels locked until you and your friends have a cumulative total of stars to unlock them, so naturally you want to get more people playing. Another game lets you ask for hearts to continue gameplay and equally you can donate hearts. The difference here though is people in your circles will not see all this game stuff unless they are also in their games stream.
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Google+ sorta forbids that cloning aspect of social gaming. But maybe a nice port of Tetris or FreeCell would get them some dwell time
Guess who else tries to forbid cloning: The Tetris Company.
The first thing that struck me is that quota limits are placed on all applications
"Applications are limited to a courtesy usage quota"
this will suck for anyone who wants to create an application intended for many users.
There are many I've found who use G+ as they use Twitter, IOW all public posts, like a broadcasting station/soapbox.
And there are many who use Google's other soapbox service, especially because unlike Google+, Blogger is open to the public.
Not to mention, the spec for JSON fits on one side of a business card, readably.
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When is anyone going to write a python script that scrapes and provides the same functionality. What is it with everyone about API Keys? Why would anyone access the web with an API key and announce "who am i"?
"A few minute ago"... no day mentioned but "today is that day"... way to go guys.
Pretty much this.
Google wanted to make "an identity" service, after all.
The idiots behind it never had a clue. Seriously no clue.
This could have went another way entirely.
Google+ hype. Prepare a whole rewrite of Orkut and Buzz.
RENAME ORKUT, IT IS A TERRIBLE NAME.
Integrate all 3 services pretty seamlessly.
Launch G+, show people that they have the choice of using a full-on social network, just the basic G+ profile and communication stuff, or Buzz, which is quite literally just your G+ wall. (or Orkut wall, they are all the same thing)
This has all 3 types of social networking as one seamless group of services, all sharing the main part that matters, the actual communication.
This COULD have happened, but Google is an absolute mess of unrelated products and teams.
They don't need to do a damn thing about "focusing more" when they canned Labs and a bunch of other useful things, they need to COMMUNICATE MORE.
Seriously, they should hire me, I'd turn that damn company around in 2 months. It is embarrassing how such a company can exist with so little communication between completely related services.
They are never going to topple Crapbook at this rate. They lost all the hype now, that is it, it is done. They sealed their own fate.
Hope they enjoy not working at Google in half a year when it gets canned and they get "the stares" and feel unwelcome.
It's a ghost town to you perhaps but way not for me. I spend more time on Google+ than I have done on FacePlant... I mean FaceBook.
The public wants an alternative to Facebook. Google+, as especially revealed by their "real names" policy is trying to be Facebook. G+ just is not filling any need of those who are unhappy with Facebook, let alone those who are happy.
Ha!
I was hoping that Google+ would be the next best thing, and pop the bubble that is FaceBook. but its not going to happen, most people that would have wanted to move, tried G+, and left sin no one was there and the people who haven't heard about G+ don't care enough to switch. So unless the new API can cook my dinner and wash my clothes and give me a hand job, there is no reason to switch since all the people i care to talk to (and allot of people I don't) are on the FB, ill just stay until it becomes myspace.
I'm in that group as well. I hate Facebook, and have disliked every other major social networking site. I do like Google+, and even people think it's a Ghost Town, it's because of where they are looking. I see plenty of activity.
erm. I see scads more content on g+ than on facebook --OR-- on slashdot. And it's actual useful interesting stuff.
lol. If by "an awful lot" you mean a handful of self righteous nerds, then I rather suspect you might be right.
I would hardly classify myself as a "self righteous nerd", sir. More of a "I'm damned if I'll go naked on the net where everybody lives next door to both Mother Teresa and Jack the Ripper."
Maybe you're just not following the right/enough people. I have over 40 posts from the last four hours in my stream. Try following some of these people and I guarantee G+ won't feel like a ghost town:
Tom Merritt Leo Laporte
Cali Lewis Danny Sullivan Jeff Jarvis Louis Gray Tim O'Reilly Jonathan Strickland Natalie Villalobos Eileen Rivera Kiki Sanford Colby Brown Dan Patterson Felicia Day Surprise! Harry McCracken Trey Ratcliff Gina Trapani Veronica Belmont Ron Garan Clever Nickname
...is this an anonymous reader's first news submission?
IT LAUNCHED TWO FUCKING MONTHS AGO. You know what my facebook wall looked like two months after launch? Nothing, because I hadn't signed up for it yet. Also, the facebook wall didn't go up until 7 months after launch. 10 months it had 1 million users. Two months out, google+ has 10 million users.
Anyway, I see facebook making changes in response to the competition. Not fixing all gripes with it of course, but changes are being made to the... er... "game" as it were.
(By the way, let's not start using the term "gamechange." Sounds too much like some douchebag marketing suit talking.)
No. Just look at /., most forums, reddit - many people do not want to use their real name on the internet just to pass messages along. A lot of us like anonymity when we want to say something off-the-record in one way or another.
It always takes me three tries to read his name right.
You are following the wrong people. I follow people on G+ that post like 10+ times daily. If anything they post TOO much.
And ChromeOS.
"GOOGLE IS GOING TO TAKE ON MICROSOFT WITH ITS OWN OPERATING SYSTEM!!!"
Yes, mainstream media, Google has figured out a way to make a computer that only has a web browser. Look out Microsoft, your days are numbered. You cannot possibly hope to compete with Google's operating system which does not give the ability to write code for it.
Schnapple
Facebook wasn't Google. Everyone was on MySapce. Nobody really knew Facebook existed for a couple of years.
Google+ is Facebook++, and Google wallpapered the world with announcing it was open.
Okay, it was open. It was also void of elemental human interaction, and the forced-looking posting on it isn't creating a critical mass.
The API might help. If they can get some dwellers into some applets. Then people will go there to be, not just to see if it's woke up yet.
Add a game, and it might gamechange the cybersphere. But, better still, promise to keep the SEOtards out, and I'll buy land in it.
Nearly everyone I know that uses Facebook hates using Facebook. So the market was ready for invasion. Hell, people are leaving Facebook in significant numbers and that's with no alternative site to go to!!! Even normal people (you know what I mean) hate Facebook!
Our efforts to promote it didn't work; Google+ has failed.
The reason? Well, there are two:
1. Google+ is a really, really, really, *really* terrible brand-name. Idiots. How does 'Google+' say 'Social Network'? In any way? For the love of God.
2. The interface is complete and utter garbage. I suspect this may have been the biggest problem.
Dear Google, you are very good at some things, but you are hopeless when it comes to interface design. Please hire some people who know what they're doing. Surely you have enough money for that? I hear Apple have a few good designers you could approach.
And now I have to live with Facebook until Microsoft launch something. Good grief.
Can't we just get together on Slashdot and code a Facebook replacement? I estimate it'll take a team of 10 people about 5 hours to surpass Facebook's design... we'll have a head start on Google if we just choose a name that is entirely composed of letters.
RS
I don't want to use my full name, I don't want my other google services linked to each other. Don't get me wrong, I know they are linked but only Google knows that, other people don't. I (believe?) once you use google plus your display name gets changed on several other services.
Very silly rule, some of us like to seperate our online personas.
I agree :(
I have only 155 people in my circles but it's already too much. There are too many of them that are simply using it as FB. For example: if I want to post something funny, or simply not technology related, I have a list of people called "Pub" with people inside that I know that don't mind reading all kind of stuff. When I post something technology related, I post it to some circle where I put people I know are following that technology.
However, if we don't all follow similar rules, if people simply post to either to public or all circles, trying to filter by your circles is useless as you simply get all sort of garbage everywhere :) pretty much like in FB where most people didn't even know about lists.
I hoped that with Goggle+ people would start fresh and start using circles in a proper way, also because it seems there are more geeks than in FB. I stopped hoping.
When I first heard about this, I was excited. I can post to Twitter and Facebook (if I used the latter) using Seesmic Desktop, but can't post to Google+ unless I go to their website. This is because Seesmic (and other 3rd party clients) didn't have an API to access the site. Unfortunately, when I looked at the API, it's read-only. So Seesmic could show you comments on your stream, but to post an update or comment, you'd still have to go to their site. Perhaps the read-and-write API will come soon, but until it is read-and-write it'll only be half of an API to me.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Wasn't ChromeOS Linux based? If so, how did they prevent people from writing code for it?
All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
Look, you can't really compare the timelines between Facebook and Google+. Facebook has been around for almost a decade, and when it came out it didn't have many competitors, the whole social networking concept was new and experimental. Now Facebook is the established brand in social networking - pretty much invented the market - and it's going to be incredibly difficult for Google to topple it, even if the numbers show it to be oh so much more successful in the short term than Facebook was when it started.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
If Google want to build a better social networking site, maybe they should spend less on marketing, throw together lots of alternative sites, and see what sticks on the wall (pun intended). It's not like they can't afford it.
And who the hell are those? I don't want to follow some random people, I want to follow people I know and my friends. They aren't there, or if some are, they aren't posting anything there but on Facebook. This makes Google+ ghost town and useless to me and many other people.
You certainly made the "short list" of features that led to me giving up my Linux install and my wonderfully uber-compatible XBMC installation. In fact, you were the most important factor leading to the change. The fact that XBMC and MythTV work together as well as the Bundys when it comes to broadcast televison, well, now that I think of it, that's the only other reason. Rest assured, you were the reason for the switch.
Now, Microsoft made $50 on the transition; I'm a student. And Windows Media Center is pretty damn good, once sufficiently beaten into submission. I have it now as compatible with videos as XBMC, with metadata collection and display almost as good. However, you guys were nice enough to build an add-in to WMC, cool. $8 a month is pretty awesome for HD movies to just be THERE. Schweet.
However, that just ain't the case. Even though I'm a lucky bastard and can pull down about 3MB/s (and yes, I mean a little over two 1.44MB floppy disks, or maybe 0.0001 Libraries of Congress), "HD Video" just won't play. I don't use quotes for effect, I use them because that's what you call it, I can't get your player to cough up any information about what the hell resolution, frame rate, color profile, or codec. It skips and sputters, surely because Silverlight 4 isn't hardware-accelerated - but Silverlight 5 just isn't there either.
Now, I can: 1. Minimize WMC. 2. Start Firefox. 3. Go to your website. 4. Log in (WMC is logged in separately). 5. Go to My Account. 6. Click Video Steaming Settings (or whatever the hell it is) 7. Change the rate to 1GB/hr. and 8. Click Next. This gives me a 404 error, but it's been changed. 9. Return to WMC, completely stop the movie, and restart. Then we have video. I can't change that shit in the WMC client. That's cool, but it's not HD. Can I get a discount?
Now, I'd be cool with the fact that my HTPC (which is otherwise quite capable of 1080p, thankyouverymuch) isn't getting HD content, because I could at least have that thing playing and use another device, like my iPhone. Now, I was paying for the ability to stream HD to one device, and I wasn't getting that. I can't give you numbers for sure because your client is so locked down. However, I'm pretty sure that the SD-only stream my HTPC receives plus the mobile video on my iPhone still isn't the resolution I was paying for, but that's now blocked.
Can I have my money (and time) back?
I don't want to mix my real life info like my name, and professional experience, with stuff I would not want a future employer to see. Hence the need to compartmentalize the data under different account names. Since Google+ does not allow that, I'm not interested in using it much.
No competitors? Myspace was what we were using before facebook. And while facebook has been established for a while, it didn't perfect it by any stretch. There's plenty of improving to do, the different classes of associations / circles was a big one. In any event, it's too early to be saying google plus is a failed experiment.
Your comparison is wrong. No, I don't think we're so dumb that we would be using candles rather than lightbulbs. And according to the above, it's dead, they didn't hype it ENOUGH. I have yet to see a billboard or commercial for google plus, there was a marketing blitz?
You know, for me it's the other way around, I can hardly keep up with my friends posting on G+, while almost everybody (including myself) has largely abandoned Facebook.
And you know something else? The plural of anecdote isn't data. Our experiences differ a lot, still the truth will be somewhere in between.
Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
I'm holding out this idealogical hope that when Google+ comes out of beta they'll announce that, "oh, by the way, it's federated, and here's Lars on his Yahoo+ account, and this is me adding him as a friend on my Google+"
Boom
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
Jesus, do you just whine all day about nothing?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
It's the silly elitest policy to make it invite only. People who're not "connected" assume it's still invite-only months after the restriction has probably been lifted.
And really, if you're planning on serving millions of users in a closed beta, you might as well open the thing from day one and be done with it. Otherwise you're sending a message to those people who don't know some geek inside google that they're not the right kind of person for this networking site. First impressions stick.
Did you really just ask who Rob Malda and Wil Wheaton are?
Dyson never built anything at all in a vacuum. Fiction doesn't count, sorry. This is the real world were in now, try to keep up.
NASA never built anything great in a vacuum, though they have assembled a space station or two, which were built on Earth.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
At this point, I'm about to give up and reactivate my Facebook account. I just don't think Google is agile enough to run an evolving social networking site.
"GOOGLE IS GOING TO TAKE ON MICROSOFT WITH ITS OWN OPERATING SYSTEM!!!"
And they did.
And it was a stupid fucking idea and it failed faster than Windows Phone 7.
But they did try.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
How blissful it must be to be so ignorant that you think the policy that effects one part of the company doesn't effect the rest of the company.
All Google online services have a real name policy moron, they just haven't bothered to really enforce it on a large scale ... but if you just search slashdot you'll find at least one story of someone who lost Android apps for that very reason.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
been trying to join it for months but it's full every time i check =/
That's cool, but until they fix their stupid "real names only" policy, I'm not touching Google+
The Digital Sorceress
"i'll prove it's not only nerds by giving examples of how nerds do things."
How does
it didn't have many competitors
translate to
No competitors?
Yes, MySpace was a competitor but it was a much smaller market back then and Facebook did it better, so there wasn't too big of a barrier to switching. Now, if people switch completely, they have to take the hundreds of photos they've posted, and lose years of status updates, and wait for all their hundreds of friends to switch over as well - it's a big task just like reformatting your harddrive which is something that most people are also loathe to do even when it would end up being better for them.
Circles is a great concept, one that Facebook is already implementing in some fashion, and even if it's not better than Google's it's Good Enough For Now. Yes, it is too early to be saying G+ is a failed experiment and I didn't say that. I just said you can't compare the environment that Facebook thrived in back then to the environment that Google is facing today. It's a very different landscape and tossing out numbers of early adopters isn't a show of Google's success. I'm also an early adopter, and I still use G+ with Facebook, but I use Facebook a lot more.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
This is what happened to my post, shortly after linking it on Facebook... The link and preview are completely gone.
http://i.imgur.com/6k8tE.png
WTF, Facebook? U scared?
here, have invites, I don't need 'em:
https://plus.google.com/i/upkIlH-ikcw:lVUWSKUAc30
if you use your account for anything but slagging off google+ and facebook I'll have a sad though :/