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Google+ Divided Into Photos and Streams, With New Boss
An anonymous reader writes It seems Google+ will see some significant changes under new boss Bradley Horowitz. Google+ will be separated into different products: Photos and Hangouts will be split out, and the social part is now called "the stream". From the article: "Google+ has taken a lot of criticism — notably the infamous 'ghost town' knock that it's devoid of users and concerns about Google's attempts to force its relevance by tying it in with functions like search results and YouTube comments. But Google executives have denied the 'ghost town criticism over and over. In part that's because the company used Google+ to describe more than just its Facebook-esque service for posting and commenting — the part now called Streams. For Google, Google+ also has been the "social spine" that unifies Google users' activities under a single unified identity."
I think someone in the Science Online community put it best, "Facebook is my private life; Google+ and Twitter are my public life." Facebook is where I go when I want to see my friends' family photos and get a list of small-talk conversation topics for when I hang out with them in real life. I have no interest in following celebrities, politics, or other topics on Facebook because the conversations there are too inane.
Google+ is where I go when I want to have political debates, read science news, or be exposed to fascinating ideas. The conversation on G+ is heavily nerdy because the community is heavily nerdy. I go there for the same reason I read /., the conversation is deeper and more sophisticated. I don't learn anything arguing with my crazy conservative uncle on Facebook, but I do learn something when I argue politics with David Friedman on G+.I hear Twitter is good for this kind of subject/interest-specific engagement with others, but I simply can't figure out how to have a conversation there.
That said, I think it makes sense to break out Google Photos. That is an application I have come to really appreciate. It backs up all my phone's photos and videos, automatically creates scrapbooks and artwork out of them, and has created a timeline of my life. I highly recommend it for anyone using Android.
i ~ Celebrating Science, Cyberspace, Speculation
The real name requirement - along with deactivating the Google accounts of people who violated this policy - is what kept me off Google+. I use a pseudonym for my social media activities. (My Slashdot account is a relic from before I started using the pseudonym. It's one of a small number of accounts where I use my real name.) When I joined Google+, I wanted to post under my pseudonym, but Google wouldn't let me. Worse, if I started posting as my pseudonym, I risked losing my Gmail account (which I rely on) along with a bunch of other Google services which I used. I could post under a page as my pseudonym, but that meant I couldn't follow people or reply to G+ posts unless they followed me first - not a workable solution. While they finally allow pseudoynms, they list the user as "Pseudonym (Real Name)". Way to hide that real name!
I do like the circles model that Google+ had and would have loved for Google+ to have overtaken Facebook, but Google shot themselves in the foot with this one.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
My YT account is so old that I guess it was grandfathered in and I never would associate it with G+ or create a G+ account for it (it isn't registered under a gmail email). They have finally quit bugging me to do this.
But it would be nice if I could comment on my own videos or respond.
I really HATE the forced association google tries to make with this. I don't NEED a unified account across all Google.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Google Plus was an attempt to get the name, age, and gender of millions of users. Why? Because that's what advertisers demanded, and what Facebook was able to provide. Thus Google doesn't really care if no one used G+ as long as they signed up.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."