What exactly is google+? I have been hearing a lot about it?

It’s basically Google’s attempt to copy Facebook. They were handing out invites, but only for a couple days before they “reached capacity” (meaning, handed out just enough to make everyone who didn’t have it want it even more… after all, FB became popular by using exclusivity tactics).

heard invites are back on for a while if you know anyone who’s already in

Edit: More to the point of the question, they have a website up to help explain the whole thing.

I got an invite yesterday, and joined. So far, I have no idea what the hell I’m doing there. I gather that it’s Google’s new attempt at social networking, and a lot of tech people seem really happy with it.

To be more accurate, FB copied Google in terms of the exclusivity part. Many of us can remember way back when Gmail was first made available, it was by invite only for about the first year or so and EVERYBODY wanted it.

Most Forums had a section or thread just for people to beg for invites and there were even a few entire websites devoted to just that :)

It was a pretty clever strategy and combined with the extremely generous one gig of free storage space (previously unheard of till then) combined with the slogan “never need to erase an email again” made it a much desired item and got them off to a great start.

Apparently, after July 31st, all private Google Plus accounts will be deleted. This is, rather surprisingly, even less privacy friendly than Facebook (who know that could even happen?). So, advantage Zuckerberg. And I really, really hate Facebook and it’s lack of privacy.

What’s the point of a private profile in a social network?

how can something be off topic in a question that includes “what do you think?” Is it only technical questions that get the harsh editing? Because looking around, I’m seeing a lot of banter elsewhere.

@funkdaddy While that does appear to be Google’s point, many many people use private Facebook profiles to keep in touch with people they already know and trust, while remaining unfindable by coworkers, bosses, exes, students, teachers, stalkers, and other undesirables. Just because you wouldn’t do it yourself doesn’t mean it isn’t something others do.

@Aethelflaed – honest question and I’m sorry if it offended.

I believe the thinking is that you can better control who sees what with google+ than originally on facebook so there’s no need to be completely “private” about it. (see their circles feature)

For example, I just filled in a profile with the minimum information, now my name and gender appears on the page, nothing more. It’s “public” but not showing anything I don’t want it to and all someone could deduce is that I’m still alive and still living as a male.

So I think a completely private profile wouldn’t be eligible for a social network, and since that’s what they’re going to use it for in the future, the few people who have elected to keep theirs completely to themselves wouldn’t be able to move over. I think they’re using google+ as a way to expand their previous profile offering instead of starting over from scratch.

@funkdaddy Not offended, just pointing out that different users use social networking for different things, and excluding a large portion of your potential customers is rarely a wise idea. And Facebook does have an “unsearchable” feature – you have to give your profile url to someone for them to find you.

[mod says] Please remember, this question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

So, I got it today. And so far, save for the aformentioned privacy thing, I like it. It has “circles”, which is much like how you have different phone contacts arranged by coworkers, business, family, friends, etc. So you can create one for friends from school, and friends that you know from that one bar, and coworkers you have margaritas with sometimes… It’s very nice.
It has (I think) longer status updates, and instead of choosing everyone/friends of friends/friends/custom to share it with and only 1 preset custom, and there being a default setting (and sometimes, you aren’t paying attention, maybe you share too much with your aunt…), you choose which circles to share it with every time.
Google doesn’t let you choose which circles you share profile info with (like work, schools, etc) but it does let you choose circles/extended circles/only me/everyone (on FB, that’s everyone/friends of friends/friends/only me).
So, first impression, I like it more than FB. FB has more (I think) settings on sharing various profile info, but G+ has more flexability on who you share status updates with.

As people have said, it is another attempt by Google to get into the social scene (everyone seem to forget about orkut, wave, buzz, etc). This attempt looks pretty good though.

It gives you a lot more control over who sees what. You can post things publicly (like doing a blog post) or you can control who sees stuff (e.g. share pictures you and your friends drunk at a party together, only with your friends, and with resharing turned off).

The “hangout” feature is pretty cool. I allows you to easily video chat with up to 9 other people. You can easily share youtube videos too. It’s actually a pretty fun way to share the latest funny youtube videos with your friends. However, if you look at the source code, it looks like google is going to integrate it more with gmail and calendar, so it might be more compelling for a business video conference.

My friends with android phones seems to be using the photo album stuff a lot. It has some picasa integration too. I haven’t done much with them myself yet.

Out of everything, I’ve used “sparks” the least. It is like google alerts (I suspect it is the same backend), but in a stream. I set up a few, but nothing really interesting yet. I’ve found that it’s more interesting to add people to my “following” circle (the same way I follow people on twitter).

Also, it is really easy to control who sees what part of your profile, e.g. the public knows I’m male and married, but only my friends know my location and email address. It is easy to view your profile from different circles (e.g. I can check that you can see the company I work for only if you are in one of my circles)

(I like it better than Facebook)

Ok, apparently, I was wrong. You can edit your profile info to include only certain circles. So like I can include my Fluther username, but only have that visible to people in my Fluther circle.

According to my g/f:

Google tracks everything that you search and every page that you visit via your IP address. They then get you to give them your personal information when you sign up for Gmail, if you link your YouTube account (which they try to force you to do), or if you sign up for other Google programs. They link your personal info with your IP address and then keep all your habits in their giant database. They sell your information and habits to companies to be used for advertising and marketing, political campaigns, etc. Facebook does the same thing, but I don’t like the idea of Google having EVERYTHING on me. Think about all of the great marketing information that you give Facebook: you tell them what products you like, what kind of books you read, what music you listen to, what political affiliations you have, what kind of people yo hang out with, how much time you spend online, what you do for a living, what your level of education is, etc. It’s creepy when you think about it. Facebook is the smartest marketing survey and consumer tracking ever designed.

(I think that I’ll pass)

Free services aren’t free, it’s true. Something has to pay for all those servers, all those people who create the services, and those snazzy campuses.

That something is advertising.

People still seem to prefer free with advertising to paid services with no advertising. Until that changes, services have to cater to advertisers just as much as users.

@Jude Ah, see, I’m kinda like… if Google wanted to blackmail me, they’d already have all the info they needed from my Gmail account. Where I’ve worked, where I go to school, past relationships, medication, relationship with enhanced brownies… But, they also don’t have the history of using that info to do anything other than make a better product like FB does.