Google Social Networking

Google+, or Google Plus is a Social Networking Site, and Google " +1" button is just a small part of it.

 I have a post about Google +1 button, out of respect for Google I don't intend to write more about Google's Social Network, in this phase of beta, and until a little dust is settle over.

This morning I read 2 articles in which Google+ was compared with Twitter and Facebook and I was frustrated... so this is why I am writing now.

Google+ is just a couple of weeks old, officially in beta stage, and by invitation only, so we cannot compare this new Social Networking site,  with sites which are in making for years.

Or if you really want to compare Google+, you have to do it in a fair way...

So no predictions, and no comparisons on my part, I just share with you what I know at this point and what the users community already comment about Google+.

In the above picture you see in the top, 4 small icons for:

Home / Photos / Profile / Circles

The picture is the "home" of my Google+.

The streams are comments from the people on my circles. In the picture, I didn't chose a specific circle, so the system pick up the first one I create - Affiliate Marketing.

In the left you see a menu with:

• The standard circles (Friends/Family/Acquaintances/Following)
• The 4 circles I created to cover my interests:
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Blogging (actually is monetizing blogs, but I chose a short name)
  • Squidoo Friends - as I am a squidoo lensmaster for 3 years, a have a lot of friends, and this will be the place to comunicate  with them
  • Wizzley Friends - my new friends in amazing platform, wizzley, this is where we meet and change ideas.
• Down in the left menu we also have Sparks and Chat

Home, Photos, Profile are intuitive enough.

Circles is a Google new concept, it is like you divide your friends in micro niches which are at your interest, and  form groups for each niche.
I like this idea, as I prefer to talk with 20 great Affiliate marketers, instead of 2000 general friends.

Hangouts are all about videos. It lets up to 10 users simultaneously video chat with each other. This is a unique feature, users of the beta love.

Sparks are feeds of your real interest, again I like the idea of isolating a group like this. It is like you go deeply in sub-niches.

By Larry Page, he is a co-founder of Google and now a fresh CEO, I present just a coupe of snippets from his post on Google+, but I think they are significant:

".... As you will have seen from our press release we had a great quarter - with revenue up by 32 per cent year on year and a new record for quarterly revenue at over $9 billion!

We have substantially increased our velocity and execution this quarter - a key goal of mine since taking over as CEO
...
First we launched Google+ to field trial invitation only

Our goal with Google+ is to make sharing on the web like sharing in real life, as well as to improve the overall Google experience
Circles let you choose with precision who you are sharing with. Not surprisingly this has been very well received, because in real life, we share different things with different people.
Hangouts allow for serendipitous interactions. Like in real life when you run into a few friends. It gives you seamless and fun multi user video and it’s really amazing!

Last quarter, we launched the +1 button in search results and ads - enabling users to recommend stuff they liked, and have those recommendations show up in the search results of people they know

This quarter, we released +1 buttons to the entire web...

Google+ is still only in field trial with limited access as we scale the system
Users have to be invited, sign up with a profile in order to use it

However, the growth on Google+ has been great and I’m excited to release some new metrics for you today:

• Over 10M people have joined Google+. Great achievement for the team
• There’s also a ton of activity, We are seeing over 1 billion items shared and received in a single day
• Our +1 button is already all over the web, It’s being served 2.3 billion times a day

So while we have a lot of work still to do, we are really excited about our progress with Google+

Google+ is also a great example of another focus of mine - beautiful products that are simple and intuitive to use and was actually was one of the first products to contain our new visual redesign.
...

While much of that work has not yet become visible externally, I am very happy with our progress here...

• We have tremendous new businesses being viewed as “crazy” Android, We actually have a new metric to report of 550,000 Android Devices activated a day! That’s a HUGE number even by Google’s standards
• Chrome It’s the fastest growing browser with over 160 million users

...
I would like to finish on our people
Great companies are no greater than the efforts and ingenuity of their people
So I’m happy with the investments we’ve made in people...

All of us at Google want to create services that people across the world use twice a day … just like a toothbrush! And we strive to make those services beautiful, simple and easy to use

We have made a good start but we are at only 1 per cent of what’s possible...  Google is just getting started … and that is why I am here - working hard to lead this company to the next level
Thank You. "

Oh! Boy! The Larry enthusiasm, focus, and optimism is contagious, and this has a lot to do with the results they have...  My humble opinion:

• It is a great example of correct business positive attitude.... if we don't believe in ourselves... nobody will
• It is also a great example of branding a business

So, I read a lot of comments and this is what strikes me:

• People love the User Interface (UI) - it is true, the sleekness of its UI is impressive, intuitive, easy to use, not cluttered, not a single AdSense ad from the kings of ads?... no silly games as well. Andy Hertzfeld was hire to do the UI, and he did a marvelous job. Andy I salute you!
• Noise in the Streams-  Using Circles, Google+ was design to minimize the noise in the stream. Some people say that
  • It is not enough and
  • Why the posts are moved in the top when they have a new comment... this is a controversial issues but we will see in time if Google changes his position or not
• Circles slickness - Circles have been welcome, with very positive overall comments. They are view as  the easiest system on the market for putting people in the groups. This is a superior design with the users, you and I,  in mind
• The users want to use Google+ with their Google Apps accounts - this is a piece Google is working on right now
• Hangouts - They have a positive review as well. Hangouts pop up on users feeds, and the users have the chance to join them. It is a small change in how group video chat is done and it is a WINNER  
• Lack of Search - Google has a marvelous engine for search, but Google+ doesn't have a search engine for finding content yet, personally I think it is just a matter of time
• Google+ is on every Google products - This is the biggest at all, the fact that Google+ is aggregated with all Google products in its empire, it is incredible powerful and this will make Google+ to stay on top

A Google+ review

10 Chrome extensions For Google+

How Big is Google Social Network

Export FB and Twitter contacts to Google+

Google+ Circles as a new Model

Google+ Guide (From Mashable)