There has been a lot of discussion online about Google+, the new social network designed by Google. This is my fourth general social network and each one has done something different. First, I was on Friendster and that was pretty boring. Most people I knew were not there and had no interest in a tool like that. People were using alumni tools to connect with old friends, but those you had to pay for. Even though Friendster was free, there wasn’t enough interest.
Second, there was MySpace and for a while it was just the same as Friendster. Then people started signing up for it. I liked that I could add some HTML code to my profile to make something special. I liked that bands and musicians were on it and they allowed you to post their music to your profile. Soon I got tired of posts being spam or thank yous for adding a friend. I didn’t find myself really connecting with people. What finally sent me away was a mix of people’s crummy HTML coded profiles and the fact that I was working with college students who were already on Facebook.
Third, is Facebook and it took a while for people to discover it. I deleted my MySpace account well before it lost popularity. I did it about the time Facebook opened itself up to more than people associated with colleges. Libraries were excited to be in facebook as a way to promote things to students. Many of my friends quickly signed up for Facebook accounts. Once the important people had Facebook accounts, I left MySpace.
Here we are at my Fourth social networking tool and it came just as I was ready for something new. I am not annoyed with the people in Facebook (like I was in MySpace), I am annoyed with Facebook. I like control over my social network. I don’t know how their algorithms decides top posts or what is an important post. I hate having to hunt to make my account the way I like it. I typically weather their changes well. I rarely complain about Facebook, but this has the feeling of just being too much.
I am not alone and people are looking to Google+ as the next social network. I think you should get an account and play around with it. At the same time you have to be aware of how it is different. First, you can follow someone, but they don’t have to follow you. Second, someone can follow you, but you don’t have to follow then. Third, people are not using it to connect with people they already know, but to connect with people who share their interests.
This idea of interest connection comes from these circles you can set up in the network. Each person you follow goes into one or more circles. You can share with just specific people, specific circles, your entire set of friends, an extended group or you can share with everyone on the web. These various levels are great for control.
Where has G+ not gone yet? There is some frustrations with their API (what allows all these social media tools to talk to each other). You can do things like click +1 on blog entries. They do internal sharing well like posting pictures from Picasa or sharing items from Google Reader. What I can’t do yet is post from a tool like TweetDeck (I can post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more from this application). I can not set it to automatically post on G+ when I post to this blog. This being said, they have been very responsive to these requests because I am not the only one looking for them.
Right now you should look into G+. It is not ready to replace Facebook, but it gives you a whole new group of people who want to connect to you because you are interested in the same things as they are. Make sure you list your interests on your profile so people can see what you may have in common with them.
You can find me on G+ under Sara Marks (librarygurl@gmail.com). I post a lot of silly stuff, but every so often I have an insightful moment.
