Facebook allows you to export your pictures and most of your interaction, except for the contacts. It would be interesting if Google has a way to import this into its network.
Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
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Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#62I think a social network that has the ability for friend groups / circles is way over due. Will be interested to see this!
It's a feature that can be worked into Facebook in ways that will be far superior to starting a whole new social network. Google is fighting a losing battle here because they seem convinced that people want a clone of Facebook with a few extra features. And it's just not true.
Facebook does have this capability - just click the padlock next to your status. Just no-one seems to use it.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#63If they can really figure out an easy and intuitive way to solve the problem of sharing statuses to only a set of people then it would be really interesting. Eagerly awaiting! :)
You can already do that on Facebook easily.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#64Social is to Google what search is to Microsoft.
This comment is to parent what Social is to Microsoft ;) Seriously talking, it seems like you are underestimating the value of search to Microsoft.
Not value - understanding.
Microsoft gets Office for example. It's never been entirely comfortable with the Internet, of which search is a part - it's how the company as an entity thinks. Search is baked into everything Google does, it's in their corporate DNA. But they think about social the way MS thinks about search.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#65Google does not seem to own circles.com. I wonder if they are planning on using google.com/circles or maybe another alternative domain.
I usually don't like how every google product is just a subdomain or a folder of the google.com domain. Products with runaway success need to have their own domain. Can you imagine if Facebook was at microsoft.com/facebook? Or Twitter was at google.com/twitter? That would seriously slow down adoption.
Have you considered the cookie implications of every Google product living on a separate domain? We'd have to login so many times.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#66Not happening - http://twitter.com/googlesxsw/status/46986827206361088
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#67> We speak to our "friends" all at once, no matter what we might want to say to one group of people or another. And thus we often feel less comfortable than we might saying anything at all.
I don't understand. We can do that on Facebook already. In fact, I already do that... I have friend lists, and different people see different statuses depending on context.
I don't see the problem Google is trying to solve. I'd be happy to be enlightened though.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#68Appleseed has used friend "Circles" to organize friends since around 2006. Good to see this idea catch on. ;) Here's to hoping Google's social network has some solid federation features baked into it.
Okay, I'll bite. Tell me why I should use appleseed instead of using facebook.
Same reason you might want to host your own web server instead of using Geocities.
And if you don't host your own, the competitive eco-system that's created by federation means you can move your profile between nodes, without losing access to your social network.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment is to parent what Social is to Microsoft ;) Seriously talking, it seems like you are underestimating the value of search to Microsoft.
Not value - understanding. Microsoft gets Office for example. It's never been entirely comfortable with the Internet, of which search is a part - it's how the company as an entity thinks. Search is baked into everything Google does, it's in their corporate DNA. But they think about social the way MS thinks about search.
Bingo.
When you have google execs making fun of social on the record from few years ago, it sounds a lot like Gates saying "The Internet? We are not interested in it".
No ones talking about value because value isn't static. At the end of the day, the good big cos realize they f'd up and what they were once making fun of does indeed have tremendous value.
Re: Google to Launch Major New Social Network Called Circles, Possibly Today
#70Facebook can already do this and it's called 'Lists'. (Account/Edit Friends/Create a List). You just put your friends in 'Lists', and then each time you want to post something but show or hide it from certain Lists you can click on the padlock icon and choose 'custom - edit' and type in the name of the List before posting. This applies to both wall posts and photo albums. Problem is I guess the average Facebook user…
I've been looking for a big improvement to Lists for a while now. The way it works now makes it almost useless. I want to be able to easily post a message or comment without hundreds of people seeing it. I want to post a message in context and only the people who would be interested in it would see it.
If you click on the lock icon on Facebook to set privacy, you can type in names of lists to explicitly hide or specifically limit content (blacklist or whitelist). This would allow posting some piece of content controlled via a named list of people you've created.