From plus.google.com: > Google+ is in limited Field Trial Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people. WHY?! WHY are they doing this again? They did this with Wave. Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly…
"Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly disallowing social networking".
Did anybody notice that you can workaround needing an invite by clicking "Take the Tour" and then "Join the Project" on their demo website? http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/
I think you're already in. That just asks me to sign up for the waiting list.
I think this has huge potential. The problem with Facebook, at least for me, is that I have a ton of friends that post pointless shit. Now with features like Circles I can put my REAL friends in one circle, family in another, and all the noise and acquaintances(networking etc.) in a spam filter circle. This is going to be awesome.
You can create friend lists on Facebook. I don't use them (I just hide people who spam) but they seem to do what you want..
The feature exists but it's inadequate for properly filtering content.
From plus.google.com: > Google+ is in limited Field Trial Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people. WHY?! WHY are they doing this again? They did this with Wave. Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly…
That is a problem. What is the use of the photo sharing, Hangout is there is no one else to share it with.
If Google did not want to launch it to everyone at once, they should have probably gone geographically!
Have been waiting for the day when I can share information that is relevant to the portion of my friends that know or actually care what Im talking about... How has facebook not integrated this before (other than going into privacy settings each and every time)?
Google Buzz is a good example of how forcing an active account on everyone at the same time led to a large backlash. There's a pretty wide gulf between opening up and forcing it on people. You can't build a social networking sites if it isn't open to people in your users' social networks. But you also can't build a site people trust and want to use by forcing it on them.
Curiously, I've heard that FaceBook also started by forcing an account on everyone - Zuckerburg scraped the online student database so that everyone at Harvard automatically had a FaceBook account. (Or rather, he scraped it for FaceMash and then used the data again to start FaceBook.) You can get away with a lot more when you're a college student project than when you're a multi-billion-$ corporation.
It is different. Buzz was forced on to anyone who logged into Gmail.
Have been waiting for the day when I can share information that is relevant to the portion of my friends that know or actually care what Im talking about... How has facebook not integrated this before (other than going into privacy settings each and every time)?
> I'm afraid it might not be What leads you to that conclusion? Any article I've seen hints at the opposite. I'd be shocked if, as you note, they intentionally cripple one of the core components of this site.
I think we are talking features here, when the only important thing is the product. I doubt people are going to micro manage their circles. It's too much work. "Should I put you into 'best friends' or 'love you guys'. Circles are going to become a very little managed feature. Personally I would create four categories: "Friends" "People I know" "People that are interesting" "Family".
I'd add Coworkers, Drinking Buddies, Biking buddies, Dev buddies, ... this really has potential. I don't want to share holiday photos of my girlfriend in a bikini with developers I've never met but that are in my gmail contacts. Similarly I don't want to share geeky code stuff with people I met through my girlfriend. That example only involves two out of the dozen "circles" in my life.
I don't think the news feed/wall is a place for vanity. It really depends on the user. Your example of the guy trying to look smart+cutting edge makes sense. For me though, I like to keep my Facebook free of tech/coding stuff even though that is a large part of my life. It has no relevance to my Facebook friends so it should not be there. I put that type of stuff on twitter, and on twitter I do not follow people who…
Personally, I've got about half a dozen interests that I only want to share with people who find it relevant or interesting, like your example about tech/coding stuff. I don't share that either but I would if I could better control who it goes out to. This feature sounds great to me.
That's exactly what I was getting at. And I think most people are in similar situations. But Google+ and Circles will only work right if all your friends use it. Otherwise it'll be just another network to update with specific content.