Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+ • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#321

Post by ern » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 5:35 AM UTC

nextparadigms wrote: post #197

kristiandupont wrote: post #96

This is exciting and all -- and much as I would love to see a serious competitor to Facebook, I still don't know how I would convince any of my non-techie friends that they should switch to this. Circles? Actually I think that many people like the idea of their posts are being read by as many people as possible and not just the ones with similar interests. Although it looks like a big discussion group, the news feed…

"Circles? Actually I think that many people like the idea of their posts are being read by as many people as possible and not just the ones with similar interests." I totally disagree with that. Facebook sorely lacks such a feature, and the lack of it has led to "spammy" messages from so called "friends" you barely even know, or care about in your list. Google+ seems to solve a lot of issues with Facebook. And I thin…

Google does have powerful friend grouping features, and you can hide your information/posts/photos/etc from any category of friends you want. You can hide them from specific friends, and you can hide individual items in the same way. And the news feed can be filtered easily as well (although without as much fine grained control as content you produce).

Overall, I think that Facebook needs to do a better job of educating its users about these features, and make them more prominent, but I find these features are certainly quite adequate.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#322

Post by barista » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 5:45 AM UTC

ahalam wrote: post #306

barista wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook already has a conceprt of groups. I frequently share my updates/pictures with only to select set of groups. It's just that it is a bit hard to use it. Nothing that facebook can't fix. Don't know what is so great about this.

The problem with FB groups is that both you and the friends that you want to share the link/photo/message with have to agree to be part of that group. I usually put my friends in multiple groups/circles, i.e. they could be a work colleague but also a eating out enthusiast. This multiple categorization can easily get messy and definitely doesn't scale to hundreds of friends. Hopefully, with Google+ Circles my private…

It's actually called list. Groups in FB is something different. Try creating a friend list and then you can share it with only that list.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#323

Post by ern » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 5:46 AM UTC

akkartik wrote: post #242

kristiandupont wrote: post #96

This is exciting and all -- and much as I would love to see a serious competitor to Facebook, I still don't know how I would convince any of my non-techie friends that they should switch to this. Circles? Actually I think that many people like the idea of their posts are being read by as many people as possible and not just the ones with similar interests. Although it looks like a big discussion group, the news feed…

I find I feel a sort of stage fright at the thought of posting something for my 800 facebook 'friends' to read.

Why not group your friends, and restrict your posts by default to people you actually care about? The rest won't be aware they are even being filtered.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#324

Post by akkartik » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 5:48 AM UTC

ern wrote: post #323

akkartik wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find I feel a sort of stage fright at the thought of posting something for my 800 facebook 'friends' to read.

Why not group your friends, and restrict your posts by default to people you actually care about? The rest won't be aware they are even being filtered.

That's essentially what Google+ does. Twitter isn't designed for posting to different audiences, and Facebook won't let me show certain posts of my wall to certain people but not others.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#325

Post by ern » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 5:51 AM UTC

veeti wrote: post #25

cryptoz wrote: post #2

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…

> Oops... you need a Google Profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organisation. Come on, Google!

Google recently forced users to make their Profiles public, and announced that it was going to delete private Profiles. If Google+ requires a Profile, then count me out.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#326

Post by ern » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 6:00 AM UTC

igorgue wrote: post #101

cryptoz wrote: post #2

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…

Don't you think it's kinda silly to think these "build hype" signup processes kill products? Github did the same in fact they recommend people to do it, and they're very successful. I agree it's a little frustrating but it's the kind of frustration that makes you go back when the site is open for signups and signup. Nothing bad... Google Wave might just be an exception of this technique and people didn't use it becau…

The slow release of Gmail accounts was an example of a great hype-building process. OTOH the product was groundbreaking (they offered a huge amount of storage compared to competitors), and it isn't 2004 anymore.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#327

Post by sandipagr » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 6:19 AM UTC

barista wrote: post #322

ahalam wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with FB groups is that both you and the friends that you want to share the link/photo/message with have to agree to be part of that group. I usually put my friends in multiple groups/circles, i.e. they could be a work colleague but also a eating out enthusiast. This multiple categorization can easily get messy and definitely doesn't scale to hundreds of friends. Hopefully, with Google+ Circles my private…

It's actually called list. Groups in FB is something different. Try creating a friend list and then you can share it with only that list.

You can't share with lists alone. Facebook sharing options are friends, friends and networks, Friends and their friends and so on. Or you have to add each friend individually. It's just weird how lists are pretty much useless in facebook.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#328

Post by immortalbeast » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 6:25 AM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #245

jm4 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, it bothers me when it says "logged in" in the google bar at the top because google watches my searches. When I am on facebook I behave like I am in public. I don't hope for the best and write secret stuff anywhere. But with all the google searches I make through a day, I am giving google a lot of very personal information that I would not like anyone to see. I would hate to see something that I was searching f…

The solution is simple: move away from using Google for searches. There are alternatives like Bing, Yahoo and Duck Duck Go.

or just use Facebook.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#329

Post by VishalRJoshi » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 6:44 AM UTC

Duff wrote: post #89

cryptoz wrote: post #2

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…

It worked pretty well for Gmail.

Gmail concept won't work for plus as what is a social network without a network. If they have load issues they should start with influencers (like they did) and then keep letting them invite their friends. Then their friends can invite their friends and let it grow from the seed. It is wacky that my friends have to get an email update rather than experience the network with me.

Re: Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

#330

Post by cft » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 6:55 AM UTC

ernestipark wrote: post #22

DanBlake wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should check out tinychat ;)

I was sure that something like this already existed, but the fact that it's embedded within a social network and is a service by Google makes it a whole lot more appealing.

Tinychat is relatively small (check Alexa rank). If embedding it into a social network turns out to make such a big difference, be sure FB will add it, like they incorporated many novel features of Twitter.