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Google+ gets a redesign

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Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#101

Post by jamesbritt »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #92

I reading the comments here it seems like a lot of people don't use a basic G+ technique: don't view All Circles at once unless you really want to spend a while (like 5 or 10 minutes) browsing everyone you follow. For example, I have circles for Java, Clojure, AI, Ruby, Semantic Web, etc., etc., and near the top of the screen I'll switch from All Circles to just AI, for example. Also: the red notification number in t…

There's an excellent chrome extension that allowed one to check off specific circles to view as a group. Rather than have to view one circle, then the next circle, then the next, I could view multiple circles at the same time.

What this really meant was that I could get an "All" view that excluded those circles holding people I'm only sporadically interested in, without having to play with the circle frequency slider thing.

This new g+ design obliterates that plugin. The inability to view sets of circles is a major failing of the UI.

Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#102

Post by gurkendoktor »

foolinator wrote: post #80

Even though one can't reliably predict how to take down facebook, it's great to see google keep trying to lash at it. Historically, no tech company stays in the #1 spot for more than a decade. That doesn't mean Facebook won't be around in 10 years, but it does show how volatile the tech market can be. XBox was viewed as a joke but they kept at it with their cash machine, and now they're successful. Dreamcast was awes…

> no tech company stays in the #1 spot for more than a decade

If that were a fixed law, then Facebook could still wait for Windows, Photoshop, Skype and Google Search to disappear before they had to worry about themselves.

I hope I will remember to revisit this comment in half a decade. :)

Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#103

Post by hk_kh »

AznHisoka wrote: post #65

I think Google+ can capture part of that anti-Facebook audience. Emphasize more meaningful conversations, and less trivial updates and lame drama. Sort of what those Mac commercials did by comparing themselves against boring old Windows.

Maybe they can capture part of the anti-Facebook audience.

They would never get the anti-social-network audience, though. And this, which seems trivial, is important, because (for me) it's not that I am anti-Facebook, it's that I would never spend my time on a social network.

Besides, the same arguments that goes in an anti-Facebook opinion, are relevant also for g+

Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#104

Post by rys »

ed209 wrote: post #41
mindcrime wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want my stream filled with junk the way my Facebook stream is. Me either, but - IMO - the answer to this isn't to leave out the "write API," but rather the answer is to give users better filters and the ability to define their stream to meet their own desires. Of course doing so with a simple and intuitive UI is the tricky part, but hey... those G+ engineers make a lot of money, they should be able to come up…

> they should be able to come up with something, no? no! :) Probably the hardest thing in social media is noise filtering via a UI (it's hard for Google, it's hard for Facebook, it's just a hard problem). For my own (app) selfish reasons, I'd like to see a write api for comments first as that doesn't cause issues on the same scale as writing posts to the stream. Could be a nice place to start.

Why should the UI or API get involved with filtering what's inherently the human's problem?

Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#106

Post by mbrubeck »

haberman wrote: post #84
jaysonelliot wrote: post #46

The first thing I have to do when looking at a demo video like this is mute the music so I can actually look at the usability of the interface without the soundtrack trying to tug at my heartstrings. I find it hard to tell if this is going to be a step in the right direction or not. There are some red flags that go up for me, but it's obviously hard to judge based on descriptions and videos alone. One of the biggest…

Can't you configure what gets delivered as a notification? If you're so popular that people are adding you to circles all the time, can't you just turn those notifications off?

As far as I can tell, you can customize email and phone notifications, but you can't customize the notifications that appear under the red alert number on Google web pages. (I might be missing something.)

Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#107

Post by unreal37 »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #75

For me, the problem with G+ is that you can't fine-tune the signal:noise ratio enough. In a nutshell, Facebook is a network of people I know first IRL, so getting pictures of their dinner last night or latest cat's antics and other useless stuff I can sort of live with, it goes with the territory. But G+ is more like Twitter with longer posts - I follow a a lot of people I don't know IRL, but only because of a shared…

I think G+ needs to clarify whether it's aimed at "only real friends" as Facebook is, or aimed at "mainly people you don't know" a la Twitter. Once they clarify that, people will stop posting vacation photos for strangers to see, or stop posting Lisp programming tips to their personal friends.

Re: Google+ gets a redesign

#108

Post by SandersAK »

NickPollard wrote: post #36
kyasui wrote: post #25

If Google+ gets a redesign, and no one is around to see it, does Google+ have a redesign?

I've noticed that all the people joking about Google+ are the ones who don't use it, whilst the ones who do just happily get on using it.

I'm just never sure which Google+ I'm supposed to use - my work email, my other work email, my personal email, the email associated with my social networks?

The biggest barrier for me is the inability to login in with whatever I want and then hook in whatever networks I want.

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