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Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

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Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#141

Post by ipince »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #97
ralfd wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be a stupid question: How do you use lists? I made some lists with circlehack.com. But on Facebook I don't see a way to share something with a list. I am puzzled...?

You need to have lists populated. I add people to lists as I friend them so my lists are all set. From the homepage, click "friends" in the left column, then "manage friends" button in the centre. Hover over a friend and you can "Edit lists" to add or remove them from lists (at http://www.facebook.com/friends/edit/ ). Once you have friends in lists then you use lists like you would an email list. From the homepage cl…

More than targeted sharing, what I like about Google Circles is that I can filter my news feed/stream by a circle.

Is there similar functionality for facebook lists? I can't find how to do so...

Thanks!

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#142

Post by statictype »

narrator wrote: post #93
spullara wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook Friend Lists are far more powerful than Google Circles and Facebook Groups are an entirely different beast. At an architectural level Facebook Lists are a core feature. They even had them front and center for a few years as they asked you to populate them by "how do you know this person?" when you added them as a friend. The problem is that no one wanted to use them so they were gradually phased out of the U…

Almost reminds me of how Microsoft promoted .NET as being a runtime capable of running code generated from multiple languages. The JVM had always had this feature but it was underutilized and somewhat obscure. After the .NET launch, it took a while of explaining that the JVM could run other languages besides Java before it became widely known in the programming community.

I think it had to do with the fact that the CLR actually had multiple language support early on and it took Java some time to get there (with Scala and Clojure).

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#143

Post by neves »

adbge wrote: post #47
mrshoe wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, Facebook lists already do everything he praises Circles for in this article. They might even do a little more (e.g. share with List A, excluding anyone in List B). As he correctly notes later in the article, the lists feature is not prominent on Facebook, and therefore few use it (or maybe few people actually want it?). But it definitely will not require a major architectural overhaul by Facebook.

> In fact, Facebook lists already do everything he praises Circles for in this article. Having used both Google+'s Circles and Facebook's lists, a lot of people are missing the point. Sure, Facebook's lists may be capable of some or even all of the functionality of Google+'s Circles, but that's not addressing the important difference in functionality between the two. Google+ has clearly been designed with Circles in…

I'1l just believe in Circles when I find a non nerd user who has subdirectories in their My Documents folder.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#144

Post by tjarratt »

jimbokun wrote: post #23
pmichaud wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has "circles" but they are called "groups." I have sources that say, unofficially that: 1) They were not blindsided at all. They worked hard to compete on major features before g+ ever came out. 2) "Groups" has more or less similar functionality, and the feature is known to have a poor UI right now. The point though is that FB thought about this and even though they aren't up to the same polish with that fea…

"Just UI polish." If Apple's success has taught us anything, it's that "UI polish" trumps pretty much everything else when it comes to making money from software, and it is hard to get right (or else everyone's UIs would be just as polished as Apple's). So if Facebook is behind Google in "Just UI polish" they may have very much to fear, indeed.

It's not just UI polish that make Apple products what they are though - it's the design that goes into a product even before an engineer writes a single line of code, or before a prototype is even built.

Apple isn't afraid to have a bad idea and then toss it out because, after all, ideas are cheap. If you build a turd and you polish it, are you still going to release that polished turd? The Apple way is to design it the right way from the start, THEN you polish it.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#145

Post by spullara »

ipince wrote: post #141
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to have lists populated. I add people to lists as I friend them so my lists are all set. From the homepage, click "friends" in the left column, then "manage friends" button in the centre. Hover over a friend and you can "Edit lists" to add or remove them from lists (at http://www.facebook.com/friends/edit/ ). Once you have friends in lists then you use lists like you would an email list. From the homepage cl…

More than targeted sharing, what I like about Google Circles is that I can filter my news feed/stream by a circle. Is there similar functionality for facebook lists? I can't find how to do so... Thanks!

Click Recent News, select a Friend List from the drop down.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#146

Post by spullara »

jdhopeunique wrote: post #128
kisielk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The problem is that no one wanted to use them so they were gradually phased out of the UI." That basically says to me that not enough emphasis was placed on designing the site around the feature. I think that's what Google's done right in their case, circles are front-and-center and not just another feature in an already feature-cluttered UI.

A prime example of a fundamental feature of facebook is the concept of a single wall that all of my friends can post to. Even if I could figure out how to prevent my work/church/family friends and my college/bar-hopping/trouble-making friends from seeing each others posts to my wall, I'm still faced with an uncomfortable UI that displays posts from both groups at once. That aspect of the UI alone doesn't help me feel…

Same thing happens in your stream on Google+.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#147

Post by spullara »

cemregr wrote: post #111
Jasber wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with lists is it acts as a separate group rather than a filter. I want to see everyone's posts who is in a list. Instead I only see posts that have been specifically shared with a list. With circles, it automatically filters my stream without anyone having to post to my list or group. They just share it with me. This is a subtle but important difference for me.

At least at some point you could view the news feed of people in a given friend list in Facebook too.

Recent News -> Select friend list.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#148

Post by spullara »

zwily wrote: post #121
Jasber wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with lists is it acts as a separate group rather than a filter. I want to see everyone's posts who is in a list. Instead I only see posts that have been specifically shared with a list. With circles, it automatically filters my stream without anyone having to post to my list or group. They just share it with me. This is a subtle but important difference for me.

People don't post to a list on Facebook. Your friends don't even know they're in a list, like Circles. You can filter your stream by lists, but it's not exposed on the UI and you have to do some URL mingling.

Recent News -> Select Friend List from drop down.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#149

Post by wisty »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #94
wisty wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that Facebook killed MySpace for one simple reason - tricking people into using their real name made it easy to find real life friends (and classmates, etc). IMO, this is what put it head and shoulders above all the other social networks. Nobody could copy it, because their existing users (the early adopters) had silly names like "wisty". Existing users already have old habits, and existing data that they don…

But they will only add their photos to one, and that one will ultimately pull ahead.

And new photos will go where your boss can't see them.

Re: Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?

#150

Post by [deleted] »

bmelton wrote: post #131
waterlesscloud wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got to have misstated that. That would be a complete and total disaster of enough scale to completely kill Plus.

Nope. They're uploaded as 'private' by default, and it's a configurable option, so you can turn the auto-upload feature off altogether. Actually, maybe I did, because I think it asked me the first time whether or not I want auto-upload on or off by default; but even with it on, I don't feel even remotely unsafe -- the photos are automatically backed up to 'the cloud' and aren't shared unless I go in and explicitly sh…

[deleted]
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