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I’m Officially a Google+ Beta User

Blog, Life / 121 Comments

I’ve seen a bit of information over the past few days about Google+. I’m told it is trying to rival Facebook as a social media hub. I like to stay on the cutting edge of technology and social media, so I wanted to do some research and be informed. I couldn’t just sign up for the service because they are in beta and you can only get in with an invite.

Then my phone vibrated, letting me know I had a new email.

Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if it wasn’t a Google+ invitation. My friend Bryan J Busch, who hosts podcasts over at Consumerism Commentary, sent me an invite and made me one of the first people to join Google’s new social networking platform.

Google PlusWhy I Like Google+ So Far

The best thing I’ve found about Google+ is the opportunity to start from scratch, and to place your connections into groups as you build them. I like to think I’m a smart person but Facebook’s privacy settings are confusing. I’m sure there are ways to limit sharing and manage privacy, but because it’s not right in front of my face, I don’t want to deal with it. With Google+, they put a priority on helping you manage who gets to see what. You build circles and put people in them, and then you share things according to which circles should have permission to see something.

Even if Facebook added circles tomorrow, I wouldn’t go back and arrange my 400+ friends into different circles. It would be too much of a pain. However, now that I’m starting over from scratch again with Google+, it’s easy to manage circles and put people in their proper buckets. The “circles” feature is nice, but I really think the combination of circles with a blank slate is the reason I’m digging The Plus.

Why it Could Beat Facebook

If I were to name Facebook’s two biggest drawbacks, it would be the lack of simple privacy control, and the fact that my mom is on Facebook. I love my mom, and I personally don’t care if she sees my whole profile. I don’t drink, so I don’t have to worry about being tagged in compromising pictures. However, lots of people I know would never let their mom see half the stuff they post. When new technology gets old enough that it is massively adopted by old people, young people start to lose interest.

Google+ isn’t really any groundbreaking technology, but it is new, which means it will take a while for the older generation to adopt it. If it gets popular, it will be overrun with young people who learned their lessons from Facebook and set up a “Family” circle immediately after signing up. These people will share whatever they want with their friends, and then when Mom and Dad finally show up in a few years, they will already have the privacy settings locked in. If they set the privacy settings well enough, they can essentially ignore Mom and Dad completely and continue as if they weren’t there.

It Needs a Nickname

I referred to it as “The Plus” earlier because my stupid pinky finger can never find that stupid plus button up there. For some reason, the pinky thinks the “+” is somewhere near the “7” because I’m never even close to hitting the right key. For the sake of easy typing, I think we should all just refer to it as “The Plus”.

I also just dislike the way Google+ looks. It’s very odd to see a plus sign attached to the end of a word. It doesn’t look natural, and like I said before, it definitely isn’t a natural typing motion for me. I truly believe that if this network is going to survive, it will need to rebrand itself quickly as “The Plus” or something else equally simple. Maybe “TP” for short. It’s always nice to share a nickname with something that wipes dirty butts or houses Native Americans.

Let’s Give it a Shot

The look and feel is very Facebooky, mixed with a lot of Google’s signature white space. I’m also not being assaulted with ads, so it’s a pleasant browsing experience. I’m sure Google will want to monetize this site at some point, and that’s where it will start to be less cool and more like the Facebook we all know and hate. But until then, I’m gonna have some fun with it.

If you want to get involved and don’t already have an invite, drop your email in the comments section. Free invites to the first 500ish people!

Invites are open again (as of noon on 7/18) so leave a comment with your email and I’ll send you an invite. If you feel the need to thank me for your invite, feel free to subscribe to my blog or follow me on twitter.

121 thoughts on “I’m Officially a Google+ Beta User”

  4. Dave Soetanto

    Hey I read about how the older generation is now able to use it…. I understand intimately what you meant, send me an invite when you can!

  10. Bryan

    C’mon Google! Enable the invites already! I am in for one – thanks for the offer, Kevin!

  12. Marcus Bakke

    I agree, the better controlled privacy of Google+ is definitely a game changer in social networking competition.

    And yes, if they open up invitations again I would not mind receiving one!

    Thank you

  19. Ken

    It Sounds Like Such A Positive Thing And I Really Wish I Could Get A Look First Hand.

    If I Can Still Receive An Invite My Email Is kenneth.martiin@gmail.com

    If Not I cant Wait Until The Official Launch

  20. Bayu Aditya

    It sounds really cool, I’m very eager to try it since the first time I read the article on tech crunch. If you still have the invites, mind to let me try it also? Thanks a lot man

  21. TK

    This seems pretty cool. If you can invite me, my email is mrnebula333@gmail.com

    If not i guess i’ll just have to wait for the AWESOMENESS XD

  24. Andrew

    Email: Kamari02@gmail.com

    I’d love a Google+ Invite!

    Great info, I hope to test this out myself soon!

  29. Jesse Hudson

    This looks awesome!
    I agree with the name, they need to change that, it would bother me a lot to type Google+ frequently.

  30. Kevin Hutchinson

    Thanks. I love the circles idea. I’ve been put off ‘the other site’ because of a lack of separation between work and personal posts.

    I’d love an invite šŸ™‚

  34. Justin

    Hey, if you get invites back, i would love to get one! Huge tech guy, been waiting for Google+ forever.
    e-mail, country_dog@hotmail.com
    thanks!

  36. Mercedez

    Can’t wait to try! I’m a believer that this’ll be greater than FB. Please and thanks! (:

  37. Millmo

    Thanks for your review. I’m interested to see where google takes their social networking. Facebook gets aggravating at times, and I’m sure google will do a great job. If you could please send me an invitation to “The Plus”, I’d appreciate it. =)

  40. Lee

    Thanks Nice article. It looks like Google Plus is on the right track in it’s development stage. I would appreciate an invite to add to the discussion. My email is submitted.

  41. Nap

    Thanks for the Article on TP. Have been following the development through posts like your and it looks like The Plus is going to be a force. I’d be appreciative of an invite so I can check it out and add to the review. Jason Hiner has an interesting article @ http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-plus-the-top-10-missing-features/52654?tag=nl.e539. He uses Plus instead of + also :). Send me an invite and thanks ahead of time if you do…

  43. flpanther360

    Google+ looks like it will be the new Facebook of this generation! Would love to be sent an invite, the circle system looks amazing! Thanks and I can’t wait to try out the service šŸ˜€

  45. Oneil 13

    Hey this looks very interesting and all my friends love it. Ill be thankful to be invited to it. thanks

  46. Vdogg20

    Google+ looks like it’s gonna give FaceBook some stiff competition. I would really appreciate an invite. I’d love to try it out.

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