Google+ for the Facebook User

Google+ vs. Facebook

If you’re like me, most of your family, if not all, communicates with each other via Facebook. For some reason, it has just become easier to post a quick message online than to just call them and let them know how things are going. Some may argue that it’s ruining relationships, but in my experience, it has brought us together even more by allowing us to share photos and videos easily. We even go as far as scheduling family events with the Facebook scheduling mechanism.

Now here comes Google+ to interrupt our utopia of social family harmony with a supposedly better solution. My sarcasm in the last sentence is forced because I personally know it to be a better solution IN THE LONG RUN. For me to explain why I feel this way, I find it important to first compare the two services. I am not biased towards either service, although as a programmer, I do appreciate those with an API (hint to Google) with good documentation (hint to Facebook)

Similarities between Facebook and Google+

First and foremost, both services offer a simple way to share stories, photos and videos with family and friends. This is the core of both social applications, although their methodology behind it couldn’t be more different, but we’ll get to that.

Wall Posts → Stream Posts

On Facebook, the user has a WALL where I can post what’s on my mind. With their simple UI (or User Interface for non-geeks), you can post status updates, photos, videos, links or even ask questions with a poll-style plugin.

Original Skitch image unavailable: “What’s on your mind?” screenshot.

Google+ is very similar to Facebook in that you can also post your status, or what’s new as Google likes to put it. In addition, you can post photos, videos, links and your current location.

Original Skitch image unavailable: “Share what’s new…” screenshot.

Moderate posts to your wall/stream

Both Facebook and Google+ give you the ability to moderate the content that is posted on your wall (or stream). Not too much difference aside from the way the options are presented.

Original Skitch image unavailable: “Post options” screenshot.

Friend Requests, Messages and Notifications

On Facebook, you are notified when someone wants to add you as a friend, when they need oil for a new boat they are building for some new Zynga game, or when they comment on your post or comment. I don’t need to explain how it works.. anyone who has used Facebook for more than an hour just gets it.

Original Skitch image unavailable: Facebook notifications screenshot.

Google+ does notifications a bit differently. While Facebook splits the notification types into different tabs: Friend Requests, Messages and Notifications, Google+ wraps all of these (well, most) into one tab:

Original Skitch image unavailable: Google+ notifications screenshot.

Both Facebook and Google+ have quick and easy access to the full list of notifications. One thing I noticed that Google+ has done a better job at is they show the context of the notification whereas Facebook only shows a link to the data. For Twitter users, think of it as Facebook is the older Twitter interface and Google+ is their new, more descriptive interface.

Like vs +1 buttons

OK.. here’s the part in this post where things really start to differ a bit between the two social giants. Facebook has the famous ‘Like’ button which will tell your friends that you like something. The like button is tied to a URL that Facebook has in their database and shows the number of people that also like that link on the button.

Google has a similar button called ‘+1’. It was introduced not too long ago so understandably, adoption is still in the process. Even though both seem to share the same purpose, I believe Google has taken a different approach to how this is to be used.

When logged into Google+, you can click on your profile, then the +1’s tab and it will show you all of the links you have marked as +1 with a nifty little summary of what it is. To a savvy user, this could easily become a simple replacement for services like Instapaper or ReadItLater. I couldn’t find anywhere on Facebook the ability to find my ‘Likes’ list, although I’m sure if I did, it would be very long and somewhat useless. So how will Google make it so the +1 button still useful in allowing us to see our links we +1’d, but not drown us in our own links list? Time will tell.

**One additional note on this:** Google, your +1 button is *NOT* intuitive. It always looks like I need to click on it, especially when it's already been +1'd (blue status). Facebook got this right when they made it grayed out.

Where Google+ Shines

#1 - Circles

If you leave with anything, leave with this: Circles is why Google+ will survive and thrive!

Now watch this video and come back.

I don’t want to get too much into this topic because it not only deserves it’s own time and space, but it is also too big of a topic for the scope of this post.

I will summarize in an example scenario:

You are on Facebook and want to post your images from last nights party to some friends at your office (but not your boss) and to your buddies that you hang out with on the weekends. How can you do this without going in and creating groups upon groups and doing multiple posts? Circles to the rescue.

Circles is the easiest, quickest and most intuitive way available to share data specifically with those that you want to share it with, and hide it from those you don’t want to see it.

Although revolutionary, I believe that this system still needs some refinement. I have two suggestions:

Enhance the interface of dragging and dropping people to circles to work well when the you have more than 5 circles (the scrolling becomes very tricky).
Create sub-circles. I have a lot of circles, but a lot of them fall under other ones. I want to have tree-style circles where I can share with whichever branch I want and it will go down to each twig.

#2 - Sparks (topic-driven streams)

Original Skitch image unavailable: Sparks screenshot.

I LOVE this feature!!! As a programmer, I am trying to follow certain topics and when anything is posted on this topic, it shows up in my Sparks list. This takes on a similar role as Google Alerts does but within the realm of my social atmosphere. Even though I primarily use this for programming purposes, it could be used for anything! That’ll do Google. That’ll do.

#3 - Hangouts

Group video chat with your friends and circles. From what I’ve heard, here are a few bugs in this, but it is very promising. I will reserve my opinions on it for now (because I haven’t really tried it yet).

#4 - Picasa Integration

I have been uploading my photos to Picasa for years. Now it is fully integrated with my social network and I still have control over who is able to see which albums. The interface is beautiful and very intuitive.

**One additional note on this:** Google, your album viewer is nearly unusable with a happy trigger finger and a scroll mouse. I would suggest disabling the scrolling via the mouse wheel or at least put a minimum threshold on it prior to performing the scroll.

Where Google+ needs a bit more work

This may be more of a wish list, or perhaps it’s already in the works, but while I have my podium, I wanted to request some additional features on Google+:

iPhone App, where art thou? - Even though the iPhone web app is one of the best I’ve ever seen, it’s still not good enough. I know that the hold-up is on Apple and not on Google, however. Come on, Steve.. what did we ever do to you?
Games & Apps - I’m certain this will be coming eventually. In my opinion, this is the mesmerizing blue light that brings the mosquitos in.
Developer Support - On that note, we need an API. We, the developers, are chomping at the bit to help build this up.

REMEMBER: This is only a few weeks old!

One thing to remember is that this is only a few weeks old. Google has already reached tremendous growth through their invite-only system.

I have been VERY impressed with what the whole Google team has done so far. Designers, developers, Q&A, etc have done a remarkable job and I highly commend them.

For those who haven’t received an invite yet, please visit GooglePlusDaily.net and request your invite. Also, be sure to listen to the podcasts for the latest news and tutorials on Google+!