Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Google+ First impressions

Being in Google+ is like being in an (mostly) empty coliseum. You can feel the presence of thousands, but you don't see them.

What I like:
* Circles: I like being able to group my friends
* Automatic upload of phone photos via the G+ app
* Set up: G+ is Google, and Google knows all. When I first logged into G+, it knew my previous addresses, work history, and everyone in my contact list. Set up was a breeze.
* Automatic integration with Gmail

What I don't like:
* Mandatory Circles: As far as I can tell, you can't write directly to someone in G+. Unless you make a circle for just them, then write to that circle. Could at least have given me an email link.
* Usability: G+ gave me all my contacts, and I sorted them into circles. Most of those people don't have G+. I went to share a message to a circle yesterday, and it, by default, checked a box that would email my post to those people who don't have G+. Um, no thanks.
* Usability: Automatic upload of phone photos via the G+ app had to be set up twice in order to make it work.
* Usability: The photos links don't refresh the photos. E.g., I click "photos of me" and its empty, just says "Tag yourself in some photos to show up here". So I go tag myself in some photos, go back to "photos of me" and it's still empty until i refresh the page. Same for "photos from my phone".

And finally:
* It's soooo quiet. Nothing happens there because the crowd is on Facebook.