Google+ (it’s all about the circles baby)

I managed to nab a Google+ (G+) account this week, and its looking like a solid product.  I haven’t used Facebook in more than a year so I can’t really compare the two.  I will say that if Facebook had had Circles I probably wouldn’t have left.  G+ doesn’t have 3rd party apps yet, I don’t know if they intend to, but I assume so.  If G+ does start allowing 3rd party apps, information security will be a very telling feature.  A strong focus on allowing information control will make G+ a solid service for me.  Circles seems to provide that control, and Circles appears to be the core functionality upon which G+ is built.  All they really have to do is continue to follow this model with all aspects of their service to keep me a believer.

I will take this opportunity to mention that because Google is kind of dumb and does not yet support their own service (Google Apps).  So for the moment I am using G+ through one of my old gmail accounts.  This bugs me as I assume I will have to re-do all my G+ settings when I move back to my primary account as well as lose all my history.  History may in fact not be important, I assume stuff that is older than a couple of days will not be looked at ever again, but I like the idea that I could.  It’s true that G+ does currently have a data export feature, but currently has no import feature.

As a application it seems that G+ still has a ways to go before it will be done.  There are some obvious enhancements which I can only assume will come in time.  I am making suggestions as I find them.  I am looking forward to having a social interaction that a larger number of friends and family members will have access to (most people I know have a gmail account).  Even the limited interactions I’ve had with people so far has been fun.  I will re-evaluate as we go along, but it looks like a solid service, and I have high hopes.