Google+ The New Social Networking Site?

Who will win out?

I just recently discovered Google's so called "latest and greatest project" aimed to "make connecting with people on the web more like connecting with them in the real world". For those of you who don't know anything about Google+, it is currently Google's social network in progress. It is in trial/beta now, and in order to join you have to have a Google account. I, myself,  was informed of its existence by a close friend of mine who wanted to add me to his "circle" and get my opinion on the whole thing.

Now, he told me that his friends were raving about the new Google+ social network, and I was hoping it would be something completely amazing and mind blowing, but to my disappointment, it isn't any better than Facebook. And it's hardly any better than MySpace. To be honest, it's like the derpy offspring of Facebook and Google.

Google is stating that Google+ will be the next new big social networking website, taking Facebook's place. But even with that confidence, Google isn't sharing invitations to its latest project with everyone. Access to the project is invitation only, and only a limited number of users were given 15 invitations apiece to bring others. If you want to join, you can enter your name and email to receive updates and request an account, here. We’re still ironing out a few kinks in Google+, so it’s not quite ready for everyone to climb aboard," Google writes on the webpage, "But, if you want, we’ll let you know the minute the doors are open for real. Cool? Cool."

This is not the first time that Google has used user limits to stir interst-the same thing happened with Google Wave and Gmail. It makes Google+ seem special... elite, even. It's a ploy to make it look better than it is.It seems to be all part of Google's plan to take over the internet. It already took over YouTube and Blog Spot as it is.

Ding-ding! Let the match begin!

But anyways. How is Google+ as a social networking site, in comparison with Facebook and MySpace? Well, I'll start with the technical stuff. As far as loading speed, it's faster than MySpace. MySpace refuses to load on my laptop (a 2003 model). But, it's slower than FaceBook, which loads in two seconds. Google+ loads in five seconds. As with all Google products, it tends to hog all of my CPU. I'm lucky if it doesn't run at 100%.

It is also incredibly glitchy. A lot of the time parts of the screen won't load. And half of the time, I can't upload ANY photos. I follow the upload and album rules perfectly, and I still get the same "Sever Denied" error message. It can be rather frustrating-makes me want to hit my head on the desk. I never had that kind of trouble with FaceBook. The only FaceBook glitch I had really was when tags on photos wouldn't show up correctly.

As for aethetics, it's rather plain and simple. If it were in different colors, I'd say it looks just like it were made for kids. The colors aren't bad, and it's easy on the eye. But it has no real style. No personality. It's rather boring. FaceBook is more cluttered, but it also has that many more features to take up space. MySpace, well.. I have never been able to get far past the main screen. So I guess something is better than nothing?

The features are limited. There's the basic news/update feed. There's your friend "circles" which are basically fancy circle shaped friend groups with easy drag and drop feature. Then there's "hangouts" which is video chat. I don't have a webcam, so I can't try it out myself, because it requires a webcam and mic.There is also  regular chat though, and it works well enough. You can send files through it, and voice/video chat.You can also make group chats. You can "go off the record", which means, your chat history wont be stored (so apparently you can view your history if you want to check back on something). However, the other person could still be storing chat history.

FaceBook has a ton more features. It has games. It has quizzes. It has product/people pages. It has groups and events and calendars. It has page suggestions, friend suggestions easy to get to. It also has poles and pokes, and private email. And probably more that I forgot.

It has little entertainment value because of it's lack of features. I could spend all day on FaceBook, but I couldn't spend 20 minutes on Google+. It just doesn't have that addictive quality. That's not to say it's bad. So far as I can tell it's better than MySpace. But do I think it will surpass FaceBook as the best social networking site? Not in its current developmental state. We will just have to see what tricks Google has up its sleeve--maybe it will come up with something amazing after all.

Who's side are you on?

Article (c) Maranda L. Scott

Photos (c) their respectful owners.