Thanks for the do-over, Google Plus
Figures after bellyaching about all the social sites, Google would throw something out there to make us spend even more time at the computer. Like I don't spend enough time. Ask my wife. There have been times we've chatted on Skype WHILE WE'RE BOTH IN THE SAME ROOM.
An invite to Google Plus was in my mailbox it for weeks before I gave in and checked it out.
I was shocked.
Google Plus is effing great.
Some thoughts after playing around with it for a week:
1) Remember when everyone was on MySpace but it was butt ugly so you gave Facebook a try? Google Plus on a lesser level does the same thing for me. I love the simple, clean, uncluttered feeling of Google Plus and the interface is more intuitive and flows better than FB. Circles is a stroke of genius. You just drag and drop people into different circles to organize groups.
2) Figuring out privacy on FB is a pain in the ass. They make you dig around. If you're like me, you gave up and make everything public. I once saw an ugly domestic spat in FB because the couple hadn't figured out what was visible. Oops. Controlling privacy is much easier on Google Plus
3) Maybe this is just me, but my friends list on FB is a giant unorganized mess. There is no way in hell I'm going to spend time organizing it. Google Plus is a chance to redo your social networking life.
4) You can follow people like on Twitter. You don't have to reciprocate if people want to follow you. This makes a cleaner news stream. Admit it. Your newsfeed on FB is one giant, noisy mess with tons of posts about pets and babies from people you barely know.
5) You can choose which stream to follow. It is like having channels on TV. You can follow professionals in one stream, then click a button and follow friends. Streams can be followed depending on how you organize groups.
6) The personal profile page much better looking on Google +. The design has more of a clean Swiss feel. Visual professionals are legally required to like anything Swiss.
7) You can edit your posts. In FB you have to delete then reenter your posts.
8) Can't put my finger on it, but there is something about Google Plus that keeps me checking it out even though there are not many people on it. This is a very good sign. When I first put a profile up on FB, not much happened for about a year then all hell broke loose. The same thing could happen with Google Plus.
In general, Google Plus seems more grown up than FB.
We'll see how well this holds up after my goofball friends start using it.