Will this service be the Facebook killer or at least a Facebook equalizer? Stay tuned.
The new social networking service is named Google+ (Google Plus) and like always Danny Sullivan as an in-depth multimedia look on Search Engine Land. Cool! A lot of screen caps and video.
Direct to SEL Overview Post: “Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives”
The new Google+ service (announced today) and the recently launched Google +1 sharing service (Google’s take on “Likes” or Retweets” are NOT the same. Yes, it’s confusing.
When Can You Take Google+ For A Spin?
No answer for you. It’s a limited trial (they’re calling it a “field test”). When we learn more you’ll be the first to know.
Key Points From Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Land Post:
- It’s a Project Not a Product
- Sullivan: “Most important, Google+ is a social network of your friends, family and other contacts, a way to connect to these people, just like Facebook. Unlike Facebook, Google+ is built from the ground up around the concept of sharing material with groups of people, called “Circles.”
- Contacts Come From Your Gmail Contacts and Importing From Other Services (Not Facebook)
- Google Buzz and Google+ Being Kept Separate
- The name of the new black bar at the top of Google is referred to as the “One Google” Bar
- “No matter where you are on Google, you’ll have the ability to share something out to Google Plus.” (via Links on the Black Bar)
- “All those Google +1 buttons that are now starting to appear on Google search worldwide? Those Google +1 buttons that publishers have diligently been adding to their sites since they were released earlier this month? Nothing from those button clicks flows back into Google Plus.”
Direct to SEL Overview Post: “Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives”
See Also: Google’s Introductory Blog Post: ” Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web”
See Also: ” First Look at the Google Plus social network: The Top Secret Demo” (via Reuters)
Comment:
Google is always rolling out new and updated services. That’s not a problem or it shouldn’t be a problem.
Over the past few years with something new rolling out daily from the Googleplex we’ve noticed that established services for some reason don’t get the attention they once from the company. Our post from earlier today is related to this point.
What makes this difficult to understand is that with the vast resources (aka $$$, human talent, and the ability to get more) Google has we can’t figure out why this has to happen. Our hope is that as Google continues to release new services attention remains focused on services many use many times a day keep users aware of what’s going on. How many of you are seeing a black bar at the top of Google pages. We’ mentioned earlier that it’s part of the Google+ project. However, what about all of those users who “just use” Google. Shouldn’t they at least know that the new black bar has nothing to do with their computer? Right now it doesn’t provide that info.
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