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Google Launches Google+ To Battle Facebook [PICS]
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Google has finally unveiled Google+, the company’s top secret social layer that turns all of the search engine into one giant social network.
Google+, which begins rolling out a very limited field test on Tuesday, is the culmination of a year-long project led by Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of social. The project, which has been delayed several times, constitutes Google’s answer to Facebook.
The search giant’s new social project will be omnipresent on its products, thanks to a complete redesign of the navigation bar. The familiar gray strip at the top of every Google page will turn black, and come with several new options for accessing your Google+ profile, viewing notifications and instantly sharing content. The notification system is similar to how Facebook handles notifications, complete with a red number that increases with each additional notice.
At its core, Google+ is a social network. The first thing users are introduced to is the Stream. It’s much like the Facebook News Feed, allowing users to share photos, videos, links or their location with friends.
Screenshots: What Google+ Looks Like
Circles+
That’s where Google+ begins to diverge from Facebook, though. The focus of this social project is not on sharing with a mass group of friends, but on targeted sharing with your various social groups. To do this, Google uses a system called Circles.
Gundotra explained that most social media services (read: Facebook, Twitter) haven’t been successful with friend lists because they’ve been designed as a “tack-on” product rather than being integrated at every level. Gundotra also believes that current friend list products are awkward and not rewarding to use.
Google+ Circles is an attempt to address that challenge. The HTML5 system allows users to drag-and-drop their friends into different social circles for friends, family, classmates, co-workers and other custom groups. Users can drag groups of friends in and out of these circles.
One of the nice things about the product is its whimsical nature — a puff of smoke and a -1 animation appears when you remove a friend, and when you remove a social circle, it rolls away off the screen.
Photos & Group Video Chat
It’s clear from the extended demo that Gundotra and his team have thought about every aspect and detail of Google+ thoroughly. The photo, video and mobile experiences are no exception.
Google has created a section specifically for viewing, managing and editing multimedia. The photo tab takes a user to all of the photos he or she has shared, as well as the ones he or she is tagged in. It’s not just photo tagging, though: Google+ includes an image editor (complete with Instagram-like photo effects), privacy options and sharing features.
The video chat feature might be one of the most interesting aspects of Google+. Gundotra and his team thought about why group chat hasn’t become a mainstream phenomenon. He compared it to knocking on a neighbor’s door at 8 p.m. — most people don’t do it because it isn’t a social norm. However, if a group of friends are sitting on a porch and you just happen to walk by, it’s almost rude not to say hi.
That’s the concept behind “Hangouts,” Google’s new group chat feature. Instead of directly asking a friend to join a group chat, users instead click “start a hangout” and they’re instantly in a video chatroom alone. At the same time, a message goes out to their social circles, letting them know that their friend is “hanging out.” The result, Google has found in internal testing, is that friends quickly join.
One cool feature of Hangouts is that it doesn’t place a chat window on the screen for each participant. Instead, Google changes the chat screen to whoever is currently talking. It quickly switches from video feed to video feed, moving faster in bigger groups. The maximum members in any video Hangout is 10, though users can get on a waitlist and wait for someone to leave.
Content Discovery Through Sparks
To spur sharing, Google has added a recommendation engine for finding interesting content. The feature, Google+ Sparks, is a collection of articles, videos, photos and other content grouped by interest. For example, the “Movies” spark will have a listing of recent and relevant content for that topic.
The system is algorithmic — it relies on information from other Google products (e.g. Google Search) as well as what is being shared via Google+ and through +1 buttons.
The goal, according to Gundotra, is to make it dead-simple for users to explore their interests and share what they find with their friends. Google+ is attempting to become the one-stop shop not only for sharing content, but for finding it as well. In some ways, it reminds us of Twitter and its mission to become an information network, and “instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most important to them.”
Mobile
Google will also be launching mobile apps for Google+, starting with Android. The Android app includes access to the Stream, Circles, Sparks and multimedia.
The addition of these features in a mobile app isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise, though, is the app’s auto-upload feature. Any photo or video you take on your phone through Google+ will automatically be uploaded to your computer, ready to share. These uploads aren’t public, but the next time you log onto your desktop, the photos button in the status bar will have a number, indicating how many new uploads are available for sharing. It keeps these photos and videos available for sharing for eight hours after upload.
Gundotra says that Google intends to launch apps for Google+ on other platforms in the future.
Conclusion
Google freely admitted to me during our conversation that its previous attempt at social, Google Buzz, did not live up to expectations. Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president of product, says that part of the problem was that Buzz was just “tacked on” as a link on millions of Gmail accounts, something that Google won’t be repeating. Horowitz also says that, unlike the Buzz rollout, Google+ is a project that will roll out in stages.
In many ways, it reminds us of Gmail’s rollout. Invites to Google’s email service were so sought after at one point that people were selling them for $50 or more on eBay. While that type of fervor may not hit Google+, we expect the artificial scarcity will drive up interest while giving Google time to work out the kinks.
No matter what Google says, Google+ is the company’s response to the rise of Facebook. The two companies are in heated competition for talent, page views and consumers. While Google controls the search market and has a strong presence on mobile with Android, it hasn’t been able to crack the social nut. Its most successful social product, YouTube, had to be acquired, and it still ranks as one of the most expensive acquisitions in the company’s history.
Has Google finally nailed social with Google+? We’re going to publish more of our thoughts on Google’s new social network in the next few hours, but we will say this: Google no longer gets a free pass in social. It must prove that it can draw users and keep them engaged in a way that doesn’t replicate Facebook or Twitter’s functionality. Only time will tell if Google has finally found its magical arrow.
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Dang it.. I was pulling for the name “Google Home” but I guess Google+ will do.
I believe “Google, We Will Soon Own the World” was already taken … :)
I love Google+, It may be beat facebook..
Google Plus Social Network Project Trial Test Today: http://goo.gl/xri5j
What about Google Collective? With the term communities becoming “so” yesterday.
Just call it Google Borg and fast track it to it’s ultimate goal :)
me to love google plus but not sure it will defeat facebook http://goo.gl/EunuR
This is interesting at a time when social media has started to become integrated in search results (Bing, etc.). It has been said recently that Facebook is the new Google because you can “search” your most trusted “resources” on a variety of topics. Makes sense then that Google would respond with a service like Google+.
Keith Hanson
RateYourSeats.com
(http://www.rateyourseats.com)
facebook is the new google ? –> you can “search” your most trusted “resources”
400 friends you barely know ? What if they’re busy doing something and you
need a local carpet cleaner to clean your carpets. Where would you go first ?
LOL i’m sorry but seriously that’s one of the stupidest things i’ve ever heard. Facebook will soon be the new myspace, long forgotten, Google absolutely figured this out, it’s a no brainer. I would have added what the guy above me said also but he beat me to it.
Google is going to conquer the world, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who follows what they do… self driving cars, search email… (I would never be stupid enough to trust facebook with important emails, remember how the facebook owner said “YOUR A STUPID F***” because you trust him with your imformation? – his words not mine.) social, documents, phones – android…. cmon… books…. it’s ridiculous how brilliant they are… and it’s all free… lol
The name is good, now let’s see if the product is too. Deep integration with existing google products could prove to be a good thing.
The first person that says Google+ is a Facebook, Twitter, etc. killer gets pistol whipped. Almost guaranteed to be spotted in a headline by the end of the day.
I really want to try this! Yeah, I know 700 million people are on Facebook including my friends and families and you’ll ask yourself “Why don’t you just use Facebook?” – Well, let me tell you something, I find Facebook to be a really sketchy company, who data mines the crap out of their700+ million users, which I still consider as “RETARDS”. Now, you’ll be like “WTF Google does the same” – Well, to be honest, I rather give Google my private info, at least they come up with brilliant innovations with “my info” unlike *cough* Facebook, who just bids it off or pass it onto 3rd party devs like Zynga who are worth 20 billion? with all your info lol.
Are you posting this same message on every Google+ post? Your talking about privacy and “data mining” but you are doing the same by posting this comment on just about every major article on the subject. I think you might have another agenda than solely just a “comment.”
vinothr – I’ve never understood the whole privacy argument – are you saying you don’t want tailored online experience to suit you? Are you putting up dubious content about yourself online that you’re ashamed of and want hidden? Do you think data mining and advertising spots hasn’t been happening for YEARS offline?
I think you’re either naive, ignorant or just simplistic if you have issues with privacy that you ultimately control.
Facebook & Google + are all free services! Whats with all these complains? We’re fortunate to use these services at our point in life!
Google+ is a Facebook and Twitter killer.
Whip me.
ಠ_ಠ
I have long believed that Google was algorithmic whilst Facebook was driven by people. As long as that continued I did not believe Google was capable of a decent social push and even in the long-term of out-gunning Facebook. I have talked about it extensively but the most recent blog by me on the topic is here: http://blog.altepper.com/2011/06/gutenberg-berners-lee-aristotle-mcluhan.html
However, Google+ has my attention. I will invest some time in it.
Might this be Google’s ‘eyebrows’ moment?
I already have the black bars on my google reader and in youtube which is odd, but not much else :S
Where’s the PR?
Right here!
up yo but
Any word on whether Google+ will support Google Apps accounts? The Google Profile feature doesn’t, and it’s a big drawback to those of us who center our Google existence around a Google Apps install on our personal website…
Google Apps users are second class citizens, so I am sure that there will be a delay of many many many months.
Same here. My entire family is on my apps account and it sucks having to keep a separate google account for some sites b/c apps accounts aren’t supported.
Okay, as “cool” as it sounds I am not holding my breath. I was on the limited invite list for Google Wave and it was actually kinda interesting at first. At first mind you. It suddenly morphed into 90% of the conversations revolving around, “So what are we supposed to be doing here?”
With that said, I love Google swinging for the fences. Sometimes they make it: maps, Gmail, analytics, AdWords… and sometimes they don’t.
As previously mentioned bu others, this will effect search big time. Yup, Bing & Facebook, enhanced Twitter search, all the social search components. People are (trending) spending more time on social sites and less time on search. Makes sense.
Thank goodness. I’ve been on Facebook since it launched at my school in 2005. It’s a totally different world now. If this can finally dethrone Facebook, which I’m hoping it does because most of the people I know won’t migrate, I’m all for it. I will be an early adopter.
My site will dethrone them, my site is a college social network.
~ this will be interesting !…
I hope by the time this launches to the full public they add support for Google Profiles on Apps accounts, cause I dont feel I need to make a different Google Account just for this…..
When exactly has google ever made you create an ADDITION gmail/google account to use their services? It’s ALWAYS been synergistic.
When you are a google apps user.
http://google.com/plus
Hell —Yea !!! Finally !
This gives me a much better feeling then Google Buzz did. +1 for that.
If the operational functioning of those blasted +1 buttons are any indication, then Google+ is merely the latest mechanism in the war to bully all netizens to surrender their privacy in terms that are undoubtedly final. I’ll wager that not many people know that Google’s automated +1 system will now challenge a user’s personal identity and threaten to terminate that account’s access to all Google services unless the user submits to a verification review. Chew on that for a while.
Tinfoil hat on too tight?
I’ll pass.
I am certainly interested in this…. Buzz was a great idea but could not get lift off…. this looks like it has had a lot more thought process and testing to it… i guess we will see
Godammit, Google. Stop trying to take over the internet. I’m starting to feel like you’re too overwhelming and might stop using your products.
then stop… I for one can’t wait
Awesome.
Excited to see how this works out, hopefully it will be yet another avenue of connection! It also sounds like you can create circles for business, perosnal, and other stuff as well. This is something that facebook doesn’t do very well right now (unless you spend a lot of time creating lists, and even then it’s not perfect). Awesome!
Bob
http://www.redheadrehabs.com
What do you think?
it’s great! you can see the whole new level of social networking..plus all your google accounts in 1? what can you ask more..
wow! can’t wait! waiting so badly for google+..i’m so sick and tired with facebook crap..this time, facebook will get killed! and mind you–i’m so confident and 100% for that!
I love this idea! It will definitely be more than what Google Buzz was and as for Orkut, it has nothing on Google+ but i really do feel the need to plea with Google to remember the concept of KIS (Keep it simple). The redesigned navigation bar reminds me too much of Twitter, only change what needs to be changed Google – remember this with Google+. If they can do that, i can see this becoming a very useful resource to have!
I agree with you 100%
I so want this to be successful
This is going to be interesting
Dear Google,
Gmail is great. You guys were the first to offer an easy-to-use email client with unlimited storage space. Well done.
Android is great. You guys were a little late to that party. But seeing as Apple were the only ones selling a decent smartphone, it was obvious that there was a market for people not wanting to spend £650 on a phone. Let’s call that the budget market. You nailed that one.
However, I’m sorry to have to tell you this but Facebook is king and you’re just too late. 500 million users worldwide are not going to simply up and leave Facebook without their friends to chat/share/comment to on Google+. Not gonna happen.
Best of luck,
Matt
P.S. You don’t have to win at everything, yeah? Facebook and Twitter realise that they’re not search engines so they don’t even try to be. Take a look at what they’re doing. Realise that it’s great. Be happy with that. Move on.
P.P.S Why don’t you just buy Twitter and Facebook?
Its actually over 700 million. However, Google doesn’t want to be king here. They are just going after social so they don’t get left in the dark. Facebook (social media) is creeping up on search ad ad money. They are joining social media to hold onto a small chunk of it. And hey, if its successful, well damn, that’s just great too! :) IMO of course.
you can never be sure of that..majority of facebook users, if not all are darn tired of it..it’s about time to kill facebook as majority wants to do so in the first place..if you’re not for a change, then you will be left out for sure..
Ever heard of MySpace?
I for one am getting tired of having to adjust privacy settings and getting a constant stream of game invites.
If Im not mistaken there are more than 700 000 people on this great ball we are living on. There is always a reason why the rest dont have a FB Profile. Many because they dont have access to an internet connection.
I believe that Google’s users will come from this source, a new generation as well as some who find Google+ to be more suitable for their needs.
I’ll stay with FB for now and be a happy tester for Google+.
Let’s see…
700 000? I dont know where this number is from?
700k? so we here are some of the last of the human species?
I won’t join. I just don’t want any large company like Google having anything to do with my social network at this point.
And facebook is not a “large company?” SMH, dude.
I will remember your name and will mark your word. Let’s see..
Matthew Duff..just making sure I type your name correctly..
um Matt…Facebook has a estimated investment value of $70 billion. Big Much????
How much facebook is worth doesn’t matter much to me. Them having 750 million members does. I am becoming less and less of a user of facebook every day.
Apparently Google+ is showing up whenever I log into my Google Account now. Tons of people (over 20) sent me invites. I don’t believe I will use either of them in the near future. I don’t remember saying facebook wasn’t a big company, maybe I did, I just haven’t seen it yet. And the more channels a company has included themselves in the bigger the company seems to me.
Should be fascinating to watch. #socialmedia
In the UK the notify me page throws up a 404 error. So I can’t see us over here getting an invite anytime soon.
Yet another service Google Apps customers can’t use. Google keep saying you can make certain services available through the Apps admin, but that’s just not true. They really screwed a lot of people over when they transitioned apps users into normal users. There’s lots of stuff that just doesn’t work any more.
10 bucks people wearing tin foil hats will freak at
“The addition of these features in a mobile app isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise, though, is the app’s auto-upload feature. Any photo or video you take on your phone through Google+ will automatically be uploaded to your computer, ready to share. These uploads aren’t public, but the next time you log onto your desktop, the photos button in the status bar will have a number, indicating how many new uploads are available for sharing. It keeps these photos and videos available for sharing for eight hours after upload.”
Before reading or understanding what that means.
Poll: Will Google+ end up epic fail like Wave and Buzz?
http://www.wepolls.com/p/884244/Will-Google's-new-social-venture-Google+-be-epic-fail-like-Wave-&-Buzz
Another…wonder if this will be better then Orkut
How about “Circles” as a patient support group?
Google seems to have lost track of their goals. They can’t be everything to everyone. They are a tools company. They provide search, maps, 3d sketch, online docs, email, etc. They are not a community social networking platform. They will either succeed at this endeavor and all their tools will fall apart or they will fail miserably at this endeavor and hopefully come to their senses and not try again.
we’ll see..it’s more of a google product in one, so that makes sense..
Does anyone know if Google+ will support brands? Has there been any discussion about whether or not this is designed for people and not companies/organizations?
…and organizations… That’s our main question. Will there be a “Page” equivalent for organizations? Will circles encompass brands and organizations or only contain persons?
It feels weird to be sharing this on Twitter, and esp. Facebook.
Oh this is going to be an all out slug-fest between Google & Facebook.
Google+Social Media+(+1)=Google+? Meh, I’ll at least try it out
Where is the Google games button?? ;-)
hope I can opt out of the “games” ;)
I’ve been looking forward to what Google would do with something social since Buzz’s dismal arrival.
This looks integrated ( a definite + for me ) and easier to use and not a bit like FB or Twitter which sounds interesting. I like the whimsy. Whimsy always gets my attention. I clicked to get notified, I hope I get rolled into the users soon. :)
Yo..thats great but how can we access google plus. One need an invitation can anyone send me a invite…!!!!
Hmm… Getting an internal server error when trying to sign up for news about invites.
Looking forward to seeing how Google+ will be received! I, for one, look forward to using it as I am rather sick of Facebook right now. There’s just too much crap.
its fixed now
Wow..i just took at its demo..i cant wait anymore to join in Google +… Can anyone send me an invite if you got one?
I really wanted to sign-up for the beta, but yet again – At Google, the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing…
The “left hand” (Google+) requires a Google Public Profile, and the “right hand” (Google Apps) doesn’t have that working for apps accounts yet, so essentially, if you’re a Google Apps user, you’re out of luck.
I still can’t see the benefits of all these like buttons. If you like me then send me a check!
excuse my language but if google doesn’t at least try, who the fuck else is gonna take small chunks out of Facebook? my only guess is spammers to be honest.
There are tons of start ups in this space trying to go the smaller private network space. Fridge is one that allows you to communicate in groups another is JustaFewofUs.com a.k.a, JAFOU that’s launching soon which takes privacy and group communication to a whole new level not known on the internet yet (which I love).
Google can try here, but I just don’t think the type of new product /brand that’s needed to dethrown Facebook can come from a corporate giant. It needs to come from a start up that isn’t concerned with tying in other products and making some big splash without taking a wrong step or without fear of failing. I hope for the best for Google+ but think it’ll fall flat just like Buzz.
I don’t think there’s any way Google will fail to make this a better product than Facebook. Facebook is just an abomination of a site that changes and expands weekly… almost every time you get used to something, it changes. Will it “beat” Facebook? Who knows. But the competition will be good. Can’t wait to try it out.
and it’s sweet