Google +

Been trying out Google + for the last couple of days. It's a very interesting social networking application. Now for some opinions on various features it has or lacks.

Circles. Okay this is absolutely, hands down, one of the best things about G+. Basically you start off with so many circles already named, Family, Friends, Acquaintances and Follow. Now the idea you take the people you connected with into any circles they belong in. You can also name your own circles for further division if you need, for example I made a 'local friends' circle. Now whenever you make a post you can choose to make it only viewable by specific circles, all circles or even completely public.

Now people don't know what circles they are in, just that you put them in a circle. So there is no worry about people getting all butthurt over iDrama. This is all done with a drag and drop interactive interface. So much more better than clicking buttons over and over. More visually appealing and is automatically ready for touch screens.

+1. I've been seeing the little +1 buttons all over the place here lately to show that you like something. Now people can see what you gave one to in your profile.

The stream (sort of like a wall in fb) also has a neat little tool. You have your circles listed on the side of your screen. If you don't want to read everything you can just click the circle and see only the posts from people in that circle.

A notification button is also at the top of your screen. basically it turns red with the number of notifications listed in it. One nice touch is that it's also there when you are checking your gmail.

Voice, webcam and text chat are there but I haven't tried them.

What I see missing so far that I enjoy over on FB.

Public groups, interests and ... well that's all I can think of.

Now I will say I like the overall interface a LOT better than Facebook. It takes some getting used to because it's a step forward instead of just copying what we all are used to. This is a risk for Google but I think it will pay off, somebody has to move forward and somebody will hit the magic path (kinda like the Wii remotes).

More on this as I keep trying it out.