The new kid on the social networking block, Google+, has made an impressive start to its story. Larry Page announced last week that Google+ has amassed more than 10 million users, when Google declared its Q2 results for this year. Now all this in 3 weeks, with the additional roadblock of being invite-only in the current phase, is a noteworthy achievement, even for Google.
With innovations like Circles, Hangouts and Sparks, Google+ is really taking up a challenge against the social networking monster that lies in front of it, Facebook. Strong signals of Facebook's fright from the new Google product can be felt when a lot of Facebook executives themselves are joining Google+ (Mark Zuckerberg has a profile on it too) just to see what these guys are up to. Even the man who was at the core of creating the Circles concept, and is now working for Facebook, is feeling a little weary of his own baby.
Circles, as the name suggests, lets the user create different circles of people in his account. How this helps is in privacy. One circle can be clearly demarcated from another and it lets you choose what information to share with which circle, and what to hide. You can make different circles for buddies who you'd want to grow old with, and those which are just mere acquaintances, or for close relatives and others who you've just vaguely heard of (or not even that in some cases). So it's a neat way at segmentalizing your contacts, something that takes a lot of work and patience on Facebook and comes naturally on Plus.
Hangouts, as the name suggests again, lets you create a 'hangout' or a place where people meet up. People can be your friends, relatives, other circles or just strangers. It has the provision of providing 10 video feeds from different people and as a neat little quirk, it puts the person with the loudest voice on the fore of the page. A great way to have a conference with a bunch of friends, or a meeting of the board of directors of your company !
Sparks aims at changing the way the world shares news. What it does is that it will provide you with news and feeds from around the world on a topic of your interest, thus giving you ways to spark conversations (yes, that is how it gets the name). Might look harmless now, but Plus is taking a up a lot of people's Twitter time by these simple features. With a more efficient way to upload straight from your phones and linking your Picasa web albums with your profile, apart from the ones already mentioned, Facebook does have a lot of to worry about in the coming months. Once Google+ is out of its invite-only phase and becomes free to public use, its mettle will be put to the real test. Can it survive a market that is almost completely monopolized by the Palo Alto giants, and not just stop there; can it become the much fantasized about Facebook killer?
With innovations like Circles, Hangouts and Sparks, Google+ is really taking up a challenge against the social networking monster that lies in front of it, Facebook. Strong signals of Facebook's fright from the new Google product can be felt when a lot of Facebook executives themselves are joining Google+ (Mark Zuckerberg has a profile on it too) just to see what these guys are up to. Even the man who was at the core of creating the Circles concept, and is now working for Facebook, is feeling a little weary of his own baby.
Circles, as the name suggests, lets the user create different circles of people in his account. How this helps is in privacy. One circle can be clearly demarcated from another and it lets you choose what information to share with which circle, and what to hide. You can make different circles for buddies who you'd want to grow old with, and those which are just mere acquaintances, or for close relatives and others who you've just vaguely heard of (or not even that in some cases). So it's a neat way at segmentalizing your contacts, something that takes a lot of work and patience on Facebook and comes naturally on Plus.
Hangouts, as the name suggests again, lets you create a 'hangout' or a place where people meet up. People can be your friends, relatives, other circles or just strangers. It has the provision of providing 10 video feeds from different people and as a neat little quirk, it puts the person with the loudest voice on the fore of the page. A great way to have a conference with a bunch of friends, or a meeting of the board of directors of your company !
Sparks aims at changing the way the world shares news. What it does is that it will provide you with news and feeds from around the world on a topic of your interest, thus giving you ways to spark conversations (yes, that is how it gets the name). Might look harmless now, but Plus is taking a up a lot of people's Twitter time by these simple features. With a more efficient way to upload straight from your phones and linking your Picasa web albums with your profile, apart from the ones already mentioned, Facebook does have a lot of to worry about in the coming months. Once Google+ is out of its invite-only phase and becomes free to public use, its mettle will be put to the real test. Can it survive a market that is almost completely monopolized by the Palo Alto giants, and not just stop there; can it become the much fantasized about Facebook killer?
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