One of the things about the internet that I truly love is the fact that what one day is super hot and where people hang, is not necessarily the same scenario the day after. People are like nomads and trying out more and more services and abandoning old ones. Ah, the smell of the change in the morning…
So while I have been on a vacation, Google launched Google + and I think it’s a hands-down fantastic service.
When I started to Digg in deeper I decided to structure some of my circles:
- some around languages and another different kind of contacts. Seriously just that it overcomes the language barrier that I have in relation to my network (some I speak English too – others I want to speak danish too, others french or Swedish) is a gift for me as an English communicator but a native Dane.
-some around interest – business, inspiration, art, music, crafting, creativity, social media, internet tendencies,
- some around relationships: business contacts, friends, family, people I don’t know well, but I’ve met.
The thing is that it gives me a way of directing my content more, it makes me show different sides of my personality, and best of all: I think it will make me give more value, love, and rockn’roll to the individual person.
So how do I see people use it these days? I see a lot of people posting interesting stuff, some are starting to push their own offers out there – and even more so in google + than in Facebook, it makes me want to block them out. When the social network gets tighter, more conversational, and more threaded, I think the broadcasting that you need to do there as an entrepreneur – needs to be more carefully selected. I broadcast my stuff/content/blogposts/e-books too – but I try to measure it up by being an active part of the community as well. So is this the more strategic – more fragmented- less “inside the box” social media of the near future? I would say “most likely“.
So what are people saying about it ?
A lot of people are saying that it looks a bit like a combination of Twitter and Facebook. But I think it looks like one of the biggest all-time tech/web loves of mine (disclaimer: and former client): Jaiku. Google + is what I could easily picture Jaiku to be a couple of years down the line. (they were purchased by google in 2007).
I’m not going to compare them more, they just have a lot of resemblances for which I am overjoyed Because some of the more conversational touch (and threaded conversations with everybody) of the web ( instead of statements) have been missing. I think Twitter is filled with statements, Facebook is very narcissistic, and if almighty Google plays their cards right, I think we could actually see some of the “social” I have missed most about the social web: the openness and the old idea of internet forums but in real-time. I am have been using Facebook extensively for the last 5 years – but I think that Google + is going to a new place for me to hang – in a more open and less restricted way.
The idea that you can connect with everybody in a comment or in a thread and where everything becomes more directed to the community than to the actual person, because it’s more open (I mean Twitter is a mess at this – follow conversations anyone ?)
I truly hope it will make online conversations less complicated..
I am also looking forward to see more of it all – and see what the response is going to be from the rest of the online social networks =)
let the game begin.
