Unless you’ve been under a rock, within the past 24 hours you’ve heard about the MySpace acquisition (with an unlikely stakeholder named Justin Timberlake) and Google+ launch — all gunning after the Facebook throne.
Here’s the skinny…GOOGLE (aka the world’s largest search engine company) has officially taken it’s first step to become a major force in social networking. Google stepped into the social media ring on Tuesday to drop a NEW social networking service called the Google+ project. The service called Google+ will let people share their lives and do the kinds of things they already do on Facebook such as post status updates, photos and links. Its focus is on sharing with small groups like your homeboys, homegirls, co-workers, college roommates or hiking friends — instead of with all of a user’s friends or the entire Web. It also offers group text messaging and video chat. *taps microphone* Um, Facebook – You just gonna let them punk you huh?
DID YOU GET AN INVITE YET?
The service, will initially be available only to a select group of Google users who will soon be able to invite others, let people share and discuss status updates, photos and links. If you didn’t get your invite yet, don’t feel bad. (I’m sure it was lost in the mail…)
Google may need to re-think the complexity of this one…with four different features that give you different ways of communications, this thing may get too confusing and backfire BIG TIME!
1. Huddle aka Group Chats: (not just for Blackberry users anymore..)
Texting is great, but not when you’re trying get six different people to decide on a movie. Huddle takes care of it by turning all those different conversations into one simple group chat, so everyone gets on the same page long before thumbs get sore. Imagine you are at a party with 5 of your friends and you ONLY want to send texts about where you are or what you are seeing to those 5 friends. With HUDDLE you can do just that…it’s for Android 2.0+ phones, iPhone 4.0+ phones and SMS.
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2. GOOGLE CIRCLES: You share different things with different people. But sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself, just like real life. There’s no limit to the number of circles you can create.
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3. GOOGLE SPARKS: Tips On What To Share. Sparks basically looks for videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, so when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share.
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4. Hangouts: Group Video Chat – With Hangouts, up to 10 people at a time can all interact through video. As one participant speaks, the main image automatically changed to that person. You can also play video that everyone watches.
…and of course there are other additives and extras that Google will throw in the mix for good measure so we’ll see how this pans out. Personally, I would be a fan of the Hangouts option – as a member of an extremely large family scattered across the US, this would be a great tool (and seems pretty easy) to communicate with some serious face time while thousands of miles away.
Do you think Google+ will initiate the demise of Facebook? Will it live up to it’s birthname of “The Facebook Killer”?
