Google+ - does it have that Spark?

So, I’m starting up this blog to put down and share some of my musings on various aspects of the internet, technology, and entertainment – hitherto confined to dozens of comment threads and message boards.  So, given that just about everyone else on the internet is talking about it ad nauseam, where better to start than with my impressions of Google+ because, hey, it’s good to stand out and be original, right?

 So, I was lucky enough to get onto Google+ right at the beginning of the Field Trial, and my first impressions of the network were very positive.  The interface looked good and handled well (barring the odd hiccup – but nothing unexpected for a pre-beta release!) – both of which were extremely refreshing after the clunky clutter-fest that Facebook has been for some considerable time now.  Taking one of Facebook’s weaker functions – the ability to compartmentalise your connections and sharing – and making it the core of social interaction on Google+ seems like a great idea. 

So far, so retreading-the-ground-of-the-endless-Google+-discussions-already-plastered-all-over- the-web.  Much has been made of Circles and Hangouts – the latter being the impressively powerful video chat, supporting up to ten people with YouTube sharing. Hangouts, though, seem to be the least robust part of Google+, suffering from fairly frequent crashes, along with rampant performance and bandwidth issues.  But there seems to be less attention given to the two other big features of Google+ which were touted to me when I first started the Field Trial.

First, there’s Huddles – a multi-user internet text chat.  I was quite excited by this when I first read the description, but I’ve had to wait until now to try it out – it’s exclusively on the mobile apps, and the iOS native app has only just launched today.  So far, it hasn’t disappointed – though I’m yet to test it off a Wi-Fi network, which is where awesome things like this tend to fall down.  It seems that it would be particularly useful in light of the fact that iOS (text) messages doesn’t support multi-person threads – if you send one out to multiple people, replies go into the message thread for that person.  Understandable, given how hard it would be to implement it otherwise, but it does feel clunky. 

Secondly, Sparks.  Here’s Google’s video introduction to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DoAl4JXhQo  - complete with obligatory obscure pastimes (yodeling? really?*).

This doesn’t seem to have been given much thought in the coverage I’ve seen, and I can see why.  It’s hardly given any weight within Google+ itself, and seems to have been largely forgotten about – I have only felt the need to check it a handful of times so far, and it’s never provided any interesting links.  Perhaps the problem is that there currently isn’t enough data to make good suggestions.

Maybe it will be fleshed out by the links other people on Google+ are sharing, or by the ability to +1 pages on the web in general – something else I’m not sure how much people are using – is anyone +1’ing links in Google, or on articles with the usual array of social media buttons?  This is perhaps the weakest, or at any rate, least explored, feature of Google+ - though there is plenty of time to improve this!

As has been said elsewhere, the real trial of Google+ will be whether or not it can reach the ‘critical mass’ required for a social network to survive(which is where Google Buzz failed).  With user uptake over the last few weeks in the millions (still pre-beta), it looks like it’s well on the way.

I plan to talk some more about Google+ in other posts, trying to discuss this new position it seems to occupy on the social media ‘spectrum’, which seems to have people somewhat unsure what to do with it, and what feels like is missing from it.

*Apologies to all yodelers out there - not for my comment, but because you probably need them.




Just as a last word - please give me feedback - on the style, on the content, on the pathetic pun in the title, on the blog itself - it'd be very much appreciated!