Well Google+ is now all the rage. I thought I would talk a bit about the good the bad and the ugly and how google+ could effect the church world. But first the Good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good.
– Overall I like it quite a bit. I feel they took the good of facebook (did I just type that) and the good of twitter and made space for themselves.
– The interface is clean I like that.
– Sharing what you want with who you want is drop dead simple. I HATE FACEBOOK when it comes to groups, fanpages, people all that each thing does one part of who what you want but none of them do all of what you want. I love how simple Google+ is to share what you want with who you want.
– I think the amount of people joining and the type of people joining are both pointing to a much more viable product than WAVE (dislike).
– Circles also let you control how much info you get in your stream love that.
– Group video chat for FREE – Yeah that’s right skpersoft free group chat.
– You can edit your comments for typo’s which if you read my blog for more than one post you realize I need.
The Bad
– Google owns it – All they need to know completely everything about you such as how many pets you own, your relationship status and the regularity of your bowl movements they now will know with a viable Social network.
– FB is still and will continue to be the Social network of choice for a long time.
– You can’t play farmville on this badboy….oh wait that should have been on the list above.
– Getting people to switch Social Networks is not easy. How do I know? I was on facebook by myself when Myspace was “awesome”
The Ugly
– There is no option to nest comments like you can on a blog.
– I can’t find a secure way to update twitter and or facebook from Google+
– I am concerned with what they will do to make money with Google+ in the future.
How can the church use Google+ ?
– Connecting information to various groups from one account would be drop dead simple
– Multi-site video meetings via Huddles
– Communicating with parents sharing pictures of kids at events would be much more secure
– The mobile app is already better than FB’s – So uploading pictures on the fly from your phone at camp or an event would be much easier with plus than FB.
– Google has a whole sweet of office products this would be a great interoffice communication tool.
I dread even going near it, not wanting another thing to manage…I'll check it out though. You have me curious. Hope your doing well my friend!
I hear ya. I love twitter HATE facebook. I am hoping this will eventually replace facebook for me. I and my family are well. I may be coming to CO in the fall I would love to try to connect if we can. Blessings. Bro have you read Gospel Powered Parenting AMAZING book just finished it.
I dread even going near it, not wanting another thing to manage…I'll check it out though. You have me curious. Hope your doing well my friend!
I hear ya. I love twitter HATE facebook. I am hoping this will eventually replace facebook for me. I and my family are well. I may be coming to CO in the fall I would love to try to connect if we can. Blessings. Bro have you read Gospel Powered Parenting AMAZING book just finished it.
What I don't like is that I now have people adding me to your Google+ list and "sharing" more like spamming me with their blogs and such without my permission. I hate facebook too, but at least on FB I give permission to what I am gonna get, now with Google+ everyone and their kidmin brother can spam me and I have to opt-out AFTER they add me to their blog subscription list and I've gotten up to 5 in a row some some people. I deal with hundreds of emails a day already, so this is not a good thing for me. The only plus is I found your post here trying to get to the bottom of all these new lists I was added to by well-meaning people trying to force me to read their blogs. Ironically, most of them I already read their blog via RSS, they didn't need to spam my personal email box.
Karl I don't know everything about Google+ but from what I understand if people add you they get your content but you don't receive their content unless you add them to one of your circles. If you are getting blog post spam you can either hide that person or put them in the dreaded "These people are nice but they are spammers" circle that way if you want spam you can have it. If you don't want it you don't have to read it. I love where google is going with this so much better from the ground up than facebook. Circles is really a very obvious privacy setting rather than a yes/no button 10 layers deep where facebook keeps their privacy settings.
What I don't like is that I now have people adding me to your Google+ list and "sharing" more like spamming me with their blogs and such without my permission. I hate facebook too, but at least on FB I give permission to what I am gonna get, now with Google+ everyone and their kidmin brother can spam me and I have to opt-out AFTER they add me to their blog subscription list and I've gotten up to 5 in a row some some people. I deal with hundreds of emails a day already, so this is not a good thing for me. The only plus is I found your post here trying to get to the bottom of all these new lists I was added to by well-meaning people trying to force me to read their blogs. Ironically, most of them I already read their blog via RSS, they didn't need to spam my personal email box.
Karl I don't know everything about Google+ but from what I understand if people add you they get your content but you don't receive their content unless you add them to one of your circles. If you are getting blog post spam you can either hide that person or put them in the dreaded "These people are nice but they are spammers" circle that way if you want spam you can have it. If you don't want it you don't have to read it. I love where google is going with this so much better from the ground up than facebook. Circles is really a very obvious privacy setting rather than a yes/no button 10 layers deep where facebook keeps their privacy settings.
Nope. I had never even heard of Google+ nor signed up and started getting people's blogs and content! So it works like spam. Just FYI. I only have 2 people in my "circles" (haven't even added you yet, just signed up to see what it is, no time for another network yet) – so they must have added me and started sending things because they knew my personal email.
Bottom line: Google+ allows people to start sending you stuff you don't want without you even having ever heard of Google+, as that is what happened to me, I started getting all kinds of Google+ content from people and what like, "What is all this stuff? I didn't ask for this? What is Google+?" So I had to find out how to join to unsubscribe!
So I'm not too impressed with the permissions and privacy. In fact, I had to give them a lot of personal info, before I could unsubscribe… that's very Facebook like. Date of birth, etc.
But I'm kinda throwing my hands up and just saying, "that's where the world is heading, privacy is a thing of the past" If you want to be online, there is no longer any privacy.
I think you were signed up cause someone sent u an invite and I'm sure u have a google username and password.
The auto settings for email notification is set to everything like Facebook I unchecked most and my email flow from google+ is much better.
I hear ya about another social network I am just looking for something to replace Facebook for me. This may be it.
No matter what you think about Google+ what they have done with their circles is pure social media genius.
Nope. I had never even heard of Google+ nor signed up and started getting people’s blogs and content! So it works like spam. Just FYI. I only have 2 people in my “circles” (haven’t even added you yet, just signed up to see what it is, no time for another network yet) – so they must have added me and started sending things because they knew my personal email.
Bottom line: Google+ allows people to start sending you stuff you don’t want without you even having ever heard of Google+, as that is what happened to me, I started getting all kinds of Google+ content from people and what like, “What is all this stuff? I didn’t ask for this? What is Google+?” So I had to find out how to join to unsubscribe!
So I’m not too impressed with the permissions and privacy. In fact, I had to give them a lot of personal info, before I could unsubscribe… that’s very Facebook like. Date of birth, etc.
But I’m kinda throwing my hands up and just saying, “that’s where the world is heading, privacy is a thing of the past” If you want to be online, there is no longer any privacy.
I think you were signed up cause someone sent u an invite and I\’m sure u have a google username and password.
The auto settings for email notification is set to everything like Facebook I unchecked most and my email flow from google+ is much better.
I hear ya about another social network I am just looking for something to replace Facebook for me. This may be it.
No matter what you think about Google+ what they have done with their circles is pure social media genius.
I agree about the circles, despite the spam issue, ironically, it is how I discovered your post and Google+ so I will be following it with interest, and hope it does catch on!
I wasn't signed up, I know that for a fact, because I had to go through a bunch of sign up process steps to sign up, and I couldn't possibly be signed up for something I had never heard of nor signed up for and just joined after the fact. Nevertheless, I am signed up now, and I do like it, it is much more thought through than FB and i hope it takes off. You are right, the Cirlces is genius. Hopefully they will fix the fact that people can use it to spam people.
I agree about the circles, despite the spam issue, ironically, it is how I discovered your post and Google+ so I will be following it with interest, and hope it does catch on!
I wasn't signed up, I know that for a fact, because I had to go through a bunch of sign up process steps to sign up, and I couldn't possibly be signed up for something I had never heard of nor signed up for and just joined after the fact. Nevertheless, I am signed up now, and I do like it, it is much more thought through than FB and i hope it takes off. You are right, the Cirlces is genius. Hopefully they will fix the fact that people can use it to spam people.