This week does not change the subject because time passes to experiment with the news from Google. Let's go back to the new Google+ Social Network that I managed to get into and that I was finally able to try (thanks to Dipo).
GooglePlus, as already written two days ago, is the new Google social network project that tries, for the fourth time (after Orkut, Wave and Buzz) to challenge the Facebook champion.
As soon as you enter GooglePlus, you immediately notice the extreme graphic care with which this web application has been created.
The Google+ interface is similar to Facebook but more minimal, fresher, with a modern design, very light and fluid to navigate on its pages, with the possibility to share anything quickly, not with everyone but only with some friends.
This is in fact the main difference you notice compared to Facebook .
On Facebook, by default, everything is shared with everyone and each added friend is placed in a cauldron which must then be organized manually, with effort and patience through the friends lists.
GooglePlus, on the other hand, as soon as a new contact is added, requests to insert this person in a "circle" of friends or in a specific group of contacts which can be Friends, Family, Work, Acquaintances or whatever you want.
Moving friends from one circle to another is a pleasure, almost a fun game, with smiley faces that can be moved using the mouse from one group to another.
Another difference from Facebook is that friendship may not be reciprocal in the sense that it can be added to the circle of some people who want to receive my shares but not necessarily they must be added to their circle and receive their posts, links. and photos ..
After adding a few friends, you can start sharing items :
You can share links or status updates in what Google calls Stream, similar to the Facebook Home page, where all the news published and made visible to us by friends appear .
The homepage presents the stream published by friends while on the profile page, accessible from the link at the top right, you can only see the posts published by themselves.
To share a status update, a post or a link, just write in the central text box on the Stream page.
Like Facebook, you can share text, links, photos and videos .
You can also share a text + photo or a text + video.
The links show a preview of the linked web page.
The fundamental thing is that, when you share something, you can quickly choose who can see this update, whether to make it public and therefore visible to everyone, even outsiders, or whether to show it only to a circle of contacts or to a single contact .
This thing on Facebook can be done but it is less immediate; on Google Plus instead you are guided by the application to this choice.
Each post can be further shared by others via the Share button or can be simply appreciated by pressing the +1 button.
Each post, link or photo can be commented but the person who published the update on the stream can also disable the comments by pressing on the right button, next to each post of the stream.
From that menu you can also report spam and extract the link of the discussion or post or photo.
In addition to the stream page there are also the pages with the photos that are saved online in Picasaweb and the profile page.
Videos can be uploaded from a normal share or from the Video tab on the profile section.
When uploading a video you can choose whether to share a visible video on YouTube or whether to upload a new video.
Photo and video applications are fast and smooth, better than Facebook.
The fourth symbol indicates the sharing of the geographical position, so as to tell the circle where you are.
The geographical position can be automatically detected by the web browser (see how to disable geolocation on IE, Chrome and Firefox or falsify it).
At the bottom right of the stream there is a button to start the video chat that Google+ calls Hangout .
The Hangout is really well done and allows you to create a video conference with a group of friends of your choice.
To use the hangout video chat, you are required to install a plugin on your browser.
By pressing the wheel at the top right you can access the GooglePlus settings which are not many, at least for now.
You can decide which notifications to receive in the mail (when they send us messages, when we are added, when we are commented on etc.).
Privacy settings are integrated into the application with the choice of people to share anything with so there are no other general settings.
This leads Google+ to be a more exclusive and less intrusive contact and communication tool.
Finally, at the bottom left there is a link to the Ideas, i.e. suggestions for finding interesting things on different topics, with an integrated search engine.
In Google Plus there are, for now, the applications that instead invade Facebook and not even games or social apps.
Google Plus is less fun than Facebook, more serious as a setting, more suitable for communicating with friends and less for advertising, more beautiful to see and use and more integrated with websites (while Facebook integrates well with pages fan).
Google focuses on this social network by promoting it on its search engine and the Google profile function.
Update of 21.9.11
Everyone can now sign up for Google+
If you want to add me to your contacts, I am Claudio Pomhey.
In another article, the guide to get started with Google+: create the Plus profile, add friends, circles and set privacy .
