Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy someone is finally competing against Facebook.
I haven’t seen Facebook really innovate in some time. Nothing major has happened in over 2 years to really “wow” me like Apple has.
But just because Google has come to the party, dosen’t make it the new platform of choice. A lot of early adopters on the G+ platform have nothing but praises for the search giants social platform and crafting their favorite features list.
In this quick review of Google+, I’ll go against the grain and find out what’s wrong with G+ thus far.
Top 10 Things I Don’t Like About Google+
1. Beta Stage
Love it or hate it, we can’t even begin to judge this new platform. Even this post isn’t fair to Google. Point being, this platform will be changing, wether we like it or not.
2. Adoption
Google boasts 10 million users already signed up for the new service. I’m sure most of the folks are kicking the tires, but who is really switching over?
3. Real Estate
I recently wrote about that I like a quick “mission control” like view of my social stream. G+ is a marriage of Facebook updates and the public following feature of Twitter. This means their “wall” updates grow really quick.
4. Incoming
The incoming filter is a bit overwhelming. These are the updates from “extended circles” or people who are following you, and who are following someone in your circle. With Twitter, you will only get the stream of the folks you are following. Makes it alot less overwhelming.
5. Sparks
Still not feeling this feature. It’s just another search area for data overload in my opnion. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need another stream to filter out. If I want specific topics, I’ve got my RSS reader.
6. One Circle or all Circle’s
I love the ability to organize my connections into circles. I don’t like how I can only see one group at a time. I’m sure they will add the ability check multiples – if not, consider this my feature request.
7. No “wall” posting
To drop friends a line, you don’t have that same Facebook wall feature. You post a regular update, but place their name with the + sign. Versus the more popular @ symbol. If you want others to see it, add public or a cirlce. Kind of funky at this point and clumsy if you want others to see your message.
8. +1’ing
I have a love/hate relationship with how they are handling this. I think for the sake of people who want you to +1 something, like a website or some other promotional piece, they would want that action dumped into a stream. Instead, G+ gives it’s own viewing pane of all the pieces of content you’ve +1’ed. It’s a cup half full or half empty kind of thing.
9. Buzz
Really? Why did they bother integrating this feature? It dosen’t even use the new comment feature set or the +1 links. Get it out.
10. User Profile or “Pages”
This is bit of a nitpick, but there should have been a more seamless way to share your profile or create a page right from the start. Currently, your link to share a profile looks likes this: https://plus.google.com/109004558032658869391
I’m sure Google will be working to create something easier to share and to resemble a brand page soon.
Wrap Up
So that’s it.
Some tiny things that I’m sure will be tweaked, but some major core concepts that may not. The platform is barely two weeks old and sure to make major changes.
All in all, I am happy with what Google has done and can’t wait for the competition to heat up!
So what don’t you like with G+ thus far?
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