Google has finally unveiled Google+, the company’s social layer that turns all of the search engine into one giant social network.
Google+, which begins rolling out a very limited field test, is the culmination of a year-long project led by Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of social. The project, is Google’s answer to Facebook.
The search giant’s new social project will be omnipresent on its products, thanks to a complete redesign of the navigation bar. The familiar gray strip at the top of every Google page will turn black, and come with several new options for accessing your Google+ profile, viewing notifications and instantly sharing content. The notification system is similar to how Facebook handles notifications, complete with a red number that increases with each additional notice.
Here are some of its Pro’s and Con’s
Pro:
-Sleek User Interface
Many Google+ users commented on the sleekness of its UI. It’s clean, it’s easy-to-use and its not cluttered. This is because of Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original designers of the Apple Macintosh GUI. Google gave him free reign in designing the Google+ UI.
The UI is better than most Google products. It’s not only clean and easy to understand, but it has character and flavor (you’ll notice it when adding or removing people from circles). Their bet on Hertzfeld paid off.
Con:
– Noise in the Stream
Google+ is designed to minimize noise in the stream through the use of circles, but it’s still too noisy for most users. The big issue is that posts are pushed to the top whenever there’s a new comment, something that most users think is unnecessary. There are also still issues with collapsing posts with long comment threads.
Google+ needs to stop bumping posts to the top of the stream anytime there’s a comment, and this change needs to be implemented as soon as possible. There needs to be a way to see “top stories” from your stream. Yes, it’s a Facebook feature, but it’s a really good Facebook feature.
Pro
– Circles Is Slick
User reaction to Circles, Google+’s friend list feature, has been good overall. Users have commented that it’s the easiest system on the market for putting friends into groups, making it easier to share posts with just your business colleagues or your family.
Google+ Circles is well designed and far superior to Facebook friend lists or Twitter Lists. However, we’re in the camp that people don’t want to organize their friends, no matter how gorgeous the UI. It’s just a tedious task no matter how you approach it.
Con
-Doesn’t Work With Google Apps
During a Google+ Hangout session I had with Google VP of Product Management Bradley Horowitz, I learned that the biggest piece of feedback so far is that users want to use Google+ with their Google Apps accounts. It makes sense — people are attached to their email addresses, and many people (like us) primarily use email addresses linked to Google Apps accounts.
Google should make this a top priority.
Pro:
-Google+ Hangouts
The one feature that has stood out above all the other Google+ features is Hangouts. Hangouts, which lets up to 10 users simultaneously video chat with each other, has been a hit with the early Google+ beta testers.
Instead of creating a group video chat system where you reach to your friends to chat, users instead create “hangouts” that pop up on their feeds. Users can then join those hangouts.
Hangouts is Google+’s killer feature.
Con:
Lack of Search
Google is known for search, so why doesn’t it have a search engine for finding content your friends are sharing? That’s the question a lot of users are asking.
It’s not a big deal now that Google+ doesn’t have Stream search, but Google had better put it on the list of things to implement in the next two months if it hasn’t done so already.
So there you have it, its pro’s and cons according to some digging up in the internet. Now that Google+ is almost out, let’s see if it faces up with its competition.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-pros-cons-230417861.html;
http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/google-plus/#18161New-Google-Navigation-Bar
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