Recently, I started playing around with Google+. It's a far better attempt than Buzz was, but it still needs some work. Part of Google's past problems stem from the fact that Buzz didn't really offer anything more than the services that it competed with. About the only thing it offered was better integration with like Google Reader. Otherwise, everything else was already being done by Twitter. Now that doesn't mean Buzz was bad, but it didn't offer anything original to garner attention.
That's where Google+ comes in. You can tell Google went back to the drawing board. Circles is a welcome way to sort how my contacts see what I share, despite the extra micro-management. Another major draw is the Hangout feature as I have been looking for a good group video chat option for my friends and family and this is just what I wanted. There's also the Instant Upload feature for photos from the Android app, which makes uploading new pictures a snap.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few issues that still need to be ironed out. The first of which is that Google now has several services that all offer similar features, but none are really connected in any sort of way. Currently, Buzz offers integration with things like Google Reader and YouTube, while Google+ has nothing. The only way to share anything on your Google+ stream is through Google+ directly. This is in part because of how Circles work, so it becomes a double-edged sword. This results in separate feeds for Google+, Buzz, and +1. If it weren't for Reader and YouTube already sharing to my Buzz feed, there would be two more separate feeds. Plus there's the duplication in functionality across products. As it is, Reader already had the ability to "Like" and "Share" things, but not to either Google+ or to my +1 activity.
So for as little as I actually use Buzz, I wish I could choose some default circles and share my Buzz activity automatically. This would go a long way towards helping me find that unification across all my different social networking sites and help reduce and simplify how many times I have to repeat the same actions to share information. At least it would until Google scuttles Buzz completely and implements the same functionality into Google+. It looks like they're on track for that in the near future around when Google+ opens to the public. The same goes for Blogger and Picasa, which will both roll in under new names of Google Blogs and Google Photos. Hopefully they have better integration by then.
Speaking of Picasa, this is another area that needs some attention. As it is now, even though Instant Upload uploads your pictures online without user intervention, you still need to share them manually. This is fine and preferred from a privacy standpoint. The problem here is that you cannot manage your photo albums from Google+ directly. In order to put photos into albums of any sort, you have to go to Picasa instead. There needs to either be a way to do it within Google+ or a direct link to Picasa in the photo section so that you don't need to blindly stumble your way there. Hopefully this will come with the rebranding of Picasa under the Google name.
So to wrap things up, I like Google+, but it still needs a bit more before I can truly use it effectively. The grim reality is that I don't think I'll ever be able to completely abandon my other social sites, which means that I will need ways to share between them. If this can be done with Google+ in a useful way either directly or through third-party applications, then I will be a much happier camper.
I'm not sure when my next entry will be, but I want to do another post about linking all of my social sites together to better show you what I'm talking about and what I'm dealing with. Until then, stay classy, San Diego.
