Anyone who attends IVY’s presentations knows that we like to give you a heads up about what to watch in social media. Hot new products aren’t always worth your time to explore them but when a giant like Google attracts 25 million people to their new social media platform in just a few weeks — we think that’s worth a glance or two.
Google+, also known as Google Plus, is taking a swipe at Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare with their new social media platform. It’s got some pretty amazing features…
“Circles” allows users to choose the circles of people you want to communicate with in different ways. For example, you might chose to have one circle for your family, one for your friends, another for classmates, colleagues and an entirely separate one for your work supervisors. This handy little feature means your mom or your boss can’t stalk you as easily as before. You are able to share the different sides of yourself with the appropriate group of people.
Challenging FourSquare is “Hangouts.” This feature lets you alert chosen people where you are located in real time. If they don’t come to see you personally, conference your text messages with the Google+ feature, “Huddle.” Automatic photo uploads from your phone are much easier with “Instant Upload” and you selectively decide which of your circles should be able to view your photos. This is a nice privacy feature Facebook does not offer. Even better, Google+ will allow you to permanently delete the photos and other content you post.
Finally, the engineering wizardry of Google’s search algorithms comes alive with “Sparks” where content that interests you is sent as soon as it is available; so when you are ready, it’s there for your consumption.
According to a published report in PRWeb Magazine, nearly 2/3 of over 2,000 web developers surveyed by Appcelerator/IDC, believe Google can catch up with Facebook in the social networking scene with Google+. When asked why, 68 percent of developers say that leveraging Google’s assets (eg: Search, YouTube, Maps, etc) trumps Facebook’s social graph lead.
Information about business applications for Google+ has not been released yet and may still be in the research and development stages. Developers are spending their time working hard to respond to the few early adopters who were asked to test out the platform. Google+ appears to really be listening to suggestions.
Clearly the battle of the Internet superpowers is gearing up. Facebook is attempting to develop search engine capabilities and “Facebook Mail” while Google enters the social media fray for a second time (Google Buzz died amidst a flurry of unresolved privacy issues). We doubt you’ll want to be on the sidelines for long with this great new technology ready to be tackled.