Google+ First Thoughts

Google+First up, a big thank you for the Google+ invite from Nick Lewis; local developer and photographer, who, despite living in the same town and within 2 miles of me, I haven’t even met in the few years I’ve known him (via twitter).

So, I clicked my Google Plus invite as soon as I received it but was greeted with a message saying thanks for the interest but Google+ wasn’t accepting any more new users. Disappointing to say the least…

I tried to get in to Google+ for nearly a week and even posted a tweet saying I thought it sucked because it wouldn’t let me in. A day later I persistently tried again and finally they let me in.

First impressions? Clean. What do I do? Where is everybody?

I soon found that Google+ was a great hangout for my techie friends and, in particular, the Joomla CMS crew had adopted it with gusto. Some non-system-specific devs that I know had also taken to Google’s new social platform in great numbers, so I’m really loving the ecosystem right now. It takes me back to the time I first started using twitter a couple of years ago.

Twitter, for me, was spoiled when it lost its geeky feel. I still love and promote the use of twitter but it soon became a swamp when it was infested with low-brow “marketers” and “evangelists” who attempted to corner the “how to use twitter” guru status.  So, for now, Google+ has that same early adopter geekiness that I find appealing and yet I see the ease of use for a mass market.

And yet, although I hope Google Plus does succeed in a way that Google Wave and Google Buzz did not, I make no secret of the fact that I want Google+ to stay as cool as it currently is. Apparently there are already more than 10 milion users.

Google+ is Only for Marketers?

Don’t get me wrong about marketers, I am one too in my multifaceted capacity, but it’s the churnalists that spew out multiple links every minute of every day and jam up your twitter feed that I will be happy to avoid in Google+ Also Facebook’s relentless app requests will not be missed. No, I will not join your army in Mafia wars etc etc etc.

I like the circles concept in Google+ it helps me filter by friends, family, acquaintances, twitter, Joomla, devs and the random people on there.  I’m sure facebook already has something like this that I’ve missed or will soon develop this feature, but Google Plus just does it so cleanly and simply.

Sorry I can’t say much more about Google+ for the moment, but this is all I’ve distilled so far and it’s the filtration of people who are there, the geekiness and the geeky way it makes me feel good that has Google Plus appeal to my senses right now.

My next challenge is to see how it does for crowdsourcing, so expect a little post on MobileMe, iPhones, iPads and Windows Office calendars. Wish me luck (and connect with me on Google Plus)

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