Also, is there any truly compelling reason I should join Google+?
Well, it’s not a (technical) improvement over LJ/Dreamwidth and other sites using the LJ code, but it is a small but significant improvement over Facebook. And one thing it has that neither of those does is tight integration with lots of other Google properties — which is good in some ways and bad in others.
As an example of the latter, I’ve never used Picasa (in part because I was happy with Flickr and felt a sort of free-market, anti-monopoly urge not to put all my eggs in one company’s basket), but the fact that my (Android-with-Google-branding) phone can be configured to automatically upload any new pictures I take to a private album in Picasa, and then Google+ make them immediately available for me to post, has gotten me using Picasa. Which of course means more concentration of power in Google’s hands, but it’s going to be very convenient.
Another example (which I happen to hate, since I have an IM client I use as an IM client and I don’t want my web browser to try to be an IM client) is that Google+, Gmail, and iGoogle all provide the same Google Talk (Jabber) chat interface. And lots of Google web properties (unobtrusively) let me access incoming G+ notifications.
But because of network effects, social networks aren’t interchangeable commodities. The real reason to join G+ would be if a big chunk of the people you want to communicate with were there. (For instance, over the last few years, I’ve noticed a substantial exodus from LJ to Facebook. That hasn’t been enough to get me to check Facebook regularly, but it’s been very tempting, and G+ is enough less annoying that Facebook that if there’s a similar exodus from LJ-and-Facebook-and-Dreamwidth to G+, that will probably decrease the amount of time I spend on LJ.)
It’s interesting how different this rollout feels from Google Wave.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-07-09 05:54 pm (UTC)As an example of the latter, I’ve never used Picasa (in part because I was happy with Flickr and felt a sort of free-market, anti-monopoly urge not to put all my eggs in one company’s basket), but the fact that my (Android-with-Google-branding) phone can be configured to automatically upload any new pictures I take to a private album in Picasa, and then Google+ make them immediately available for me to post, has gotten me using Picasa. Which of course means more concentration of power in Google’s hands, but it’s going to be very convenient.
Another example (which I happen to hate, since I have an IM client I use as an IM client and I don’t want my web browser to try to be an IM client) is that Google+, Gmail, and iGoogle all provide the same Google Talk (Jabber) chat interface. And lots of Google web properties (unobtrusively) let me access incoming G+ notifications.
But because of network effects, social networks aren’t interchangeable commodities. The real reason to join G+ would be if a big chunk of the people you want to communicate with were there. (For instance, over the last few years, I’ve noticed a substantial exodus from LJ to Facebook. That hasn’t been enough to get me to check Facebook regularly, but it’s been very tempting, and G+ is enough less annoying that Facebook that if there’s a similar exodus from LJ-and-Facebook-and-Dreamwidth to G+, that will probably decrease the amount of time I spend on LJ.)
It’s interesting how different this rollout feels from Google Wave.