In an attempt to break further into the social media space and compete with other networks like Facebook, Google launched a beta test of “Google+,” last week.
The new network is still only open to a small group of users and a few BYU students have started using the Google service. Not all who have Google+ are sold that it will be able to compete with Facebook.
“I find it kind of useless,” said Nick Barnes, 23, a communications student from California. “It’s too much work to learn another social network when I already have others.”
But Barnes admitted a major factor in how he feels about Google+ is most of his friends don’t have it yet.
“I am not exactly sure it’s worth my time since the masses are still on Facebook,” Barnes said. “Social networking is about, well, networking, and without the people you want to network with present, it becomes a useless tool.”
Morgan Williams, 23, a junior, had a different opinion.
“This is the age of startups, there’s always going to be a lot of new things to try out,” Williams said. “Some will be worth it, and some won’t. But I think Google plus is worth it. It’s easier, and frankly better than Facebook from what I’ve seen so far.”
One of the main features of Google+ that differentiates it from other services is it directly addresses privacy concerns with the use of “Circles.” When you begin to add friends, instead of just adding them as a friend like Facebook, you add them into “Circles.” When you go to share information on Google+, you choose which “Circles” have access to the information.
“I think Google did a good job with privacy,” Williams said. “Privacy is a big concern of mine, and I believe facebook has been falling behind.”
Facebook is set to come out with an announcement on Wednesday, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Reuters last week that they plan to “launch something awesome” this week. Facebook may be feeling some pressure from Google’s move into the social networks market.
Ironically, according to the website socialstatistics.com, Zuckerberg is the most popular person on Google+ with more than 29,000 followers. Google CEO Larry Page is about 10,000 followers behind Zuckerberg.
According to the website Mashable.com, “Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products … ” The story named Blogger and Picasa as two of the brands that will be renamed. “The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+, the search giant’s social initiative.”
