Google, takes on Facebook | Bangkok Post: tech

The Internet chatter seems to agree that the first social network has emerged that can take on Facebook. Google Plus (or Google+) is an audacious new social networking ecosystem that attempts to combine and replace the best of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Microsoft Live Messenger, Flickr and even Skype.

The site is currently in beta and has a strictly controlled number of users. Despite this restriction – or perhaps because of it – interest in it is enormous. Google introduced an invitation feature last week, but then had to remove it after just a few hours, because the system couldn't handle the "insane demand".

But never fear, Google+ will be available to the public "soon" though it will start strictly on an invitation-only basis.

Here is how the new social network works.

CIRCLES

Circles are at the heart of Google+. People – the equivalent to friends in Facebook and people you follow on Twitter – are added to Circles (as in social circles). You can have a circle called friends, colleagues, chess club, class of 2011 and so on. You can add any Person you wish to your circles. They don't need to confirm as they do on Facebook.

When you post or share something, you specify which circles of people are to receive the post. Anyone who has added you to their circles will have it appear on their news Stream. Google likes to boast that if you keep your boss out of your party circle you will get in to less trouble, than you might do on Facebook.

In addition, there are some special Circles that Google includes:

Extended Circles – This includes friends of people in your circles.

Following – A twitteresk circle used for sources you just get one-way posts from, like celebrities and news sources.

Public – Posts to this circle will be sent to anyone that has added you to their circles, regardless of whether you've added them. This is the Google+ equivalent to tweeting (although you're not limited to 140 characters). There is however a subtle psychological deviation from Twitter as you need to consciously decide on each post whether the whole world really needs to know and not just your friends. This thought together with the visible "Public" indicator may inhibit the less extraverted.

THE STREAM

The stream is where it all happens. It is a familiar flow of posts from the people in your circles – and is more or less identical to Facebook's news feed. You can comment on the posts or click Google+'s iconic +1 – the equivalent to Facebook's "like".

When it comes to your own postings, you can add text, photos and video or share someone else's post. There are some nice features when posting that are sure to be expanded upon in the future such as using a + symbol like twitter's @ to add a reference to a friend (+Ananda for example). You can also add your location to give some context, and interestingly, disable the ability to re-share your post.

Before you click share you can see and choose what circles you are sharing with. Google has done a reasonable job in making this a painless process – and remembers your previous selection.

HANGOUTS

The real wow feature of Google+ is Hangouts. These are group video chats that work straight from your browser – via a browser plugin. The multi-user video chat really works well. There are real-time thumbnails of the participants' video below a main video screen. The main screen can be switched to any one user by moving the mouse cursor over one of the thumbnails.

Hangouts currently supports up to ten participants and the conversation is kept under control by a neat "push to talk" button that needs to be held down while speaking.

You and your group can even watch a YouTube video together, while seeing the other's reactions while watching, or clicking the talk button to interrupt the video's sound track with a witty remark.

The hangout chat integrates with Google Translate and can translate text real-time.

Strangely, Hangouts is initiated by someone starting a hangout and then waiting for people – who recognise that there is a hangout in progress – to join.

So cool is the Hangouts that Facebook is expected to release an update with video this week. It may also make the people at Skype – and Microsoft – squirm in their seat a little.

SPARKS

Sparks is an area of Google+ that keeps track of your interests like football, Thai cooking or planking. This is a type of news feed that will stream articles to you that might be of interest, based on the subjects you've nominated. Sparks is a separate article list than the Google+ Stream. The concept has something of an experimental feel to it at this stage – and is yet to be fully developed.

MOBILE

Mobile access is arguably the most important part of social networks these days and Google+ hasn't overlooked it. Although there are currently no mobile apps for Google+ (although much integration is ready to go in the Android OS), there is a very functional mobile web application.

On the mobile version of Google+ you can access your stream, upload posts and photos and organize your friends and circles. You can also check-in to locations (like you can with Foursquare) and see who has checked in or is posting nearby (like you can with Twitter). This feature is very handy for quickly creating and following circles of nearby people.

One – presumably temporary – pain is that once inside a friend's profile, the only way to get back to your stream or home is to continually press the app's back button and cycle back though all the tabs you visited as if you were pressing the browser's back button.

SOCIAL NETWORKING AND MORE

Google+ is equipped with most of the features you'd expect from a social network like user profiles, videos, chat and an exquisite photo management interface. Each has been well thought out and is slightly more intuitive than Facebook.

The profiles are refreshingly simple and have additions including "bragging rights" which is intended for you to write comments like "survived high school", "have three kids", "once ate fried spiders in Cambodia", and so on.

The chats have the ability to add emoticons. You have three tabs worth to choose from. Although interestingly all three tabs have the same emotions on them, albeit with a slightly different appearance: simple text, round-faced and square-face graphics.

Other welcomed features – that are by and large missing in other social networks – include Data Liberation, or the ability to download all your information, including photos and so on via a zip file, as well as the ability to easily delete your Goggle+ account and erase all your personal data.

GOOGLE HITS A HOME RUN

It's obvious that Google+ has borrowed heavily from already existing social networks – and although there are only a few real revolutionary features (the big exception being the multiuser video chat) – Google has done a commendable job in putting everything together while keeping the experience simple and intuitive. This, mixed with Google's inventive image, should provide some serious competition to the big social networks and prompt them to innovate even further.