Google+

You hate Facebook. You probably just don’t realize it yet. But it’s pretty clear that nobody has ever actually enjoyed Facebook. The arrival of Google+ tells me so.

Google+ is just like Facebook, except less blue. I don’t mean blue in a depressing way. I mean the actual color blue. Google+ is a nice, sterile black, white, and grey.

Google+ is only accessible via invitation. Since the Beta test started, people have been doing the internet equivalent of camping out at the movie theater to get access. When somebody posted on Facebook (GASP) that they had invites to send out, I went ahead and volunteered. After all, I was curious to see what it was, and hey, maybe I can at least squeeze a GBOAT post out of the deal.

So here is the first day on Google+

All I knew about Google+ is that it involved seeing people’s faces when you chat with them and putting your friends in circles. Therefore, it was identical to real life.

Since I knew nothing about it, getting into Google+ was exciting. The natural first thing to do was set up my profile. So I put up a profile picture….went ahead and addded some employment info….and….educational….info? Wait, I feel like I’ve done all this before.

The first thing I noticed after setting up my profile was that there was nothing here. I shared something on the “Stream” to liven up the place:

No response.

I then attempted to add friends. It brought up email addresses that I had contact with. So….Google+ is my address book?

Oh, a search bar. It clearly says “Find People”, so I typed a name. In fact, I typed the name of Sarah, who sent me the invite. It gave me a list of people not named Sarah. I tried it again on that page. Nobody came up. The person who invited me didn’t exist.

At this point, I got hungry and went to lunch.

The first of two major appeals to Google+ is having friends in circles. This way, you could share something with one particular group of friends, one friend alone, or everyone in the world. Just whatever you feel like.

The other appealing feature is that of the “Hangout.” Hanging Out on Google+ is a pretty revolutionary chatting idea. It basically combines the social media abilities of Facebook with the video chatting of Skype.

This idea is unheard of.

The Hangout puts whoever is talking loudest in the middle of the screen so everybody can pay attention to them. Once again, Google+ is just like real life.

But as everyone starts talking, the middle screen starts jumping around from person to person. For somebody with ADHD, this was awful. Just awful.

When I returned from lunch, I suddenly had friends! And they, too, were questioning Google+! It felt as if we were aliens, placed in an unfamiliar place and forced to figure things out. Stanton Martin let us know he was “Wondering if people can see what circles I’ve put them in…”

This new world seems amazing.

I don’t have a camera, but Tyler Blount wants to video chat. I’m questioning how effective this is for a man with no camera. “Well it will be kinda one sided, but You can watch and type responses to my chats,” Tyler explains. “Basically I’ve grown to lazy to type and just want to speak out loud.”

Thrilling. Suddenly it feels like Google+ is just Gmail set up like Facebook.

My first hangout experience was with Scott Anderson. It went like this:

Now my Stream is letting me know that Stanton Martin changed his profile picture! It’s good to see that this notification takes up most of the screen. So much better than Facebook!

Sarah started asking questions as well. ‘What does the +1 button mean?!” she asks. We went from a thumbs up to a numerical system.

Adding people to circles is really easy. You just hover over the button and it automatically opens up the menu to choose which circle to add them to. Of course, if this really WAS the future, I would just think it and it would be so. Get cracking on it, Google+.

Okay, let’s mess with the profile again. Hmm….bragging rights? Interesting. It says to put things such as “survived high school, have 3 kids, etc.”. I feel like most of the people I know survived high school. What impressive feat can I put here? Hmm….

Whoops. Well, at least it’s only visible….to anyone on the web. Oh well. I am proud of it, so I guess I’ll let it stay.

What else can I change here….wait, occupation? Did I just put down my employment earlier? What’s the difference? I don’t want my profile to get redundant. Guess I’ll just move down.

Oh cool, a map! Now people can know….where I have lived. Guess that’s cool. Facebook stalkers could see my profile. Google+ stalkers will see my location.

Well, let’s see if anything’s happening on the home page now and see what my friends are up to.

Nothing. Nothing is new.

Oh look, Leslee commented on what Sarah asked! She has apparently given up all hope. Google+ has taken Leslee’s will to live. This is a sad day.

I don’t know what I keep expecting from the homepage. I guess because of all the excitement, I expect to be handed cash or something.

I got bored. Google+ had lost the novelty in roughly an hour and a half.

Google+ is being hyped up as the next big thing in social media. All I know is that I desperately needed another webpage to habitually refresh, and Google+ answered my prayers.

What’s your opinion? Have you tried Google+ yet? Do you love it? Leave a comment!