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Google+ β The new Google+ all about your interests
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@rrhoover I totally agree. In a lot of cases I get much better engagement on G+ compared to say Twitter. Especially within the communities.
@rrhoover The focus on shared interests and niche communities reminds me of Ning back in the day.
@rrhoover I would *love* to see a G+ renaissance because we have a HUGE following there, but we've seen nothing but crap engagement.
Congrats on the launch, @lukew. I'm genuinely excited to see where this goes.
Based on my Twitter stream, it's in vogue to hate on Google+. What's your response? π
They hired the most influential mobile designer in the world in Wroblewski, who's interviewed at length in TechCrunch write-up. I've always been cheering for them, especially since they said in 2011 that their goal wasn't to kill other social networks - it was to be so compelling they could force data interoperability. That's just awesome. Good luck, + team!
@rrhoover @marshallk why Google doesn't scrap the name at least and re-brand as something non Google-ish is beyond me
@drewmeyers I've always been thrown by the G+ name also. So clunky. It reminds me of Microsoft back in the day plastering their name all over every product.
Interesting that they're focusing on two features that were introduced right around the time I stopped using it. Going to take another look.
Also just discovered that Luke W had a big part in this - they've still got some incredibly talented people working on G+, apparently. Cool!
We're rolling out today on Web. In coming days on iOS & Android. Stay tuned!
@lukew Excited that Google is still invested in Google+ and Social, but what we might get in faster loading speed feels cancelled out by actions taking more clicks to accomplish. I want Google+ to feel more social and personal + am still hoping for a Google Social App (or component) that uses Google Photos powers beyond the initial amazing app I use daily. The idea that people could just choose already made creations to easily share and comment on in their phone focused on gifs, videos, collages, panos, stories, etc. would feel original, like a 'Rediscover Your Camera Roll/Photog History' type possible -- also Collections themselves feel like they'd be more fun as their own app dedicated to content. Google+ On!
Also if you're interested in the geeky parts of this redesign. We moved to a mobile first responsive solution. Before home page weight: 22,600 KB After: 327 KB
And a much richer set of UI animations, transitions, & more. This is the same framework we launched on Google Photos earlier this year.
details here: https://developers.google.com/we...
I'm always miffed at Google's approach to design. Like all Google products, their current design seems circa 2005 and lacks a cohesive experience (cards just tossed around on the page). While so many Google products exhibit excellent functionality, I cannot envision them competing in the social space without a more organized and calming UI/UX. I've heard many people express fondness of the G+ design and I'm sure some here may agree, but product market fit in this space requires appeal by the masses which begins with an organized content consumption experience.
Just spent a few minutes clicking around in it. I just don't know what do do with it... and very weary of going through all my contacts and putting them into groups. I'm skeptical any of them use google plus, so am I going to get any long term value from creating/organizing my contacts?
I think G+ is good for local businesses (I've set up a few for profiles clients/friends). To be completely honest though, G+ just doesn't feel organic as a community. G+ is like that awkward Middle School dance thrown by your teachers and chaperoned by your parents. Facebook is like 6th street in Austin (a lot of people, a LOT of drunks, but really fun). Maybe with this update G+ will start to find a middle ground between these two.
I'm surprised that Google didn't kill this product. But I'm Glad they didn't. G+ can be a really useful tool (or as an alternative tool) for communities.
Though I know people do want to hate on it for it being a Google product.
I can't wait to see what communities do with G+
I have always been a fan of G+ and I am really glad the steps has been made to make it more oriented towards community and around topics with shared interests. I just hope it will develop in the right direction, making it more user friendly, with minimalist approach while retaining the technical superiority that google is, because there is so much potential there, and not to mention the advantage of having it linked to our gmails, because most of us use gmails anyway, so it is convenient.
I'm gonna check it out tomorrow morning. I'm intrigued. I was actually saying today how I haven't "been on" Google+ in weeks. Now's the time to go back.
I actually tried collections before it was cool. (I'm no hipster though). But focusing on it would improve the experience, I think, and differentiate them from the other bunch. I love Collections on PH, why not on Google+ ?
@tsunaze Collections are a great way to focus on interests, whether on Google+ or Pinterest or PH. I wouldn't be surprised to see Facebook create its own collection-like feature in future.
The use case that always comes to mind for this feature is @scobleizer's stated reluctance to post non-tech related items (about wine, for example) to his feed, in fear of alienating his tech-focused followers. With collections, he could post tech items to a tech collection and wine items to a wine collection, and users would have the choice to subscribed to one, the other, or both. Each of us has a variety of interests and not everyone is interested in every single interest we have to share. The kludge of creating separate accounts for separate interests is, well, kludge-y.
As a future enhancement, Google+ should become more intelligent at auto-detecting/suggesting which items belong to which collection (based on past collection assignment as well as url or text cues within the page) so the user isn't slowed down having to manually select the collection each time.
@chuckkahn @tsunaze yep, following interest, and not people. I love the List App for example, or Flipboard, to create a new magazine. Creating something new with something that already exists
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