So here's my first impressions about the newest Google's social network.
+ Google Home
The design is very similar to Facebook. The home, called Stream, has two sidebars: the left with information about the user profile and the right with suggestions from friends and buttons with different features. In the middle is called the Stream, which serves as the Twitter timeline, showing the last posts of your friends.
Circles, Huddles, Sparks and. Hangouts?
The circles serve to separate groups of people you add, their "circles of friends" so to speak. It's pretty similar to what already exists on Orkut, Facebook and other social networks that use groups. Google innovated creating a page with animations, that's all. You drag the person into the circle and it is automatically added to it.
Drag and drop to arrange the circles
From this group you can send specific messages to a group, call a specific group to a video chat or even see only the updates that group of people.
Sparks
Already the Huddles are a kind of group conversation and quickly to the specific application for Google Android + (and future iOS and other platforms). I go into detail later, but it is quite possible that migrate to the web version in the future. For now, the only function of chat in Google is in the same integration + integration of Google Chat in Gmail that you see in the left column.
The Sparks, who are their interests, serve to show news and other items related to what you seek. From it you share a link to your profile. There are not much use in it.
Test hangouts | Click to enlarge
It called the Hangout is a feature that threatens some programs that make VoIP videoconferencing group charged anything (cough cough, Skype, cough cough). After the installation of a plugin, you can call your friends to a group conversation and through this window you can display a YouTube video at the same time for everyone.
+ Google anywhere
Notifications
With the new top bar is literally possible to share any content directly from any Google product that has that new black bar. With a click in the blank writing Share, a bar and opens greater space to write text appears, and the appropriate buttons to send links, photos, YouTube videos and so on.
Allied to this, the bar also shows a counter notification, which represents the number of shares held in the network involving your profile. Can be notices of new friends, new posts marked with your name, republication of their posts, adding in circles and who knows what else. This particular part of the bar has the potential to take the productivity of many people.
+ Google Android
Soon after its launch, Google released an application on Google Android + which allows access to certain features of the network. You can see the stream and send posts to certain select circles. It also allows you to check in via an integration with Google Latitude Direct +, which should serve to compete with Facebook Places.
Along with it comes a widget that can be fitted in any of the screens of Android and gives quick access to options for picture taking, "share their thoughts" or open the application and see what your friends are doing.
It is here also that the Huddles work. When installing the application, it creates a separate icon for the specific Huddles, which when opened allows you to choose a specific circle to chat. The only problem is that for now he does not seem to be working.
+ Google and your privacy
One point that Facebook and Google have sinned in their respective services in the past has been privacy. But this time it seems Google has learned its lesson. As far as the web version for Android application in the company filled with information about sharing information and photos, from login to the first uses of each feature, making it clear what was and what the public would be deprived.
She will only leave a little to be desired for those who are paranoid for privacy and do not want to share anything publicly. There is an option to leave the private profile at a time, one must take all the "public", item by item. But at least everything is clear and simple. For now.
This aspect is well represented in the application for Android. When you share something with geolocation enabled, the application + Google asks for permission and also warns you before you post if you have already saved somewhere in the settings.
Just got back foot with a specific feature, the application for Android. The so-called Instant Upload is marked by default to send any new photos I take with my phone. When the photo is sent to the profile Google +, it is in private mode by default, so nobody can see it. But still I felt a bit intrusive to send photos without asking me.
+ Google: Conclusion
+ Google is a social network that implements several things that Facebook already offers, but a new way. I do not know if this is enough to raise to get as many users as the network of Mark Zuckerberg has done, but does not mean that Google will not try. The Hangout, and integration with the application for Android are the two highlights of the social network for now.
Because it is only a project site (Google even called beta), it still has much to be improved over the months before it is publicly available and used to compete directly with Facebook. And for this, users need to collaborate and use the network, so stay always on the notices of invitation to the availability of social network.
