Google Plus Brings a New Challenger to Facebook

UPDATE: I'm now on Google Plus. I believe it is still an invite only service. However, if you manage to get in, you can add me. (Steven Styffe)

Just last week, Google announced a new social networking platform called Google Plus. Google Plus is designed to allow people to connect with friends in a way very familiar to Facebook. In fact, the media and press have even described it as a direct competitor to Facebook. There are a few key features to this new social network that I will explain further.

The first core feature of Plus is social “circles”, which allows you to make groups of friends in certain categories. For example, you could have one circle of friends be all of your co-workers, and another circle be designated for friends you have close relationships with. You can interact with certain circles of friends or with all of your friends. These social groups will allow you to organize and publish only certain content to certain circles of friends. You can control what groups have access to certain information on your profile as well. This is similar to what Facebook has attempted to do with its “lists” feature, but it wasn’t quite as successful and wasn’t quite as elaborate as Google’s social circles.

Another central feature of Google Plus is “Hangouts.” With Hangouts, the idea is that you can have a group video chat from your computer or mobile device with a certain circle of friends, or with any combination of friends. Google is trying to advertise this as a way for anyone to meet with their friends unexpectedly at any time, without barriers. This could be a great way to meet with old friends or regular colleagues without hassle. Ironically enough, Facebook is rumored to have reached a deal with Skype to do something familiar to Hangouts.

If you’ve ever used Facebook to like a certain topic or page on Facebook, then you already have the concept of Sparks, another feature in Google Plus. Sparks allows you to add topics of interest to your Google Plus profile, so when you have a moment, you can view content that is related to those interests you have added. Such content could be a video, a song, or even something as simple as a news article. It is pre-determined content based on your interests, in other words, it’s not content you choose, but rather content determined to be related to your interest.

There have been many failed attempts at making group messaging simple, but Google Plus is allegedly supposed to change that with “Huddles.” Huddles are a group messaging system that you can use to form group conversations. Currently though, it only works from a mobile device. However, Google Plus is still in its early phase and that problem, along with others, will probably be fixed over time. Huddles will allow you to let people join in on your conversation and make it a group conversation where you can all collaborate.

As you can expect with Google Plus, Google has dedicated smartphone applications available for Android. The iOS app for iPhone and iPad has been submitted to the Apple App Store for approval and we have yet to hear about a decision from Apple. (At least at the time of this writing.) Google will make great strides to support smartphones through dedicated apps as well as a mobile-device formatted website.

Based on what I have seen so far, Google Plus looks like it is aiming directly at Facebook and possibly even Twitter. Of course, Plus is still in its early phase, both literally and metaphorically speaking. Currently, Google is not handing out invitations to the service due to high demand, but hopefully, they will open it back up on an invitation basis and eventually, it will become public. If you’re still curious and would like a little more visual representation of what Google Plus is about, you can visit their website.

I'm living Facebook free! And here's why you should too! Plus alternatives to using Facebook!

Facebook is one of those things that you "just have to have." It's a popular trend and if a friend asks you "Are you on Facebook" and you reply "No, I do not." Then you're friend is going to start to question your logic as to why you do not own a Facebook account. Since "Everybody is on Facebook, you have to have one." None of that is technically true. You do not have to have a Facebook account. It's not a law by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm one of those people who've been violently with Facebook over recent corporate and technical decisions. They've put security in the backseat for so long and now it's finally gotten to my head, so I'm simply deleting my Facebook account (Permanently: Here's how to do so)

For one thing, security is terrible. Sure Facebook (finally!) added SSL (Secure) to their whole site (Except for Facebook apps that don't support SSL). But that's not enough. Especially since most popular Facebook apps, such as FarmVille, don't support SSL and when you enter that app you exit out of SSL and leave you vulnerable to the outside world.

Even if you stay completely within Facebook SSL, you still have to worry about both, you, and your friends' accounts being hacked. If your friend's account gets taken over by hackers, then you are surrendering your privacy to the hacker. Even if you are practicing good security measures, the hacker can post pictures on your wall, can post comments and "posts" on your wall, and can see everything you allow your friends to see. This is a major concern of mine since the new trend in hacking is Facebook accounts. So I'm done being subjected to hackers!

The security risk of owning a Facebook account with personal information is so high in this high tech era, that I've decided to leave Facebook for good!

Hopefully already I've persuaded you to delete your account, but if you're worried that there isn't any good alternatives for Facebook, think again!

Alternatives for Facebook's services

• Google Groups - If you want to share personal news, interesting content, then you can post it on Google Groups. And yes, you can make it a private group.
• Flickr - Flickr is the most popular photo sharing site. It's owned by Yahoo, so if you have a Yahoo account, then you have a Flickr account. It has all of what you expect. Sharing photos with the whole internet, or with just a private group of people.
• Picasa - Picasa is similar in the ways I just described, except it's owned by Google, and has tight integration with Android devices. And with other smartphones as well. Picasa also has a desktop application for Windows that has some basic photo editing capabilities and sharing capabilities.
• YouTube - This one is obvious, but Google's YouTube website offers a great place for you to share videos with friends. Like all the other services I just mentioned, you can make your videos private to only you, and a group of people.
• UStream - This allows you to stream live video from a webcam, or any video camera attached to your computer, to stream it to the web. Of course, you can make the stream private to a group of people, but by default it'll be public.
• A blog - I know this doesn't sound quite as exciting, but a blog or a website that allows you to integrate all your content (Video, photos, and written content) onto one page so you can give anybody and everybody one website address to remember and they can see everything you have to share with your friends and family, and everybody else who wants to know more about you. Yes, you can make a blog or website private to a certain group of people. But I hope you choose to make it public, because it indicates how much confidence you have in public respect. People on the web tend to respect people who are more open than private.

Sure, maybe it's not an easy or quick decision, but it'll be one you won't regret. Because with Facebook, you don't own your content, Facebook does! But with a website or a blog, you own the content, not Facebook!