There's a lot of hype around about Google+ (pronounced Google Plus) at the moment. Google launched a limited beta of this new social network service at the end of June, and only a few people received an invitation to join (not me by the way), but just because I wasn't invited to the party, isn't why I'm feeling less than enthused about it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Google, I think they do a lot of good for a lot of people. I've been using Blogger, Feedburner, Google mail and Google chat for years, and I now have my homepage in Google Chrome set as iGoogle, I even have a Google site (I wanted to try it out), so I think I qualify as a fan, I run a couple of Google groups, but the functionality leaves a lot to be desired. I also used Google Wave and Google Friend Connect, and there lies my problem with the concept of Google +. I loved Google Wave, but no one else wanted to play. With Google Friend Connect I managed to add interactivity to my web pages, but it's a hit and miss affair as to when and if it works. There are never any announcements to say why or when the service will be down, but it has happened again and again.
There's another service, Google plus one, which keeps telling me I've plus oned (if that's a verb) pages I've never even visited.
As for Google Buzz, I've never really figured it out, and to be honest I'm not even sure if I've got it!
So, will Google + be any better than the previous social offerings of Google Wave etc, will it be more stable and better supported than Google Friend Connect and less confusing than Google plus one and Google Buzz? I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Oh and Google Friend Connect is down again - hence this post, and why I've written this
letter to Larry Page,
🙁
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