That's right, I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I'm very hopeful for Google+ -- not only because I'm an admitted Android fanboy (sans any flamewar posting, more like an evangelist in real life), but because it provides competition for Facebook & Twitter, the latter of which I'm loathe to use on any kind of regular basis. Too spammy, too loud... and basically too unnecessary. Even for the purpose of communicating with larger brands and corporations, I've had limited success getting any kind of meaningful response.
So, on to the AOTD.
I won't get too far into Google+ the service, suffice it to say it provides the typical sharing mechanisms we've come to expect from a social network. These really start to shine on a mobile device -- being able to share a thought as it comes to you while you're out and about, a picture, your location or get in touch with a specific group or friends, work contacts, etc simultaneously can be useful, productive and really quite fun. The Android app (which at this point is the only native app available for any platform) will grab any pictures you take after it's installed and link them to the Google profile you're using to sign into Google+. However, this doesn't cause any privacy concerns, as they don't become public or available to *anyone* until you specify otherwise. In fact, any pictures you've recently taken will show up next to the 'add photos' button in the desktop webapp, so you can attach them to what you're sharing without the need to go digging for them. The app was updated yesterday to add further polish and functionality to features like the mobile-specific Huddle, allowing you to quickly create a group from a specific Circle. It also addresses glitches experienced by people who are using Swype for text input (it was painful before).Here's the thing -- I don't understand what Google's planning for Huddle. I can certainly appreciate the usefulness of group chat; I found GroupMe a couple weeks ago and convinced a few friends whom I communicate with often to get onboard to see if it provided a benefit over typical one-to-one conversations that we have via SMS and various IM networks. It does, and in quite an evolutionary way over what's quickly becoming the standard for talking with friends near and far. And I like that Google's providing me a way to do that without having to use another 3rd-party service and another account/password. What I don't understand is why Google created yet another non-integrated service through which we can communicate with each other. For those of you who're counting, if you stick to Google's services alone you can now talk separately in Google Talk (which I've always loved for it's "anywhere you're logged in" capabilities, whether through your desktop browser, desktop app, phone/tablet app, to whomever, wherever, all logged in your Google account), Huddle (which is mobile-only, desktop users need not apply), or Disco (which is so very much like Huddle, but built by a separate internal team at Google referred to as Slide). But I digress. The app also provides location support, which leverages Google's pre-existing database of businesses on Google Maps. While there isn't any badge/achievement support yet, I imagine that isn't something Google will let founder too long, especially given their upcoming Offers product. A nice side benefit is that since you can't just enter a place name and check-in like you can with Facebook (or to a lesser extent Foursquare/Gowalla), dwellings and other inconsequential places won't clutter and detract from the experience. Notifications in the app is another feature that streamlines the Google+ experience. In the desktop webapp Google+ settings, you can specify whether you want to be emailed, notified by text, both or neither. Skip all that the spam and use the app's own push notifications -- less duplicates = less annoying.
There are only a couple downsides that affect day-to-day usage of the app, the biggest of which is the inability to properly tag people when either sharing or commenting. No doubt this will be rectified as soon as possible, but it's frustrating in the mean time. Editing of posts and comments is another biggie that's not present in the mobile app that I expect will be sorted out soon, at least I hope so -- it's one of the major usability tweaks that makes G+ better than the competition. Also, app notifications don't always get pushed out right away. This may be an issue with Android itself -- many of the apps I use have this issue.
All in all, a worthy addition to my drawer and my homescreen via a decent widget that comes with. Now, how about a tablet specific version, +google?
