Google+

Well, I have been playing around with Google+ all morning. I have to say that from a personal and professional standpoint this is the first product I have seen in several years that could really give Facebook a run for their money.

There are some really neat features in Google+. Here are just a few that I ran into in my playing. The Circles concept it great and much easier to use than similar functions in Facebook. When sharing something you can choose to have it go to a specific circle of friends. You can do the same in Facebook but it requires a couple of steps.

You can add Sparks or news streams so social interactions and news consumption/sharing are more seamless than on Facebook. Even adding friends was pretty easy.

It is going to be interesting to see how Google+ grows. Can Facebook learn from the ease of this new product before it grows to big. I remember when MySpace was king and Facebook was adding functions that were much better than MySpace. Some said MySpace would not lose in the fight. (MySpace was sold last week for $35 Million--that is after it had been bought at it's height for $300+ million, that's a big loss.)

For now I am going to be using all three networks, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. I am still not sold on Twitter. Twitter's retention rates are terrible. Lots of people have signed up and very few are actually using it.

I also have seen a number of things a company might be able to do with Google+ to enhance relationships with customers. That is if it grows to the size of a Facebook. I guess we will have to wait and see. For now, I am sold and I have invited a number of other folks in.