WEBVTT - The Decline of Google+ 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:07.960 Get in tech with Technology with tex Stuff from hosfors 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:16.720 dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.279 Jonathan Strickland and this is a little bit of a 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.120 solo episode. It's an update as well as at the 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.680 end of this episode, I will play a classic episode 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:28.040 of tech Stuff, but I've got a lot to talk 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.320 about before we get to the classic episode. And it's 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.199 all about a sad story, something that I got to 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.800 watch from beginning to end in my career as a podcaster. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.360 So back in July two thousand eleven, Chris Palette, my 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:47.320 former co host, and I did an episode about Google Plus. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.000 So in case you somehow have missed out on what 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:55.280 Google Plus is, it's Google's answer to social platforms like Facebook. 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.120 It's a place where you can share with specific circles 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.240 of people. You can create circles based on your relationships, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.120 so that you share things with specific circles like communities 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.520 or co workers, family members, or even the general public. 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.440 And it's not limited to just those. It was a 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.840 grand experiment when it first began, but here's the thing 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:20.319 about experiments, they don't always work out. So back in 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.560 two thousand eleven, the service was still in beta, and 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.119 people were clamoring to get in. Uh and it had 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.280 not come out of beta when Chris and I did 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.000 the episode, but since then the service opened up, there 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.200 was this whole brewhaha where it got linked to YouTube 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.160 caused a real stir with a policy about using your 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.600 official real name rather than a handle, which later the 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.959 company backed off of. And also recent changes in the 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.560 product have prompted some journalists to say it's in the 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:53.040 midst of death throws, so you can have your little 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.280 moment of silence if you like. But I'm not ready 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.920 to call it completely dead just yet. I just think 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.320 of it as mostly dead. All right, Let's talk about 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.480 what happened, And I have to mention that Google Plus, 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.840 as of this recording is not dead, and it may 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.040 be that all those predictions of it going away are premature, 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:13.080 or it could just be that you know what's on 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.000 borrow time. If you're interested in the original episode in 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.200 which Chris and I talked about Google Plus, I'm adding 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.960 that to the end of this part, so I'll talk 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.440 about what's happened since then, and then if you want 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.000 to go in the time machine, you can listen to 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.320 the second half of the episode. And Chris and I 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.360 will talk more about what Google Plus was like back 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.800 before it even came out of beta. We were so 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.840 young back then. You'll get to hear how excited we 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.680 were about the platform and how they were planning on 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.280 it to be a challenge on Facebook, and even then 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.000 I was making the point that it had a long 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:47.960 way to go if it were to ever really be 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.080 a threat. Meanwhile, Mashable has a really great piece on 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.480 the rise and fall, although maybe I would just call 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.000 it the debut and fall of Google Plus. According to 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.160 the article, google Plus was largely worn out of fear. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.119 It was fear that motivated Google. It was the fear 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.359 that Facebook would make Google irrelevant or at least heard 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.080 its growth potential. So around, it was clear that social 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.760 platforms were really taking off, and people were sharing and 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.600 following links on Facebook left and right. Now that meant 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.520 that more people were skipping what Google considered to be 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.080 an important step, which was where you would use Google 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:29.200 to perform searches. Since Google depends upon ad revenue, you 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.000 have to remember Google's really an ad company first, and 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.840 then a search engine is just a product that's offered 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.920 to us, and we ultimately are the real products of Google. 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:40.960 So this was considered to be a bad thing if 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.920 Facebook was going to eat into these numbers, and a 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:49.040 an executive named Vic Gondotra, who was at the time 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.200 a senior vice president at Google, argued that the company 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.440 needed its own social platform. So Google had tried some 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.840 social experiments before. Google Wave was one those, and Google 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.040 Buzz was another. If you're a longtime fan of tech Stuff, 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.880 you might know that Chris and I both really liked 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.320 Google Wave a lot. We used it to build out 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.080 our live shows when we were experimenting with live streaming 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.640 with tech Stuff Live. That was several years ago. But 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.200 here's the thing. He and I loved it because it 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.440 allowed us to do real time layouts of what the 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.640 show was going to be like and even make changes 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.119 while we were doing a show, But we couldn't figure 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:33.760 out what anyone else would use it for. It was 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.800 great for what we did, but that's a really narrow 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.320 use case, and none of these social efforts from Google 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.880 had much staying power. They all eventually went away, including 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.359 Google Wave, So the best you could hope for was 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.680 that some of the features that were in these products 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.160 would find their way into other Google products. Like Gmail 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.200 or something like that. Now, since the Google Plus podcast 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.640 covers the birth of the social network, I thought a 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.200 quick rundown on things that have happened since the debut 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:05.000 would be useful before I play the old episode first. 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.839 Google Plus launched in the summer of eleven and spent 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.640 about three months in an invite only beta phase. For 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.239 some reason, I got included in that beta test, which 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.400 I loved at the time, and I thought Google Plus 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.360 was interesting. Uh. I love the fact that when it 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:25.280 was beta, most of the other people who were involved 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:30.400 were either tech entrepreneurs so they were important people who 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.200 were in you know, startup companies or even more established companies, 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.440 or they were tech journalists. So it felt like a 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.960 bunch of my professional peers and friends all had this 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.080 playground to ourselves, and frankly, we all thought it was 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.120 kind of fun. That was obviously short lived because then 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.840 it opened up to the public and then it sort 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.880 of fell apart um. It opened to the public in 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.359 September two thousand eleven, and despite some early interest, the 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:02.000 platform really failed to get any real traction. Now, despite 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.520 that early interest, the platform failed to get a lot 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.480 of traction, So people often commented that Google Plus was 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.720 really just a ghost town. In fact, that phrase was 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.520 used a lot to describe Google Plus. Certain communities on 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.320 Google Plus were really active, but they were the exception 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.560 as opposed to the rule. And the truth is a 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.000 lot of people just didn't see the need to migrate 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.160 to Google Plus from other platforms like Twitter or Facebook. 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.040 And unless your friends all go to the new place 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.400 to hang out, it's not so much fun hanging out there. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:35.480 So since its launch, we've learned a little bit more 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.000 about what was going on behind the scenes. Before a 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.760 Google unveiled the beta test phase, Google had a building 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.240 set aside for the Google Plus team and the project 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.400 was kept a secret. The CEO was moved into that building, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.200 so it raised some probably some a little bit of 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.200 drama within Google. According to mash Double, google Plus at 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.560 one point had about one thousand employees working on the project, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.360 which is an enormous compared to other projects within Google. 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.640 In two thousand twelve, Vic Gondotra addressed an audience itself 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.480 by Southwest and said that Google Plus was essentially Google 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.559 two point oh and that it represented a social layer 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.920 across all of Google's services, So, in other words, all 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.560 those other Google products people use like Gmail or YouTube 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.280 would be held together by the connective tissue that is 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:30.080 Google Plus. In Google first did some spring cleaning, uh. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.640 It combined Google Talk, which sometimes was also known as 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.160 Google Chat or g Chat, and Google Messenger, which is 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.280 an i AM client that was within Google Plus, and 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:45.400 Google Hangouts, all under the Hangouts umbrellas, so all of 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:50.000 these became collectively known as Google Hangouts. Hangouts had previously 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.559 been known as the video chat service that was launched 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.720 with Google Plus, and now that also included text messaging, 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.720 so really it was anyway besides email al where you 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:02.960 would get in touch with other people who had these 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.720 accounts now. Gondatra announced at the Google Io event there 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.280 would be a total of forty one updates to the 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.080 Google Plus service, and it included tweaks to photos and 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.280 videos and how large they would be within a Google 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:22.320 Plus screen. Also new animations that users could use automatic 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.800 photo enhancements. This was kind of fun. I remember taking 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:30.200 a picture of a snowy landscape and Google automatically animated 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.760 snowflakes falling across the picture. But there was a lot 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:38.360 more of that than just those examples. Google also that 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.800 year made a very controversial decision to tie together YouTube 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:46.800 and Google Plus accounts that people absolutely hated. The integration 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.360 effort required YouTube users to use a Google Plus account 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.040 to leave comments, and because of Google's policies with names 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.800 on accounts, this meant people more often than not had 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.520 to post under their actual names, and it also prompted 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.200 owners of YouTube channels to change their handle to their 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:08.160 true name. Now, the name debacle was really a big 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.400 deal because some people wanted anonymity, or as much as 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.400 it that as they can manage, particularly when just using YouTube. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.839 Others had an online persona that was separate from their 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:21.640 real life identity, and making the switch would be confusing 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.440 and perhaps even damaging to their online brand. There were 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.160 plenty of legitimate reasons why people didn't like the idea 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.240 of having to use their their birth name or real name, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.040 as well as plenty of reasons that aren't terribly legitimate, 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.720 like the desire to troll other people while not being 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.360 held responsible for that action. But the move may have 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.839 been motivated by the desire to make YouTube comments a 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.200 less volatile experience. So in other words, if you are 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.600 attached to your real name, maybe you'd be less likely 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.520 to be a jerk face on YouTube. Anyone who has 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.600 seen a name various comment threads on Facebook knows this 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.120 is not necessarily the case, but I guess it was 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.160 a hope. But it also seemed like it was a 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.480 membership drive to get more people to sign up for 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.680 Google Plus accounts. If you wanted to play in the 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.280 YouTube space, you had to have a Google Plus account, 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.880 so that didn't go over so well. In two thousand 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.319 and fourteen, in April, Vic Gundotra, the man behind Google Plus, 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.920 would announce his departure from the company, and that prompted 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.400 a lot of news sites to essentially say that Google 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:31.200 Plus was dead, although it seems to have been continuously 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.240 shambling on ever since its death, so perhaps it's reports 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.719 of its death have been greatly exaggerated. David Besbrus took 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.400 over as the head of Google Plus and promised that 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.160 the company was committed to support the product for a 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.640 really long time, but six months later Google replaced him 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.960 with Bradley Horowitz, who's another executive at Google. Two thousand 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.960 fifteen current year, Google spins off photos into its own app, 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.480 so it's no longer wrapped up with Google Plus. The 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.480 photos on Google Plus We're one of the big selling points, 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.040 especially among photographers. It was considered to be a superior 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:11.200 tool by many two things like the Facebook Google or 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:15.960 Facebook Photo app. So the Google Plus Photos app was 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.600 considered to be pretty good, and the fact that Google 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.640 is spinning it off from Google Plus maybe an indication 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.080 that Google Plus is kind of living on borrowed time. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.600 On August first, two thousand fifteen, Google shut down the 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.360 Google Plus version of photos, switching to the independent app instead. 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.720 The new app is pretty cool and contains features like 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.840 image recognition, which makes image searching really interesting. Uh. In 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:44.000 other words, Google is using algorithms to automatically detect stuff 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.600 that's within photos, so that way, when you search for photos, 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.680 even if they haven't been meta tagged, often the image 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.079 search can give you some pretty good results. Occasionally can 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.920 give you some hilariously wrong results. It is still a 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.920 fallible system. Google is also in the process of removing 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.240 the requirement to link Google Plus and YouTube accounts together, 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.520 which is pretty much an admission that the initiative was 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:10.720 not a good idea. In fact, they pretty much said 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.320 said so in their blog posts. They didn't come out 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:17.360 and say specifically that YouTube and Google Plus integration was 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.200 a complete mistake, or that making you use a quote 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.360 unquote real name was a real mistake, but the implication 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.760 was there. So soon you'll only need a Google account, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.600 not a Google Plus account, just a Google account to 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.760 set up a YouTube channel, and that means that people 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.920 won't be able to follow you or search you with 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:40.920 that just that Google account Google Plus, they could, but 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.719 not with just a regular Google account. By the way, 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.320 you should not delete your Google Plus account right away. 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.679 You should hold onto it because Google says if you 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.400 delete your Google Plus account before this whole process is complete, 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.480 it will also delete your YouTube account. So if you 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.480 have YouTube videos online, you don't want to remove your 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:06.840 Google Plus account yet, wait until this process is finished. Now, 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.760 in general, Google has stopped the more or less forced 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.400 push to make users create Google Plus accounts. It clearly 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.559 wasn't getting the results that it wanted, other than irritating 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.920 people who didn't have any interest in Google Plus to 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.720 begin with, which I'm guessing was not an intended consequence. 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.240 In fact, Harowitz said that it was time to talk 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.120 about how Google Plus was pivoting away from its original 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.360 pitch into something new, and this has already been reflected 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.439 in that the social operations within Google had changed its 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:41.760 name to Google Streams, Photos and Sharing. Now. Generally speaking, 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.240 critics say that Google failed to address the real problem, 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.360 which was attracting users to the platform in an organic way, 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.880 and instead used force by integrating Google Plus with other services, 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.640 whether you liked it or not, so you had to 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.040 create a Google Plus account if you wanted access to 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.040 these other Google services, and it wasn't so much an 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.720 indication that you thought Google Plus was actually a good 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:08.760 service itself. They also kept on including lots of features 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:10.840 that seemed like whenever they thought that there was a 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.320 different way to try and attract people, they would just 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:18.240 throw random features into Google Plus. This comes from criticism 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.680 within the company itself, and a lot of people said 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.560 those features were often unwanted or no one understood what 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:27.200 they were for, so no one was using them. Now, 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:29.960 Google maintains that Google Plus is going to stick around. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:31.760 It's just going to be more of a simple social 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.520 platform and less of the centralized point of sharing across 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.880 all of Google services. In other words, it's just gonna 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.080 be a stripped down version of what it was in 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.840 the first place. So Google Plus isn't officially dead. But 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.880 keep in mind Google has been known to pull the 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:53.520 plug on services after you know they've died down a bit, 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.040 and only a relatively small user base would be affected, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.920 So it's possible that ins own blog post down in 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.560 the future, there's going to be one of those lists 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.480 of Google services that will no longer be supported, and 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:12.360 Google Plus may one day show up on that list. Meanwhile, 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:17.280 things like Google Photos and Hangouts exist outside of Google Plus, 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.200 and while they might have been spawned within Google Plus 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.640 to begin with, we now can access those through other tools. 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.320 Like Hangouts you can access through Gmail, for example, and 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.920 you can even have live hangouts that are broadcast on YouTube, 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.000 so you can still use those products and they are 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.080 kind of standalone compared to what they were originally as 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:42.560 a sort of a feature within Google Plus itself. Now, 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.360 with all that being said, we can go back and 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.480 listen to this twenty eleven episode of tech Stuff in 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:53.320 which Chris and I talked about the very earliest days 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.200 of Google Plus. So if you want to hear what 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.240 our thoughts were on the service back before it was 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.320 open to the public, stick a round. Check this out 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:07.040 and be entertained by the amazing and adaptability for the 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:11.600 two Yahoo's sitting at this table to chat about a 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:16.960 service that had not yet debuted. Enjoy, So today we 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:22.160 wanted to talk about a social network experiment that launched recently. 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.960 As of the recording of this podcast, we're recording this 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.840 in July two thousand eleven, and not that long ago, 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.080 Google made a an announcement that ended up taking at 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.600 least the the geek world by storm. Yes, definitely, and 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.840 we've had a few requests, and I think Jonathan and 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:41.560 I have decided that we'll go ahead and record a 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.520 podcast about it now in self defense before too many 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.120 other people ask us how it works. And also we 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.760 should add that well, first of all, we're talking about 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.280 Google Plus. In case you didn't read the title, we're 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.960 talking about Google Plus. But I want to add a 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.280 disclaimer at the beginning of this podcast, which is Google 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:04.400 Plus is in a a beta a rapidly expanding beta program, 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:09.560 uh and could undergo massive changes and short amounts of time. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.919 So anything we talked about today may very well have 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.720 be different by the time this podcast goes live, although 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.639 I don't I don't imagine things changing so significantly that 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.199 they don't apply at all, but it may be that 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.919 there are some subtleties that we are not going to 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.639 cover because they will have emerged between the time we 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.960 record this in the time it publishes. Because frankly, that's 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.240 that's true of a good two thirds of our podcast 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:37.320 anytime we don't talk about something in history. Yeah, but 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.720 but with with something like this in particular, when it's 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.320 in a beta format and a lot of people are 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.879 testing it out. Um, and not only that, but the 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.080 team behind it is listening to feedback and incorporating feedback 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:53.920 into their changes. You have a rapidly evolving service that's 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.600 going on here. So even though we might record something 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.919 about say Facebook, and sure maybe some things will get 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.000 weeked in the Facebook uh service between the time we 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.560 recorded the time we published, it might be minor. But 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.200 with something like this, where it's truly experimental and people 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:14.080 are implementing changes at a rapid pace, the change it's 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.080 more noticeable. Yes. That being said, now that we've got 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.800 the disclaimer on the way, let's talk about Google Plus. Okay, 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.240 So one of my favorite descriptions of Google Plus came 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.520 courtesy of Molly Wood from c Net, who said, google 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:32.240 Plus is like you are at this, uh, this really 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.200 fancy party and you're in a V I P section 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.320 of the party and there are only a few people there, 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.560 and everyone's excited to be there, and everyone's talking about 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.720 being at the party, and that's all that's happening. That's 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:48.720 that's definitely an exaggeration, and it's also paraphrasing, so that's 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.320 not a direct quote. Molly would put it much more succinctly. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.280 But and it's it's also changed in the last couple 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.680 of days, right. But but early on, if you were 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.960 one of the few people who got into Google Plus, 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:02.679 I was very fortunate in that I managed to get 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:07.600 invite uh and and joined pretty pretty early on. Yeah, 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:09.080 it turns out I know a lot of people in 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.160 the tech business. Um. But if you if you were 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.360 in there early on, it felt like the people who 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:19.280 were there were all these mostly tech and geek culture folks. 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:21.320 So you had a lot of people who are from 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.840 tech companies, including folks who are actually from Google, which 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.920 makes sense their product, right. You had people from other 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.280 big companies stuff like Twitter or Facebook even we'll get 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.080 into that. And then you had a lot of tech journalists, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.239 so people like Leo Laporte, tom merritt Um later on. 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:43.280 Molly Wood and Brian Tong have seen it. Um, I 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.600 as actor who's a good friend of mine. He's he 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.760 was also on there pretty early on. You had these 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.280 folks who were kind of populating it, so it felt 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.280 like a weird social network. It felt like a social 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.959 network that had been designed specifically for this tech geek world. Oh, 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.840 you also had some geek celebrities, and I say geeks 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.040 reason that geeks like me tend to think of them 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.480 as amazing celebrities. So Felicia Day will weaken those kind 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.879 of folks. Um, So it kind of felt like a 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.520 social network built for geeks. Now that's gradually changing us. 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:16.520 More and more people join in, and we're starting to 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:22.679 slowly skewed toward a more quote unquote normal population. I 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.400 use normal just in the sense of average as opposed 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:30.399 to geeks are not normal. Yeah, and and I feel 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:34.199 compelled to point out that again, like a number of 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.120 topics on the show, this is one of those things 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.680 that has been anticipated for quite some time. Um. It's 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.520 hard to tell a lot of these things too, things 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.879 like the Apple iPad and Google Plus and things like 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:48.760 this that people say, oh, well, you know, Google's working 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.520 on a social network that's aimed to take down Facebook, 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.199 and they talk about it for months and months and 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.720 sometimes years, and you start going, yeah, sort of like 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.119 Spotify coming to the Night States, which also just recently happened, 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.439 but for for a long time. Again, this is one 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.240 of those things that I've heard a lot of technicalists 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.520 called tech unicorns. Yeah, these are like the white iPhone 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:12.680 for a long time was the tech unicorn. The iPad 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:14.840 was a tech unicorn for a long time. These are 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:20.000 streaming iTunes service, which is still Yeah, these are things 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.600 that everyone quote unquote knows is coming, but it hasn't 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.760 arrived yet and it maybe years before we ever get 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:29.080 to it. And soever. Yeah, some of these are some 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.119 of these turned into vaporware, right, tech unicorn vaporware. The 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:36.840 relationships pretty tight, Yeah, Duke Nukelen forever long time tech unicorn. 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:43.320 We will withhold commentary on what actually eventually published. So 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.280 let's let's kind of talk about sort of the the 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.240 we've talked about why, how people wanted to get in. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:51.320 Uh we a lot of people wanted to get in 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:55.160 and couldn't get in because they didn't have enough invites. Um. 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.240 The the expansion of Google Plus has been pretty impressive 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.639 to watch over time. You know, why say something, Well, no, 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:02.879 I was just gonna say that they're in between the 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.679 tech unicorn um. It's one of those things. And at 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.440 least in my opinion, where Google Plus it was so 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:11.000 we've heard it for so long, it's like it's hiding 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:12.879 in plain sight that they just went, oh, here it is, 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.080 and we all kind of went yeah. Google Plus kind 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.440 of launched without a whole lot of fanfare from Google. 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.200 But it turns out Google didn't need to provide fanfare. 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:25.879 That was provided by that community of users I was 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.919 talking about earlier, because that that that same group of 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:33.080 early adopters who are passionate about trying stuff out, are 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:37.480 really passionate about sharing information. So these adopters served as 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.399 the the champions of Google Plus. Google didn't have to 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:44.840 say it anything. Really, they showed off a demo, um, 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.520 they explained the concept and that, and they let everyone 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.399 else take over. And really Google didn't just release and watch. 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.680 They released, watched and listened and implemented changes. Which that's 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:58.840 kind of where I think a lot of the tech 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.080 enthusiasts have really kind of latched onto Google Plus because 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:04.280 they're like, they're not just giving us this. They're listening 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:05.960 to what we have to say and they're taking that 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:08.960 into consideration. So instead of it being some sort of 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:13.600 ivory tower where products come out. But it's a one 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.679 way street, right, you know, they're they're providing a service, 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:18.280 but they're not listening to what we have to say. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.400 We just take whatever they're giving us. Google is more 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.280 of a two way street, Like you really feel that 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:26.640 the people at Google are listening. Now. They may not 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:29.880 incorporate all the changes you think need to be there 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.679 because it doesn't match their vision of what the service 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:37.280 ultimately will do, but at least they're listening. Yeah, ultimately, 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:40.800 you know, all of us have our own preferences and 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:43.360 choices we want to see in the product, and so 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:46.280 Google is not going to make all of us happy. 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:49.320 And you know, those of us it does make happy, 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:51.560 it won't make us completely happy because we will be 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.920 looking for one particular thing or two particular things and 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:59.119 maybe you know, that's just a few people, and Google 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.000 is not gonna change just for a few people. But yeah, 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:05.200 as soon as it was announced, um, you know, the 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.760 tech enthusiasts latched onto it and and it started spreading. 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.560 But the thing is um. Google was smart about launching 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.920 it the way they did because they were trying to 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:19.760 avoid overloading their servers um and so what they were 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:21.879 doing was they were releasing it to a few people 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:23.720 at a time. And when I say a few, a 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:25.639 few to most of us would be you know, ten people, 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:27.879 but you know, a few to Google was you know, 0:24:27.960 --> 0:24:30.720 a few hundreds, a few thousand at a time. And 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:33.960 uh so people were going crazy the first few days 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:36.800 after the launch looking for an invite to the same service. Now, 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:40.040 it also makes it seem really exclusive. Yeah, and of 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:42.879 course the more yeah, the more exclusive something is, the 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:45.239 more people want to be in that because people want 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:47.919 to be part of an exclusive group. And uh, I 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:49.919 mean it's just natural, right you see, you see the 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:51.560 cool click of kids, and you want to be in 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:54.159 that click. And once you're in that click, you're like, 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:57.639 this is awesome. And yeah, I don't object to us 0:24:57.680 --> 0:24:59.479 letting in maybe one or two other people who are 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:01.600 kind of cool. Well, but let's not go crazy and 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:04.440 let everyone in, because then we don't have a click anymore. So, 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:06.840 uh and we can get into sort of the click 0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:10.080 ish behavior that I've noticed on Google Plus. Not again, 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:12.080 this is really really early on in Google Plus. I 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:14.080 don't expect that this will last long. There's gonna be 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.440 a big change as more people join um. And also 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:19.359 there were reports that within a couple of weeks of 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:23.000 Google Plus launching, they were already possibly as many as 0:25:23.040 --> 0:25:25.080 ten million people on it. And at the time we're 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:28.320 recording this podcast, which is again just a couple of 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:31.320 weeks after Google Plus launched, they expect it to be 0:25:31.400 --> 0:25:34.000 up to twenty million by uh in a in a 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:36.719 couple of days from the recording of this podcast. So 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:39.280 if you're looking for let's go ahead and get this 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:41.879 answer out of the way. If you're looking for Google 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:44.879 Plus to knock off Facebook right away, it's not going 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:49.400 to happen because they're talking twenty million people out off 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:54.119 million for Facebook. So the law, the the long term 0:25:54.200 --> 0:25:57.720 answer to that is maybe. But right now, you know, 0:25:57.800 --> 0:26:00.680 there's no threat whatsoever. And I don't think Google would 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:04.200 claim that Google Plus is meant to replace Facebook. In fact, 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:06.840 that kind of leads us into what is Google Plus 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:09.840 because we talked a lot about the the popularity, but 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:13.400 we haven't really even discussed anything about the actual service. 0:26:13.880 --> 0:26:17.480 There are some similarities to other social networks in fact, 0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:20.440 there's there are similarities to other Google products. Yeah, and 0:26:20.640 --> 0:26:22.600 and you will notice if you have used things like 0:26:22.600 --> 0:26:25.840 Google Buzz or Google Wave, you'll see little similarities here 0:26:25.840 --> 0:26:28.399 and there in Google Plus, and you'll notice like, Okay, 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:32.159 they they've sort of incorporated this idea and the lessons 0:26:32.200 --> 0:26:35.840 they learned from that into Google Plus. So Google Plus 0:26:35.960 --> 0:26:40.840 is essentially a social network, though it's not just a 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:44.720 social network, And the way it works from a user 0:26:44.760 --> 0:26:48.280 perspective is that you will look for people who are 0:26:48.359 --> 0:26:51.080 on Google Plus or have yet to join Google Plus, 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:54.800 people you know or people you know of, and you 0:26:54.840 --> 0:26:59.320 put those people into circles. Now, these circles are categories 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:05.040 so that you can uh put people into whichever ones 0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:07.920 fit best in your life, so that you can direct 0:27:07.960 --> 0:27:11.160 messages to those people and read messages from those people 0:27:11.640 --> 0:27:14.960 in a way that's more granular than your average Facebook 0:27:15.040 --> 0:27:18.800 user is used to. Yeah. Now, I mean, uh, Facebook 0:27:19.160 --> 0:27:21.119 fans would probably say, but yeah, I can do that 0:27:21.160 --> 0:27:27.240 with Facebook. Well, Um, basically, the big difference here, I 0:27:27.359 --> 0:27:29.639 think is that this is like the first thing you 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:33.240 do when you add a new person to your Google 0:27:33.240 --> 0:27:36.840 Plus account if you want to, uh start following Jonathan 0:27:36.880 --> 0:27:40.320 for example, um, you know the very first thing you say, Okay, 0:27:40.320 --> 0:27:43.040 oh I found him. Now what circles do you want 0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:44.439 to add him to? And you can add people to 0:27:44.480 --> 0:27:47.000 more than one circle, yes, and you can create circles. 0:27:47.080 --> 0:27:50.359 You you you start off with some basic circles. I 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:55.160 believe it's friends, family, acquaintances, and followers or following. So 0:27:56.000 --> 0:27:58.679 I've got let's say, I've got there's there's Chris, and 0:27:58.720 --> 0:28:00.320 then I have to make a decision to I put 0:28:00.400 --> 0:28:03.080 Chris in my friend's circle. Do I put them in 0:28:03.119 --> 0:28:04.959 my acquaintance in the circle, or do I put them 0:28:04.960 --> 0:28:07.159 in my following circle. Chris is not part of my family, 0:28:07.240 --> 0:28:08.960 so I'm not going to put them in there. And 0:28:09.000 --> 0:28:12.160 I'm all right with that. Yeah. And and it's nice 0:28:12.200 --> 0:28:15.840 to note too, especially if you're concerned with issues of privacy. 0:28:16.000 --> 0:28:17.879 The person on the other end, the person that you're 0:28:17.880 --> 0:28:20.520 adding to your circles, has no idea what circles to 0:28:20.640 --> 0:28:23.040 which you have added them, right, So if you put 0:28:23.080 --> 0:28:25.880 them in, like, you could create a circle called jerk faces. 0:28:26.080 --> 0:28:28.359 I know, I know, I know for a fact that 0:28:28.359 --> 0:28:31.119 I'm in that certain and you could put people in 0:28:31.200 --> 0:28:33.480 the jerk faces I know circle and they're not going 0:28:33.520 --> 0:28:36.040 to know that that's the They know that you've added them, 0:28:36.400 --> 0:28:38.880 but they don't know what circle they are in. So 0:28:38.960 --> 0:28:41.560 I'm probably in a lot of jerk faces. I know circles, 0:28:41.680 --> 0:28:44.440 you're mine and yeah, And now that our listeners have 0:28:44.520 --> 0:28:46.320 heard me say this, I imagine a lot of them 0:28:46.320 --> 0:28:48.560 are making jerk faces. I know circles just to put 0:28:48.560 --> 0:28:53.080 me in them. Um. So you've got these circles. Now 0:28:53.120 --> 0:28:56.520 you've decided where this your first let's say it's your 0:28:56.520 --> 0:28:58.320 first person you're following. So I'm going to use Chris 0:28:58.360 --> 0:29:00.640 as my example. I have decided that I want to 0:29:00.680 --> 0:29:02.480 follow Chris. I want to I want to hear what 0:29:02.560 --> 0:29:04.240 Chris has to say. I want to be able to 0:29:04.240 --> 0:29:05.680 see his updates. I want to be able to see 0:29:05.680 --> 0:29:11.240 his photos. Um. I put him in my acquaintances circle. 0:29:11.680 --> 0:29:15.760 All right, So, now, anytime Chris posts and publishes his 0:29:15.840 --> 0:29:19.360 post to either the public, which means everyone can see it, 0:29:19.360 --> 0:29:21.600 Everyone on Google Plus can see it, everyone in the 0:29:21.640 --> 0:29:24.040 in the world can see it. Um. I mean it's 0:29:24.040 --> 0:29:27.320 not restricted to anybody in particular, right right, But now, now, 0:29:27.520 --> 0:29:29.280 if Chris has not put me in a circle, and 0:29:29.280 --> 0:29:31.800 he publishes it in anything other than public, I'm not 0:29:31.800 --> 0:29:35.960 going to see that information. So Chris decides that he 0:29:36.000 --> 0:29:38.080 wants to publish a status update, but he's just gonna 0:29:38.120 --> 0:29:39.959 push it to his friends. I am not in his 0:29:40.040 --> 0:29:43.800 friend's circle. He types in a status update, he sets 0:29:43.840 --> 0:29:47.000 it so that it only publishes to friends he publishes it. 0:29:47.360 --> 0:29:49.760 I don't know that Chris has done anything to me. 0:29:50.120 --> 0:29:53.320 His his posts still are blank. Now let's say that 0:29:53.360 --> 0:29:55.720 Chris does another one where he decides he wants to 0:29:55.760 --> 0:29:59.040 talk about an article he edited, and he wants this 0:29:59.200 --> 0:30:01.320 he wants the general public to know about this article. 0:30:01.600 --> 0:30:04.760 He sets that status update to public. Suddenly I can 0:30:04.880 --> 0:30:08.640 see that particular stats update because they set it to public, 0:30:08.680 --> 0:30:12.520 so anyone following Chris can see it. Then let's say 0:30:12.520 --> 0:30:15.840 that Chris notices that I'm on Google Plus and he thinks, oh, well, 0:30:15.920 --> 0:30:18.040 Jonathan's there. I should add him. I'll add him to 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:22.959 my acquaintances circle. Then Chris publishes a status update and 0:30:23.000 --> 0:30:25.960 decides he only wants his acquaintances and friends to see it, 0:30:26.000 --> 0:30:28.400 so he sets it so that this stats update goes 0:30:28.400 --> 0:30:31.000 out to friends and acquaintances, but not the general public. 0:30:31.760 --> 0:30:34.360 I would be able to see that stats update now 0:30:34.400 --> 0:30:36.520 if he had not added me to his acquaintance circle 0:30:37.080 --> 0:30:38.800 or his friends circle. I would not see it. I 0:30:38.800 --> 0:30:41.760 would be unaware that he had updated his status. You 0:30:41.800 --> 0:30:43.920 can get so granular that you can create a stats 0:30:44.000 --> 0:30:47.560 update and directed to specific people. So I could create 0:30:47.560 --> 0:30:51.400 a stats update and just send it to Chris alone 0:30:51.440 --> 0:30:53.240 and that's the only person who sees it. Or I 0:30:53.240 --> 0:30:55.280 could send it to Chris and maybe three or four 0:30:55.320 --> 0:30:57.000 other people. Let's say that it's three or four people 0:30:57.000 --> 0:30:59.440 who are in different circles. They don't really belong all 0:30:59.480 --> 0:31:02.120 on the same circle, but I think they all need 0:31:02.160 --> 0:31:05.400 to see this message. I might just go in and 0:31:05.440 --> 0:31:08.280 manually put in each name, and those are the only 0:31:08.320 --> 0:31:11.280 people who will see that message. Now, there are some 0:31:11.360 --> 0:31:14.040 other things you have to remember, like, uh, there is 0:31:14.080 --> 0:31:18.240 the ability to share posts that other people have published. 0:31:19.040 --> 0:31:21.360 Now if you you can either turn the sharing on 0:31:21.560 --> 0:31:23.800 or off, so you don't have to. If you turn 0:31:23.840 --> 0:31:26.000 it off, that means other people cannot share the same 0:31:26.000 --> 0:31:29.560 message you just posted. If the share is on, your 0:31:29.600 --> 0:31:31.880 message that went out to just your friends or just 0:31:32.000 --> 0:31:36.360 your acquaintances might suddenly become public. So Chris sends out 0:31:36.360 --> 0:31:39.320 a message to just his acquaintances. He has sharing turned on. 0:31:39.400 --> 0:31:42.120 He has not turned that off. I read Chris's post 0:31:42.160 --> 0:31:45.479 and I think, hey, that's awesome. Everyone who follows me 0:31:45.520 --> 0:31:48.600 wants to know that too. I hit share. Suddenly his 0:31:48.640 --> 0:31:51.280 message that just went to his acquaintances are now it's 0:31:51.280 --> 0:31:55.840 now out in the wild. So they attributed to me exactly. Yes, yes, 0:31:55.920 --> 0:31:57.840 so people can actually follow it back to Chris now. 0:31:57.880 --> 0:31:59.440 Granted they're only going to be able to see the 0:31:59.440 --> 0:32:01.600 things that Chris is published at that point to the 0:32:01.640 --> 0:32:04.480 public if they go directly to that's the weird thing. 0:32:04.760 --> 0:32:07.560 They might see a shared post like I share your post, 0:32:07.920 --> 0:32:10.120 they see it on my feed, then they follow it 0:32:10.160 --> 0:32:12.240 back to your feed and something that post isn't there 0:32:12.640 --> 0:32:15.560 because it wasn't set to public when it was originally published. 0:32:16.560 --> 0:32:18.720 It gets a little complicated. These are things that the 0:32:18.720 --> 0:32:22.840 Google Plus team. They're looking into this stuff to see 0:32:22.840 --> 0:32:25.360 what makes sense and what doesn't make sense, you know, 0:32:25.920 --> 0:32:29.160 sharing versus private. And because you have the ability to 0:32:29.240 --> 0:32:32.360 turn sharing off, if you are someone who doesn't want 0:32:32.560 --> 0:32:34.720 information to go beyond that group of friends, you can 0:32:34.760 --> 0:32:37.160 always turn it off. Now, granted that doesn't stop your 0:32:37.160 --> 0:32:41.240 friends from say saying that Jonathan said blah blah blah, 0:32:41.600 --> 0:32:44.640 and there's always you know, copy and paste, right, So yeah, 0:32:44.640 --> 0:32:46.440 there are ways around it. But that's the same for 0:32:46.520 --> 0:32:49.440 any social network. I sort of count on my friends 0:32:49.440 --> 0:32:53.120 to be lazy enough where they won't I can't share this, yeah, exactly, 0:32:53.160 --> 0:32:55.400 And and really, I mean it's just like real life. 0:32:56.120 --> 0:32:57.720 Just like real life, if I come up and I 0:32:57.800 --> 0:33:00.520 tell Chris a secret, there's nothing stop and Chris from 0:33:00.520 --> 0:33:03.640 going around and telling other people that secret. I'm sorry, 0:33:03.720 --> 0:33:06.440 I told you. I'm sorry. Gee. Yeah, well let's see 0:33:06.440 --> 0:33:08.680 if you ever get any key line pie from me again. 0:33:09.200 --> 0:33:13.480 So so that's the basics behind circles and sharing. And also, 0:33:13.520 --> 0:33:17.240 if let's say that when you're actually consuming information, you're 0:33:17.280 --> 0:33:21.240 not just that that's sending information out right, publishing information, 0:33:22.480 --> 0:33:25.880 you can also look view your stream. That's what Google 0:33:25.880 --> 0:33:28.480 plus calls your what what Facebook would call the wall, 0:33:29.200 --> 0:33:32.560 right or Twitter would call it the feed. So it's 0:33:32.560 --> 0:33:34.600 the same sort of concept. It's it's the stream of 0:33:34.640 --> 0:33:37.120 information coming from all the people that you put into 0:33:37.200 --> 0:33:41.640 your circles. You can view that bicircle. So if you 0:33:41.720 --> 0:33:44.400 just have it set to the stream, you're looking at 0:33:44.480 --> 0:33:50.920 everything that people you follow are publishing. So all your friends, acquaintances, celebrities. 0:33:50.960 --> 0:33:53.080 You might be following people you know of but you 0:33:53.120 --> 0:33:55.720 don't actually know in real life. All the information gets 0:33:55.760 --> 0:33:58.720 dumped into the stream. If you want to try and 0:33:58.920 --> 0:34:01.959 filter that out, you can view your stream bicircle. So 0:34:02.040 --> 0:34:04.800 I might click friends, and now I'm only going to 0:34:04.880 --> 0:34:08.840 see the updates that my friends have published to their stream, 0:34:08.880 --> 0:34:12.439 and I've cut everything else out. I can even view 0:34:12.440 --> 0:34:17.960 it by incoming incoming. It gets really crazy for people 0:34:18.040 --> 0:34:21.719 like me, and more so for people who are even 0:34:21.800 --> 0:34:26.799 more even more who are actually famous. Because I have, 0:34:27.280 --> 0:34:30.040 as of the recording of this podcast, I have people 0:34:30.760 --> 0:34:34.680 following me. If I choose incoming, I see their updates, 0:34:35.520 --> 0:34:38.359 so I'm not following them. But by hitting incoming, I'm 0:34:38.400 --> 0:34:40.880 seeing everyone who's following me. I'm seeing their updates. So 0:34:40.920 --> 0:34:45.359 suddenly it just becomes a wall of information. Um. But 0:34:45.880 --> 0:34:48.560 assuming that everything they've published as public, if they published 0:34:48.560 --> 0:34:51.239 stuff to their friends or their acquaintances or whatever, I'm 0:34:51.239 --> 0:34:53.560 not going to see that. I'm only going to see 0:34:53.560 --> 0:34:55.520 stuff that in the circles that I've been included in 0:34:55.640 --> 0:34:58.319 and in the public posts. But it means that I 0:34:58.360 --> 0:35:00.439 get a lot more information from a lot more people, 0:35:00.440 --> 0:35:03.759 not just the people I follow right. Um, so in 0:35:03.800 --> 0:35:06.239 a way that can be a lot. Right. So, in 0:35:06.239 --> 0:35:08.719 a way, Google Plus is like Facebook and that you 0:35:08.760 --> 0:35:11.960 can follow specific people, they can follow you back and you. 0:35:12.360 --> 0:35:14.520 In a way, it's like Twitter because in Twitter you 0:35:14.560 --> 0:35:16.759 can follow people and just read what they have to 0:35:16.760 --> 0:35:18.439 say as long as they don't have their profile set 0:35:18.480 --> 0:35:21.839 to private. You can read Twitter posts from people as 0:35:21.880 --> 0:35:24.839 they update. So in Google Plus the same sort of thing. 0:35:25.040 --> 0:35:27.719 You don't have to give permission to someone in order 0:35:27.719 --> 0:35:30.719 for them to follow you. But people say, well, what 0:35:30.760 --> 0:35:34.640 about privacy. That's where the circles come in. That's where 0:35:34.680 --> 0:35:37.600 you can choose which circles see what you have to say. 0:35:37.880 --> 0:35:39.960 If you don't want random people seeing what you have 0:35:40.000 --> 0:35:44.280 to say, you publish it to a specific circle. Um. 0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:50.560 And I mean people compare this product to Twitter and 0:35:50.840 --> 0:35:54.000 Facebook all the time. Um, I've seen a constant stream 0:35:54.040 --> 0:35:58.279 of that. However, I think it's most like at least 0:35:58.320 --> 0:36:02.279 the ones I've tried. Most like another service that caught 0:36:02.360 --> 0:36:04.680 on for a little while and Facebook acquired it and 0:36:04.680 --> 0:36:08.640 it's sort of languished under Facebook's control, and that's called 0:36:08.719 --> 0:36:13.200 friend Feed. If you've ever been to friend feed dot com. Um, 0:36:13.239 --> 0:36:18.520 it's very very similar and um, it's it's similar to 0:36:18.800 --> 0:36:20.680 I mean, the the feed is somewhat similar to the 0:36:20.719 --> 0:36:25.160 wall on on Facebook, but you can um like and 0:36:25.239 --> 0:36:29.239 unlike and make long comments to it. Very much in 0:36:29.280 --> 0:36:32.400 the style of friend feed, more so than than Facebook 0:36:32.480 --> 0:36:35.480 or Twitter. But it's it's closer probably to Facebook or 0:36:35.480 --> 0:36:37.759 friend feed than it is to Twitter. Now, I mean 0:36:37.800 --> 0:36:41.239 there is some uh you know that it looks a 0:36:41.280 --> 0:36:44.880 little bit more like Twitter. I mean, just the visual 0:36:44.920 --> 0:36:47.920 element of it, I would say, um, but there are 0:36:47.960 --> 0:36:53.360 some other advantages to using Google Plus that there aren't um, 0:36:53.560 --> 0:36:56.840 And that's probably I think of that more as the 0:36:56.840 --> 0:37:01.279 integration with Android. UM. For example, you know, Jonathan and 0:37:01.320 --> 0:37:04.320 I both have Android smartphones, and we can set Google 0:37:04.320 --> 0:37:08.120 Plus to automatically post every photo we take with our 0:37:08.120 --> 0:37:11.920 phones to Google Plus. I don't think that's such a 0:37:11.960 --> 0:37:14.560 good idea. Well, you can set your privacy, you can 0:37:14.600 --> 0:37:17.560 set your privacy so that people don't automatically see those photos. 0:37:18.239 --> 0:37:21.120 So so if you if you had it where every 0:37:21.160 --> 0:37:25.359 photo you take is automatically published, uh publicly to your 0:37:25.360 --> 0:37:27.600 Google Plus account, that seems like a bad idea. Yeah, 0:37:27.719 --> 0:37:29.839 I mean, even if even if we let's take let's 0:37:29.880 --> 0:37:33.240 take out the bad behavior aspect, right, So bad behavior 0:37:33.560 --> 0:37:35.840 that would be a bad idea because suddenly you're publicly 0:37:35.880 --> 0:37:38.120 showing everyone bad behavior. So let's say, you know, being 0:37:38.120 --> 0:37:42.920 intoxicated or being acting irresponsibly in some way, and you're like, oh, 0:37:43.080 --> 0:37:46.920 let's take a picture of this that well that yeah, 0:37:47.000 --> 0:37:50.239 that's a bad idea. But let's say it's just a 0:37:50.280 --> 0:37:53.480 bad photo, like your fingers in the frame. You know, 0:37:53.520 --> 0:37:55.560 you don't want that publishing because they're like, come on, 0:37:55.640 --> 0:37:58.640 that's just a I'd rather take that photo again, so 0:37:59.480 --> 0:38:01.640 you can set your privacy setting so that those photos 0:38:01.680 --> 0:38:04.520 don't automatically go to everybody, you know. I actually do 0:38:04.640 --> 0:38:07.319 have instant Published turned on right now because I wanted 0:38:07.320 --> 0:38:09.600 to try it out, and it's pretty neat. I didn't 0:38:09.600 --> 0:38:12.920 realize that every picture I take on my phone is 0:38:12.960 --> 0:38:15.440 instantly published, not just the ones I do through the app, 0:38:15.880 --> 0:38:19.080 but through anything. Yeah, so it gets like I've taken 0:38:19.120 --> 0:38:21.879 photos to upload to Twitter and Twitter pick. It also 0:38:21.920 --> 0:38:23.719 has gone to my Google Plus account. Now I don't 0:38:23.719 --> 0:38:26.440 have it publishing publicly, so at least people aren't being 0:38:26.440 --> 0:38:29.800 flooded by pictures of me trying to take a photo 0:38:29.800 --> 0:38:31.719 of one thing and like, no, that's not right either. 0:38:31.800 --> 0:38:33.640 Let me change the lighting a little bit and take 0:38:33.680 --> 0:38:37.120 three more of these. But you could do that. Yep. 0:38:37.320 --> 0:38:40.560 And um, that isn't to say that that won't that 0:38:40.640 --> 0:38:44.160 functionality won't come to other phones. Now there is a 0:38:44.200 --> 0:38:46.600 Google Plus app. Actually, there was a Google Plus app 0:38:46.600 --> 0:38:49.920 for Android, I would say just about immediately since I 0:38:49.960 --> 0:38:51.440 heard about it, I looked for it. There it was 0:38:51.680 --> 0:38:53.479 the launch, the launch on the web, and the launch 0:38:53.560 --> 0:38:55.640 on the phone. In fact, the launch on the phone 0:38:55.680 --> 0:38:58.280 gave some people work around to getting into Google Plus. 0:38:58.280 --> 0:39:01.399 Early on, they installed the Google Plus app on their 0:39:01.440 --> 0:39:05.000 phone and found that they could bypass the invite system, 0:39:05.080 --> 0:39:07.960 and once they try to activate the app on their phone, 0:39:08.040 --> 0:39:11.440 it gave them an invite. And there was another workaround 0:39:11.480 --> 0:39:15.560 that got you into Google Plus. Um, but those have 0:39:15.640 --> 0:39:19.120 been patched since then. But they've also started opening it 0:39:19.239 --> 0:39:22.000 up to more people too. So I mean, I have 0:39:22.280 --> 0:39:25.879 hundreds of invites right now, and I just keep getting more, 0:39:26.040 --> 0:39:28.560 and I'm running out of people who I know would 0:39:28.600 --> 0:39:30.759 be interested in it, and well, and the personally and 0:39:30.800 --> 0:39:33.759 the invite system is not entirely intuitive, No, it's not. 0:39:33.880 --> 0:39:36.239 It's not. It's not the easiest thing in the world. 0:39:36.280 --> 0:39:39.120 Like when you see the invite system, it's it's easy 0:39:39.160 --> 0:39:42.160 to get a little confused by it. Uh. I guess 0:39:42.160 --> 0:39:43.719 we can talk a little bit about some of the 0:39:43.760 --> 0:39:46.560 other features of Google Plus. Well, before we get too 0:39:46.600 --> 0:39:49.759 far away from the the Android app. We have heard 0:39:49.800 --> 0:39:51.839 that there is going to be an iOS app that's 0:39:51.840 --> 0:39:57.239 the operating system for the Apple I stuff. As of 0:39:57.280 --> 0:39:59.440 the recording of this podcast, it's been submitted, but not 0:39:59.520 --> 0:40:02.040 yet a roofed. Yeah, so there. I don't know if 0:40:02.080 --> 0:40:06.719 the automatic photo feature will work with those phones, I 0:40:06.880 --> 0:40:08.840 you know, and I don't know if there will be 0:40:08.840 --> 0:40:13.840 something coming for Windows Phone or or web os. Um, 0:40:13.960 --> 0:40:16.600 we'll see. Yeah, but like a lot of BlackBerry, like 0:40:16.640 --> 0:40:18.720 a lot of services and products that we're seeing launch 0:40:18.800 --> 0:40:23.040 these days. Uh, it's really effective if you subscribe to 0:40:23.080 --> 0:40:26.880 a particular ecosystem in this case Google's, so using Google 0:40:26.920 --> 0:40:31.440 Plus on Google Chrome and having an Android phone, it works. 0:40:31.560 --> 0:40:34.280 I mean, it works really seamlessly because all those products 0:40:34.480 --> 0:40:37.560 are coming from the same company. But when you start 0:40:37.600 --> 0:40:41.440 mixing and matching, your experience may vary. Yeah. Now there's 0:40:41.480 --> 0:40:46.120 another feature, um and uh that that Jonathan and I 0:40:46.120 --> 0:40:49.960 tried out pretty much immediately, and that's called the huddle. Yes, Um, 0:40:50.040 --> 0:40:53.839 this is this relates to UH two phones. Yes, So 0:40:53.880 --> 0:40:58.360 a huddle is like having a group messaging system on phones. 0:40:58.560 --> 0:41:01.440 So everyone who is in a huddle needs to have 0:41:01.840 --> 0:41:05.080 uh a phone number attached to their Google Plus account 0:41:05.160 --> 0:41:07.160 or they have to have the the Google Plus app 0:41:07.400 --> 0:41:10.640 installed on their their phones. Um. And what you do 0:41:10.840 --> 0:41:13.040 is you set it up and you can send out 0:41:13.040 --> 0:41:16.080 a message. Let's say that I want to have get 0:41:16.080 --> 0:41:19.040 together after work one day and just hang out of 0:41:19.080 --> 0:41:21.080 the restaurant and have some appetizers and talk about what's 0:41:21.080 --> 0:41:24.200 been going on in the company. There might be three 0:41:24.239 --> 0:41:26.040 or four people I want to invite, so I add 0:41:26.040 --> 0:41:29.600 all of them to my Google Plus huddle and I 0:41:29.600 --> 0:41:31.600 send out a message. That message will go to all 0:41:31.600 --> 0:41:33.759 of those people, and then all of those people can 0:41:33.800 --> 0:41:37.080 respond to that message and everyone can see each other's responses. 0:41:37.120 --> 0:41:40.520 It becomes kind of like a chat room via text message, 0:41:40.560 --> 0:41:43.440 but only among that group of people. And again this 0:41:43.560 --> 0:41:48.680 is functionality that reminds me of Google Wave and also 0:41:48.880 --> 0:41:54.280 other services like Beluga. There are group messaging services Beluga, 0:41:54.400 --> 0:41:56.759 there are other group messaging services. Chris, give me a 0:41:56.760 --> 0:41:58.040 look and I can tell you wanted to do the 0:41:58.080 --> 0:42:02.879 Bulbous bouffont Beluga, which my wife hates. Um. But the yeah, 0:42:02.920 --> 0:42:05.560 there there are other messaging services group messaging services that 0:42:05.600 --> 0:42:07.120 are doing this right now. In fact, a lot of 0:42:07.120 --> 0:42:10.520 them were launching around south By Southwest and we're making 0:42:10.560 --> 0:42:14.960 a big, big splash there. Google Huddle is kind of 0:42:14.960 --> 0:42:17.400 Google's version of this. Now, that was one of the 0:42:17.400 --> 0:42:20.600 workarounds too. If you added someone to a Google Huddle, 0:42:21.000 --> 0:42:22.920 then in order for them to be able to use 0:42:22.960 --> 0:42:25.600 the Huddle, they were given a link to log into 0:42:25.600 --> 0:42:28.240 Google Plus and that's how they ended up getting accounts 0:42:28.239 --> 0:42:30.759 even though they didn't have an official invite. Um, and 0:42:30.800 --> 0:42:33.200 the invitations at that point had been closed. And yet 0:42:33.360 --> 0:42:35.600 a lot of people found that workaround. Again, that's been 0:42:35.600 --> 0:42:40.040 patched since the uh since since it first happened. Took 0:42:40.080 --> 0:42:42.399 a couple of days before Google caught on, or maybe 0:42:42.400 --> 0:42:44.239 they caught on, but they let it happen anyway because 0:42:44.239 --> 0:42:47.880 they're like, well, this is letting the population base expand, 0:42:47.920 --> 0:42:51.400 but it's not expanding at a rate that's outside of 0:42:51.400 --> 0:42:55.719 our comfort zone. Yeah yeah, um. And then there's hangouts. Yep, 0:42:55.920 --> 0:42:58.520 hangouts are awesome. I haven't tried to hang out yet. 0:42:58.560 --> 0:43:01.640 I've tried it and it is It is addicting. So 0:43:01.880 --> 0:43:05.360 hangout is a video chat session. You can start a 0:43:05.400 --> 0:43:08.000 hangout with specific people if you want to, or you 0:43:08.000 --> 0:43:10.239 can start a hangout and just make it public where 0:43:10.280 --> 0:43:13.160 anyone who follows you will see the hangout and can join. 0:43:13.640 --> 0:43:16.000 And a hangout is you need a webcam and a 0:43:16.040 --> 0:43:18.520 microphone and speakers in order for this to work. Says 0:43:18.600 --> 0:43:21.040 you can hear people, they can hear you, and they 0:43:21.040 --> 0:43:24.640 can see you, and up to ten people total can 0:43:24.640 --> 0:43:26.759 be in a hangout at one time, so it's you 0:43:26.840 --> 0:43:31.120 and nine other people max. And the video switching is 0:43:31.200 --> 0:43:34.800 very clever. It switches to whomever is speaking at the time. 0:43:34.880 --> 0:43:37.640 So if everyone's quiet and I'm talking, then the main 0:43:37.800 --> 0:43:40.960 video will be me as I'm chatting. As someone else 0:43:40.960 --> 0:43:43.400 starts to talk, the video will switch to that person 0:43:43.960 --> 0:43:47.520 and UH the focus changes to them. And if two 0:43:47.520 --> 0:43:50.839 people are talking, whomever is the loudest will have their 0:43:50.920 --> 0:43:54.560 video featured as the central video, and so you'll actually 0:43:54.640 --> 0:43:58.040 see uh. If in a full hangout, you'll see one 0:43:58.120 --> 0:44:00.560 main screen of the person who's talking, and then you'll 0:44:00.560 --> 0:44:05.040 see the other nine miniaturized like thumbnail sized screens below. 0:44:05.080 --> 0:44:08.680 And it's all moving, you know, like you're seeing video 0:44:08.800 --> 0:44:11.239 from all those feeds at one time. You can get 0:44:11.280 --> 0:44:16.080 a little buggy depending upon people's UM data transfer rates. 0:44:16.239 --> 0:44:18.640 You know, if you if you're on a slow UH, 0:44:18.840 --> 0:44:21.280 if you're not really on a high speed broadband connection, 0:44:21.880 --> 0:44:25.239 you're gonna have some problems with this. There'll be some lag. UM. 0:44:25.280 --> 0:44:27.080 I was. I was having some really bad lag when 0:44:27.080 --> 0:44:28.440 I was doing it because I think there were a 0:44:28.440 --> 0:44:31.640 couple of different UH choking points in the in the 0:44:31.719 --> 0:44:35.160 data transfer. So I would say something and then about 0:44:36.440 --> 0:44:38.920 three or four seconds later, I would hear myself say it. 0:44:39.360 --> 0:44:42.239 So I'm responding to something that someone is saying right now, 0:44:43.000 --> 0:44:46.120 but then three or four seconds later there I'm starting 0:44:46.120 --> 0:44:48.879 to hear it. So there'd be a gap between when 0:44:48.880 --> 0:44:50.920 I'm talking when they're talking, so you know, they might 0:44:51.000 --> 0:44:53.880 stop ask me a question, stop, I don't answer. Then 0:44:53.880 --> 0:44:55.600 they started asking if I'm there, and that's when my 0:44:55.680 --> 0:44:58.520 answer is starting to hit and I got a little muddled. 0:44:58.560 --> 0:45:02.200 But on a fast connection, it's pretty cool. Yeah. And 0:45:02.239 --> 0:45:05.799 then of course, right after all this happened, Facebook had 0:45:05.880 --> 0:45:09.120 an amazing awesome announcement. Yeah, their video chat, which is 0:45:09.960 --> 0:45:12.640 UH partnership with Skype and allows you one on one 0:45:12.840 --> 0:45:17.080 video chat with another person. On Facebook. It's a difference system, 0:45:17.200 --> 0:45:19.520 right Like you can use a hangout and just talk 0:45:19.600 --> 0:45:21.040 to one person if you want to, but you can 0:45:21.080 --> 0:45:23.560 also talk to a group of people, whereas with Facebook 0:45:23.600 --> 0:45:26.280 video chat right now as the recording of this podcast, 0:45:26.280 --> 0:45:30.480 it's a one on one scenario. So um, Facebook may 0:45:30.480 --> 0:45:35.040 not necessarily see Google Plus as an immediate competitor, but 0:45:35.320 --> 0:45:38.560 you can bet that the company will be watching Google 0:45:38.560 --> 0:45:41.799 Plus to see what features are added next. I mean, uh, 0:45:41.840 --> 0:45:44.919 and I don't think Google Plus is what Google would 0:45:44.920 --> 0:45:47.319 consider a finished product even you know, assuming that the 0:45:47.360 --> 0:45:50.360 features are all robust, they open the floodgates and anyone 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:53.120 can join. You have two hundred million people on there. 0:45:54.320 --> 0:45:57.279 I think they will continue to add new features and 0:45:57.320 --> 0:46:01.560 new functionality. For example, something that I I don't know 0:46:01.640 --> 0:46:05.319 expect might be a strong word, but seriously wouldn't be 0:46:05.360 --> 0:46:09.399 surprised if it happened would be games, which has been 0:46:09.440 --> 0:46:13.239 a huge driver of traffic to Facebook. Adding adding other 0:46:13.320 --> 0:46:17.719 kinds of in uh insight apps like that I think 0:46:17.840 --> 0:46:20.160 would would not be a shock at all. Just opening 0:46:20.200 --> 0:46:22.640 up an a p I would be pretty and you 0:46:22.680 --> 0:46:25.280 already have starting to see some extensions for for Google 0:46:25.360 --> 0:46:28.440 Chrome that are specifically designed for Google Plus, things like 0:46:28.760 --> 0:46:31.960 allowing you to reply specifically to the person who posts. 0:46:32.080 --> 0:46:34.080 We didn't talk about that. When you do post, people 0:46:34.120 --> 0:46:36.480 can leave comments on that post, just like in Facebook, 0:46:36.480 --> 0:46:39.240 on a wall wall post or Twitter, people can reply. 0:46:39.480 --> 0:46:41.960 You can plus one the comment Yeah, plus one is 0:46:42.000 --> 0:46:44.520 kind of like voting up or a comment or saying 0:46:44.560 --> 0:46:46.640 that you know, I really like this, so I'm adding 0:46:46.719 --> 0:46:48.799 a plus one to it. It changes the way it 0:46:48.880 --> 0:46:53.320 displays on other people's streams. Um, but yeah, we should 0:46:53.360 --> 0:46:55.440 We should mention that quickly. Like in Twitter, you can 0:46:55.480 --> 0:46:59.319 reply to someone and in general only you and the 0:46:59.360 --> 0:47:02.359 other person are really seeing that conversation, unless other people 0:47:02.360 --> 0:47:05.480 are following both of you. Right, so if I reply 0:47:05.560 --> 0:47:08.759 to Chris, people only Chris and I would see that 0:47:08.840 --> 0:47:12.120 reply unless other people are following both of us. Uh. 0:47:12.160 --> 0:47:14.480 Now with Google Plus, it's more like Facebook and that 0:47:14.600 --> 0:47:16.719 I can make a comment and then someone else can 0:47:16.760 --> 0:47:19.040 comment on that. Anyone following me can comment on that 0:47:19.080 --> 0:47:21.719 if I've made it public and then or and you 0:47:21.760 --> 0:47:24.320 can disable comments as well if you don't want people 0:47:24.360 --> 0:47:28.040 commenting on something. Um, and then other folks can comment 0:47:28.120 --> 0:47:30.200 and it becomes a discussion. In fact, I've had a 0:47:30.200 --> 0:47:32.640 few discussions like that pop up on Google Plus recently. 0:47:32.640 --> 0:47:35.280 I said, wouldn't it be cool to use the hangout 0:47:35.320 --> 0:47:38.360 feature to have a D and D game where everyone 0:47:38.360 --> 0:47:40.239 in the hangout is playing D and D of one 0:47:40.280 --> 0:47:42.600 person being the dungeon master and everyone else is playing 0:47:42.600 --> 0:47:44.640 a character. And you could do that. You could have 0:47:45.000 --> 0:47:48.319 people from other states log in and play the game 0:47:48.400 --> 0:47:51.520 all at the same time. So or any other game 0:47:51.560 --> 0:47:53.560 for that matter. Yeah, you could really do that with 0:47:53.560 --> 0:47:56.319 any game, although once you start getting into things like 0:47:56.320 --> 0:47:58.520 board games or whatever, it gets a little more complex. 0:47:59.239 --> 0:48:02.000 Some games you would be able to do, like like poker, 0:48:02.520 --> 0:48:04.160 because how are you going to deal with all those 0:48:04.200 --> 0:48:07.200 cards in You know, you'd have to have a video 0:48:07.239 --> 0:48:09.719 poker game going at the same time, which makes it a 0:48:09.680 --> 0:48:13.600 a little more complicated anyway. Yeah, any any role playing 0:48:13.640 --> 0:48:16.160 type game like that. Yeah. Board games you could do too, 0:48:16.200 --> 0:48:18.680 if everyone had a copy of the board game. Yeah, 0:48:18.880 --> 0:48:20.359 and you have to all right, you have to move 0:48:20.440 --> 0:48:24.240 me forward three squares? Is everyone on Baltic Avenue? Good? 0:48:24.920 --> 0:48:27.680 Next turn. Another feature we should talk about very quickly 0:48:27.920 --> 0:48:31.200 is sparks. Oh yeah, sparks. Sparks is kind of like 0:48:31.280 --> 0:48:35.000 Google Reader in a way. You tell Google Plus what 0:48:35.000 --> 0:48:37.759 what topics you are interested in, and then Google Plus 0:48:37.840 --> 0:48:42.960 kind of cultivates a news feed based on whatever interests 0:48:43.000 --> 0:48:46.160 you've told it apply to you. So, for example, I've 0:48:46.160 --> 0:48:50.760 said technology, if I go to my Sparks technology uh feed, 0:48:50.800 --> 0:48:53.440 then I will see news articles that are related to 0:48:53.480 --> 0:48:57.719 technology within sparks. Um. That's kind of an feature that 0:48:57.719 --> 0:48:59.759 people have noticed and said, well, you know it's it's 0:48:59.800 --> 0:49:02.640 just not fully baked yet. So that's something I expect 0:49:02.640 --> 0:49:06.399 that we'll see more uh evolution in in the near 0:49:06.440 --> 0:49:09.040 future for Google Plus. Yeah. I think the idea behind 0:49:09.239 --> 0:49:12.080 the name Sparks is it's supposed to spark a conversation. 0:49:12.239 --> 0:49:14.640 So you see a cool story, you post it to 0:49:14.719 --> 0:49:17.840 your stream, and then you and your friends have a 0:49:17.840 --> 0:49:21.360 conversation with it. And I it does that, but you 0:49:21.400 --> 0:49:24.440 know it's I in looking through the sparks that I've 0:49:24.480 --> 0:49:26.719 added to my picks. Oh yeah, if you if you 0:49:26.760 --> 0:49:29.800 add one, say you add technology to your Google Plus account, 0:49:29.840 --> 0:49:34.000 you'll see it on the left hand navigation um, along 0:49:34.040 --> 0:49:36.480 with you know things like your you know lists for 0:49:36.560 --> 0:49:39.160 your circles and you know the other the other features 0:49:39.440 --> 0:49:42.480 people who are available for Google Chat that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, so, 0:49:42.640 --> 0:49:46.520 um so it's available to you whenever. Um. But yeah, 0:49:46.560 --> 0:49:48.840 I just when I go in there, I just find 0:49:48.880 --> 0:49:53.640 a few stories and it's not really a very long list. 0:49:53.680 --> 0:49:56.640 It's not very compelling. Yet, Uh, the idea is there, 0:49:56.680 --> 0:49:58.640 I mean the I I see nothing wrong with the idea, 0:49:58.640 --> 0:50:01.160 and I think they need to add something. And I 0:50:01.160 --> 0:50:03.840 think this is Google's response to the trend of people 0:50:03.880 --> 0:50:07.319 getting information and news through stuff like Facebook. Like their 0:50:07.360 --> 0:50:10.319 friends shares an article that's that that their friend thought 0:50:10.360 --> 0:50:12.120 was really cool, and then you see it on Facebook 0:50:12.120 --> 0:50:13.839 and you're like huh, and you click on the link 0:50:13.880 --> 0:50:15.160 and you read the article and you're like, yeah, that 0:50:15.239 --> 0:50:17.799 was interesting. Google's kind of taking that and trying to 0:50:17.840 --> 0:50:21.759 incorporate it directly into the social experience so that you 0:50:21.800 --> 0:50:24.439 aren't you know, you aren't. You don't have to move 0:50:24.600 --> 0:50:27.640 very far away from Google in order to do it. Also, 0:50:27.640 --> 0:50:30.960 we should mention that Google Plus has a notifications bar 0:50:31.040 --> 0:50:33.640 that tells you when people have interacted with your your 0:50:33.680 --> 0:50:36.880 Google Plus account in some way, maybe that they started 0:50:36.880 --> 0:50:39.080 to follow you, and maybe that they left a message 0:50:39.160 --> 0:50:42.000 for you. They they've mentioned you in a comment, they've 0:50:42.040 --> 0:50:45.319 applied to one of your status is. Uh. The cool 0:50:45.360 --> 0:50:49.200 thing is if you're on any Google site, so including 0:50:49.239 --> 0:50:52.360 Google dot Com just the web browser. If you're signed 0:50:52.400 --> 0:50:54.960 into Google, that notification bar is at the top of 0:50:55.000 --> 0:50:57.720 your screen and you can actually look at those notifications 0:50:57.840 --> 0:51:01.440 in real time on that that page and respond to 0:51:01.480 --> 0:51:04.560 them without ever actually traveling to your Google Plus account. 0:51:05.080 --> 0:51:07.280 So I might be on Google dot Com doing research 0:51:07.320 --> 0:51:09.759 for an article and I see a notification thing pop up, 0:51:09.760 --> 0:51:11.800 and I'm like, I wonder what's going on? Click on it. 0:51:11.880 --> 0:51:13.920 See that someone's commented on one of my pages. I 0:51:13.960 --> 0:51:16.400 want to comment back. I can type in a comment 0:51:16.760 --> 0:51:20.040 on that notifications page and send it back without ever 0:51:20.120 --> 0:51:25.240 actually going to my Google Plus uh profile. Right, and um, 0:51:25.280 --> 0:51:28.240 we also need to talk really briefly at least about 0:51:28.320 --> 0:51:32.200 photo albums. Okay. I was going to add to about 0:51:32.239 --> 0:51:35.040 about that that you can also turn on email if 0:51:35.080 --> 0:51:37.120 you really want you and that again a bad idea 0:51:37.160 --> 0:51:39.080 if you have a lot of followers, because you will 0:51:39.080 --> 0:51:40.960 start getting but you could you can do the same 0:51:41.000 --> 0:51:44.759 thing as you would with Twitter or or Facebook and 0:51:44.840 --> 0:51:47.120 say yes, I want to know, send me an email 0:51:47.200 --> 0:51:51.080 every time or or text message every time someone you 0:51:51.120 --> 0:51:53.600 know fill in the blank. It's pretty much everything sends 0:51:53.640 --> 0:51:56.239 me a message gives me a plus one. You know, 0:51:56.400 --> 0:51:59.080 there's a laundry choose. You can choose which ones give 0:51:59.120 --> 0:52:02.239 you alerts in which ones don't. And uh. For for 0:52:02.280 --> 0:52:04.920 an average user, it may make sense to have email 0:52:05.080 --> 0:52:09.080 notifications turned on for me because I have people following me. 0:52:09.560 --> 0:52:12.080 It would be it would overwhelm my email. Yeah, I would. 0:52:12.200 --> 0:52:15.600 And I learned very quickly, like day two of Google Plus, 0:52:15.680 --> 0:52:18.719 to turn all that off for me. Um And and 0:52:18.920 --> 0:52:20.560 you know, I know that there are people who are 0:52:20.640 --> 0:52:23.640 far more popular than I, and I can only imagine 0:52:23.640 --> 0:52:25.880 what their email would have looked like, like like Veronica Belmont 0:52:26.239 --> 0:52:28.840 or Felicia Day or Will Wheaton, you know, some of 0:52:28.840 --> 0:52:31.200 these people who have way more visibility than I do. 0:52:31.760 --> 0:52:34.560 I'm sure their accounts would have been overwhelmed in a second. 0:52:35.040 --> 0:52:37.880 But yeah, please go into photo albums. I do have 0:52:37.920 --> 0:52:40.040 one other thing I want to mention before we finish. Okay, 0:52:40.120 --> 0:52:45.399 So yeah, photo albums are using picasa, Google's photo web 0:52:45.440 --> 0:52:51.360 photo album service as the foundation, although Picasa will undergo 0:52:51.360 --> 0:52:54.239 a name change pretty soon. I think that's gonna be 0:52:54.280 --> 0:52:57.640 Google Plus Photos or something like that. So but it's 0:52:57.680 --> 0:53:01.200 it's the same service. So pocas said, normally, if you 0:53:01.239 --> 0:53:03.680 sign up for a picassa account, which really you can do. 0:53:03.719 --> 0:53:06.120 If you have a Google account your you can create 0:53:06.160 --> 0:53:09.719 a picassa account. You are normally given one gigabyte of 0:53:09.760 --> 0:53:14.800 storage space for photos, which is not really that much um. 0:53:14.840 --> 0:53:17.840 But with Google Plus, if you upload photos through Google Plus, 0:53:17.840 --> 0:53:21.120 it will automatically resize your photos so that the longest 0:53:21.280 --> 0:53:24.000 edge of your photo is two thousand, forty eight pixels long, 0:53:24.480 --> 0:53:26.760 all right, will automatically resize it. So whatever the longest 0:53:26.840 --> 0:53:29.839 edges gets reduced to that size, and at that resolution, 0:53:30.239 --> 0:53:33.440 it does not count against your one gigabyte of storage space. 0:53:33.960 --> 0:53:36.840 So if you upload through Google Plus, you effectively have 0:53:37.120 --> 0:53:43.000 unlimited digital photos storage. I tested this and I have 0:53:43.160 --> 0:53:46.840 a photo album on my profile that has one thousand 0:53:46.840 --> 0:53:49.160 photos in it. That's the maximum number of photos you 0:53:49.200 --> 0:53:51.799 can have in a photo album. Now you can have 0:53:51.960 --> 0:53:55.680 unlimited photo albums in Google Plus, so you're not limited 0:53:55.680 --> 0:53:58.200 that way. It's just that each individual photo album can 0:53:58.239 --> 0:54:00.680 only have a thousand files in it. And uh, I 0:54:00.719 --> 0:54:02.719 recently took a vacation in Europe, and so I have 0:54:02.719 --> 0:54:05.279 a thousand photos from my vacation in Europe in that 0:54:05.520 --> 0:54:08.200 photo album. And I probably have about two thousand more 0:54:08.200 --> 0:54:11.359 photos I need to upload from that vacation so they'll 0:54:11.400 --> 0:54:14.680 be most impressive. There'll be at least three photo albums 0:54:14.719 --> 0:54:19.520 of my vacation photos on Google Plus. Now you've gotta 0:54:19.560 --> 0:54:21.560 keep in mind it's gonna be a lower resolution than 0:54:21.600 --> 0:54:24.279 your original file, assuming, of course, you took it with 0:54:24.320 --> 0:54:27.920 a decent digital camera. Uh So the photo that you 0:54:28.000 --> 0:54:30.520 get on Google Plus is not going to be suitable 0:54:30.560 --> 0:54:33.920 for printing out, for example, or enlarging. Um, So you 0:54:33.920 --> 0:54:36.439 will need to find some other method of storage if 0:54:36.440 --> 0:54:41.560 you want to to keep the photo at the original resolution. UM. 0:54:41.640 --> 0:54:45.319 The thing I wanted to talk about was your Google profile. Yes, 0:54:45.760 --> 0:54:48.120 if you want. If this sounds interesting to you, you 0:54:48.160 --> 0:54:51.440 don't already have a profile on Google Plus. You'll need 0:54:51.480 --> 0:54:53.680 a Google account, and this is you know, the account 0:54:53.680 --> 0:54:57.000 works for everything from Google Plus to Google Docs and 0:54:57.040 --> 0:55:00.120 all the other things. Um. If you already have of 0:55:00.960 --> 0:55:05.560 a profile and you've been keeping it private, UM, that's 0:55:05.600 --> 0:55:07.800 going to change one way or the other by July 0:55:07.920 --> 0:55:11.560 thirty one. I'm not sure exactly when this is going 0:55:11.600 --> 0:55:13.960 to publish. This may put some of you in a 0:55:14.000 --> 0:55:16.840 really tight deadline. UM. I don't think a lot of 0:55:16.880 --> 0:55:19.799 people know this, but Google has plans right now, as 0:55:19.800 --> 0:55:23.000 of their recording this podcast, to delete any profile that 0:55:23.160 --> 0:55:26.319 is not public by July thirty one. And you have 0:55:26.400 --> 0:55:30.480 to have a name attached to your profile, so so 0:55:30.560 --> 0:55:34.000 you can't just create profiles like multiple profiles and not 0:55:34.120 --> 0:55:38.200 have an identity associated with that profile. Right now, it 0:55:38.239 --> 0:55:42.960 doesn't necessarily have to be your exact name. However, people 0:55:43.160 --> 0:55:46.040 I have heard reports that people with made up names 0:55:47.000 --> 0:55:51.759 have been questioned by Google, um as they might on 0:55:51.760 --> 0:55:55.680 on Facebook. Um, you know, they they want to make 0:55:55.719 --> 0:55:57.440 sure I guess that a real human is behind it 0:55:57.480 --> 0:56:00.160 and they're not fooling around. But uh yeah, I mean 0:56:00.200 --> 0:56:02.600 this this might cause some issues because I know one 0:56:02.600 --> 0:56:05.040 of the people things that people complain about about Facebook 0:56:05.120 --> 0:56:06.960 is that you know, hey, I want to I want 0:56:06.960 --> 0:56:09.400 to keep this between my close friends, the people I 0:56:09.440 --> 0:56:11.440 know in real life, and my family. You know, I 0:56:11.440 --> 0:56:13.840 don't want it to be out there for everybody to see. 0:56:14.160 --> 0:56:16.000 And this is no longer going to be an option. 0:56:16.200 --> 0:56:18.520 The thing is, maybe you say, well, I've had a 0:56:18.560 --> 0:56:22.840 Google account for ten years now. I have Google account's 0:56:22.880 --> 0:56:25.560 been around him that long anyway, Um, I've had a 0:56:25.560 --> 0:56:28.320 Google account for some time now, and you know, I, 0:56:29.440 --> 0:56:31.799 you know, I guess I'll change my name on Google Plus. 0:56:31.880 --> 0:56:34.359 What if you do that, it changes it across your 0:56:34.480 --> 0:56:38.040 entire profile. Um so if you want to rename your 0:56:38.040 --> 0:56:43.719 Google profile Horatio, your Google Plus profile Horatio T. Wiggle Bottom, 0:56:43.840 --> 0:56:47.040 then people who you send email to on Gmail will 0:56:47.080 --> 0:56:49.879 also see that, and they may not realize that that's you, 0:56:50.120 --> 0:56:54.560 and then and they make fun of you. Yes, not necessarily, 0:56:56.160 --> 0:56:58.799 So that's the That's the thing. I don't know. Uh, 0:56:58.840 --> 0:57:00.560 it's it's sort of unclear to me whether they mean, 0:57:01.040 --> 0:57:04.040 you know, we will delete your profile, meaning we will 0:57:04.040 --> 0:57:07.000 delete your entire Google account, or whether they mean there 0:57:07.000 --> 0:57:10.800 will be nothing public about this account at all. The 0:57:10.520 --> 0:57:12.880 the the what they call the profile itself, it's what 0:57:12.880 --> 0:57:15.000 they're just talking about. And that's still unclear to me 0:57:15.040 --> 0:57:18.000 as of right this minute. But I have the feeling 0:57:18.040 --> 0:57:21.200 they're talking about the entire account. And then, and I mean, 0:57:21.200 --> 0:57:23.720 the whole point of this is it's a you know, 0:57:23.920 --> 0:57:27.080 to let you connect with other people. So sure, keeping 0:57:27.080 --> 0:57:29.680 it private means that no one can connect with you, Yes, 0:57:29.720 --> 0:57:31.880 but this this is happening regardless of whether you have 0:57:31.880 --> 0:57:35.600 a Google Plus account or not. So yeah, but that's 0:57:35.600 --> 0:57:38.480 because the Google Plus is on the foundation of that 0:57:38.560 --> 0:57:42.120 profile exactly. So it's it's forced that to happen. The 0:57:42.160 --> 0:57:44.480 profile is the bottom of the pyramid is the problem. 0:57:44.560 --> 0:57:48.000 So um yeah, so it's it's that's a concern some 0:57:48.040 --> 0:57:51.240 people have. Um, it's a concern I have. And again 0:57:51.280 --> 0:57:53.760 this is not necessarily the concern of the average user, 0:57:53.840 --> 0:57:56.320 but it is for people like Chris and myself and 0:57:56.640 --> 0:58:00.080 for people more notable than us. Is that people and 0:58:00.200 --> 0:58:05.200 create um the you know, fake accounts or or accounts, uh, 0:58:05.560 --> 0:58:09.160 accounts claiming to be people and it's not really that person. Well, 0:58:09.240 --> 0:58:11.680 you know. One of the big things is, uh, this 0:58:11.760 --> 0:58:14.360 first couple of weeks of Google Plus was that Mark Zuckerberg, 0:58:14.400 --> 0:58:16.880 the founder of Facebook, at a Google Plus profile and 0:58:16.880 --> 0:58:18.440 they were pretty sure it was him because it was 0:58:18.480 --> 0:58:21.280 a photo no one had actually seen of him before, 0:58:21.440 --> 0:58:25.480 and the people he had in his circles were Facebook executives. 0:58:25.600 --> 0:58:28.680 And then thousands of people followed him. Yes, as a 0:58:28.680 --> 0:58:30.600 matter of fact, he was at one point, I don't 0:58:30.600 --> 0:58:33.360 know if he still is, uh, the most followed person 0:58:33.400 --> 0:58:36.120 on Facebook. I heard a report that he actually left 0:58:36.480 --> 0:58:40.400 he tightened up his privacy settings. Really, Mark Zuckerberg, you 0:58:40.440 --> 0:58:43.040 tightened up your privacy settings. I think you said no 0:58:43.080 --> 0:58:44.919 one wanted to do that, good thing. It was really 0:58:44.960 --> 0:58:48.800 easy to find yes, Um, but uh and I've also 0:58:48.840 --> 0:58:51.360 heard reports as of today that he may have actually 0:58:51.400 --> 0:58:54.520 deleted that account, but um, there are also dozens of 0:58:54.520 --> 0:58:56.880 other Mark Zuckerberg's on there now. Yes, and I know that, 0:58:57.000 --> 0:58:59.760 like Neil Gaiman, he had a Google Plus account for 0:58:59.760 --> 0:59:01.760 a while and then he made the conscious decision to 0:59:01.960 --> 0:59:03.880 to to cut it out. He said it was too 0:59:03.960 --> 0:59:07.480 much noise and it didn't work for him, so he left. 0:59:07.520 --> 0:59:10.600 And then, um, he got irritated because he started getting 0:59:10.640 --> 0:59:13.240 lots of emails from people trying to add him into circles. 0:59:13.280 --> 0:59:15.440 But because he had left Google Plus, he was getting 0:59:15.440 --> 0:59:19.480 those invites through email as opposed through Google Plus. So 0:59:19.800 --> 0:59:24.800 he deleted his account and then got deluged by email. Um. Yeah, 0:59:24.840 --> 0:59:28.000 There's the thing I was saying is that there should be, 0:59:28.200 --> 0:59:30.040 or hopefully there will be, some point a way to 0:59:30.240 --> 0:59:33.360 verify that you are who you say you are, kind 0:59:33.400 --> 0:59:36.520 of like Twitter has verified accounts. It would be nice 0:59:36.560 --> 0:59:39.320 to have a verified account through Google Plus. Because I 0:59:39.400 --> 0:59:44.000 noticed last night that I had a quote unquote celebrity 0:59:44.040 --> 0:59:48.960 following me named Selina Gomez. Uh yeah, so uh the 0:59:48.960 --> 0:59:52.200 Beeb's main squeeze and um, and so I'm thinking, why 0:59:52.280 --> 0:59:54.400 is the Beeb's main squeeze following me? And so I 0:59:54.480 --> 0:59:57.320 decided to do a little investigative work and noticed that 0:59:57.440 --> 1:00:02.040 it was not truly her. People who had gone into 1:00:02.080 --> 1:00:05.040 a hangout with this person said, no, this isn't really 1:00:05.040 --> 1:00:06.920 silly to come as it's a it's a fake account 1:00:06.920 --> 1:00:10.520 from a fan, which, you know, whether you believe that's 1:00:10.560 --> 1:00:13.280 ethical or unethical is beside the point. The point being 1:00:13.320 --> 1:00:15.280 that you know, you kind of want to know the 1:00:15.320 --> 1:00:17.840 people you're talking to are the people that you think 1:00:17.840 --> 1:00:20.680 they are, right, You don't want to be misled. You 1:00:20.720 --> 1:00:23.760 may have a genuine interest in following someone who is 1:00:23.880 --> 1:00:27.400 either a celebrity or other notable figure, but uh, you know, 1:00:27.440 --> 1:00:29.280 you don't mind the fact that they're not following you. 1:00:29.280 --> 1:00:31.000 You just want to get that information. Let's say it's 1:00:31.040 --> 1:00:35.480 a politician or it's someone, uh like a notable authority 1:00:35.520 --> 1:00:38.840 in a particular field that you're interested in. You don't 1:00:38.880 --> 1:00:41.520 want to be following a fan of that person because 1:00:41.520 --> 1:00:44.439 you're not actually getting the information you wanted. So that's 1:00:44.520 --> 1:00:46.960 that's an issue with Google Plus. As of the recording 1:00:46.960 --> 1:00:50.440 of this podcast. Yeah, there there are apparently corporate accounts 1:00:50.480 --> 1:00:53.080 on the way. So yeah, right now, when that happens, 1:00:53.120 --> 1:00:55.160 there will be a house stuff works dot com account, Yeah, 1:00:55.240 --> 1:00:59.960 tech stuff account, And I applied for a tech stuff account, yeah, yesterday, 1:01:00.200 --> 1:01:02.880 So we'll see if that happens. I haven't received any 1:01:02.880 --> 1:01:06.120 information back about that yet, but that's that's coming, you know. Yeah, 1:01:06.160 --> 1:01:08.600 because right now, it's supposed to just be people. That's 1:01:08.640 --> 1:01:10.640 what Google Plus was designed to do. And they said, 1:01:10.680 --> 1:01:12.880 you know, we understand there are corporations that want to 1:01:12.960 --> 1:01:17.280 use this as a way of connecting with their customers, um, 1:01:17.280 --> 1:01:21.240 their partners, etcetera. But it's just not designed for that. 1:01:21.280 --> 1:01:23.880 They're working on that right now, they being the Google 1:01:23.880 --> 1:01:26.920 Plus team. Yeah. I think I think that they have 1:01:27.080 --> 1:01:28.920 the Google has done a much better job with this 1:01:29.120 --> 1:01:33.320 than it did with Wave and and definitely buzz and 1:01:33.400 --> 1:01:37.400 definitely work. Um is it a Facebook killer? Well, I 1:01:37.440 --> 1:01:41.400 can't stand the Blank killer thing. I think it can 1:01:41.520 --> 1:01:45.840 definitely grow into a Facebook rival and that will be good. 1:01:46.200 --> 1:01:48.480 I think the competition will be good for Facebook. They 1:01:48.480 --> 1:01:51.560 don't really have at this point a serious competitor. My 1:01:51.600 --> 1:01:55.640 Space was probably the last one, and it's at least 1:01:55.640 --> 1:01:58.120 a serious competitor and most of the world. Yeah, I 1:01:58.200 --> 1:02:00.240 there are a few places where things like were cut 1:02:00.240 --> 1:02:08.160 are actually yeah, but um but yeah, I mean worldwide. Uh, 1:02:08.320 --> 1:02:16.320 Facebook is still a pretty big um nat juggernaut yesty 1:02:16.360 --> 1:02:19.400 million users is huge. Yeah. Yeah, So I think I 1:02:19.440 --> 1:02:23.520 think that given time and some added features and some refinement, 1:02:23.600 --> 1:02:26.520 I think Google Plus is off to a very good start. Yeah. 1:02:26.520 --> 1:02:29.200 And it may very well just be a complementary service. 1:02:29.280 --> 1:02:32.080 It may never be one that replaces Facebook, because that 1:02:32.160 --> 1:02:34.880 wasn't necessarily what it was intended to do. It may 1:02:34.920 --> 1:02:36.960 be that you go to Facebook for certain kinds of 1:02:37.000 --> 1:02:39.040 interaction and you go to Google Plus for other kinds 1:02:39.080 --> 1:02:42.040 of interaction, and there's nothing wrong with that. No, I 1:02:42.080 --> 1:02:44.680 don't think so. Um, we'll see. I know there are 1:02:44.680 --> 1:02:46.360 a lot of people who are talking about the fact 1:02:46.400 --> 1:02:48.160 that they're going to just drop Facebook. In fact, I've 1:02:48.200 --> 1:02:49.960 seen a lot of people who have changed their profile 1:02:50.000 --> 1:02:52.200 pictures to say I have moved and have the g 1:02:52.280 --> 1:02:55.840 Plus logo in there, which is cute. Oh and I 1:02:55.840 --> 1:02:58.200 was gonna say about the clicks behavior. Let's finish off 1:02:58.200 --> 1:03:00.760 with this because we are running along. But the clickish 1:03:00.800 --> 1:03:03.040 behavior on Google Plus. I saw a lot of people 1:03:03.080 --> 1:03:05.800 and I assume most of it was joking about how 1:03:06.000 --> 1:03:08.040 you know, because they joined early. They thought it would 1:03:08.040 --> 1:03:10.520 be cool to have a Google Plus badge to show 1:03:10.560 --> 1:03:12.600 that you were one of the original Google Plus beta 1:03:12.680 --> 1:03:15.600 testers before it went public and that this would set 1:03:15.640 --> 1:03:18.440 you apart. And Uh, I happened to be of the 1:03:18.560 --> 1:03:20.840 I mean, I jokingly said that would be awesome, but 1:03:20.960 --> 1:03:22.800 I honestly think that would be a bad idea because 1:03:22.800 --> 1:03:24.960 it would discourage people. It would it would encourage a 1:03:25.000 --> 1:03:27.960 sense of clickishness and saying like I'm superior to you 1:03:28.000 --> 1:03:31.400 because I managed to get an invite to this social network, which, 1:03:31.400 --> 1:03:33.360 by the way, getting an invite to a social network 1:03:34.000 --> 1:03:37.360 doesn't mean anything. It just means you've gotta invite or 1:03:37.400 --> 1:03:40.960 a work around, which means you know, equally nothing. Um. 1:03:41.800 --> 1:03:45.160 The so I would say that that's kind of would 1:03:45.160 --> 1:03:47.760 discourage new people from coming in because they're like, oh, well, 1:03:47.760 --> 1:03:51.680 this is like a closed off club and also right 1:03:51.680 --> 1:03:55.200 now it's more or less a boys club. According to Uh. 1:03:55.240 --> 1:03:59.520 To mash double Um, there was a a survey done 1:03:59.560 --> 1:04:01.800 to see or kind of an estimation done to see 1:04:01.840 --> 1:04:05.000 how many men versus women are on Google Plus. Um, 1:04:05.040 --> 1:04:07.760 for a while, it like women made up about ten 1:04:08.520 --> 1:04:10.720 of the entire Google Plus population, and when you think 1:04:10.920 --> 1:04:17.040 we're potentially over ten million users, that's significant. According to 1:04:17.520 --> 1:04:23.720 Social Statistics, that percentage is now closer to uh seventy 1:04:23.760 --> 1:04:26.920 three point seven percent, So there are more females on 1:04:26.960 --> 1:04:30.000 Google Plus than there were before, but still it's overwhelmingly 1:04:30.120 --> 1:04:33.720 a male population. So we'll all have to see. For 1:04:33.800 --> 1:04:35.600 Google Plus to really survive, we're gonna have to see 1:04:35.600 --> 1:04:40.760 that expand beyond just the dudes. Yeah, alright, we are 1:04:40.800 --> 1:04:43.760 wrapping this up. Like we said, there's probably a billion 1:04:43.800 --> 1:04:45.720 other things we could say about Google Plus right now, 1:04:46.000 --> 1:04:47.320 not to mention the fact that by the time this 1:04:47.400 --> 1:04:50.080 publishes things may have changed. Uh. If you guys have 1:04:50.320 --> 1:04:52.840 the ability to access it, search us out, or at 1:04:52.920 --> 1:04:56.320 least search me out. Chris. Chris is really good at 1:04:56.400 --> 1:04:59.880 at at maintaining a nice low profile. I am one 1:05:00.040 --> 1:05:03.080 those people that prefers to keep my social networking down 1:05:03.080 --> 1:05:05.520 to people actually know in real life. And I certainly 1:05:05.600 --> 1:05:07.520 mean no offense to any of our listeners. No, it's 1:05:07.640 --> 1:05:09.920 there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I I am a 1:05:10.000 --> 1:05:13.560 very extroverted kind of guy who I'm like, look at me. 1:05:14.200 --> 1:05:18.480 So it's just really different personality. None of us have noticed. Yeah, 1:05:17.720 --> 1:05:20.280 I know you can't tell by the way I dominate 1:05:20.320 --> 1:05:23.640 every single conversation. Um, anyway you can. You can search up, 1:05:23.640 --> 1:05:26.960 search us out, feel free and uh you know. Depending 1:05:26.960 --> 1:05:29.680 on how long it is from the time we publish this, 1:05:29.720 --> 1:05:31.120 we may be active on it, or we may have 1:05:31.160 --> 1:05:33.800 given up on Google Plus because it's still early days. 1:05:33.800 --> 1:05:36.000 I mean, we've seen a lot of Google products get 1:05:36.080 --> 1:05:39.520 initial positive response only to kind of fade away over time. 1:05:39.600 --> 1:05:48.240 So we'll see if this is one of those. I 1:05:48.280 --> 1:05:53.000 hope you guys like that episode, that classic throwback. Remember, 1:05:53.040 --> 1:05:55.840 if you guys have any suggestions for future topics for 1:05:55.880 --> 1:05:58.480 me to cover or even guests I should have on 1:05:58.520 --> 1:06:00.760 the show, either as a host or an interview subject, 1:06:01.040 --> 1:06:03.280 you should let me know. Send me an email the 1:06:03.320 --> 1:06:06.880 addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com, or 1:06:06.960 --> 1:06:10.400 drop me a line on Tumblr, Twitter or on Facebook 1:06:10.800 --> 1:06:13.840 to handle it. All three is tech stuff hs W, 1:06:14.120 --> 1:06:23.080 and I'll talk to you again really soon for more 1:06:23.080 --> 1:06:25.560 on this embass into other topics because it has to 1:06:25.600 --> 1:06:35.360 have works dot Com