Google+ Review

A view of Chris's Google+ stream. Is that a napping kitten? Awhhh

There’s an invitation-only party going on right now called Google+ and our in house Web Designer, Chris is relaxing in the VIP lounge. Right now in the office everyone is pretty excited about what could be the next big social media platform to spread like wildfire, but we’re also jealous that we haven’t been invited either. So what are Chris’s first impressions of this fresh new platform?

1. Tidy Interface

As opposed to the ever changing and often overwhelming Facebook interface, Google+ is extremely clean and minimal, and everything has its purpose. All the fat has been trimmed off this platform.

2. Visually Appealing Design

The platform might be minimal in design, but the animations that are used to illustrate actions make for a visually appealing garnish that’s a nice touch. It’s like moving into a house that already has nice furniture, it just feels like home. Also, even deleting things is fun!

3. Wait, this feels like a Mac?

If you’ve been lucky enough to play on the platform, you might ask, “Doesn’t this design seem Mac inspired?” Well, not only do you have great taste, but you’re right! Google hired Andy Hertzfeld as the lead designer for Google+, who just happened to design the Mac interface. Not a bad thing to have on the resume.

4. Targeted Sharing

With the ability to organize your friends (and acquaintances) into circles, it’s easy to share one photo with just one group of people, rather than sharing it with every person that you’re associated with. With this in mind, the stream (equivalent to Facebook’s News Feed), might actually contain content that you care about and not just be about your high school classmate from 18 years ago finding a duck on Farmville.

5. Privacy Settings

On Google+ you can actually understand what your privacy settings are without having to take a webinar on the subject. They are simple, easy to access and get this… they make sense!

6. You’re allowed to leave the party!

If you were considering leaving this awesome platform (which is crazy) you can take all of your data with you using the Google Take-Out function. This is a bold stab at Facebook, which keeps users committed by holding your data ransom.

7. Fancy name for RSS = Sparks

Your sparks on Google+ are no different than an RSS feed. What is different is that you can access it directly on your Google+ account, which means that people might actually use it.

8. +1

+1 is the Google+ equivalent to the Like function on Facebook. What’s different is that it also acts as a bookmark allowing users to look back on the things they gave their +1 approval to.