The newest face in the social networking arena has created quite a stir, but many are waiting it out to see how Google+ performs before joining this new community. Trepidation is a reasonable reaction to this new platform, as Google’s last two attempts at social media (Wave and Buzz) fell short of the mark by a long shot. The reception so far, though, seems overwhelmingly optimistic and users are promoting the new community with 85% positive feedback. What will make the biggest difference, I believe, is how well thought-out and ready for execution this new social network really is.

The Release
One promising sign for the future of Google+ is how well the Beta testing seems to have gone. Would-be users were scrambling for the opportunity to give Plus a try, and according to this article invitations were even being sold on eBay. Now that the field testing is over and the community is open to the public, Google+ is growing rapidly. Two weeks after opening public invites, says Paul Allen in this Google+ Post, the site hit 18 million users. What is most impressive about this statistic is that Google has not yet begun marketing its new platform through any of its other channels (search engine, YouTube, Blogger). What the development team is doing, it seems, is perfecting the site and addressing current user feedback before making any attempts at growth. Seems like a solid strategy to me, and one that will likely lead to more satisfied users in the long run.

The Features
Google+ introduces only a few revolutionary features to social networking, but includes and expounds on existing features as well. Circles, like the Facebook version of Lists, is a way of organizing your contacts. With the default Circles of Friends, Family, Following, and Acquaintances, G+ allows for a much improved method of communicating to certain groups of people. You can create your own Circles very easily, and you can list people in more than once Circle. This means that each post you share can be targeted at one, all or any combination of your groups of contacts. Likewise, you can choose to view posts from any of your groups in your Home page Stream (the equivalent of your Facebook News Feed). Keeping track of both your work life and personal life should be a breeze with this system.

Next is Hangouts, an attribute without a Facebook counterpart. This real-time video feature allows you to create a ‘room’ of online contacts to chat and share with. Like Skype but with the ability to chat with multiple people at a time, Hangouts are meant to be an impromptu gathering of available friends, coworkers, or other contacts. This could be helpful from a business standpoint for informal meetings and discussions with clients. Socially, it seems like a fun way to keep in touch with a group of long-distance (or heck, even short-distance) friends.

Sparks is essentiallt your list of Interests. The G+ tutorial introduces it as a way to ‘nerd-out’ or ‘geek-out’ about your favorite topics. At first glance it doesn’t seem especially unique but it will depend on how users apply it, ultimately. The premise is you can browse your Sparks to find information and engage in conversation about things that interest you. In testing this concept seems to work well for featured Sparks (Recipes, for example), but when I typed in ‘running’ the results were not constrained to exercise posts but instead anything that had the word ‘running’ in the title (i.e. ‘Chromium OS running on a MacBook Air’). Not ideal, in my opinion, but maybe it will be tweaked for more optimal use in the future.

The Results?
The subtext of the above comic by xkcd reads: ‘On one hand, you’ll never be able to convince your parents to switch. On the other hand, you’ll never be able to convince your parents to switch!’ Google+ has taken our collective knowledge and expectations for a social network and built on them. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Google just improved upon it. This could be the key to its success if users are ready for a new and improved social media experience; or, it could be its downfall if it is not different enough for users to justify the hassle of switching from current social networks. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are each different enough that there is room for all three of them in the playing field. And then there’s Skype, which may also be at risk because of the G+ Hangout feature. Google’s intent, it seems, is to compete directly with Facebook- a daunting undertaking indeed. Is there a place (a need?) for both of these platforms? If not, will enough people choose Google+ over Facebook to make it successful? There seems to be a precarious balance and only time will tell which way the scales will tip. It is also worth mentioning that while Google has requested that businesses not create profiles yet, there does seem to be a plan in place for business use of the network as well. *Note: For further comical evidence that your Mom won’t join Google+, read this post.

What do you think- will you be joining Google+? Have you signed up already and if so, how has your experience been so far? You can visit my Google+ profile here: www.gplus.to/elise890.

I have at least two sources that I turn to for music online. The site I use most often is Pandora. I have been a big Pandora fan since college…back in the days before we had to sit through advertisements, click “I’m still listening” what seems like every 20 minutes, and were limited to 40 hours of listening per month. In reality the “Are you still listening?” prompt occurs after one hour of non-activity, and I have only hit the 40 hours/month ceiling once or twice. Pandora, for those of you not familiar, is an internet radio that is largely customizable by listeners. It is a part of the Music Genome Project, a project intending to “capture the complex musical DNA of songs using a large team of highly-trained musicians” and use that information to suggest songs and artists based on listeners’ feedback. The radio offers features such as Like, Dislike and Skip, and you can save numerous stations in your profile. Pandora offers an array of other features, including song lyrics, pre-made stations, and recently a Facebook integration that lets you see which of your friends like certain songs and artists.

My second preferred source for music is Grooveshark. While Pandora chooses your music for you based on your likes and dislikes, at Grooveshark.com you can hand pick each song on your playlist. There is no limit to the number of songs you can skip (Pandora has a limit of 6 skips per hour and 12 per day), and you can play the same song over and over as much as you’d like. A lot of folks are making the move from Pandora to Grooveshark as their #1 online music source, but I still prefer Pandora most of the time. I have my stations all set up and saved (as opposed to making all new ones at Grooveshark), and Pandora’s use of the Music Genome Project allows it to make more accurate predictions about songs and artists that I will like. Both services are free, with the option to upgrade to a paid account  in order to avoid ads, among other benefits.

After being spoiled by these personalized music options, it is hard to go back to old-fashioned radio. On occasion though, it is nice to have someone else make the decisions for you. Radioio is an internet radio that is a kind of hybrid- similar in content to satellite radio. There are hundreds of channels to choose from; for example in the Country category there are 6 different options ranging from Americana to Today’s Country. Almost all local radio stations offer free online streaming as well, so that is a viable option too. And, there is always your trusty iTunes library to fall back on, limited though it may be in comparison to the online music giants discussed here today.

Do you use Pandora and/or Grooveshark? Are there other online music options (free of charge or otherwise) that I’m missing out on? Let me know in the comments, and have a great weekend everyone- happy listening!