15 ms·

Google Reveals Its Stealth Social Project, Google+

526 points by bproper 15y ago

jarodlam 15y ago
The mobile app I saw a couple of months ago was pretty slick. I hope they've made good progress on that too.
cryptoz 15y ago
From plus.google.com: > Google+ is in limited Field Trial Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people. WHY?! WHY are they doing this again? They did this with Wave. Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly disallowing social networking! This is so frustrating.
- cskau 15y ago
  Worst part is their sign-up page has gone MIA - 404
  - cskau 15y ago
    It's back up: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ gogogo !
    - skbohra123 15y ago
      gives a 500 error
      - nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
        It also gives an insecure script warning in the latest version of Chrome unstable, which made me laugh since I just started seeing those today.
      - rufibarbatus 15y ago
        Write only your first name on the "First name" field. I don't know if this is the bug, but after trying three times with my full name, when I did this the 500 went away.
- frisco 15y ago
  In fairness, Facebook did the same thing.
  - gfodor 15y ago
    Not all 'private invites' are created equal. Facebook isolated it to a single campus at a time. This meant all your friends were on Facebook, or none of them were. See the difference?
  - guywithabike 15y ago
    Not really. Facebook opened it up to entire colleges at a time. So once you were able to get on, most of your friends were able to, too.
    - frisco 15y ago
      I bet those inside Google+ at this early stage can invite others in as well.
      - rubergly 15y ago
        There's a very big difference between A) being the only person in, with the ability to invite any of your friends in and B) everyone else already being in. Even if you could invite all your friends in, the only motivation for them to accept and actually join is you (not an entire network yet, until they all accept) which is never going to be enough motivation.
      - RobAtticus 15y ago
        Currently those inside + at the moment cannot invite others. It will probably change soon, but I think the initial rollouts are still going on, so for the time being I cannot invite others.
        sanderjd 15y ago
        Out of curiosity, do you know or have a hypothesis for why you were invited? It seems like there are a decent number of people here who have been invited, but many who have not, with a similar trend for #googleplus on twitter, and I've yet to discern a sensible pattern.
- Skalman 15y ago
  They're hoping to do the same thing they did with Gmail: use artificial scarcity to their advantage. It'll work if the people there get invites - that way it'll gradually expand until it opens up to everybody.
  - joebadmo 15y ago
    It's more natural with an email client, though, because email is already federated, so interoperable with the existing email system. This doesn't appear to be.
- veeti 15y ago
  > Oops... you need a Google Profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organisation. Come on, Google!
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - joshma 15y ago
    According to Chris Chabot (Developer Advocate at Google), "We're only just starting down the road of the Google+ project, but we love our Google Apps users so please stay tuned" [from comments on http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/google-plus/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/google-plus/]
  - kelnos 15y ago
    Yeah, this is really annoying. My invite is stuck in limbo right now because it's tied to my Google Apps email address, which won't work with Google+.
  - ern 15y ago
    Google recently forced users to make their Profiles public, and announced that it was going to delete private Profiles. If Google+ requires a Profile, then count me out.
  - lig 15y ago
    yep. as we have buzz in several month http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-coming-soon-for-businesses.html http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-com... :)
  - SashaO 15y ago
    I found a workaround to bypass this error message: open anybody's profile and "switch accounts" from there. Details at http://codebistro.com/2011/07/09/google-oops-you-need-google-profile-workaround/ http://codebistro.com/2011/07/09/google-oops-you-need-google...
- handrake 15y ago
  I think Google simply sucks at anything remotely related to social networking.
  - ignifero 15y ago
    Me too, maybe they'll be saved by the "hangouts" and photos features?
  - panacea 15y ago
    I use email to network socially. gMail is a pretty good email client.
- haberman 15y ago
  > WHY?! WHY are they doing this again? Maybe they want to work out the kinks before having 10 million users instantly. The privacy aspect of this will be very important, and the Buzz launch is an example of how opening up to everyone at the same time led to a large backlash.
  - msbarnett 15y ago
    Google Buzz is a good example of how forcing an active account on everyone at the same time led to a large backlash. There's a pretty wide gulf between opening up and forcing it on people. You can't build a social networking sites if it isn't open to people in your users' social networks. But you also can't build a site people trust and want to use by forcing it on them.
    - nostrademons 15y ago
      Curiously, I've heard that FaceBook also started by forcing an account on everyone - Zuckerburg scraped the online student database so that everyone at Harvard automatically had a FaceBook account. (Or rather, he scraped it for FaceMash and then used the data again to start FaceBook.) You can get away with a lot more when you're a college student project than when you're a multi-billion-$ corporation.
      - nrbafna 15y ago
        It is different. Buzz was forced on to anyone who logged into Gmail.
      - rhc2104 15y ago
        http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register... It does not seem like the Facemash data was reused for thefacebook.
    - daralthus 15y ago
      Still I am curious, what circles would I get based on all the data google has ever collected from me.
- wccrawford 15y ago
  I totally agree. Wave died partially because when I got it, my friends didn't have it. And by the time the last of them got it, the rest of us didn't care any more. Had we been able to all get on at once, we might have found a killer app for it and never given it up.
  - yalogin 15y ago
    Wave died because no one (not even developers) understood what it is or what applications could it have outside of mail.
    - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
      Wave was great for project management. It was project management without the rigid structure.
      - huherto 15y ago
        I am still hoping for something like wave to do organized work.
        william42 15y ago
        I think there was an open-sourcing of the code behind Wave.
        andrewflnr 15y ago
        Yup, it's in the Apache incubator.
    - yesimahuman 15y ago
      Or the use case centered around friends when really it seemed more suitable for a business network.
    - natural219 15y ago
      This sentence is baffling to me. Do you not know what Wave does? Really? Or do you NEED a marketing person to tell you how to use a product?
- yanw 15y ago
  From the blog post: That’s the Google+ project so far: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile. We’re beginning in Field Trial, so you may find some rough edges, and the project is by invitation only
- Duff 15y ago
  It worked pretty well for Gmail.
  - cryptoz 15y ago
    Your friends didn't need Gmail for you to be able to use it. But they did need Wave. And they do need +. There's a big difference between open protocols and closed systems.
    - yannickt 15y ago
      I also wouldn't be surprised if its launch as an invite-only beta release was in part because of it pioneered large email storage.
    - jamesgeck0 15y ago
      It appears that you can interact with non-Google+-enabled accounts to a limited extent; they receive your posts as emails.
      - PotatoEngineer 15y ago
        That might be the point that lets Google+ succeed: you can sign up and interact with your friends immediately, and then when they join Google+, you get to do more. It will definitely help with the "I have an account but nobody else does" phenomenon.
  - VishalRJoshi 15y ago
    Gmail concept won't work for plus as what is a social network without a network. If they have load issues they should start with influencers (like they did) and then keep letting them invite their friends. Then their friends can invite their friends and let it grow from the seed. It is wacky that my friends have to get an email update rather than experience the network with me.
    - Duff 15y ago
      Uh, what was GMail then? When it first came out, the chosen few got invites, and they invited friends. Rinse, repeat.
- igorgue 15y ago
  Don't you think it's kinda silly to think these "build hype" signup processes kill products? Github did the same in fact they recommend people to do it, and they're very successful. I agree it's a little frustrating but it's the kind of frustration that makes you go back when the site is open for signups and signup. Nothing bad... Google Wave might just be an exception of this technique and people didn't use it because of the complexity of the product not because it made them wait to get an invite.
  - chc 15y ago
    For me, it's the kind of frustration that makes me go, "Eh, I feel like I've looked at that before and it annoyed me, though I don't remember why. Probably not worth my time."
  - lamnk 15y ago
    The social in Github's "Social Coding" is just icing on cake. Their core product is git hosting. People pay them to have private repos. This is not the case with G+ Wave failed exactly because both of its complexity and its artificial scarcity Google created.
  - ern 15y ago
    The slow release of Gmail accounts was an example of a great hype-building process. OTOH the product was groundbreaking (they offered a huge amount of storage compared to competitors), and it isn't 2004 anymore.
- MaysonL 15y ago
  Well: when I entered my name & email in the form provided, it got a 500 internal server error. When G's servers are overloaded, you know there's ginormous demand. And you know there're bugs still - they don't even call it beta! it's limited Field Trial. This is the way they rolled out GMail, which seems to be doing ok.
  - jleader 15y ago
    Hint to Google: If your servers are overloaded, "Please go back and try again" is a really dumb thing to ask people to do on your 500 error page!
  - esrauch 15y ago
    They have a kind of loose definition of what they call beta. Consider how long GMail was in "beta" when in reality it was pretty much a finished project. It's true that the invite system worked for gmail, but it's a bit different because gmail still has fundamental value if you are on it and literally none of your friends are.
- joeyespo 15y ago
  The only way to get away with this is to provide massive value for those users when nobody else is around. If a social network only becomes valuable when many others are present, then yes, it will most likely fail.
- blago 15y ago
  "Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly disallowing social networking". It worked for Facebook.
  - nrbafna 15y ago
    Facebook's method was different. Though, they launched to limited users at once and expanded, but it was launched to a linked group/college at once. So, they already had people they knew on Facebook.
- nrbafna 15y ago
  That is a problem. What is the use of the photo sharing, Hangout is there is no one else to share it with. If Google did not want to launch it to everyone at once, they should have probably gone geographically!
- daralthus 15y ago
  I am curious what price would an invite hit on ebay.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  Facebook sort of did that too, by allowing only college kids at first. I think it's the right idea. It only became stupid with Wave when they started giving out millions and millions of "invites". At that point they should've simply made it public. But really, Wave was a fundamentally flawed project for multiple reasons: bad market fit, clumsy/complex UI, bad marketing, etc. I had a bad gut feeling about it since I saw the demo (which took 1 hour! That should've been a sign) Google+ looks very exciting and it seems like they've addressed many issues social networks have had through out the years, including Facebook. The lack of a Circles like feature was a design flaw of all social networks so far, and I believe it led them to ultimately become irrelevant because of the sheer number of people that became your "friends" on those social networks, which ended up spamming you. Circles seems to fix this, and the other Google+ products looks awesome, too.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Maybe the invites they release will specifically be to people who signed up with gmail accounts that have a significant number of contacts who also signed up. That's what I'd do: do your small scale test, but make it as meaningful as possible with highly connected beta testers.
- vibrunazo 15y ago
  It's just an infrastructure problem. Hardware scaling is hard to get right. So it's easier for the engineers to have it released by small increments. This way you can slowly adjust hardware as the need arises. If any problems show up, it will be easier to track it down and fix it.
ernestipark 15y ago
The hangouts feature seems like a big win to me. Group video chats in the browser from someone like Google can really change things.
- yid 15y ago
  I disagree. Social networking, unlike skype or email, requires low cognitive load--you come to hang out on your own terms. While group video chat is a convenient feature when you need it, it's not going to fundamentally change the game.
  - daralthus 15y ago
    I disagree. You go to a hang out when you feel about socializing. You never get bored in a group chat, and the youtube integration just makes it much better. Just look at turntable.fm I miss this kind of chatting from facebook so much. (ok there is something like this with groups. I read somewhere that is the second popular on the site, right after photo sharing.)
    - yid 15y ago
      I suppose we're both going on anecdotal evidence, and the actual usage of social networks is probably diverse enough to accommodate both our views.
- DanBlake 15y ago
  You should check out tinychat ;)
  - ernestipark 15y ago
    I was sure that something like this already existed, but the fact that it's embedded within a social network and is a service by Google makes it a whole lot more appealing.
    - cft 15y ago
cskau 15y ago
This thing is pretty neat though: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/
- risico 15y ago
  Indeed, I really love the use of Maps API.
- waterside81 15y ago
  When I saw some of the cool effects using Circles/Loops whatever it's called, I was excited, thinking they had done it in CSS3. But sadly, all Flash.
  - modeless 15y ago
    Happily, that's just a mockup. The real thing is HTML.
- afterburner 15y ago
  That's a nice demo, beats a video that I have to sit through. Also, I'm liking the features; it also adds a few points in the 'pro' column for Android phones when I decide on a replacement. (I currently have an iPhone, and while the web version of this stuff might still work, I'm guessing it'll be even neater on Android.)
  - ralfd 15y ago
    Google advertises on their site a native iPhone (OS4) App as "very soon". But no native App for Blackberry, WebOS and Windows Phone. For that devices they list a web client. If Google+ (plus.google? How to spell it?) is a success I am uneasy how much control Google is getting over the whole IT industry.
- mitrick2 15y ago
  Reminds me of Prezi (prezi.com) which I've tried out in the past that provides this same effect for presentations.
nhebb 15y ago
There are different kinds of media coverage in SV. There's the excited, this is cool buzz, and then there's the look what big player X is doing sort of coverage. This feels like the latter. People are talking about this, but I don't get the sense that anyone is pumped up about it.
bryze 15y ago
Perhaps this will make facebook better. Competition can often improve product quality. For google this might, however, turn out the same way that Microsoft's grab for web applications is going. First to market is hard to break.
- netrus 15y ago
  Microsoft produced a search engine which is on Google's level and a Map that can compete with Google Maps. But As they were not much better, I had no reason to check it out regularly and compare. But I am on Google's services 40+ times a day. If they want to get my attention, they will get it.
- munificent 15y ago
  > First to market is hard to break. Tell that to friendster. Er, myspace.
  - bryze 15y ago
    Does that really count as competition?
mikemaccana 15y ago
Android app is on the market. Note it eats 8MB of phone memory and can't be moved to SD.
- cryptoz 15y ago
  Are you really concerned about 8MB? Are there even Android phones on the market today that ship with less than 8GB of space?
  - ben1040 15y ago
    By default, Android phones store apps on an onboard storage location that is separate from the SD card. On some older phones there is not a whole lot of space here. For example it didn't take a whole lot at all for me to fill up my Nexus One's app partition. It wasn't until 2.2 that the option to move apps to a encrypted location on the SD card was added, and even then it's an option that has to be enabled by the developer who released the app. Newer phones these days have more onboard space and this shouldn't be nearly as big an issue. I upgraded to an HTC Thunderbolt on Saturday and it has roughly 2GB available for onboard apps.
    - pohl 15y ago
      Wow, why do they make the user manage this at all? The distinction sounds like an enormous misfeature to me.
      - afterburner 15y ago
        It's one of the things that dissuaded me from getting an HTC Android phone two years ago (got an iPhone with 32GB instead). I'm glad they're moving towards fixing it.
  - dpcan 15y ago
    That ship? Maybe not, but my 1.5 year old G1 is full and I'll have it for a while still.
  - 15y ago
deleted 15y ago
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SonicSoul 15y ago
heh.. somewhat ironically, minutes prior seeing this post I noticed the "+1" next to every search result. after exploring it told me that my "+1" will be used all over the web including ads. (am assuming this is part of Google+) I immediately searched for a way to turn it off.
- lukesandberg 15y ago
  https://profiles.google.com/+1/personalization/ https://profiles.google.com/+1/personalization/ you can disable +1 to prevent the ad personalization.
deleted 15y ago
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rakkhi 15y ago
Found a signup link that works: http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/+/learnmore/forum/ http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/+/learnmore/forum/
- cskau 15y ago
  The one on the front-page has been fixed now.
nostromo 15y ago
What I'd like to know is if I can use Facebook Connect to port my graph over (doubt Facebook would allow this) -- or if this means starting from scratch yet again.
- beck5 15y ago
  Its probably more likely google buys Facebook! So don't hold your breath on facebook letting any of there data slip into google+.
- icebraining 15y ago
  Well, Facebook does allow you to download your profile[1], so Google could just write an importer for that. [1]: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/07/1250242/Facebook-Implements-Download-Your-Profile-Option http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/07/1250242/Facebook-Imp...
  - nikolaplejic 15y ago
    Last time I checked, you could only see the names of your friends in Facebook's profile export archive -- there were no metadata whatsoever (e.g. IDs or profile links). I don't think names themselves are enough to port your social graph.
    - icebraining 15y ago
      Well, for Gmail users, it shouldn't be hard to match names with specific people, if they have them in their contacts. I don't know exactly what's the file format from FB backup, but it might be possible to identify linked users based on similar content (as long as both users have already uploaded their profile to Google+).
- flyt 15y ago
  Ask Apple what negotiations with Facebook are like when your goal is to copy their entire dataset and build a competitor. Nobody would be stupid enough to allow this with their own business.
- 15y ago
dfield 15y ago
(cross posted from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706219 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706219) I'm very excited to try this out. Context (AKA "Circles") is the biggest feature Facebook still hasn't gotten right. By mirroring the way we think about our social graph in real life, Google is making a huge step toward converging Online and Offline identity. It will be very interesting to see how Facebook responds to this... they might finally have a competitor.
- rapind 15y ago
  I agree. Circles seem really well thought out. I also like the hangouts idea, especially auto-switching focus based on speaker volume, which is again similar to offline interactions.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Circles is not well thought out if the demo is accurate in only allowing one circle per friend.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - mshron 15y ago
      I haven't seen the demo, but the indications from the press is that circles can (and should) include groups of people.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
      - Gormo 15y ago
        I think he means this the other way around - you should be able to assign a single person to multiple circles.
      - kissickas 15y ago
fedd 15y ago
too complex to use may affect usage negatively. too many features is not always good. trying to mimic real live brings the complexities of real life to the web. check this: "With Hangouts, the unplanned meet-up comes to the web for the first time. Let specific buddies (or entire circles) know you’re hanging out and then see who drops by for a face-to-face-to-face chat. Until teleportation arrives, it’s the next best thing." imagine a jerk that noone loves intruding all the hangouts. but everybody too polite/dependant to unfriend
- Periodic 15y ago
  I'm sure they'll allow private video chats. Hangouts is for when you are specifically "browsing". It'll be just as if you lived right down the street from your mother, siblings, aunts, coworkers, friends... It currently is this way in the text world though. That annoying guy who argues with everything you post on Facebook or Twitter. And the worst part is you can't un-friend him because he's your weird uncle.
  - cuu508 15y ago
    In Facebook's privacy settings you can specify that your updates are visible to "Everyone; except person X". The annoying guy doesn't see your posts and stays calm, works brilliant.
- tonfa 15y ago
  Then remove him from the circle.
  - fedd 15y ago
    that's like removing a guy from the circle in real life. not always easy
    - muuh-gnu 15y ago
      As I understood, the circles feature is especially suited to solve such "cant unfriend" problems, by letting you create an entirely similar circle but without the person you want to politely get rid of, and simply never tell him, so he'll never find out and you can graciously avoid the blame of "unfriending" someone.
Klonoar 15y ago
The HTML5 system allows users to drag-and-drop their friends into different social circles for friends, family, classmates, co-workers and other custom groups. That "HTML5" there is simply for buzz effect. Seriously, come on already...
- beck5 15y ago
  The demo wasn't that smooth for me, my mouse would slow up considerably on a friend which I assume wasn't intentional. Like hitting some grass on your bike! (running chrome on an i5)
  - underwater 15y ago
    The demo is using Flash.
mikk0j 15y ago
Can't even click +1. Gives me the error "Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization." since I am logged into a Google Apps account. Google itself force-merged my personal account into the Apps account, so there's an indication of how well they get 'social' in people's lives. And yes I worked there for many years.
- icebraining 15y ago
  How did it force-merge? I have both a personal and (free) Google Apps accounts and it never complained. I just use different browsers for each account.
201studio 15y ago
I think this has huge potential. The problem with Facebook, at least for me, is that I have a ton of friends that post pointless shit. < 10% Is stuff and people I actually care about. Now with features like Circles I can put my REAL friends in one circle, family in another, and all the noise and acquaintances(networking etc.) in a spam filter circle. This is going to be awesome.
- kristiandupont 15y ago
  You can create friend lists on Facebook. I don't use them (I just hide people who spam) but they seem to do what you want..
  - sandipagr 15y ago
    pretty much only thing you can do with lists on Facebook is assign people to lists.
  - stef25 15y ago
    The feature exists but it's inadequate for properly filtering content.
  - mahyarm 15y ago
    Friends list on facebook are painful things to use, edit and apply to various posts. Each action tends to be multi screen bonanza and are never ever on by default, and things can still slip through. If facebook would clean up their groups functionality (which I doubt since it goes against their goals) then it would be a better competitor to google +
- glhaynes 15y ago
  On Facebook, why don't you just hide the people you're not interested in?
  - CraigRood 15y ago
    Thats not how its works. For me the problem is the content, not the people behind it.
beck5 15y ago
Circles is very interesting, its could solve a work/life/parents social battle I fight, however the demo only allows you to add a person to one circle, I hope this is just a demo limitation, as my sister is also my 'friend'.
- tonfa 15y ago
  AFAIK you can put people in several circles.
  - bostonvaulter2 15y ago
    Do you have a link?
    - tonfa 15y ago
      Try it ;)
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  I'm afraid it might not be... and that's a deal-killer. You can't mess up the most important feature of your social network like this. Now faced with having to choose one particular bucket people will just throw everyone into one big bucket or not use the site at all.
  - owenmarshall 15y ago
    > I'm afraid it might not be What leads you to that conclusion? Any article I've seen hints at the opposite. I'd be shocked if, as you note, they intentionally cripple one of the core components of this site.
    - afterburner 15y ago
      The demo example doesn't allow multiple buckets, but in fairness the demo is presented as a puzzle with one correct answer.
alienreborn 15y ago
I think Google's unending efforts to enter social networking space might become successful this time. Big hurrah to circles and hangouts!
tomkarlo 15y ago
Seems like they're trying to avoid the "NYT problem" - the minute they open a new product, the NYT and other pubs write it up, everyone floods it and sees if they like it... gives them no ability to tweak / improve the service iteratively with real life users (which is so important for social services, where alternative agendas are a huge issue) before the world rushes in. So I think a limited-access launch is totally understandable, if a bit frustrating for those of us who expect we should be able to see everything on day one.
beck5 15y ago
Do people trust Google more than Facebook? and could that be a factor in adoption? My gut says probably not to both questions.
- thibaut_barrere 15y ago
  I personally trust Google way more than Facebook (and most of my friends do as well).
- markgx 15y ago
  While I don't fully trust either, I rather give away limited data to Google rather than Facebook.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Biggest factor in adoption is product perception. People associate Google with finding information. Not with playing. They associate Facebook with games and pictures. They associate Twitter with celebrities and gossip. Apple with trendy devices. It's extremely hard for any of these companies to leap into another area and break that cognitive barrier no matter how good the product is. Especially when the product is deeply connected to the existing popular product. A lot of people think integration is an advantage but only if it's integrating related things. For something totally different it's better to create a new brand.
- ignifero 15y ago
  Are you freaking kidding me? Facebook, with its lax policy and 3rd party ecosystem (especially in the first years) is basically prostituting people's data.
cdcarter 15y ago
So...iPhone app?
gcb 15y ago
Who's Melissa?
ChuckMcM 15y ago
This is a solid move on Google's part. Not half-baked like Wave was. Its more evolutionary than revolutionary but it makes the 'package' of Google services a bit more valuable as well. It will be interested to see if this impacts the IPO plans of Facebook. This does seem to be a direct assault on their home turf.
- spaghetti 15y ago
  Your "evolutionary vs revolutionary" insight is key. Google's most successful products are all evolutionary: search, mail and maps. If Google+ substantially improves the social networking experience then Facebook might have some serious competition. Just like Hotmail had some serious competition from Gmail. Or Yahoo Maps had serious competition from maps.google.
meow 15y ago
Their group chat is called Huddle. I think this will have a negative impact on project management startup huddle (www.huddle.com).
kristiandupont 15y ago
This is exciting and all -- and much as I would love to see a serious competitor to Facebook, I still don't know how I would convince any of my non-techie friends that they should switch to this. Circles? Actually I think that many people like the idea of their posts are being read by as many people as possible and not just the ones with similar interests. Although it looks like a big discussion group, the news feed is really a giant personality-defining display for vain people. I saw a programmer friend post annoyance over some Android API today and I suspect that this was more than just a spontaneous exclamation -- he was communicating that he is smart (to non-techies) and that he is "cutting edge" (to fellow programmers). Privacy? I have the feeling that most really don't care very much. But ironically, I think the privacy-thing could actually work in facebook's favor. Here is why: I use fb a lot even though I don't like their privacy policies. I trust google more than facebook. Still, it bothers me when it says "logged in" in the google bar at the top because google watches my searches. When I am on facebook I behave like I am in public. I don't hope for the best and write secret stuff anywhere. But with all the google searches I make through a day, I am giving google a lot of very personal information that I would not like anyone to see. I would hate to see something that I was searching for somehow show up in a stream for my friends to see because I accidentally clicked a +1 button or similar. Finally, there is the fact that even if I can export my graph from fb to g+, it's worthless until my friends do the same. And I just don't see that happening before they come up with some truly ground breaking feature that will allow me to get laid with any friend I choose by clicking on their picture :-)
- deleted 15y ago
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- Roritharr 15y ago
  If Google has enough money to develop self driving cars, there has to be some for the development of remote seduction.
  - metageek 15y ago
    Yeah, but who wants to seduce a car?
damonpace 15y ago
It seems everything is based off the grouping "Circles" aspect. Which if they get it right it will be a home run for the rest of the projects they build off of it. I personally find the Huddle feature the most valuable. This is something I've wanted for a long time, but no one has built...except for GroupMe. Which I'm not a huge fan of.
sinaiman 15y ago
The problem with Facebook is that your network is too small and constricted, people want to expand and reach many many people, not stay limited within their circle. Think about it, you already talk to most of the people who are your closest friends in real life via phone and chat. You don't need yet another way to contact them. They should have taken the opportunity to bring down the barriers of the closed social graph. Instead Google makes another Facebook with a different UI. It looks like a cleaner Myspace that will be embraced by a small set of techy users. No way will this ever be cool.
- sinaiman 15y ago
  Damn but I really like their new designs though, very clean! They've got a lot of good people there doing big things and Hangouts looks cool. +1
yawn 15y ago
Doesn't Google already know enough about us and our habits already?
- rryan 15y ago
  I'll take Google over Facebook on that point any day.
Roritharr 15y ago
The Url below the keep me posted link on plus.google.com is: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ services.google.com/FB I really would love to know what the FB stands for.
- cwb71 15y ago
  Form builder?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- alanlewis 15y ago
  Feedback?
- queensnake 15y ago
  Friends Bunch?
jsilence 15y ago
Are they going to support open protocols for DiSo? Salmon, OAuth, Activity Streams, FOAF and such? They support XMPP with Google Talk and gave Jabber a big push by doing so. -jsl
ignifero 15y ago
Anybody knows about 3rd party apps? Sure uncle Google has considered us developers ...
- vibrunazo 15y ago
  They didn't say anything yet. But yes, I'm sure they'll have some exciting API for us to toy with. AppEngine + Social Circles + Spark interest graph = drools
  - ignifero 15y ago
    Looking at this: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/ it seems the data will be available through an api (i presume oauth )
    - vibrunazo 15y ago
      That's very interesting and informative, thanks for sharing :)
richcollins 15y ago
One of the nice things about the product is its whimsical nature — a puff of smoke and a -1 animation appears when you remove a friend, and when you remove a social circle, it rolls away off the screen. Where do I sign up???
- int3rnaut 15y ago
  You can meet the rest of us that what to sign up by the Bike Racks. BIKE GEEEEKS!!!! Mount up.
marcamillion 15y ago
I would love to see a live cam feed inside Facebook today. That would be interesting.
xbryanx 15y ago
Group video chat alone will suck me in.
trobertson 15y ago
For those of you with an Android device, there's an app called "Google+" on the Market right now. I can't say if there's an app for iOS, WP7, etc. You can install the app without an invite, but cannot use it. EDIT: The "Learn More" button in the app cycles you back to the "You need an invitation" message box. So the app itself is completely pointless if you haven't received an invitation.
- masonhensley 15y ago
  Nothing on iOS
deleted 15y ago
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tilt 15y ago
Nice to see this, it feels like they got it
crizCraig 15y ago
David Winer's sentiments hit home for me. Google is too big to organically build a social network. http://scripting.com/stories/2011/06/28/googleYawn.html http://scripting.com/stories/2011/06/28/googleYawn.html However, this poll would suggest people think otherwise: http://www.wepolls.com/p/884244/Will-Googles-new-social-venture-Google+-be-epic-fail-like-Wave-&-Buzz http://www.wepolls.com/p/884244/Will-Googles-new-social-vent...
deleted 15y ago
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Wilya 15y ago
"Your Browser is no longer supported." (from plus.google.com) Well, okay. I'll live without you, Google+. (Running Seamonkey 2.0.14, which advertises Gecko/20110430. Out of date since.. 3 weeks.)
zachperret 15y ago
Did anybody notice that you can workaround needing an invite by clicking "Take the Tour" and then "Join the Project" on their demo website? http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/
- jamesgeck0 15y ago
  I think you're already in. That just asks me to sign up for the waiting list.
  - zachperret 15y ago
    Thanks, guess it was a false alarm.
davorak 15y ago
I like the idea of Google Takeout allowing you to download all of your data easily from: Picasa Web albums and photos Your Google profile Google Buzz Google Contacts Stream That alone would make me switch to circles.
nkeating 15y ago
Have been waiting for the day when I can share information that is relevant to the portion of my friends that know or actually care what Im talking about... How has facebook not integrated this before (other than going into privacy settings each and every time)?
nkeating 15y ago
Have been waiting for the day when I can share information that is relevant to the portion of my friends that know or actually care what Im talking about... How has facebook not integrated this before (other than going into privacy settings each and every time)?
simonw 15y ago
""" Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization. """ Grr. Google /really/ need to fix their authentication scheme.
- selectnull 15y ago
  Same here. I hate them for that.
- underwater 15y ago
  It's frustrating that they don't let you switch for different services. I have my own domain under Google Apps I use for "work stuff" as well as a Gmail account I use for stuff I don't care about. If I visit YouTube after using my work account I get that crappy error page. There is no reason my YouTube session should be tied to what email account I'm looking at. I don't see why at the very least it can't say: "Hey, you're logged into two accounts, would you like to switch?"
  - cbr 15y ago
    http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sign-in-now-available.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sig...
  - eneveu 15y ago
    There may be some glitches, but I'm actually grateful for the ability to log into multiple accounts at the same time. I still remember, one year ago, the headaches of logging out / logging in all the time (or using an Incognito tab)... Google only added multiple sign-in last year ( http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sign-in-now-available.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sig... ), and, when you use it, there is a big yellow alert message that explains the limitations: "Not all Google products support multiple sign-in. When switching between Google products, the account you’re currently using may change. Google products not listed above will default to the first account that you signed in to using your current web browser session." So, yeah... It's frustrating, but I understand how integrating multiple sign-in in all their apps might take some time.
nrbafna 15y ago
works or fails, the UI definitely looks good.
davorak 15y ago
After reading an article or two on Google+ I searched out the support pages and found them much more informative so I thought I would share. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706918 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706918
selectnull 15y ago
As usual, Google Apps users, are left behind once again. I really don't understand why Google will not once and for all unify google accounts and google apps accounts. Supposedly they already did that, and yes I did the "merge the accounts dance", and still, no Profiles for me, and therefore, no +1 and no Google+. Google, I'm paying for my google apps. I don't want to have another free account just to play with your new features (and I really hope this is not going Buzz way... which I also never saw in my gmail...)
joejohnson 15y ago
Group video chat seems really cool. Now I just need to convince enough friends to use this too...
vanchi 15y ago
Circles would make great sense if we can push some circles into other circles. Close friends into friends and friends into general connections.
- scorpion032 15y ago
  Well yea. Sounds good in the UI. But I wonder if that is even implementable in their current data model.
dendory 15y ago
I dislike Facebook like anybody, but this will not take off any more than Buzz or Wave I'm afraid. This will be that side thing that people may or may not notice when they search. This isn't the site people will flock to when they wake up to see what their friends have been doing.
scarmig 15y ago
I'm playing around with the trial. Some thoughts: 1) Extremely slick interface. Facebook beat MySpace in part because it was relatively clean; Google+ wins here by a mile. That reason alone makes me root for it. 2) It's Google's umpteenth foray into the social arena, so naturally most people are comparing it to Facebook. But its use cases strike me as being more comparable to Twitter than FB. 3) People can be categorized into contexts and multiple contexts. This is the killer feature. I find myself wanting to just eliminate the "Friends" circle wholesale and just have a different circle for each cluster in my social network. 4) I might be misunderstanding how sharing/the feed works. But, if someone is in any circle and you are viewing that circle's stream, I think you see whatever they share. I'd like something finer-grained than that. I have one friend who I both bike with and play board games with. If we get into a conversation about a ride on a weekend, doesn't the model inherently mean what I see in the board game stream gets polluted with the bike conversation?
- cbr 15y ago
  > I have one friend who I both bike with and play board games with. I think that's your problem. If you keep your social circles separate you don't have to worry about this, online or off.
jcampbell1 15y ago
I am quite impressed, but one thing that is severely broken is the number of duplicate names in the list. Basically if a person has two email addresses, then they show up twice. This would not be a big deal, but the email addresses are hidden, and it is impossible to tell which is an old/work email address rather than a personal one. I hope this is fixed soon.
- Terretta 15y ago
  > ... the email addresses are hidden, and it is impossible to tell which is an old/work email address rather than a personal one. I hope this is fixed soon. Skype 5 has been broken in this way, showing a half dozen indistinguishable items naming the same person when you try to add someone to an existing call. It still is broken, months later.
EGreg 15y ago
This is going to kick off a new era in social networking, which we all will be a part of :)
deleted 15y ago
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dgregd 15y ago
what a terrible name. "plus" what does this mean for ordinary people.
foysavas 15y ago
YAWN - Yet Another Way to do Nothing BTW, thanks for giving up on Google Health. This is way better.
Hisoka 15y ago
Noone will care, and noone will use it. If it won't help you get laid, or boost your ego, it'll be useless. We human beings are not rational.
xedarius 15y ago
I feel like Facebook was a trial, and we all learnt a lot about social networking, we've all made mistakes and it would be nice to re-create your network with hinessight from scratch. This is perfect timing by Google, with Facebook on the edge of an IPO and people largely disillusioned by their service. As long as they 100% lock down the privacy options, get that wrong and it's a waste of time.
uast23 15y ago
The most urgent thing I needed on Facebook - "Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself - just like real life" Might just call it a better version.
donnawarellp 15y ago
screw the non-techies, they are the reason i hate facebook. finally a techie facebook, google it is about time !
kingkawn 15y ago
Wave looked pretty cool when it was revealed too.
generators 15y ago
I can not see intersection of circles!! i.e. one person in multiple circles. :O how can they miss that ?
olalonde 15y ago
Might be the end for Rapportive?
eneveu 15y ago
PROTIP to invite your friends: Post something in your "feed", and "target" them, entering their email address. They will receive an email telling them about your post. When clicking the link to view the post, they will be prompted to register. This worked flawlessly for all my friends.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

526 points by bproper 15y ago

The mobile app I saw a couple of months ago was pretty slick. I hope they've made good progress on that too.

From plus.google.com: > Google+ is in limited Field Trial Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people. WHY?! WHY are they doing this again? They did this with Wave. Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly disallowing social networking! This is so frustrating.

cskau 15y ago
Worst part is their sign-up page has gone MIA - 404
- cskau 15y ago
  It's back up: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ gogogo !
  - skbohra123 15y ago
    gives a 500 error
    - nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
      It also gives an insecure script warning in the latest version of Chrome unstable, which made me laugh since I just started seeing those today.
    - rufibarbatus 15y ago
      Write only your first name on the "First name" field. I don't know if this is the bug, but after trying three times with my full name, when I did this the 500 went away.
frisco 15y ago
In fairness, Facebook did the same thing.
- gfodor 15y ago
  Not all 'private invites' are created equal. Facebook isolated it to a single campus at a time. This meant all your friends were on Facebook, or none of them were. See the difference?
- guywithabike 15y ago
  Not really. Facebook opened it up to entire colleges at a time. So once you were able to get on, most of your friends were able to, too.
  - frisco 15y ago
    I bet those inside Google+ at this early stage can invite others in as well.
    - rubergly 15y ago
      There's a very big difference between A) being the only person in, with the ability to invite any of your friends in and B) everyone else already being in. Even if you could invite all your friends in, the only motivation for them to accept and actually join is you (not an entire network yet, until they all accept) which is never going to be enough motivation.
    - RobAtticus 15y ago
      Currently those inside + at the moment cannot invite others. It will probably change soon, but I think the initial rollouts are still going on, so for the time being I cannot invite others.
      - sanderjd 15y ago
        Out of curiosity, do you know or have a hypothesis for why you were invited? It seems like there are a decent number of people here who have been invited, but many who have not, with a similar trend for #googleplus on twitter, and I've yet to discern a sensible pattern.
Skalman 15y ago
They're hoping to do the same thing they did with Gmail: use artificial scarcity to their advantage. It'll work if the people there get invites - that way it'll gradually expand until it opens up to everybody.
- joebadmo 15y ago
  It's more natural with an email client, though, because email is already federated, so interoperable with the existing email system. This doesn't appear to be.
veeti 15y ago
> Oops... you need a Google Profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organisation. Come on, Google!
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- joshma 15y ago
  According to Chris Chabot (Developer Advocate at Google), "We're only just starting down the road of the Google+ project, but we love our Google Apps users so please stay tuned" [from comments on http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/google-plus/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/28/google-plus/]
- kelnos 15y ago
  Yeah, this is really annoying. My invite is stuck in limbo right now because it's tied to my Google Apps email address, which won't work with Google+.
- ern 15y ago
  Google recently forced users to make their Profiles public, and announced that it was going to delete private Profiles. If Google+ requires a Profile, then count me out.
- lig 15y ago
  yep. as we have buzz in several month http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-coming-soon-for-businesses.html http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-com... :)
- SashaO 15y ago
  I found a workaround to bypass this error message: open anybody's profile and "switch accounts" from there. Details at http://codebistro.com/2011/07/09/google-oops-you-need-google-profile-workaround/ http://codebistro.com/2011/07/09/google-oops-you-need-google...
handrake 15y ago
I think Google simply sucks at anything remotely related to social networking.
- ignifero 15y ago
  Me too, maybe they'll be saved by the "hangouts" and photos features?
- panacea 15y ago
  I use email to network socially. gMail is a pretty good email client.
haberman 15y ago
> WHY?! WHY are they doing this again? Maybe they want to work out the kinks before having 10 million users instantly. The privacy aspect of this will be very important, and the Buzz launch is an example of how opening up to everyone at the same time led to a large backlash.
- msbarnett 15y ago
  Google Buzz is a good example of how forcing an active account on everyone at the same time led to a large backlash. There's a pretty wide gulf between opening up and forcing it on people. You can't build a social networking sites if it isn't open to people in your users' social networks. But you also can't build a site people trust and want to use by forcing it on them.
  - nostrademons 15y ago
    Curiously, I've heard that FaceBook also started by forcing an account on everyone - Zuckerburg scraped the online student database so that everyone at Harvard automatically had a FaceBook account. (Or rather, he scraped it for FaceMash and then used the data again to start FaceBook.) You can get away with a lot more when you're a college student project than when you're a multi-billion-$ corporation.
    - nrbafna 15y ago
      It is different. Buzz was forced on to anyone who logged into Gmail.
    - rhc2104 15y ago
      http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register... It does not seem like the Facemash data was reused for thefacebook.
  - daralthus 15y ago
    Still I am curious, what circles would I get based on all the data google has ever collected from me.
wccrawford 15y ago
I totally agree. Wave died partially because when I got it, my friends didn't have it. And by the time the last of them got it, the rest of us didn't care any more. Had we been able to all get on at once, we might have found a killer app for it and never given it up.
- yalogin 15y ago
  Wave died because no one (not even developers) understood what it is or what applications could it have outside of mail.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Wave was great for project management. It was project management without the rigid structure.
    - huherto 15y ago
      I am still hoping for something like wave to do organized work.
      - william42 15y ago
        I think there was an open-sourcing of the code behind Wave.
        andrewflnr 15y ago
        Yup, it's in the Apache incubator.
  - yesimahuman 15y ago
    Or the use case centered around friends when really it seemed more suitable for a business network.
  - natural219 15y ago
    This sentence is baffling to me. Do you not know what Wave does? Really? Or do you NEED a marketing person to tell you how to use a product?
yanw 15y ago
From the blog post: That’s the Google+ project so far: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile. We’re beginning in Field Trial, so you may find some rough edges, and the project is by invitation only
Duff 15y ago
It worked pretty well for Gmail.
- cryptoz 15y ago
  Your friends didn't need Gmail for you to be able to use it. But they did need Wave. And they do need +. There's a big difference between open protocols and closed systems.
  - yannickt 15y ago
    I also wouldn't be surprised if its launch as an invite-only beta release was in part because of it pioneered large email storage.
  - jamesgeck0 15y ago
    It appears that you can interact with non-Google+-enabled accounts to a limited extent; they receive your posts as emails.
    - PotatoEngineer 15y ago
      That might be the point that lets Google+ succeed: you can sign up and interact with your friends immediately, and then when they join Google+, you get to do more. It will definitely help with the "I have an account but nobody else does" phenomenon.
- VishalRJoshi 15y ago
  Gmail concept won't work for plus as what is a social network without a network. If they have load issues they should start with influencers (like they did) and then keep letting them invite their friends. Then their friends can invite their friends and let it grow from the seed. It is wacky that my friends have to get an email update rather than experience the network with me.
  - Duff 15y ago
    Uh, what was GMail then? When it first came out, the chosen few got invites, and they invited friends. Rinse, repeat.
igorgue 15y ago
Don't you think it's kinda silly to think these "build hype" signup processes kill products? Github did the same in fact they recommend people to do it, and they're very successful. I agree it's a little frustrating but it's the kind of frustration that makes you go back when the site is open for signups and signup. Nothing bad... Google Wave might just be an exception of this technique and people didn't use it because of the complexity of the product not because it made them wait to get an invite.
- chc 15y ago
  For me, it's the kind of frustration that makes me go, "Eh, I feel like I've looked at that before and it annoyed me, though I don't remember why. Probably not worth my time."
- lamnk 15y ago
  The social in Github's "Social Coding" is just icing on cake. Their core product is git hosting. People pay them to have private repos. This is not the case with G+ Wave failed exactly because both of its complexity and its artificial scarcity Google created.
- ern 15y ago
  The slow release of Gmail accounts was an example of a great hype-building process. OTOH the product was groundbreaking (they offered a huge amount of storage compared to competitors), and it isn't 2004 anymore.
MaysonL 15y ago
Well: when I entered my name & email in the form provided, it got a 500 internal server error. When G's servers are overloaded, you know there's ginormous demand. And you know there're bugs still - they don't even call it beta! it's limited Field Trial. This is the way they rolled out GMail, which seems to be doing ok.
- jleader 15y ago
  Hint to Google: If your servers are overloaded, "Please go back and try again" is a really dumb thing to ask people to do on your 500 error page!
- esrauch 15y ago
  They have a kind of loose definition of what they call beta. Consider how long GMail was in "beta" when in reality it was pretty much a finished project. It's true that the invite system worked for gmail, but it's a bit different because gmail still has fundamental value if you are on it and literally none of your friends are.
joeyespo 15y ago
The only way to get away with this is to provide massive value for those users when nobody else is around. If a social network only becomes valuable when many others are present, then yes, it will most likely fail.
blago 15y ago
"Google, you cannot launch a social network while explicitly disallowing social networking". It worked for Facebook.
- nrbafna 15y ago
  Facebook's method was different. Though, they launched to limited users at once and expanded, but it was launched to a linked group/college at once. So, they already had people they knew on Facebook.
nrbafna 15y ago
That is a problem. What is the use of the photo sharing, Hangout is there is no one else to share it with. If Google did not want to launch it to everyone at once, they should have probably gone geographically!
daralthus 15y ago
I am curious what price would an invite hit on ebay.
nextparadigms 15y ago
Facebook sort of did that too, by allowing only college kids at first. I think it's the right idea. It only became stupid with Wave when they started giving out millions and millions of "invites". At that point they should've simply made it public. But really, Wave was a fundamentally flawed project for multiple reasons: bad market fit, clumsy/complex UI, bad marketing, etc. I had a bad gut feeling about it since I saw the demo (which took 1 hour! That should've been a sign) Google+ looks very exciting and it seems like they've addressed many issues social networks have had through out the years, including Facebook. The lack of a Circles like feature was a design flaw of all social networks so far, and I believe it led them to ultimately become irrelevant because of the sheer number of people that became your "friends" on those social networks, which ended up spamming you. Circles seems to fix this, and the other Google+ products looks awesome, too.
redthrowaway 15y ago
Maybe the invites they release will specifically be to people who signed up with gmail accounts that have a significant number of contacts who also signed up. That's what I'd do: do your small scale test, but make it as meaningful as possible with highly connected beta testers.
vibrunazo 15y ago
It's just an infrastructure problem. Hardware scaling is hard to get right. So it's easier for the engineers to have it released by small increments. This way you can slowly adjust hardware as the need arises. If any problems show up, it will be easier to track it down and fix it.

ernestipark 15y ago

The hangouts feature seems like a big win to me. Group video chats in the browser from someone like Google can really change things.

yid 15y ago
I disagree. Social networking, unlike skype or email, requires low cognitive load--you come to hang out on your own terms. While group video chat is a convenient feature when you need it, it's not going to fundamentally change the game.
- daralthus 15y ago
  I disagree. You go to a hang out when you feel about socializing. You never get bored in a group chat, and the youtube integration just makes it much better. Just look at turntable.fm I miss this kind of chatting from facebook so much. (ok there is something like this with groups. I read somewhere that is the second popular on the site, right after photo sharing.)
  - yid 15y ago
    I suppose we're both going on anecdotal evidence, and the actual usage of social networks is probably diverse enough to accommodate both our views.
DanBlake 15y ago
You should check out tinychat ;)
- ernestipark 15y ago
  I was sure that something like this already existed, but the fact that it's embedded within a social network and is a service by Google makes it a whole lot more appealing.
  - cft 15y ago

cskau 15y ago

This thing is pretty neat though: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/

risico 15y ago
Indeed, I really love the use of Maps API.
waterside81 15y ago
When I saw some of the cool effects using Circles/Loops whatever it's called, I was excited, thinking they had done it in CSS3. But sadly, all Flash.
- modeless 15y ago
  Happily, that's just a mockup. The real thing is HTML.
afterburner 15y ago
That's a nice demo, beats a video that I have to sit through. Also, I'm liking the features; it also adds a few points in the 'pro' column for Android phones when I decide on a replacement. (I currently have an iPhone, and while the web version of this stuff might still work, I'm guessing it'll be even neater on Android.)
- ralfd 15y ago
  Google advertises on their site a native iPhone (OS4) App as "very soon". But no native App for Blackberry, WebOS and Windows Phone. For that devices they list a web client. If Google+ (plus.google? How to spell it?) is a success I am uneasy how much control Google is getting over the whole IT industry.
mitrick2 15y ago
Reminds me of Prezi (prezi.com) which I've tried out in the past that provides this same effect for presentations.

nhebb 15y ago

There are different kinds of media coverage in SV. There's the excited, this is cool buzz, and then there's the look what big player X is doing sort of coverage. This feels like the latter. People are talking about this, but I don't get the sense that anyone is pumped up about it.

bryze 15y ago

Perhaps this will make facebook better. Competition can often improve product quality. For google this might, however, turn out the same way that Microsoft's grab for web applications is going. First to market is hard to break.

netrus 15y ago
Microsoft produced a search engine which is on Google's level and a Map that can compete with Google Maps. But As they were not much better, I had no reason to check it out regularly and compare. But I am on Google's services 40+ times a day. If they want to get my attention, they will get it.
munificent 15y ago
> First to market is hard to break. Tell that to friendster. Er, myspace.
- bryze 15y ago
  Does that really count as competition?

mikemaccana 15y ago

Android app is on the market. Note it eats 8MB of phone memory and can't be moved to SD.

cryptoz 15y ago
Are you really concerned about 8MB? Are there even Android phones on the market today that ship with less than 8GB of space?
- ben1040 15y ago
  By default, Android phones store apps on an onboard storage location that is separate from the SD card. On some older phones there is not a whole lot of space here. For example it didn't take a whole lot at all for me to fill up my Nexus One's app partition. It wasn't until 2.2 that the option to move apps to a encrypted location on the SD card was added, and even then it's an option that has to be enabled by the developer who released the app. Newer phones these days have more onboard space and this shouldn't be nearly as big an issue. I upgraded to an HTC Thunderbolt on Saturday and it has roughly 2GB available for onboard apps.
  - pohl 15y ago
    Wow, why do they make the user manage this at all? The distinction sounds like an enormous misfeature to me.
    - afterburner 15y ago
      It's one of the things that dissuaded me from getting an HTC Android phone two years ago (got an iPhone with 32GB instead). I'm glad they're moving towards fixing it.
- dpcan 15y ago
  That ship? Maybe not, but my 1.5 year old G1 is full and I'll have it for a while still.
- 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

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SonicSoul 15y ago

heh.. somewhat ironically, minutes prior seeing this post I noticed the "+1" next to every search result. after exploring it told me that my "+1" will be used all over the web including ads. (am assuming this is part of Google+) I immediately searched for a way to turn it off.

lukesandberg 15y ago
https://profiles.google.com/+1/personalization/ https://profiles.google.com/+1/personalization/ you can disable +1 to prevent the ad personalization.

deleted 15y ago

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rakkhi 15y ago

Found a signup link that works: http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/+/learnmore/forum/ http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/+/learnmore/forum/

cskau 15y ago
The one on the front-page has been fixed now.

nostromo 15y ago

What I'd like to know is if I can use Facebook Connect to port my graph over (doubt Facebook would allow this) -- or if this means starting from scratch yet again.

beck5 15y ago
Its probably more likely google buys Facebook! So don't hold your breath on facebook letting any of there data slip into google+.
icebraining 15y ago
Well, Facebook does allow you to download your profile[1], so Google could just write an importer for that. [1]: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/07/1250242/Facebook-Implements-Download-Your-Profile-Option http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/07/1250242/Facebook-Imp...
- nikolaplejic 15y ago
  Last time I checked, you could only see the names of your friends in Facebook's profile export archive -- there were no metadata whatsoever (e.g. IDs or profile links). I don't think names themselves are enough to port your social graph.
  - icebraining 15y ago
    Well, for Gmail users, it shouldn't be hard to match names with specific people, if they have them in their contacts. I don't know exactly what's the file format from FB backup, but it might be possible to identify linked users based on similar content (as long as both users have already uploaded their profile to Google+).
flyt 15y ago
Ask Apple what negotiations with Facebook are like when your goal is to copy their entire dataset and build a competitor. Nobody would be stupid enough to allow this with their own business.
15y ago

dfield 15y ago

(cross posted from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706219 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706219) I'm very excited to try this out. Context (AKA "Circles") is the biggest feature Facebook still hasn't gotten right. By mirroring the way we think about our social graph in real life, Google is making a huge step toward converging Online and Offline identity. It will be very interesting to see how Facebook responds to this... they might finally have a competitor.

rapind 15y ago
I agree. Circles seem really well thought out. I also like the hangouts idea, especially auto-switching focus based on speaker volume, which is again similar to offline interactions.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Circles is not well thought out if the demo is accurate in only allowing one circle per friend.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - mshron 15y ago
    I haven't seen the demo, but the indications from the press is that circles can (and should) include groups of people.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - Gormo 15y ago
      I think he means this the other way around - you should be able to assign a single person to multiple circles.
    - kissickas 15y ago

fedd 15y ago

too complex to use may affect usage negatively. too many features is not always good. trying to mimic real live brings the complexities of real life to the web. check this: "With Hangouts, the unplanned meet-up comes to the web for the first time. Let specific buddies (or entire circles) know you’re hanging out and then see who drops by for a face-to-face-to-face chat. Until teleportation arrives, it’s the next best thing." imagine a jerk that noone loves intruding all the hangouts. but everybody too polite/dependant to unfriend

Periodic 15y ago
I'm sure they'll allow private video chats. Hangouts is for when you are specifically "browsing". It'll be just as if you lived right down the street from your mother, siblings, aunts, coworkers, friends... It currently is this way in the text world though. That annoying guy who argues with everything you post on Facebook or Twitter. And the worst part is you can't un-friend him because he's your weird uncle.
- cuu508 15y ago
  In Facebook's privacy settings you can specify that your updates are visible to "Everyone; except person X". The annoying guy doesn't see your posts and stays calm, works brilliant.
tonfa 15y ago
Then remove him from the circle.
- fedd 15y ago
  that's like removing a guy from the circle in real life. not always easy
  - muuh-gnu 15y ago
    As I understood, the circles feature is especially suited to solve such "cant unfriend" problems, by letting you create an entirely similar circle but without the person you want to politely get rid of, and simply never tell him, so he'll never find out and you can graciously avoid the blame of "unfriending" someone.

Klonoar 15y ago

The HTML5 system allows users to drag-and-drop their friends into different social circles for friends, family, classmates, co-workers and other custom groups. That "HTML5" there is simply for buzz effect. Seriously, come on already...

beck5 15y ago
The demo wasn't that smooth for me, my mouse would slow up considerably on a friend which I assume wasn't intentional. Like hitting some grass on your bike! (running chrome on an i5)
- underwater 15y ago
  The demo is using Flash.

mikk0j 15y ago

Can't even click +1. Gives me the error "Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization." since I am logged into a Google Apps account. Google itself force-merged my personal account into the Apps account, so there's an indication of how well they get 'social' in people's lives. And yes I worked there for many years.

icebraining 15y ago
How did it force-merge? I have both a personal and (free) Google Apps accounts and it never complained. I just use different browsers for each account.

201studio 15y ago

I think this has huge potential. The problem with Facebook, at least for me, is that I have a ton of friends that post pointless shit. < 10% Is stuff and people I actually care about. Now with features like Circles I can put my REAL friends in one circle, family in another, and all the noise and acquaintances(networking etc.) in a spam filter circle. This is going to be awesome.

kristiandupont 15y ago
You can create friend lists on Facebook. I don't use them (I just hide people who spam) but they seem to do what you want..
- sandipagr 15y ago
  pretty much only thing you can do with lists on Facebook is assign people to lists.
- stef25 15y ago
  The feature exists but it's inadequate for properly filtering content.
- mahyarm 15y ago
  Friends list on facebook are painful things to use, edit and apply to various posts. Each action tends to be multi screen bonanza and are never ever on by default, and things can still slip through. If facebook would clean up their groups functionality (which I doubt since it goes against their goals) then it would be a better competitor to google +
glhaynes 15y ago
On Facebook, why don't you just hide the people you're not interested in?
- CraigRood 15y ago
  Thats not how its works. For me the problem is the content, not the people behind it.

beck5 15y ago

Circles is very interesting, its could solve a work/life/parents social battle I fight, however the demo only allows you to add a person to one circle, I hope this is just a demo limitation, as my sister is also my 'friend'.

tonfa 15y ago
AFAIK you can put people in several circles.
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  Do you have a link?
  - tonfa 15y ago
    Try it ;)
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
I'm afraid it might not be... and that's a deal-killer. You can't mess up the most important feature of your social network like this. Now faced with having to choose one particular bucket people will just throw everyone into one big bucket or not use the site at all.
- owenmarshall 15y ago
  > I'm afraid it might not be What leads you to that conclusion? Any article I've seen hints at the opposite. I'd be shocked if, as you note, they intentionally cripple one of the core components of this site.
  - afterburner 15y ago
    The demo example doesn't allow multiple buckets, but in fairness the demo is presented as a puzzle with one correct answer.

alienreborn 15y ago

I think Google's unending efforts to enter social networking space might become successful this time. Big hurrah to circles and hangouts!

tomkarlo 15y ago

Seems like they're trying to avoid the "NYT problem" - the minute they open a new product, the NYT and other pubs write it up, everyone floods it and sees if they like it... gives them no ability to tweak / improve the service iteratively with real life users (which is so important for social services, where alternative agendas are a huge issue) before the world rushes in. So I think a limited-access launch is totally understandable, if a bit frustrating for those of us who expect we should be able to see everything on day one.

beck5 15y ago

Do people trust Google more than Facebook? and could that be a factor in adoption? My gut says probably not to both questions.

thibaut_barrere 15y ago
I personally trust Google way more than Facebook (and most of my friends do as well).
markgx 15y ago
While I don't fully trust either, I rather give away limited data to Google rather than Facebook.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
Biggest factor in adoption is product perception. People associate Google with finding information. Not with playing. They associate Facebook with games and pictures. They associate Twitter with celebrities and gossip. Apple with trendy devices. It's extremely hard for any of these companies to leap into another area and break that cognitive barrier no matter how good the product is. Especially when the product is deeply connected to the existing popular product. A lot of people think integration is an advantage but only if it's integrating related things. For something totally different it's better to create a new brand.
ignifero 15y ago
Are you freaking kidding me? Facebook, with its lax policy and 3rd party ecosystem (especially in the first years) is basically prostituting people's data.

cdcarter 15y ago

So...iPhone app?

gcb 15y ago

Who's Melissa?

ChuckMcM 15y ago

This is a solid move on Google's part. Not half-baked like Wave was. Its more evolutionary than revolutionary but it makes the 'package' of Google services a bit more valuable as well. It will be interested to see if this impacts the IPO plans of Facebook. This does seem to be a direct assault on their home turf.

spaghetti 15y ago
Your "evolutionary vs revolutionary" insight is key. Google's most successful products are all evolutionary: search, mail and maps. If Google+ substantially improves the social networking experience then Facebook might have some serious competition. Just like Hotmail had some serious competition from Gmail. Or Yahoo Maps had serious competition from maps.google.

meow 15y ago

Their group chat is called Huddle. I think this will have a negative impact on project management startup huddle (www.huddle.com).

kristiandupont 15y ago

This is exciting and all -- and much as I would love to see a serious competitor to Facebook, I still don't know how I would convince any of my non-techie friends that they should switch to this. Circles? Actually I think that many people like the idea of their posts are being read by as many people as possible and not just the ones with similar interests. Although it looks like a big discussion group, the news feed is really a giant personality-defining display for vain people. I saw a programmer friend post annoyance over some Android API today and I suspect that this was more than just a spontaneous exclamation -- he was communicating that he is smart (to non-techies) and that he is "cutting edge" (to fellow programmers). Privacy? I have the feeling that most really don't care very much. But ironically, I think the privacy-thing could actually work in facebook's favor. Here is why: I use fb a lot even though I don't like their privacy policies. I trust google more than facebook. Still, it bothers me when it says "logged in" in the google bar at the top because google watches my searches. When I am on facebook I behave like I am in public. I don't hope for the best and write secret stuff anywhere. But with all the google searches I make through a day, I am giving google a lot of very personal information that I would not like anyone to see. I would hate to see something that I was searching for somehow show up in a stream for my friends to see because I accidentally clicked a +1 button or similar. Finally, there is the fact that even if I can export my graph from fb to g+, it's worthless until my friends do the same. And I just don't see that happening before they come up with some truly ground breaking feature that will allow me to get laid with any friend I choose by clicking on their picture :-)

deleted 15y ago
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Roritharr 15y ago
If Google has enough money to develop self driving cars, there has to be some for the development of remote seduction.
- metageek 15y ago
  Yeah, but who wants to seduce a car?

damonpace 15y ago

It seems everything is based off the grouping "Circles" aspect. Which if they get it right it will be a home run for the rest of the projects they build off of it. I personally find the Huddle feature the most valuable. This is something I've wanted for a long time, but no one has built...except for GroupMe. Which I'm not a huge fan of.

sinaiman 15y ago

The problem with Facebook is that your network is too small and constricted, people want to expand and reach many many people, not stay limited within their circle. Think about it, you already talk to most of the people who are your closest friends in real life via phone and chat. You don't need yet another way to contact them. They should have taken the opportunity to bring down the barriers of the closed social graph. Instead Google makes another Facebook with a different UI. It looks like a cleaner Myspace that will be embraced by a small set of techy users. No way will this ever be cool.

sinaiman 15y ago
Damn but I really like their new designs though, very clean! They've got a lot of good people there doing big things and Hangouts looks cool. +1

yawn 15y ago

Doesn't Google already know enough about us and our habits already?

rryan 15y ago
I'll take Google over Facebook on that point any day.

Roritharr 15y ago

The Url below the keep me posted link on plus.google.com is: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleplus/ services.google.com/FB I really would love to know what the FB stands for.

cwb71 15y ago
Form builder?
deleted 15y ago
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alanlewis 15y ago
Feedback?
queensnake 15y ago
Friends Bunch?

jsilence 15y ago

Are they going to support open protocols for DiSo? Salmon, OAuth, Activity Streams, FOAF and such? They support XMPP with Google Talk and gave Jabber a big push by doing so. -jsl

ignifero 15y ago

Anybody knows about 3rd party apps? Sure uncle Google has considered us developers ...

vibrunazo 15y ago
They didn't say anything yet. But yes, I'm sure they'll have some exciting API for us to toy with. AppEngine + Social Circles + Spark interest graph = drools
- ignifero 15y ago
  Looking at this: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/ it seems the data will be available through an api (i presume oauth )
  - vibrunazo 15y ago
    That's very interesting and informative, thanks for sharing :)

richcollins 15y ago

One of the nice things about the product is its whimsical nature — a puff of smoke and a -1 animation appears when you remove a friend, and when you remove a social circle, it rolls away off the screen. Where do I sign up???

int3rnaut 15y ago
You can meet the rest of us that what to sign up by the Bike Racks. BIKE GEEEEKS!!!! Mount up.

marcamillion 15y ago

I would love to see a live cam feed inside Facebook today. That would be interesting.

xbryanx 15y ago

Group video chat alone will suck me in.

trobertson 15y ago

For those of you with an Android device, there's an app called "Google+" on the Market right now. I can't say if there's an app for iOS, WP7, etc. You can install the app without an invite, but cannot use it. EDIT: The "Learn More" button in the app cycles you back to the "You need an invitation" message box. So the app itself is completely pointless if you haven't received an invitation.

masonhensley 15y ago
Nothing on iOS

deleted 15y ago

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tilt 15y ago

Nice to see this, it feels like they got it

crizCraig 15y ago

David Winer's sentiments hit home for me. Google is too big to organically build a social network. http://scripting.com/stories/2011/06/28/googleYawn.html http://scripting.com/stories/2011/06/28/googleYawn.html However, this poll would suggest people think otherwise: http://www.wepolls.com/p/884244/Will-Googles-new-social-venture-Google+-be-epic-fail-like-Wave-&-Buzz http://www.wepolls.com/p/884244/Will-Googles-new-social-vent...

deleted 15y ago

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Wilya 15y ago

"Your Browser is no longer supported." (from plus.google.com) Well, okay. I'll live without you, Google+. (Running Seamonkey 2.0.14, which advertises Gecko/20110430. Out of date since.. 3 weeks.)

zachperret 15y ago

Did anybody notice that you can workaround needing an invite by clicking "Take the Tour" and then "Join the Project" on their demo website? http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/

jamesgeck0 15y ago
I think you're already in. That just asks me to sign up for the waiting list.
- zachperret 15y ago
  Thanks, guess it was a false alarm.

davorak 15y ago

I like the idea of Google Takeout allowing you to download all of your data easily from: Picasa Web albums and photos Your Google profile Google Buzz Google Contacts Stream That alone would make me switch to circles.

nkeating 15y ago

Have been waiting for the day when I can share information that is relevant to the portion of my friends that know or actually care what Im talking about... How has facebook not integrated this before (other than going into privacy settings each and every time)?

nkeating 15y ago

simonw 15y ago

""" Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature. Google Profiles is not available for your organization. """ Grr. Google /really/ need to fix their authentication scheme.

selectnull 15y ago
Same here. I hate them for that.
underwater 15y ago
It's frustrating that they don't let you switch for different services. I have my own domain under Google Apps I use for "work stuff" as well as a Gmail account I use for stuff I don't care about. If I visit YouTube after using my work account I get that crappy error page. There is no reason my YouTube session should be tied to what email account I'm looking at. I don't see why at the very least it can't say: "Hey, you're logged into two accounts, would you like to switch?"
- cbr 15y ago
  http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sign-in-now-available.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sig...
- eneveu 15y ago
  There may be some glitches, but I'm actually grateful for the ability to log into multiple accounts at the same time. I still remember, one year ago, the headaches of logging out / logging in all the time (or using an Incognito tab)... Google only added multiple sign-in last year ( http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sign-in-now-available.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sig... ), and, when you use it, there is a big yellow alert message that explains the limitations: "Not all Google products support multiple sign-in. When switching between Google products, the account you’re currently using may change. Google products not listed above will default to the first account that you signed in to using your current web browser session." So, yeah... It's frustrating, but I understand how integrating multiple sign-in in all their apps might take some time.

nrbafna 15y ago

works or fails, the UI definitely looks good.

davorak 15y ago

After reading an article or two on Google+ I searched out the support pages and found them much more informative so I thought I would share. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706918 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2706918

selectnull 15y ago

As usual, Google Apps users, are left behind once again. I really don't understand why Google will not once and for all unify google accounts and google apps accounts. Supposedly they already did that, and yes I did the "merge the accounts dance", and still, no Profiles for me, and therefore, no +1 and no Google+. Google, I'm paying for my google apps. I don't want to have another free account just to play with your new features (and I really hope this is not going Buzz way... which I also never saw in my gmail...)

joejohnson 15y ago

Group video chat seems really cool. Now I just need to convince enough friends to use this too...

vanchi 15y ago

Circles would make great sense if we can push some circles into other circles. Close friends into friends and friends into general connections.

scorpion032 15y ago
Well yea. Sounds good in the UI. But I wonder if that is even implementable in their current data model.

dendory 15y ago

I dislike Facebook like anybody, but this will not take off any more than Buzz or Wave I'm afraid. This will be that side thing that people may or may not notice when they search. This isn't the site people will flock to when they wake up to see what their friends have been doing.

scarmig 15y ago

I'm playing around with the trial. Some thoughts: 1) Extremely slick interface. Facebook beat MySpace in part because it was relatively clean; Google+ wins here by a mile. That reason alone makes me root for it. 2) It's Google's umpteenth foray into the social arena, so naturally most people are comparing it to Facebook. But its use cases strike me as being more comparable to Twitter than FB. 3) People can be categorized into contexts and multiple contexts. This is the killer feature. I find myself wanting to just eliminate the "Friends" circle wholesale and just have a different circle for each cluster in my social network. 4) I might be misunderstanding how sharing/the feed works. But, if someone is in any circle and you are viewing that circle's stream, I think you see whatever they share. I'd like something finer-grained than that. I have one friend who I both bike with and play board games with. If we get into a conversation about a ride on a weekend, doesn't the model inherently mean what I see in the board game stream gets polluted with the bike conversation?

cbr 15y ago
> I have one friend who I both bike with and play board games with. I think that's your problem. If you keep your social circles separate you don't have to worry about this, online or off.

jcampbell1 15y ago

I am quite impressed, but one thing that is severely broken is the number of duplicate names in the list. Basically if a person has two email addresses, then they show up twice. This would not be a big deal, but the email addresses are hidden, and it is impossible to tell which is an old/work email address rather than a personal one. I hope this is fixed soon.

Terretta 15y ago
> ... the email addresses are hidden, and it is impossible to tell which is an old/work email address rather than a personal one. I hope this is fixed soon. Skype 5 has been broken in this way, showing a half dozen indistinguishable items naming the same person when you try to add someone to an existing call. It still is broken, months later.

EGreg 15y ago

This is going to kick off a new era in social networking, which we all will be a part of :)

deleted 15y ago

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dgregd 15y ago

what a terrible name. "plus" what does this mean for ordinary people.

foysavas 15y ago

YAWN - Yet Another Way to do Nothing BTW, thanks for giving up on Google Health. This is way better.

Hisoka 15y ago

Noone will care, and noone will use it. If it won't help you get laid, or boost your ego, it'll be useless. We human beings are not rational.

xedarius 15y ago

I feel like Facebook was a trial, and we all learnt a lot about social networking, we've all made mistakes and it would be nice to re-create your network with hinessight from scratch. This is perfect timing by Google, with Facebook on the edge of an IPO and people largely disillusioned by their service. As long as they 100% lock down the privacy options, get that wrong and it's a waste of time.

uast23 15y ago

The most urgent thing I needed on Facebook - "Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself - just like real life" Might just call it a better version.

donnawarellp 15y ago

screw the non-techies, they are the reason i hate facebook. finally a techie facebook, google it is about time !

kingkawn 15y ago

Wave looked pretty cool when it was revealed too.

generators 15y ago

I can not see intersection of circles!! i.e. one person in multiple circles. :O how can they miss that ?

olalonde 15y ago

Might be the end for Rapportive?

eneveu 15y ago

PROTIP to invite your friends: Post something in your "feed", and "target" them, entering their email address. They will receive an email telling them about your post. When clicking the link to view the post, they will be prompted to register. This worked flawlessly for all my friends.

deleted 15y ago

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