Give Google+ Another Chance. Five Reasons Why

by Yussi

1) Adding someone means "I want to read your posts" not "I want to share with you"

This has been discussed a lot already, but it's an important difference between Google+ and Facebook. Friending is not reciprocal. When someone friends me on Facebook I'm subjected to his/her rants, baby pictures and funny cat videos. When someone adds me on Google+, s/he wants to see all of this from me, but I don't have to open my social stream up to their posts.

2) Circles have three great purposes: Targeting, Following and Privacy.

Yes, Facebook has friend lists, but they are horribly to manage and you can't filter your news feed with them. It's a hen and egg problem: Zuckerberg, at the recent product announcement, said lists are only used by super users, that's why they don't enhance usability. I use them extensively for privacy: to block acquaintances to see my photos or certain posts. Circles are great for that too. In fact, they are designed to do just that: Google asks you every time you share something, who you want to share it with. 

That's not only great for privacy, it's also great for targeting. Right now, businesses and organizations don't have a place on G+, but in the future they can create circles for different users and, for example, target women with different messages than men. 

Thirdly, circles are a great way to change your social stream from a one-dump facebooklike newsfeed to a  news stream that is organized by topic. All social media experts I follow are in one circle and if I want to read what's the next best hottest thing that I have to blog about, this is my go-to circle.

3) +1 are collected in one spot. 

Remember that great article you liked the other day? Well, digg down on your FB profile to find it. On Google+, you have all links you have +1d conveniently in one place and you can un+1 them anytime. A disadvantage to the like button is, however, that your +1d links don't show up in your stream automatically. So it's not so much a "I recommend this article/link/catvideo to you" click than a "Remind me to check this out later and post it on Google+" click.

4) You have full control over what's on your profile.

Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are. If your friends post  "LOL, check out this girl burping at her teacher. LMAO" spam on your Facebook wall, well then I will judge you. 

Noticed that on Google+ you can't post anything on anyone's wall? You can only post on your own wall. If you want me to notice that stupid Gif, you have to tag me, which pushes the image in my stream. But it is only visible to me - and who ever else they share it with. Not my friends, who I try to explain that it's an insider, that they wouldnt understand.

5) Start a Hangout

Just kidding. I couldn't care less about video features in Facebook or Google+. But I needed a fifth point.