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Technology & Innovation — July 12, 2011

Google+ Is Born Again Facebook

It already appears that, for a lot of people, Google+ will become the other social network they need to use. Why? Because a significant fraction of their friends will force them to.

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What’s the Latest Development?

Google’s newest experiment with social media, Google+, is currently available by invite only, but once it is open to the general public, the ways in which it differs from Facebook may make it popular. “The killer feature of Google+ is that, unlike Facebook, LinkedIn, or most other social networks, there’s no such thing as a friend request. Users can create groups of friends, called Circles in Google+ terminology. These circles can include both other Google+ users and nonusers who receive status updates via e-mail rather than via the site.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Technology reviewer Paul Boutin sees Google+ as a reset button on your Facebook life. If you didn’t know what you were getting into by friending everyone you ever met once or by making college party videos available to your parents, here is your chance to start a new online life, one that doesn’t require you to refuse friend requests or defriend those you’ve truly lost touch with. Instead of Facebook’s concept of friend, Google+ uses circles, allowing you to organize groups of people you want to stay in touch with. You decide which circles to share which information with.

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