A while ago I had a look at G+. I didn’t much like it, or its real name policy, although that has now been relaxed as I understand it, and deactivated my profile. But recently MumsnetBloggers were looking for bloggers to explore it and review, so I thought I’d have a look again and see if it’s improved at all.
Hm.
Well.
I’ve installed the app on my phone, which is a start. And I set up a page for my blog, which I think is here. And therein lies the rub. If you take a look at that link in detail, it’s just not user friendly is it? And while I *hate* giving negative reviews, that is my major opinion of G+ as a system. It’s just not user friendly. (Please do feel free to give me a follow. Unlike using it as a person, the blog page can’t circle ppl who haven’t circled it first, which means that brands can’t spam you. Individuals however can circle you without you circling them, and then messages they output will be pushed into your stream. Confused? I was, but I think I’ve got it straightened out now.)
As a user, I want to be able to see things easily. But like on older versions of facebook, posts in your stream leap around, rising to the top depending on whether and when anyone has commented on them, making it very difficult from my point of view to keep track of what’s going on. And while it’s probably because I haven’t been on it long enough to find enough ppl, it really doesn’t seem to be the chatty kind of place I enjoy on twitter.
As a blogger, I set up the blog page. But unless I’m missing something (entirely possible, I don’t know when I last managed something resembling a decent nap, let alone a full night’s sleep!) I don’t seem to be able to manage the blog page from the android app. This is a serious drawback – it’s very difficult for me to get time on the laptop at the moment, and most of what I do is done from the phone.
Instead I looked to see how to add my RSS to the page, and was dumbfounded to discover you can’t. I’m really not sure what that’s about, I found an interesting thread discussing it all, but didn’t quite follow it all 🙁
I was looking forward to trying out a hangout, which I understand to be a sort of group video chat, but when I looked into the tech you need for that, it recommends a wired connection. As I’m not sure I’ve got one of those in the house, I gave up on that idea as well.
All in all, google plus just isn’t doing it for me yet. I’m not sure we need another social network, and I’m really not convinced google has good motives for doing it either. I have yet to be convinced.
Disclosure. I offered to review google+ for MumsnetBloggers network in return for a voucher to recompense me for my time. As you may be able to tell, all opinions are very much my own 😉
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