Why I Like Google+

I am on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ regularly. I'm on LinkedIn but I don't go there. I planned on avoiding all social networks until a banjo player friend of mine invited me to join Facebook. When I found a vast community of my banjo friends I realized that there is a good reason to be on Facebook. So at the same time I joined Twitter.

I didn't get Twitter. I didn't find many friends on it and most of them would hardly post anything on it. On the other hand I followed about four people who post regularly. I couldn't ever read everything they posted. I didn't have enough time. And the posts were so short that a lot of it was incomprehensible. The mini-URLs that accompany the posts were a good idea but I didn't have time to view them. I quit Twitter.

I played with Google Buzz and Google Wave. It would have required that I get all of my friends and colleagues on there. I was thinking the same thing with Google+ until I discovered that I could follow Linus Torvalds and Leo Laporte. I started getting regular posts on my stream that were more than just spitting out random, incomprehensible chatter. They were interesting. And they shared other posts from people who interested me. Before I knew it I was following people who write things I want to know. I actually had time to read them and if I had time I could read all the comments. That's what I didn't like about Twitter: every post was like a comment but I could not always get what people were commenting on. I have none of these problems with Google+.

Now that I finally get Twitter I rejoined it. I may never tweet. I only read what others say but I only use Twitter for following my favorite political pundits (and Orianthi.) I will probably follow other musicians too. But now I love posting on Google+. I share other posts for my small following. I use Google+ for technology and photography, not for politics.

I'll keep the other social networks. I like the fact that I can post to circles or publicly in Google+. This means that friends that don't want to be on Google+ can still go to my profile page and read what I share publicly. But if I have a circle of work colleagues and I want to post something that is work-related, I can share with just that circle. Cool!

I recommend that if you get a Google+ invite, take advantage of it. Follow some people on there and you'll discover that there is a lot of great content there. Businesses - Google is rolling out business-related stuff soon. In the meantime check it out.



I have a different point of view: