What are we supposed to do with Google+? | Hacker News Reader

What are we supposed to do with Google+?

log.maniacalrage.net

12 pointswhalesalad8 comments

Since the article doesn't give much of an answer, I will:

Because it is setting with more blogging capabilities, meaning you probably don't need a small personal blog on a one-off site like livejournal/blogger/etc anymore. It's easily set up to both share with your friends and share with the public, and easy for the public to subscribe to you in a less-confusing way than having both people pages and fan-pages (like on fbook).

I have a site and blog for serious posts (mostly JavaScript Canvas stuff) and I used to also have a blog that only my close friends followed (it was Livejournal). Most of the stuff posted there was amusing or interesting to me but I didn't want to crowd out my serious blog.

On Facebook you can write "notes" but they aren't very typical. On G+ long-form status updates (5+ paragraphs) are typical so I can use it to replace what Livejournal used to do much more naturally than I could have with Facebook. Google+ is essentially much more of a blogging platform than Facebook seems to be, and I really like this.

A lot of people are already using it like this (a blogging platform for friends or the public) ie Tom Anderson (of MySpace fame):

https://plus.google.com/112063946124358686266/posts/2ggynxog...

I've never seen similar posts on Facebook, save for the very rare note.

I too had a Flickr but I don't use it anymore. Few people looked at it and most of the images I want to post are not professional enough to post there, meaning I'd only post maybe 1 image a month on it. With Google+ I can give my friends more image-laden updates into my personal life. I like this. (I could do this on Facebook too).

There's nothing wrong with keeping up both. If I think something is good enough to share on facebook then I will post it on G+ and post a link to it on Fbook.

There's nothing wrong with keeping up both. If I think something is good enough to share on facebook then I will post it on G+ and post a link to it on Fbook.

I think there is a line we have to draw though in terms of where we spend our time - that's what's "wrong" with keeping up both. I read a quote once from Sonny Rollins, a famous sax player, who said something to the effect that his influences made him what he was just as much as who/what he didn't listen to. In other words, what you ignore defines you to an extent just like what you avidly pursue defines you. We can't expect everyone to keep up both, I think. I doubt most people care that much.

I also noticed that I stopped posting much on my private blog after joining G+. For me, it is less about the blogging capabilities but more about the comments I receive. It is harder to draw attention to a private blog in contrast to blog on a social network.

To overcome this problem, I wrote a small Wordpress plugin called "Google+ Crossposting", which is now importing my public G+ activities into my blog ;-)

Let me ask you this. What do you do when a friend says they are on MySpace? That is exactly how I see my friends On Facebook after I make the switch to G+ over the next few months. I will still log into Facebook to see what is going on, but for the most part I am only keeping my Facebook account because I admin several pages. For now I am double posting things to FB and G+, but eventually I will stop. IMO, G+ is another social platform, just like Facebook was when there was already Friendster and MySpace. Some people with jump ship, some people will keep both accounts.

The key question, I think, is will you stop double posting to Facebook even if the growth of G+ stays the same? What if, in three months, you notice that no one is talking about G+ anymore and there is hardly any activity compared to what it was in September - will you still move forward with the "Shut out FB" idea?

I'm not trying to be rude so I hope my post doesn't come off that way. You seem to be very sure about your move away from FB and that makes me genuinely curious as to that mindset.

Well no, I am a fairly analytical person. If G+ dies I will not hold on just because.

I would like to use Google+ as a nicely integrated social feature for my organization using Google Apps. There are some seriously cool things we could do with it. But we're stuck without. The last time we had to integrate non-apps and apps accounts it was a headache, I'm not eager to join + with a non-apps account and go through all the migration hassles again.

What are we supposed to do with your post?

- Ask a few rhetorical questions that make it obvious we are confused about something on the internet? Then answer those stated questions with ambiguous meandering thoughts that amplify your confused state.

- Realize that some services mean different things to different people. Use it as it suits you best, don't try to fit others' uses to yours.

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