I started out to write a blog post about “How to Use Google +” but I got sidetracked. As a person who loves technology and who wants to stay current with the latest trends, I dutifully signed up for Google + when it was still in its beta stage. I then promptly forgot about it.
What is Google +? To put it simply, it’s Google Social Network product. Okay, I get that.
Here’s why I don’t like Google +:
1. I try to sign into my Google + account and I can’t figure out where to do that.
Is it under Google Mail? Google.com? After googling, “how to sign into Google + account,” I finally figure out it’s under https://accounts.google.com/Login and NOT under google mail.
I see Google + listed on the far left side, but when I click on that I’m brought to my Google + Settings page. This is not really helpful.
2. Where are my Circles?
Circles, like the name implies, are how you categorize your Google contacts, e.g. friends, coworkers, family etc. They are like Facebook friend lists. It turns out these Circles are listed as Tabs across the top of my Google + account. Not really intuitive if you ask me. Tabs are not circles.
3. What’s this about Sparks?
When I hear this term, I think of my favorite health and fitness website, Sparkpeople.com. In Google terms, it is content that is brought to you based on your interests. Yet, it’s not listed anywhere on the site.
Once again I do a trusty Google search and discover that Sparks only appears AFTER you’ve done a Google search while logged into your Google + account. You see the Sparks option in the pull down menu. Once again, not really obvious to me.
4. It’s just another way to waste time online.
I’m as guilty as the next person in checking Facebook, checking online forums etc. For me, it’s for the latest fitness news or exercise dvds. Well, it’s really more of a procrastination tool, since the fitness world doesn’t really have much breaking news.
As far as I can tell, you can’t link your Google + account to your other social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. So it’s just one more online place to peruse and take up time.
You can chat or hang out with friends. Chat, to me, is the most annoying thing about the Internet after pop-up ads. The Hang Out function is interesting because you can do this via web cam. I don’t think so. Many times I am sitting at my computer in my exercise clothes, after an intense workout session. I don’t want anyone to see me. This is one reason that I workout at home and not at the gym.
If this post has confused you because you’re not familiar with Google +, you aren’t missing anything.
What about you? Have you tried Google +? Do you like it?
Photo is courtesy of Squidooer’s Flickr Photostream, under Creative Commons licensing.
Nancy Loderick's Blog 
Sajib
May 17, 2012
Um, sorry but I don’t agree with you on this. I’m not a hardcore fan of Google+ but I like the idea. The only reason to hate this is that not many of your contacts are using it so you feel like a ghost town. But again, this is our problem that most of our friends are not here. You go to the explore panel and you’ll see a lot of people are actually using it and for them it’s really a great place. And all the new features they exceed Facebook in some case.
Now, I don’t see any reason why you don’t find Google Plus. It’s as simple as google.com/plus or plus.google.com as in any other google service (mail.google.com or google.com/mail; reader.google.com or google.com/reader; it’s the way Google puts its services). On top of all, you don’t really need to search for how to sign in to Google+ account where you can just search for Google+ or Google Plus and the plus login link will be there.
Circles do look like circles. I can’t really relate to the interface you were talking about here. But for me, circles did make sense and they never appeared as tabs. They were round circles from the beginning of Google+. The only difference is, first you had to access circles from top (if that’s what you were calling Tabs, then that’s navigation, which has been pushed to the left recently). And while you’re at circle ( https://plus.google.com/u/0/circles ) your circles do appear as circles.
I don’t know much about sparks so I can’t really talk anything about it. But for the waste of time, it’s same as Facebook. In fact better than that since [most] people are less active on the site.
Again, it’s personal choice. I just tried to answer the questions.
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Nancy Loderick
May 18, 2012
Hi Sajib,
Thanks for responding with your thoughts about Google +. I’m sure if I spent more time playing around with it, I would learn to like it more.
Your responses to my questions are helpful too. I think my trouble with finding the sign in page was because there are many different ways to reach Google + and I happened to come upon the convoluted way.
When I first signed up for Google+, the Circles were right there on my first page. I don’t know what happened this time. Once again I think it’s because I came upon them from a round-about way.
Like most social media tools, people either love them or hate them. Or, they don’t know what they are : ).
Someday in my spare time, I’ll spend more time learning about Google +.
Nancy
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Sajib
May 18, 2012
Hi,
You should definitely check out the new interface. You may dislike it at first sight but gradually you’ll love it. And I believe, much like LinkedIn, Google+ will be important for professionals in the coming days. One thing I’ve spotted as the main difference between Google+ and Facebook is that in Facebook, people talk about almost anything. Like what they had in dinner and how it went. But in Google+, I’ve noticed that the active people only discuss about things that matter. If you know what I mean, actually.
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Nancy Loderick
May 19, 2012
Hi Sajib,
Thanks for the suggestion. I definitely will check out the new interface. That is good news too, about Google + being more like LinkedIn than like Facebook. I enjoy Facebook, but really only to talk about my exercise and fitness interests. I don’t need another site to do that, but I’m always looking for good professional sites.
I will spend more time with Google + in the coming weeks and let you know how I like it.
Thanks again for your suggestion.
Nancy
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Bindu
May 22, 2012
Hi Nancy, check this out 🙂
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Nancy Loderick
May 22, 2012
Hi Bindu,
Wow, thanks so much for the mention. I’m happy to hear that I inspire you.
Nancy
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jack
May 28, 2012
Have to agree with you. Google+ isn’t very good. Elements in it are executed very well, but as a whole its not great. Too many little annoyances to make it a fun experience. Feeds for example are massive. I see one story on my screen before i have to scroll down. On fb i see what about 6. Thats just one example and there are several like that which just ruin the user experience. And no thats not the best ive got, no im not some fb fanboy, no i dont hate google, yes i do in fact ‘get it’, no im not going to start doing x to make it more fun for me. Its a social network thats simply not working very well. And I just love everyone saying “you just don’t get it”. Yes I have friends / a life / work. Sorry I’m not as funny / charming / smart as you are for not ‘getting it’. I shouldn’t have to get it. I shouldn’t have to work at having an interesting experience on line. I signed up for a Facebook account to keep in touch with one person, and did so reluctantly, with no intention of searching people out, etc. People started to find me until I’m now a full on fb person. It happened, fluidly, with very little effort on my part. I’ve signed up for a Google plus account and 6 months later nothing, nada, zilch. Not one message, not one add to a circle. Zip. Ive added people, followed people / groups, sent invites. And still zilch. If Google is pitching this as a social network competing with fb, then they’ve failed. Sure you get the niche crowd enjoying it but for the average person its a no go. So good luck to Google, but I have a feeling it’ll sit at a plateau of uber keen users doing their thing and enjoying being outside fb. I’ll stay on to see how it goes, but I check in maybe two or three times a month now, and just for the novelty to see if anything’s changed or when my android phone shows an update to the Google+ app. And that’s all Google+ has currently got me for.
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Nancy Loderick
May 28, 2012
Hi Jack,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Google Plus. I am so glad that I am not the only one who is underwhelmed by this product. It seems that my younger friends (translate to mean MUCH younger) don’t understand why I am not on Google Plus all the time. Like you, I have a life outside of the computer.
Nancy
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Nancy Drew
November 6, 2012
GooglePlus just added itself as a circle and keeps suggesting inane things for me to “follow”. Iconoclasts like myself HATE this crap. There seems to be no one to turn it off and no one to even contact Google to complain. This is why people HATE GooglePLus.
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Nancy Loderick
November 7, 2012
Hi Nancy,
I’m glad to hear from another person who doesn’t like GooglePlus.
Thanks for chiming in with your thoughts.
Nancy
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paula
December 14, 2012
I don’t use Google+ but I do resent them for trying to make more and more generic Google users sign up for this service. I use their search, Gmail and their Android phone OS but nothing else. I am not interested in signing up with another social networking service, call me crazy but I never get any value out of them. Most of my contacts use email alone or other messaging services.
Recently, I’ve discovered that they tried to stop people from rating videos on YouTube without having a Google+ acount. I already have a Youtube account, why isn’t that enough? They changed the way Google Play Store works, too, requiring Google+ accounts to be able to review apps there. I read an article about it where one of the Google developers explained that some users are “just evil” and that’s why they need a way to track you across the net…
Right.
Problem is that there are plenty of idiots and malcontents out there who are more than happy to maintain accounts. YouTube comments are proof of that, and it’s a cesspool because there is no real moderation happening there. The same poor quality threads and reviews happen on Amazon for the same reason. Furthermore, if this were just about spam bots then there is a simpler solution: captcha.
Anyone with two braincells to rub together realizes the real reason why they want to “verify that you’re a real (presumably good) person.” They are collecting advertising information. This is not a new phenomenon, but now they just don’t track you over a single domain, per tracking cookies, but across the multiple sites and even on applications that don’t go online.
I think this is a huge invasion of privacy. I am happy to pay for any currently free service if it means that my entire digital life isn’t recorded and sold to advertisers. It’s scary to think just how much one company has access to.
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Nancy Loderick
December 17, 2012
Hi Paula,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on Google+. I agree with you about the ever-encroaching invasion of privacy. I am sick and tired of hearing that we have to get used to not having any privacy on the Internet. I refuse to give in to that way of thinking.
Nancy
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April 1, 2013
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