Exist

Google+ amounts to nothing more than another unnecessary social network that no one in the world needs. However, if Google can convince people they do, in fact, need to have a Google+ account to function in society then they will profit greatly. That’s all this really is. Google saw an opportunity to grab a share of a largely profitable market, and went for it. It’s like if you were drawing a giant picture on a sheet of paper the size of a house. You’re just about finished with it, and all that’s left to do is color in the sky. As you’re working on it, I happen to walk by. I don’t really care for the shade of blue you used for the sky, so I offer you a different blue crayon. You like the blue crayon I offered you, but to use it you have to start your entire picture over that you spent a ridiculous amount of time on. You have to do this, because the two shades of blue don’t match up. You say “Thanks, but no thanks” and return the crayon to me. Now a Google representative walks by, and offers you another blue crayon. Although the packaging for this crayon is different than your own, it’s actually the same shade of blue you were already using. It fits into your picture perfectly, and you can alternate between the two crayons as much as you like without ruining the picture. This is exactly what Google did. They bring absolutely nothing new to the table. They are simply repackaging ideas from other social networking sites, and releasing them with a new name. Everyone keeps telling me how unique and innovative the Google+ circle feature is. For those of you not familiar with it, the circle feature allows you to place people in a specific group of your choosing. It gives you basic groups (Friends, Family, acquaintances, etc) to start off with, but you can add new circles as you please. You can add a single person to multiple circles, and follow them through any circle you add them to. It’s not like a friend request though. There is no wait for approval, and the person you added does not have to add you to any of their circles. Now can some explain to me how this is innovative? This is exactly what Twitter groups are. You can make as many Twitter groups as you want, add whoever you want to them, follow them through that group specifically, and there is no wait for approval. No one has to add you back to their groups if they don’t want to. It’s the same exact thing. All the other Google+ features are just photo uploading, video uploading, status updates, and a plethora of other things Facebook already does. Google must have realized they couldn’t beat out Facebook, so they included a feature to connect accounts from different social networks. Unfortunately, connecting them amounts to nothing more than porting over status updates from social network to social network. There is no Facebook album integration of any sort, so if you plan to have pictures on Google+ I hope you’re ready to start uploading albums to both websites. I don’t have the patience for it, and neither should you. Even if the account connection provided something other than status updates; why would you want to do this? It’s like taping a crappy television set with a damaged picture tube to the side of a nice flat screen HD TV, and watching the same channel on them both simultaneously. It does nothing to add to the better experience of watching television in high definition, as Google+ does nothing to add to the ultimately better social networking experience that is Facebook.