If you work in internet-related industries, by now you’ve probably heard the news about Google’s newest foray in to social media: Google+.
I’ve been playing around in Google+ for a few hours now, and I must say it feels like a winner. Its strongest feature is Circles, which allows you to compartmentalise your online relationships in much the same way as we do with our offline relationships.
Adding people to circles is very intuitive, and you can then target your social updates to one or more circles. Thus if you have something you want to share with your family, you can make sure only they see it and your friends and colleagues are none the wiser.
The Hangout functionality is also intriguing. It reminds me of Google Wave, which failed at the time. But when this functionality is tied in to a social network, things get very interesting indeed. Unfortunately I don’t have a screenshot of that as it requires a webcam – which my work PC doesn’t have.
I think Google+ will be a success, because it triggers that all-important reward centre in our brains. I find myself coming back to Google+ several times a day, something which I never did with Google’s previous social experiments (Buzz and Wave specifically).
This is what made Facebook so huge, and Google+ somehow manages to be even more addictive. That, most of all, will determine its success.