I love it! –

..but I must also be honest

A few initial thoughts and ramblings —

First – a big THANKS  (bold, italics and  underlined) to my teenage son for inviting me in!! —    ( He did  made me beg   for it (a little) but let me easily  it is funny that he received an  invitation before I did…  )

•  Family, Close Friends, Buds, Work  Friends, Acquaintances  and Following…

It will be great (at some point in the future) is to have EVERYONE under one umbrella.  However  two things that are really clear:

1. It is making me think as to how to categorize each of the people I know..   Good exercise!
2. I have to decide where my public Profile  will reside — (It looks like it will be my Gmail account)  – this is counter what I have been working toward the past couple of years, as I have my own domain, but I am rethinking this…

• Not  everyone is on it ( yet ) .

Although there are 10+million users (and it looks like another $10M next week), not all of my friends are there yet —

My  family is having trouble with it at first… —  Interesting symbiotic “monster” Facebook is…

To solve this challenge – I found  Start G+ (2)   for posting simultaneously  from Google Plus  to Facebook and/or Twitter.

• Simple sharing of  Picasa Photos with selected  groups 

I am not sure if the permissions work, but I love to be able to share my previously private photos.  I have heard Picasa will be migrated to a new photo sharing service soon, which has many more integration  features  – I can not  wait!

• Circles  are private ! 

• Permissions are SO  much easier –

• I trust Google with my information – I have always had  issues with Facebook –

I am sure that much more is coming soon:

• Google+ for companies and public figures  – not yet available .  See this post
• Google+ is not available for Google Apps accounts as of yet – because of profiles!  – Link to explanation  here (1)
• We talked about the new versions of Picasa and others
• iOS  Application  just came out today !!  Link to it now

Aside from the so bad, that is funny “viral video” I am G+   — My first impression is that Google+  is a FANTASTIC product  with TONS of potential, there are still some rough edges, and no one should forget it is a early preview / beta release .

(1) Update: Broken link removed.  Original link:  http://blog.merjis.com/2011/07/11/google-apps-user-google-1/

(2)  Update: Broken link removed.  Original link:  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hbgcgahdbgbdenffckohanhobdcnkoip?hl=en-US