Google+

When I first got an invite to Google+, I had no idea what the heck that was. Apparently, it’s the latest to challenge Facebook’s supremacy in the social networking biz. Who knows, before you know it, Facebook could be tomorrow’s Friendster. So I dived in after a week of dilly-dallying of whether or not I was getting into it, but when I did, I came out a little bit confused. To be fair, I felt the same way the first time I signed up for Facebook. It’s pretty much like FB, with some Twitter mixed in, but with a twist. For me, the biggest twist is the concept of “Circles”.

On Facebook, everyone on your network is a “friend”, even if they’re family. With Google plus, you assign everyone in your network into circles. You basically have to assign a label for each person. For instance, you have a circle for “besties”, one for “work”, one for “family”, one for “acquaintances”, one for “badminton group”, one for “jejeberks”, and so on. So each time you post a status update or video or photo, you can opt to publish it for the public to see, or you can assign only specific circles to see it. So if you’re posting your drunk pics, I don’t think you’d want your family to see them. This solves the FB problem of your mom seeing you in drag in some drunken night out, or your boss seeing your Boracay pics on the weekend you called in sick. It’s a little bit more work, but it has it’s advantages. Another cool feature I like “Hangouts”.

Basically it’s multiple webcam chatting, where you and your friends are like hanging out together even if everyone’s in a different place.  I haven’t actually tried this, but I’m so curious about it. The regular version of this is “Huddle”.

The way I understand it, it’s like you chat as a circle. So if you have a barkada circle, you can just post your messages and everyone in that group will see it. Sound good to me!

Actually, everything about it really sounds good, but whenever I’m on it, it’s still pretty bare, and hardly anyone’s in it. Only a couple of friends are in my circles, and it’s no fun until most of your family and friends are on it. So get an account already so things become more interesting! I don’t know though if it’s still by invitation only. What I know is, you can’t sign in unless you were invited by someone who’s in it already (or something like that). Will this be the next big thing? We won’t know until you guys get on it!

Oh, one more thing, you can follow people you don’t know as well, like on Twitter, so you can follow the celebs or people you find interesting without them having to add you or something. And when you do add someone, they won’t know which circle you added them to. You can add them in the circle “bitches” and they wouldn’t know any better. So in case you’re there, check me out, it’s Chico Garcia (although I haven’t really posted anything yet). I’ll try to post a test photo after I publish this.

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