Google+: First impressions

So after a few days, here's my perception of Google+.

Great stuff that's already here:

- Circles!: G+'s way of classifying your contacts. Makes a lot of sense, it's a pleasure to use. Means that you only share updates, easily, with the people you want. And it's pretty! :)

- "Hangouts": Basically, a videoconference service for up to 10 people! I like that the image changes automatically to show whoever person is talking at a particular time too. Can't wait to use it for face-to-face, yet remote filmaking meetings, or just family ones.

- Instant upload: The pictures of your phone get uploaded to a private album onto your Google+ that is instantly viewable and shareable. How many of us never download the pics to our computer? Never again!

Other stuff I still want! :)

- Circles within circles: A hierarchical structure would be very good to effectively organise your folks (you can vote for the inclusion of this feature here in Google moderator, I just did myself :)

- Integration with other Google services: Like scheduling an event that will go straight into your Gcalendar or being able to use your Gmail groups of contacts as Circles. Not even need to vote for this, it's obvious that it will be rolled out as soon as it's ready. But it can't happen overnight!

- Permission to be tagged: Always! Either giving permission over pics/albums, or to a list of people/circles. This type of thing is where Google can easily be ahead of Facebook.
- Way of limiting the amount of posts per person on a particular feed: Some people share too much, and /or too often, and they tend to take over the feed for the circles they are in (unless they have their own circle, but this defies the concept of circles itself). I rather see older posts of several people than today's 450 posts from the same person! 

And the experience continues :)

Google+: The opportunity

Google+, for those who haven't had the chance to give it a try yet, is Google's alternative to Facebook.

Yes, it does look like Facebook, which on the internet seems to have become ammunition to criticize G+.

Personally, doesn't bother me. People are familiar with that visual way of receiving and creating information. Also, the changes that social media needs are fundamentally conceptual, not visual. And most importantly, it's Google, so as with everything else they create, there will soon be a way of personalize it to your liking.

And that's the key to what Google+ means. Its power is not in what it is now, but in what it can become.

Part of the privacy issue on social networks, only us ourselves can solve it. Whether we like it or not, communications happen increasingly online, and we are still trying to keep up with the system! To build a new platform to do that on, I for one think there's no one better than Google.

Unlike Facebook creators, Google listens to users. They actually have an ongoing list of pending changes on their official feedback platform Google moderator. Where, incidentally, you too can go and draw attention to something that you think is not working particularly well on any Google product. Here is the one for Google+.

Also unlike Facebook, Google cares about privacy. And already has in place some basic tools towards this end that I'm sure won't be the only ones.

So live it, contribute to the moderator. Let's create the social experience as WE want it. As it should have always been, with control over what we do.

Brothers day - Wrap!

So... filming is over for Brothers day!!!

All pick ups have been finished over the last couple of weeks and we even had some pictures taken this week for the promotional campaign. We'll be rolling the promo pics soon, followed by the trailer that is being edited as we write/read this :)

But for now, here are some pictures of these last days in varying quality. Click on them for a slightly-larger-yet-not-too-large version. Hope you enjoy them!

For the die-hard fans that may already be out there, by the way :) here is the Facebook page, that will be issuing the official updates.