Google+ Project is a new social media platform on which sharing and connecting with others is easier than ever. No longer will we be bogged down by irritating Spam links or Aunt Mary’s constant updates about her war against bunions. With Google+, you control which content you want to see from exactly which people. In the same sense, you also have the ability to share your own content to selected individuals. In other words, mom doesn’t need to know how interesting your Saturday night out was but she can hear about how great you think it is that the the library is open late to accommodate studious youths, such as yourself.The point being that we naturally categorize individuals in our every day, why not be able to do that with our social media. Google+ offers innovated tools like Circles, Hangouts and Sparks along with improved privacy settings that really begs the question: is Facebook a thing of the past?

Google+ Circles helps you organize everyone according to your real-life social connections. Then, you can share relevant content with the right people, and follow content posted by people you find interesting. For example, you might post an announcement about your engagement and show it only to people in your friends and family circles, or you may see a post about your favorite author in the circle you created just for your book club.You can also decide to customize your personal profile information for your circles. For example, your contact details, location, and relationship information would be visible to your friends circle, while your employment history and education would be visible to your alumni association circle. Learn more about Circles here.

Google+ Hangouts lets you tell people that you’re online and you want to hangout. You can also use live video chat to put you and your buddies in one room together plus, you also have the option of only appearing online to those people that you choose. Learn more about Hangouts here.

Google+ Sparks brings you stories on the things you love from all across the Web in one easy location. You’re able to search for a variety of interests that only pertains to you. No more hearing about the latest viral cat video when you are really a dog person. Learn more about Sparks here.

With all of that said, do I think everyone is going to jump the Facebook ship and latch onto Google+ just yet? Sorry Google, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. Zuckerberg and his creation have dominated the social media kingdom for sometime now. Just as with anything in it’s infancy, Google+ has some evolving to do before it can get enough people to accept it is as the new social media king. The real test, especially from a marketing stand point will be how Google+ Business Pages are going to be set up. Google has said Business accounts will be available towards the end of the year, so until then I’ll keep encouraging business owners to get the conversations started by joining Facebook and Twitter. I do however think Google is brilliant for recognizing the most annoying parts about Facebook and solving those issues with new features and better privacy settings. I think Facebook finally does have a worthy contender in the ring (sorry Myspace).

- Carly

-Paul

This series entitled ‘Malwarez’ was created by Alex Dragulescu under a commission from MessageLabs. Built using data collected from various virus attacks and an algorithm’s inputs triggered with this information resulted in these organic ‘visualizations’ of computer virus attacks.

Virutmytob by Alex Dragulescu

Stormy by Alex Dragulescu

PWSLineage by Alex Dragulescu

My Doom by Alex Dragulescu

IRCbot by Alex Dragulescu

-Paul

-Paul

Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

-Paul