After using Google+ for a few weeks, I decided to share some of the reasons I like it so much, and hope that it will be an attempt at social networking by Google that will stick around for the long haul.
1. No automated updates.
Thus far, you can’t feed your Twitter, Facebook, or other updates into your Google+ stream. This means that if you see an update by someone on Google+, they actually made it on the network itself. Less noise, less spam.
2. Forced organization from the start.
I love the circles! You could just create one generic circle to throw everyone into, but I’d bet that since you have a few different default circles to start with, it gave you the idea to create better circles for friend categorization. There’s nothing like selecting my blogging circle for just my blogging friends’ updates or my photography circle for theirs.
And even better? I can send updates to one circle or the other, multiple circles, or just make them public. It’s genius!
3. Block tagging by specific people without unfriending them.
Unfortunately, photo tagging has already begun. In the same way that people tag photos on Facebook just to get your attention even if you’re not in the photo, so people do on Google+.
But here’s the cool part. If you go to that photo, you can remove yourself from the tag (just like Facebook). But after you do so, at the top, it will ask you if you want to block the person who tagged you in this photo from being able to tag you again. So if you have a tag-crazy friend who you like, but don’t want to be tagged by anymore, now you have the solution!
4. You’re always reminded of notifications.
If you’re logged into your Google account, anytime you’re checking your Gmail or using Google search, you’ll see your notifications on people adding you to their circles, commenting or +1ing your posts, resharing, and so forth. So you don’t have to actually go to Google+ to see if anything new is going on.
5. You can find more people to follow and see their stats.
Google+ Statistics has a huge list of people sorted based on their following or followers. It also includes a tidbit of information about them based on the info they added for their employer. (Hint: If you haven’t listed your employer, or don’t have one to list, add yourself as blogger or founder of your blog. This will show up under your name on this list which will make it easier for people to identify you.
6. The Android App.
If you have an Android, then definitely get the Google+ app. It’s better (in my opinion) than the one for Facebook, especially when it comes to sharing your mobile photos with your network.
Do you like Google+?
Now it’s your turn – how do you like the Google+ network?
Also, be sure to follow me on Google+! And if you’re just getting started, don’t miss my how to get started with Google+ guide on Social Media Examiner! 
About Kristi Hines
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
I also like Google+ very much so far. Circles is exactly the type of thing I have wanted for years. They have to keep working on improving it though. It still has many things to improve. And Google’s past experience with social efforts has been very bad.
John Hunter recently posted 12 Stocks for 10 Years: July 2011 Update
I’m new to Google+ as I just had my invite recently and just having a hang of it. So far so good and a few points that you have mentioned here are new finds. It feels great to know them now. Thanks to you.
Could Google+ be the potential Facebook killer? Just like how it outdone Friendster?
Ramcel @Meek Watcher recently posted Why Your Blog Just Screams and Begs
Kristi..I’m loving it myself and I think facebook have some competitions on tier hand. Google had time to sit back and analysis the way Facebook do things and trying to make social media better as a whole.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
TrafficColeman recently posted Selling Ad Space Is Another Great Way To Make Money Online
Right now few of us have created small group on google like facebook and sharing few jokes and images… But sometimes google+ is slow for loading images.. Hope they can add more features and I am sure that is will not fail like google wave lol .
Atulperx recently posted Free Blog Templates For Blogspot Users
Kristi, I really like Google+ so far, primarily for the reasons you state, and I think it will draw substantial traffic away from Facebook and Twitter.
I only post a couple of times a week. The rest of the limited time I have for G+ has gone toward getting quality people in my circles and making a few comments on interesting posts.
And I hope they keep Twitter post off Google+. I hide many people on Facebook and LinkedIn who make a habit of cross-posting each tweet.
John Soares recently posted Write Faster: 12 Top Tips for Freelance Writers
Google may have analysed facebook thoroughly before getting life but with a good tech head and a few adjustments, within 1-2 months facebook could be up to par again with circles and other features that google plus currently has.
I haven’t used it much for posting updates as of yet but I have been looking at what other people are publishing on Google+. I think its refreshing to see people really being “social” and not using auto tools.
Deneil recently posted Flashback Monday: July 25th, 2011
I’m generally in the minority here, but I’m not blown away by Google+. It has some neat features, but I’m struggling to figure out how it can really be used differently than Twitter or Facebook. Three social networks can be a bit overwhelming!
Brittany Rubinstein recently posted Comment on Good Work Google! Now What The Hell Do I Do With This Thing?! by Hesham Zebida
I’m loving google+ over Facebook. I find that I’m getting so much more work done rather than boring status updates.
Haroun Kola@Adwords recently posted Adwords
I really like Google + so far too, it’s just starting so there will be a lot of changes, but Google usually makes smart moves so I think it will only get better.
Jamie Northrup recently posted October’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog
So far I like what I see. Google + is pretty easy to use, it loads super fast and I love the options for feeds, etc. We’ll see what else they come up with.
Charles@Luxury Henderson Real Estate recently posted The Banking Hypocrisy
Hi Kristi! I’m going to try Google + soon. I guess that it will be a new trend in social networking in short future. Hopefully I can get the idea how to utilize Google + for blogging purpose from your article next time.
Great points, particularly about the lack of automatic updates. This has definitely cut down on the spam I receive, compared to Twitter and FB.
Kaushik recently posted How to Get Back The Old Facebook Chat or Hide Offline Friends in The New One
Nice!! Kristi,
I am really very exited after using Google+ and it is very customize product for us, new features like circles, Block tagging by specific people, No automated updates make it more user friendly and less spam. Google’s team analyse Facebook’s weak point and created such types of awesome product for us.. Please keep us Update about more features of Google+ .
Brainpulse recently posted The Wide Ranged Phenomenon of Dedicated Server Hosting
As G+ is a very recent thing in my life I’m still getting used to it … the more I am getting around various features offered by G+ the more I’m falling in love with it. Among the aspects highlighted by yourself the most attractive, for me, is the fact that now I’m in control of the extent to which I want to go public and can target my messages exactly to the audience I want to reach out.
Azam@Kay Jewelers recently posted Haircut at Supercuts
Google+ Is very nice. The envoirement is very easy in use. I really think they can take over Facebook, if they do more advertising and stuff. Just inviting people won’t get them there. Never the less, very nice!
Troy recently posted autoverzekering berekenen
As soon as google releases the API you will see lots of automated updates. The only stuff I’ll be feeding in will be links to my blog posts.
Richard Arblaster recently posted It’s been a week since my last entry…
Kristi, I’m loving Google plus for whatever feature it offers. So far I am not being poked, spammed or tricked. That’s a great feel. And the tip about stopping people from tagging us is great. Thanks for that.
Jane@Guest blogging recently posted How I Managed To Get My Posts Featured On A-List Blogs
I really need to get my tail in gear and jump on board the google plus thing. I just have so many things to do and not so much time to get it all done in. I do hear good things about it in the webmaster world.
Ray@dolphin hosting recently posted Cloudflare 1 week review
Before reading article i was unaware from Google+ features. But now i love to use this. Thanks Kristi
Rakesh Kumar recently posted Micromax X11i Price – Dual Sim Mobile Phone with Wireless FM Radio
It has everything one need. Its going to rock n roll in Bloggers World and already doing it ofcourse. Once the public launch happened, it will surely bring its best to sweep the crowd.
I love Google+ too
Robin
Mackeeper Review recently posted Keep your Mac Clean with MacKeeper from Zeobit
I appreciate everything you’re sharing here and totally believe that Google+ is potentially much better than FB (I know that is setting the bar pretty low). But I have to admit that I’m suffering from a bad case of profile/connection fatigue. I’m constantly throwing together new profiles and then trying to find buddies to link up with. FB, LinkedIn, Stumble, Digg, etc. I think I’m just burnt out…
Alexis recently posted The Ultimate Baby Swing Sleep Guide For Swing Hating Babies
Kristi, all I can say is Amen Sister. Preach!
Ileane recently posted My Interview with Jerry Kennedy on Blog Talk Radio
I loved it from the moment it burst onto the Net and I was able to join. The only thing I don’t like about it is when you comment on someone’s thread and it proves so popular that you’re always getting updates. The only way to turn that off is to mute it and then you’re out of the look altogether.
Sire@Buy Online Lottery Tickets recently posted How To Buy U.S.A. Mega Million Ticket Online
I haven’t experienced that yet Peter but that must be a pain. In Facebook you can change the notifications so that you only get notified if one of your friends adds a comment (if you want that) and I changed my Facebook notifications to friend only comments because of the same reasons you don’t like G+.
So Google need to fix that, but I’m pretty sure they will.
Roz Bennetts recently posted Winnie the Pooh Extract
Hey Stranger, I think, at least within my circles so far, that the quality of posts/updates are much higher. I’m sure the lack of silly app and event invites is part of it but even in general the overall quality is better than what I’ve been getting on FB & Twitter.
One feature of the Android app that I really like is the auto-upload feature. I didn’t think I’d like it because I’m certainly not going to share every pic I take but there’s a little piece of mind from the idea of an instant back-up of photos. I can simple delete the pics later after I’ve had a chance to backup what I want to save.
Brian D. Hawkins recently posted In Response To: Let’s Talk Constitution And The Founders
The best thing about the Google+ which I like the most is the facility of hangout through which people can do a video conference with their friends. But, if the internet marketers think for a second they will know that actually Google is offering them facility to conduct free webinars for which they have to pay.
Doesn’t it sound exciting?
I love all of these except number 6 because I use an iPhone. The iPhone app is okay but lacking all the features.
I didn’t know about the block tagging but that is really awesome!
I love the circles too. It’s cool also that you can “add people” but they don’t really know what circle you put them into. The circles is really great because I love how other people are being creative with them or using them as one might not have intended. ie evernote hack and such.
The no automated updates is something I seriously hope sticks around. When I update social sites, I’m actually doing it except for something like Instagram where I share the odd photo into Twitter, Flickr, and maybe Facebook. Drives me nuts when someone even posts a blog post and it gets automatically posted to 7 blogs and 8 social sites (some posted multiple times to the same social feed).
Great points and Google+ is looking really strong.
Scott Webb @ London Ontario Wedding Photographer recently posted You’re Engaged and Loving It (P3)
This is great information, Kristi… I am struggling to identify where I should be spending my time in social media and this helps a lot. I also like the organization aspects of Google+.
Guess its time to really dive in now and give it a test run. A little late to the party, maybe, but like they say, better late than never.
Bob
Dr. Bob Clarke@Part Time Networker recently posted Network Marketing IS About Selling, So Get Over It
I agree with organization. I would say I really really like the way Google+ made circles much more intuitive. Facebook has it too but then its not even noticeable. With Cirlces, its easy to organize things more and share message to the right people.
Melvin recently posted Is Lightbox Popup Still Effective For Marketing?
Kristi,
Thanks for these tips!
Seems that Google+ shouldn’t be ignored. Although the user base is much less than Facebook (at least now), they are doing the things somewhat differently than Facebook.
Timo
Timo Kiander recently posted 101 Tips For Becoming A Productivity Superstar – The E-book!
>>>6. The Android App.
Soon after I started my Google+, I realized that every time I took a photo or video with Android phone, it would simultaneously and automatically upload the media to my Google+ profile’s photo section, set to Private so only I could access it. So if I want to share any photos, they’re already there and I can just check “Public”. Pretty nifty!
I agree with the list. G+ has the advantage of “starting fresh” and addressing some of the issues of other social networks. I definitely think you need “nested circles” (e.g. College Friends should be a Sub-Circle of Friends”) to make it even easier to manage people and share info.
papalogic
papalogic@because papa knows best recently posted Foam Mats Health Risk: The Test Results Are In!
Kristi, I really like Google + for all the reasons you mentioned – plus you are not limited to 140 characters. At the moment though none of my friends are there so it’s pretty much my emergent blogging community (I blog for fun, just a personal blog).
The circles just rocks though, a stroke of genius if ever there was one. (Have just added you!)
Roz Bennetts recently posted Winnie the Pooh Extract
Nice article! These are good pointers for those who don’t have much knowledge about Google+. It looks great and easy to use. It has lots of cool and interesting features that Facebook doesn’t have.
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