Google+

I have joined the "Google+" project.  Look me up there as "Terry Walker" if you want to add me.  I don't know how many invites I have available, but I can invite someone if they have a burning desire to try it out themselves.

So far, it appears to be an incomplete Facebook, but without the most annoying aspects of Facebook.  That's a good sign.  A more complete review is available online, but here are some of my first thoughts on a comparison:

• Advertising: Google+ is blissfully free of advertising at the moment.  That condition will surely change in the future, but I still expect it to be less intrusive than in Facebook.
• Privacy: Google+ really shines on this point.  In fact, the recent hypocrisy of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made the news as he activated features on his Google+ account that are altogether unavailable on Facebook.  All of your info is still available for google to use behind the scenes, but at least it's not available to the general public.
• Files: I am able to upload photographs (and videos!) to galleries.  I used my media for the kitten as a test.  You can see the results here.
  
• Fan Pages: Google+ has no such ability.  Facebook has some great news feeds maintained by fans who take the time to post on them.  Google+ does not have such pages.  Instead, Google+ offers "Sparks" that are basically RSS feeds of automated web searches (provided by google, of course) on topics that you name.  For instance, instead of a Facebook fan page about the "Spongebob Squarepants" tv show, there is the Google+ spark page that includes anything on the topic that google finds recently added to the web.  I want Google+ to have both.  Fan-created content tends to be more relevant than robot-created content.
• Group Pages: Google+ has no such ability that I can figure out.  Like fan pages, Facebook also has pages designed for groups to establish their online presence.  Sadly, such pages tend to be accessible only to other Facebook users, so their utility is limited.
• Hangouts: Instead of traditional instant messaging, Google+ has Hangouts.  These are basically group-based IM videochat rooms.  Essentially, Hangouts can replace external voice/video chatrooms for online gaming groups.  Very nifty feature.  Sadly, though, it appears to work only with other Google+ users.
• Cross-posting: Because it's so new, I 'm not finding any cross-posting features available at other sites yet.  So when I post here on Dreamwidth, there is no blurb added to my feed on Google+ to announce the post address.  I hope such features will be available soon.

For now, Google+ is just an interesting experiment.  It will, however, become much nicer than Facebook.

Meanwhile, in totally unrelated news, I have unknown allergies clogging up my sinuses this week.  I have a mild infection now that's starting to spread.  I'm taking time off from work to dope up on antihistamines to dry out my sinuses and eliminate the infection.  If it doesn't help today, though, then I'll go to the doctor tomorrow to get some antibiotics to help remove the infection.  Minor temperature, minor annoyance, but it's best to deal with it before it has a chance to grow.