Google Plus

[naum]

Added search (may take a while to roll out to all) of Google+ posts and ability to save searches.  Big plus over FB, though I think most of my RL "friends" have totally shunned Google+ except for a few.

Fuck searches. There is nothing I want to search for on a social network. I want to see what the fuck is going on right now and backtrack a day maybe. I do not give two shits about something that happened 4 days ago to someone's dog named Sampson. Sort > search. I know it might be google's thing, but there are things (LIKE EVERY GOD DAMN FORUM) that need sort by: as a condition.

Seriously... I like google+ but the lack of simple functions is grating to the point of not even fucking with it anymore save for the local stream and tagging a location of where I am to it.

Well, this is an inevitable consequence of the "Darwinian" filter in effect -- the community that has really latched on to Google+ is the tech community (and by that, not so much developers/hackers, I mean the tech enthusiasts, the kind that follow Techcrunch or CNET or the big tech bloggers like Scoble) and they're going to shape the product as its their voice that is the loudest and clearest in feature requests.

Meanwhile, Google did not address two bigger factors that loom darkly over this endeavor -- the real names policy (besides pissing off a lot of users, also would set them apart from FB) and Google Apps users still can't signup, despite it now being "open" -- in fact, the whole Google single identity is a clusterfuck, they have all their product integrated and I have to sign off / sign on with a different username if I use one of my (or commercial / non-profit entities I attend to) custom domain gmail setups. While it's an annoyance to me, most other typical users (like Mrs. Naum for instance) do not grapple well with this state of affairs.

A few days ago, they released an API, but it's really neutered, read-only and requires authorization to READ PUBLIC PAGES! Seriously, Google has jumped the shark…

…and it is regrettable, especially since there are facets of Google+ that are nifty. But it seems they are trying too hard to shoehorn users into the way they envision usage. That's something Facebook can do because Facebook has that critical mass of users (almost everybody). When you're the upstart, you have to try harder to be user friendly and not mold potential users into models you conjure -- they're just not going to jump over and/or use it then, at least anywhere near the numbers that gets you the "critical mass" that gives a "social network" attraction/relevance power.

[apocrypha]

So Facebook = WoW and Buzz = War and G+ = Rift? 

I think that's being very generous to Buzz 

[Chimpy]

Until some fucking jackoff at the top realizes that "Everything invisible by default" should ALWAYS be the starting point, they will never unseat assbook. The thing that causes the biggest discontent with facebook is not interface, or how to organize your social life, it is the privacy fucktardery. Google+ won't let you hide your profile from "random guy in Khazakstan doing a google search for people named Bob". Facebook at least does allow for that.

[Ingmar]

I am pretty sure the thing that causes the biggest content on Facebook is interface changes, actually. The particularly tech-savvy people are clued into the security stuff, but I see far more bitching every time they move a button and someone can't find how to get to their pictures or whatever.

[01101010]

I am pretty sure the thing that causes the biggest content on Facebook is interface changes, actually. The particularly tech-savvy people are clued into the security stuff, but I see far more bitching every time they move a button and someone can't find how to get to their pictures or whatever.

Exactly. Security, while everyone bangs their fists on the table in agreement and murmurs to themselves, only gets attention when someone brings it up. Move a button and you see EVERYONE respond in kind.

[MuffinMan]

Until some fucking jackoff at the top realizes that "Everything invisible by default" should ALWAYS be the starting point, they will never unseat assbook.

I think they know at the top that with letting people opt-in to share their data the business model would not work nearly as well.

[Sand]

Really, it's useless for what I want it for. It doesn't replace Facebook or Twitter and is less functional than either. It's downward spiral has started and 6 months from now it'll be lumped in with Buzz as another failed attempt by Google to kill Facebook.

This is why within 4 days of creating an account on G+ some month or two ago I stopped using it.
Google Plus = Qwikster.

[Margalis]

The development environment is a joke right now. One set of basically useless APIs. A strength of google is that they let random employees spend time on random projects. A weakness is that they never invest the time and effort to make those projects better.

You would think that G+ would be a major initiative, but right now it appears to have 2 developers working on it.

[Ingmar]

Speaking of Facebook interface changes, they just made another big one today, so maybe G+ will get a shot in the arm. 

[apocrypha]

Uh... yeah... if you change your Facebook language to "English (US)" then Facebook switches to a news feed that is very like G+'s... i.e. the "Most Recent" option is gone and you're left with an unsortable feed of what Facebook considers your "top stories".

Please don't tell me that Facebook's response to G+ is going to be to ape the worst aspects of it?

[01101010]

Uh... yeah... if you change your Facebook language to "English (US)" then Facebook switches to a news feed that is very like G+'s... i.e. the "Most Recent" option is gone and you're left with an unsortable feed of what Facebook considers your "top stories".

Please don't tell me that Facebook's response to G+ is going to be to ape the worst aspects of it?

Well I am done with both then. Seriously, I saw the new facebook and said the exact same thing. Fuck them both in the eye.

[KallDrexx]

I was laughed at for having a windows phone, but at least my facebook still shows statuses BY DATE   (apparently the Droids already don't, don't know about iphone)

The web site still shows you the most recent status updates, but it's below the "Top Stories" section and hard to notice.

What a colossal piece of shit.

*edit* and my top "top story" is about someone commenting on their own photo..... and I"m not even friends with that person wtf.

[schild]

I just made a comment about Facebook looking like PHP-Nuke with a structure like a Gawker Network site. I have NO idea what they're doing, and you would think I might - I don't.

[naum]

I just made a comment about Facebook looking like PHP-Nuke with a structure like a Gawker Network site. I have NO idea what they're doing, and you would think I might - I don't.

[K9]

The new feed nonsense is just awkward to use

[Paelos]

There's a thing on my google pointing to this. Pretend I've done no actual research into WTF it is and can someone give me a synopsis of why they are advertising this and what it does?

[01101010]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/tech/social-media/facebook-announcement-f8/index.html

The last part of the article is the most humorous. 

The company also unveiled a new version of its app network, which also is launching over coming weeks.

Facebook users now can see what their friends are doing "in real time," even if those friends don't click a button to publish their activities to Facebook. By approving certain music apps, a Facebook user would allow the site to post every song he or she listened to on music-streaming service Spotify, for example.

Zuckerberg called this "real-time serendipity."

This is "the most significant change we've made to our platform since we launched it four years ago," Facebook CTO Bret Taylor said.

To promote this real-time sharing, Facebook announced partnerships with Yahoo News, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, foodie social network Foodspotting and others. These companies have created Facebook apps that can post all of a person's activities on Facebook's new "ticker," which appears in the top right-hand corner of the site's homepage.

Zuckerberg called this a "frictionless experience," since users don't have to click a button to publish each of their activities. If they watch a TV show on Netflix, and they've approved Netflix's app, that information would just automatically appear on Facebook.

The changes will no doubt raise some privacy concerns, and some Internet users who were watching the presentation reacted negatively.

"Get ready for over-sharing," one Twitter user wrote.

"This is just WAY too much sharing. The end of privacy," a Facebook user wrote on the company's live stream page.

[Paelos]

Zuckerburg wants a "frictionless experience" as he fucks all his users in their privacy holes.

[Lucas]

whoa 

[01101010]

Wondering how long till this "app network" just gets written into the EULA of all these things. Want to use Netflix? Have to accept this agreement which includes this app.

Yeah, I can see it soon... if not already. And here I thought G+ was fucking stupid with no sorting options... seems failbook is on the skis heading for the ram to the shark circle.

Ahh well, it was a good run.

[Ironwood]

Hmmm.

[Ghambit]

This is what happens when a company gets too big.  The stupid creeps into meetings.

[Strazos]

Eff...my feed is already too spammy, with all the check-in nonsense and such.

I don't need to know every little thing my friends are doing.

[Hawkbit]

I'm done with Facebook.  I'm winding it down now over the next few weeks.  I don't like their new format, and I think Google will take off in time. 

I don't need to know every little thing my friends are doing.

I have the same issue in both G+ and FB, and I've come to the realization that the problem is my friends, not the network.  I have a few people who post every damn song they listen to. 

[Tale]

Tarzan is listening to I Wanna Fuck You Like An Animal on Spotify.
Jane is watching Interracial Gang Bangers XXX on RedTube.

[Strazos]

In my opinion the worst offenders are the ones who feel the need to narrate their life...on Facebook:

Class at 830 is done. Now go home and get ready for work, and do some hw. Than work till 1030, do more hw. And get up to do it all over again.

Bitch, no one gives a FUCK about your boring, pedestrian daily schedule.

stealthedit: I mean, FFS, I've made like 3 wall posts this month....but I'm afraid to outright block people on the off-chance they have something interesting to post. 

[Tale]

All of life has been utterly, profoundly changed thanks to Facebook’s new features, and nothing will ever be the same, and all I can do is sit here and weep at the beauty and magic that Mark Zuckerberg has brought to this world

[01101010]

Oct 6th is my facebook death date. Two weeks to wait till your account is "deleted" from the time you put in the request is a bit much, but I understand why. I really question the need for Facebook to report every single activity a person is doing. If I volunteer this information (I initiate a post on being at a restaurant or what movie I get done watching) for a post, it's my choice to share that... now that choice is being eliminated in favor of an automatic system of updates all so facebook gets a more complete picture of your lifestyle IN ORDER TO ADVERTISE MORE SHIT TO YOU. I get that it's a business and this is the model that might seem more lucrative, but if it kills your customer base... well I guess when you are so huge that culling off a few million is ok if the other billion keep your money coming in. Any hope of facebook realizing people do not want this shit and the previous model was best is really moot at this point and determined the end of my account for me.

G+ is now a default and I am really agitated by the little things it doesn't do or does completely wrong to not using it as much, or if at all.

[Strazos]

I don't get it - looks almost the same to me, except slightly more spammy.

BUT - whenever I hide a person's post, I'm given the option to un-friend them. Surely that's a welcome change?

[Strazos]

Oct 6th is my facebook death date. Two weeks to wait till your account is "deleted" from the time you put in the request is a bit much, but I understand why. I really question the need for Facebook to report every single activity a person is doing. If I volunteer this information (I initiate a post on being at a restaurant or what movie I get done watching) for a post, it's my choice to share that... now that choice is being eliminated in favor of an automatic system of updates all so facebook gets a more complete picture of your lifestyle IN ORDER TO ADVERTISE MORE SHIT TO YOU. I get that it's a business and this is the model that might seem more lucrative, but if it kills your customer base... well I guess when you are so huge that culling off a few million is ok if the other billion keep your money coming in. Any hope of facebook realizing people do not want this shit and the previous model was best is really moot at this point and determined the end of my account for me.

G+ is now a default and I am really agitated by the little things it doesn't do or does completely wrong to not using it as much, or if at all.

I have no idea what you're talking about - what stuff is FB posting without my consent? Last I checked, it's not auto-posting anything. I even dug and found an option to have FB request my approval before something is posted by another person with my name attached.

[ezrast]

Yeah, they made it pretty clear it's an opt-in thing; it's not like Facebook is going to magically hack your iTunes account and rat out your secret Hilary Duff fetish, and making it mandatory would be frankly retarded. Sure, it makes it more likely that your friends will spam you with useless shit, but, uh, this is Facebook we're talking about.

[apocrypha]

And actually they've added something very useful - the ability to selectively filter the types of post you see from every single person separately.

When someone posts click the little tag on the right hand side of their post. There you can choose to see all posts, some posts, only important posts, no posts at all, etc. from that person. Got a spammy friend who's turned on the iTunes & hulu & WoW Facebook feeds? No problems... set them to "important updates only".

[Tale]

And actually they've added something very useful - the ability to selectively filter the types of post you see from every single person separately.

They actually had something like this a few years ago and removed it. You could put a level of priority on a friend's posts. I've got two annoyingly noisy young cousins who I must have as Facebook friends, so I set them as low priority and they stopped showing up. Facebook removed the ability to add any more people to this priority list, but kept the priority settings for people who had bothered to set any, so my cousins have stayed out of sight but I couldn't prioritise anyone else. Pleased to see it return in another form.

[Sand]

Supposedly before you could select if your comments on other friends posts or pictures were posted to see. Now its done automatically, and if the complainers are right you can't turn it off.

I keep seeing this posted by people:

“**Do me a favor: please hover over my name here, wait for the box to load and then hover over the "Subscribe" link. Then uncheck the "Comments and likes" choice. I would rather my comments on friends' posts not be made public. Thanks** Then repost if you don't want your EVERY MOVE posted on the right for everyone to see”

[Xanthippe]

Supposedly before you could select if your comments on other friends posts or pictures were posted to see. Now its done automatically, and if the complainers are right you can't turn it off.

I keep seeing this posted by people:

“**Do me a favor: please hover over my name here, wait for the box to load and then hover over the "Subscribe" link. Then uncheck the "Comments and likes" choice. I would rather my comments on friends' posts not be made public. Thanks** Then repost if you don't want your EVERY MOVE posted on the right for everyone to see”

That this is not an option for a user to set for herself is a real problem.  Why can't people control their own information?