Google+ Already At 10 Million Users 1223
An anonymous reader writes "I project that Google will easily pass 10 million users tomorrow and could reach 20 million user by this coming weekend if they keep the Invite Button available. As one G+ user put it, it is easy to underestimate the power of exponential growth." I bet if people post in the discussion that they need invites, we can scratch each other's backs here. I've been using Google+ for a few days now (Yes I will put you in a circle ;) and have a lot to love, but unless I can gate twitter and Facebook, the best interface in the world won't help me until I can convince my kids' grandparents to move.
Sure, send me an invite! (Score:5, Funny)
But I value my privacy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sent.
I'm panicking! (Score:2)
Because I don't have an invite.. pkbarbiedoll@gmail
Re: (Score:2)
On its way
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So far, I seem to have unlimited invites so the next one is for you.
Re: (Score:2)
One is on the way.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
E-mail address?
Re: (Score:2)
I figured, but wanted to be sure. Sent.
Oh the Humanity! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I believe they already got their invites...
https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/posts [google.com]
https://plus.google.com/112063946124358686266/posts [google.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They must cry themselves to sleep at night on their enormous piles of money...
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that and the fact that Myspace's unreadable, barely viewable "virtual bling" format consigned it to the renaming of "GhettoSpace" in about 1 day after launch...
Re:Oh the Humanity! (Score:5, Interesting)
You might want to check out G+ hangout. Think "multi-user video chat done right". You create a hangout and invite either individuals or a circle (you'll get the whole "circles thing" after just a few moments) and others come and go as they please.
That alone will kill facebook for grandma and grandpa. No typing, no chat, just say hi to the kids and see them say hi to you, talk with their cousins, etc.
And it will be a killer for kids as well. Video Party Line!
Even business will latch onto it for teleconferences.
G+ will pass facebook within 2 years, and possibly within 1.
Post it in your journal instead of the main thread (Score:3)
Don't use your slashdot journal? Philistine!
Also, not getting your kid's grandparents to use it at this time can be considered a feature. Let the early adopters work out the kinks first, otherwise when they try to move from failbook they'll just move right back.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't use your slashdot journal? Philistine!
I'm taking a page from Kevin Rose [kevinrose.com] and forwarding my journal to my Google+ profile.
Re: (Score:2)
Kevin Rose controls his own domain. I don't think you have the power to auto-forward your Slashdot journal over.
Better than facebook (Score:5, Informative)
It's like going from hotmail to gmail back when it launched.
It's sleek, doesn't get in the way, lets you do things easily. You manage your "friends" easily.
Hell, it's one service I wouldn't have any issue adding my boss and co-workers to, unlike facebook.
As a bonus, I don't get people posting asinine idiocies on my wall. Sure they can get me to eyeball their crap by mentionning me in their posts, but at least it won't bother everyone else who reads the things I write.
A negative side, not for me but for others, would be the lack of games, but we'll see...
Re:Better than facebook (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Better than facebook (Score:4, Insightful)
Who needs Facebook games when there are VirtualNES.com [virtualnes.com] (Java) and Newgrounds [newgrounds.com] (Flash)?
My parents.
Re: (Score:3)
The way facebook is blocking exporting contacts, you know they're scared.
Re:Better than facebook (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't let me post pictures from my iPhone easily (unless there is an app I'm missing? seriously, any and all help appreciated, here!). Microblogging with photos is basically what I use Facebook for. Give me that, g+, and I'll start giving in earnest. /haven't "hungout" yet but I hear that's actually kinda cool...
Re:Better than facebook (Score:5, Informative)
iPhone app is pending approval from Apple since day 1 of G+.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
it automatically uploads any photos & videos to G+ as soon as you take them
How many megabytes of the carrier's monthly data allowance does that use?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
As many as you allow it to, it's an option you have to opt-in to. There are options to control when you want to allow it to upload:
* Only photos via mobile networks
* Photos & videos via mobile networks
* Photos & videos via wi-fi only
Plus there are other options for whether to allow upload when roaming, and whether to wait for the phone to be charging before doing an upload. There is a status message in Settings which tells you, for example, "Paused: waiting for WiFi".
Re:Better than facebook (Score:4, Interesting)
Facebook games are a big reason I ditched a long time ago. Facebook's privacy was horrible enough without allowing the apps to circumvent what few privacy settings they had. If g+ never has them, I will be one happy camper.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Better than facebook (Score:5, Insightful)
A negative side, not for me but for others, would be the lack of games, but we'll see...
Man, that's one of the biggest things I love about it. I know it's futile to expect Zynga and such to stay away from a revenue stream, but the inane games were one of the reasons I quit facebook a few months ago, I got sick of all the spam and having to block apps and people constantly. People would just go around the filters and post crap on my wall about it, "Can you log in quick and give me some horseshoes?" and all that stupidity.
I suppose we should just enjoy the relative peace and quiet while it lasts. So far I've had a very positive experience...
Re: (Score:2)
A negative side, not for me but for others, would be the lack of games, but we'll see...
There's been some speculation that that's what's up with the Google job postings for people with game developer experience a little while back was about.
As others have said though, hopefully Google will handle them in a way that favors the user rather than companies like Zynga that use them to spam the hell out of everyone.
As happy as first on Twitter (Score:3)
I did the strict "don't mix business with pleasure" on Facebook too. I'd lightened up and added some, but then I got into arguments on Facebook with managers over topics like the mosque project near the Twin Towers (they were actually pretty racist, which I had previously been unaware of), and had to remove them.
With Google+, I feel the same way. I can finally have a public profile again! My Facebook had eventually been completely private, locked down, and I really didn't even enjoy HAVING to respond if s
Re: (Score:3)
It's like going from hotmail to gmail back when it launched.
Google did something very, very clever; sit back and wait (develop in the shadows, actually) while people where getting more and more frustrated with Facebook (like they were with Hotmail), and feeling that they got "stuck with it" because of the lack of alternatives. That part was bound to happen.
You manage your "friends" easily. [..] I wouldn't have any issue adding my boss and co-workers to, unlike facebook.
In a sense, Google has learned from the mistakes of others; I still cannot fathom why Facebook did not add such functionalities - so many of its users would had welcomed them. Perhaps their coding skills are poor,
Gate Twitter (Score:2)
I have no idea what "gate twitter" means, but you can publish your microblog on a different service that supports RSS, and "the my kids grandparents" (whatever that means) will be able to follow you with any feed reader.
Or did you mean gating the other twitter [slashdot.org]?
Re: (Score:2)
Kid's grandparents means he shares photos of his kids and either his parents or his wife's parents depend on Facebook to see new photos of them.
And if they don't join G+ he can still add them to his circle and they will be set to "sharing via email only". So they will still get all his pics/posts in the circle they are.
Grandparents follow the pictures (Score:5, Interesting)
Easy way to get grandparents to switch is to only post pictures of the grandchildren on Google+. They will switch over.
Also, WTH does "gate twitter and Facebook" mean?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I assume it means using the two services through G+ without actually going to said pages.
For 80 years and older... (Score:2)
My father tried to sign up -- he received the "You are not old enough" message.
He was mumbling about having to be over 80 before you can qualify.
how about people have home pages, and syndicate... (Score:4, Interesting)
honestly
I hate how everything is locked down...
I wish there was a nice way that people could syndicate between things i.e. an open network with a privacy model
I simply have not seen a nice way to do this any suggestions ?
(no Diaspora does not even look useful)
something with OpenID would actually be useful !
regards
John Jones
Re:how about people have home pages, and syndicate (Score:5, Informative)
I wish there was a nice way that people could syndicate between things i.e. an open network with a privacy model
It's called a website with RSS and security. You could do it with Drupal right now, or probably with Wordpress or what have you. There's an aggregator module that pulls in content from other sites; there's various permissions control systems.
Invite (Score:2)
Thanks, J. Brad Harris
Re: (Score:3)
Congratulations. You just subscribed to shitloads of spam ;-)
invite? (Score:2)
I'd love an invite (ephemeriis@gmail.com), if somebody out there has one available.
I'm not a fan of Facebook. I use it largely because my wife does. I'd love to get her switched to something better... And everyone keeps raving about Google+. She's even curious enough that I might be able to get her to try it.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow. Damn. Never underestimate the power of Slashdot! Thanks for the invites folks!
Why I am not joining Google+ (Score:3)
It seems that the invite-only PicasaWeb albums (where only specific google accounts have access) would no longer be invite-only. That alone is reason enough to not join G+. When signing up for G+, they gave the following notice:
Linking Google+ with Picasa Web Albums
When you join Google+:
* [...]
* Your albums' visibility settings aren’t changed, but people they’re shared with can now share them with others.
* [...]
If they could fix this issue, I would sign up. Otherwise, forget it.
-molo
Re: (Score:2)
It seems that the invite-only PicasaWeb albums (where only specific google accounts have access) would no longer be invite-only. That alone is reason enough to not join G+. When signing up for G+, they gave the following notice:
Linking Google+ with Picasa Web Albums
When you join Google+:
* [...]
* Your albums' visibility settings aren’t changed, but people they’re shared with can now share them with others.
* [...]
If they could fix this issue, I would sign up. Otherwise, forget it.
-molo
In my experience the invite only Picasa web albums didn't even require a Google account. I sent one to my parents last year and was surprised when they just forwarded the link to several other people who also looked.
Re:Why I am not joining Google+ (Score:4, Interesting)
I am a content creator, and I would not like having things on my various accounts deleted cause of a simple policy violation. I figure they still have to iron out the legal issues to do with this, but till they figure it out, I'm out.
For example: If you change your name 5 times (or just correct it), Google says it would delete all your information. I kid you not. Saw this dialog and felt Google+ was not for me. As a content creator, I already deal with similar issues on YouTube, at least there you can appeal.
Re: (Score:2)
There is a difference between policy and execution of policy. Legally they require a stern policy so as to provide the latitude they require to sanely operate.
Basically you're complaining because their policy is what everyone does and anyone with half a brain would do.
Complain when they actually start deleting at the slightest of infraction. Until such time, you're either silly, ignorant, or trolling.
Re: (Score:3)
Typical hype-behaviour (Score:2)
Everybody looking for the next great thing, looking about a bit and essentially gone a week or two later. I don't really believe adults want social networking. Even teenagers are starting to get wise to the fact they are just a gigantic waste of time and serve primarily as advertising medium. I predict in a few years not much will be left, except specialized sites, such as XING. These do have some merit, but also do not take a lot of your time.
Re: (Score:2)
Who didn't see this coming? Breeden commented on it [thedevilspanties.com] two years ago and pretty much voiced my thoughts too.
Not sure I agree with your other statement though, gweihir. My wife loves using Facebook to quickly keep large groups of friends and relatives updated and share photos, and it's great for that. As a gaming / blogging discussion platform, not so much.
Re: (Score:2)
an invite would be nice :) (Score:2)
If someone could spare an invite...
me at aedens dot net
thanks! :)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the invite(s :P) people!
Unfortunately...
"Oops... you need a Google profile to use this feature.
Google Profiles is not available for your organization."
Doesn't seem to work with my Google Apps account... :((((
Everyone invited. (Score:2)
I just invited all the addresses without a parent post. I don't think there's a limit on the number of people you can invite.
Best UI? (Score:3)
"the best interface in the world "
Uggg, I hope you don't do UI design in your job. Google+'s UI is horrid.
It took me three tries before I figured out how to post my profile picture. One would naturally go to Profile... Photos... but that's actually not the way you do it. Even after figuring it out, it still tells me I have no photos of myself. I now have the same photo three times in three different "books" and still can't figure out how three were created.
I still have no idea how to post on someone else's wall.
And when I post on my own, I have to choose circles to share it with. Fine. But once it's posted, it doesn't tell me which ones. So if I think I did something wrong and change the sharing, a second post appears.
That's the first three of dozens of problems.
It's terrible.
Re: (Score:2)
I have to agree with you. Aside from "It's not Facebook" and the usual "herp derp Google skeet skeet skeet" reactions, I'm not seeing any huge features in Google+ that would make me want to switch.
The UI isn't that great, and it really is pretty confusing.
I think that in 6 months, we'll see a lot of abandoned profiles.. just like other things in the google deadpool.
Re: (Score:3)
Is it hard to figure out that to edit your profile picture you click "edit profile"?
Re:Best UI? (Score:4, Informative)
There is no "someone's else wall".
Re:Best UI? (Score:5, Insightful)
Invite please (Score:2)
Anyone still feeling generous? (Score:2)
Invite? (Score:2)
Emails in the comment header.
Already invited? We've temp exceeded capacity. (Score:2)
I noticed that even with an invite you might be out of luck: "Already invited? We've temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon."
But I really hope not! And just in case I would love to test this I would also love an invite if a nice person would be awesome and send one to peterniss22 [AT] gmail doot com :)
Really hope I can finally ditch friend face
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly my suspicions seem to be correct. Still get the "Already invited? We've temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon."
Still thanks for the invite Luis, your a champ. Will keep trying.
Slashdotters not invited prior to this article... (Score:2)
... please voluntarily surrender your geek card immediately. Failure to comply will result in termination of your account with extreme prejudice.
TIA
I'd appreciate one (Score:2)
slashdotUserName (at) gmail.com
If it's not ready, I'll wait. (Score:2)
How buggy is it?
I intend to use Google+ eventually, and I wouldn't mind jumping in now. But I don't want to deal with buggy software, and I do not like beta testing. I want a finished and polished service. If it isn't to that point yet then I'm willing to wait for it; I'm a patient guy.
Wish Google would let me. (Score:2)
I won't (can't) sign up until they support Google Apps for Domains users. We can't even use the +1 button yet.
Things Google REALLY needs to fix with G+ (Score:3)
Before Google Plus is ready for prime time, Google has a few things they really need to fix with the service
- Make +1 make sense. Currently pages you or others "+1" do not even appear in the stream. They're on a totally different page. This makes the +1 button useless.
- Either get rid of Buzz, or integrate it. it's currently nonsensical that Google is running both, yet Buzz updates don't go into your G+ stream.
- Integration with Google Reader. It sure would be nice if things from my Google Reader showed up in my G+ stream, because then you wouldn't have to leave, and it would facilitate simple sharing. This was a big oversight.
- "Sparks" (AKA Google News) needs to be in your stream. The current implementation is not useful.
- Gate for twitter. Google already has this with Buzz, why on earth did they release G+ without it, I have no clue. It makes me use G+ less because I now have to update two things.
Basically - Google needs to get as much into that stream as possible, and allow the user to filter by subsections if they want - NOT force the data into it's own little islands.
how to start a new service? (Score:3)
I have been saying for years that facebook is just a fad, just like myspace was, and ICQ, and geocities, and who knows how many others, all of whom were seen as the place to be in their heyday. And yet facebook seemed to entrench itself well enough in the public mindset that I was starting to second guess my judgment.
Now google+ seems to be generating quite a bit of buzz of it's own, and amazingly enough, not just among the tech crowd. My girlfriend (a nurse) was commenting yesterday that all her co-workers were talking about it at work the other night, so maybe Google can really pull this off?
The part that makes this whole launch seems strange though is that what makes a social networking site work properly is the ability to find everyone you know on it, the idea of limiting who can apply seems rather counterproductive. And yet somehow it's working for Google.
Either way, I'm eager to get in and see how it works. I've been periodically checking to see when they open the floodgates, and I suppose I really wouldn't mind an invite either, after all, I do use google for pretty much everything else, (I have my radio callsign (VE6RAH) as my existing account on gmail if anyone is so inclined)
The big question though is one that nobody can answer yet with any certainty... will google+ manage to draw enough people away from facebook... will people who already use facebook for everything see a reason to switch... I guess only time will tell.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll trade you mod points on your comments in other articles for a G+ invite -- It's a shame we were both overlooked in these opposing markets, but we can remedy this with primitive commerce.
Digital Bartering, the cycle is now complete.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
VERY much appreciated if you're able to send one my way!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you have an invite to spare please send one to abstrackt (at) gmail.com. Thanks for spreading the love!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't mind getting an invite from someone if possible, my email is my slashdot username at gmail. Thanks.
Re: (Score:2)
Sent one.
Re: (Score:2)
And done.
Re: (Score:2)
sent!
Re: (Score:2)
there you go
Re: (Score:2)
That will depend on you posting an e-mail address to send an invite to!
Re: (Score:2)
enjoy
Re: (Score:2)
and you will be my last for today, enjoy :)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Send me your email address and I'll give you an invite.
Re: (Score:2)
We need your email address to send you an invite.
Re: (Score:2)
Invited.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
sent
Re: (Score:2)