Google Plus Won't Kill Facebook But It Has Its Points

While Facebook will continue to the social networking giant, Google + looks like it may provide some functional benefits that will give it a solid foothold. This could be especially true for business, as it has a little of Facebook, a bit of LinkedIn, and a tad of Twitter all rolled into one service.

I signed up on an invite, and I've only had it up and running for a few days, but I can say that I check it regularly, while I rarely look at Facebook or LinkedIn unless I get an email notification of activity I need to check out.

Circles is a great way to group your contacts, much more efficient for future sharing and communications that Facebook I think. You place your contacts into Circles, and then you can selectively share information with one or more Circles depending on who would be interested or who you want to see it.

• Friends
• Family
• Acquaintances
• Real Estate
• Writing Clients
• Technology

Those are a few of my Circles. If I were to see a great new tech tool (like Google +), I might share it with both my Technology and my Real Estate Circles.

The Stream is like your timeline in Twitter or your News Feed in Facebook. Everyone in your Circles who shares something, whether a link, photo, video or comment, will be displayed in your Stream.

I've only set up about 25 people in circles so far, but will have a whole lot more later. What I'm seeing is that I am getting more relevant content that is of greater interest to me than all of the stuff rolling by on Facebook. Also, you can view selected Streams, so I can just see what my Friends are putting up if I want, versus everything for all Streams.

Sparks are like RSS news feeds or Google Alerts. You do a search on a topic or key phrase of interest, and you get a stream of recent news, blog posts and articles. It's like Google Reader in a way. You save your Spark for future viewing, and can get the latest on the Web about your Spark with a click.

You can upload photos and share them selectively with your Circles. And, if you use Picasa, a Google service, your Picasa albums will automatically be linked to your Google + account. Your Circles can then view them as an addition to your Profile information, so make sure you keep those you don't want viewed as Private albums.

Using your webcam, you can start a "hangout." Up to 10 people can participate in your hangout at once. You start a hangout and just "hang out," waiting for anyone in any of your Circles to stop by and chat.

While I did check my webcam and settings, I haven't tried this function. I'm not much for live online video chat ... yet.

Right now it's all about the "early adopters" like me. We try everything new right away, and push every button and twist every lever to see how it works and if we can break it.

However, unlike my immediate dismissal of Google Wave, I'm getting into Google +. I am eagerly looking forward to expanding my circles.