Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet III

After using only Google’s new social network for a week — forsaking all others — here’s what I learned

Computerworld – On July 8, I went on the Google+ Diet, using Google’s new social network for all my online communication. As part of the diet, I stopped using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and several other services. I even stopped using e-mail.

 

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There’s an “Incoming” option, for viewing the posts of people you have not put into any Circles, but who have Circled you.

It’s a more complex, but friction-free, way to follow.

Google+ is still a work in progress

There’s no search yet. Apple (as of late Friday) hasn’t approved the iOS app. Google hasn’t released an API for third-party companies to build on. Some of the best features of Google+ are still in the future.
Google Plus

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* Privacy, contact updates added to Google+
* Can Facebook and Google+ coexist?
* Google+ fervor may be making Facebook nervous
* Google to developers: Stay tuned for Google+ tools
* Google+ hit with spam bug
* Visual tour: 10 Google+ tips for beginners

Continuing coverage: Google+

There are random glitches and minor problems that crop up here and there. Google keeps making changes.

If you don’t want to use a beta service, you may want to wait on Google+. On the other hand, it’s already more stable than Twitter.

Google+ is a platform for third-party innovation

Google+ is like Twitter in that other companies will be able to build tools and interfaces that enable you to customize your experience. Dozens of browser plug-ins have already emerged for this purpose. Within a year or two, there will probably be hundreds or thousands of these.

People go on diets to lose something. What have I lost on the Google+ Diet? For one thing, I’ve missed out on a lot of friend and family chatter on Facebook. I’ve probably also missed out on some content on Twitter, which still has far more users and far more going on in general because it’s been around longer.

However, I’ve also lost the anxiety caused by having my social life spread out on so many social services. I’ve missed out on a lot of pointless e-mail and spam.

More important, I’ve gained a much better way to interact online, and gained a lot of new friends.

The Google+ Diet isn’t for everybody. But I recommend that everybody at least try to consolidate disparate social media into as few as possible. And I can tell you, Google+ should be one of the few social sites you use — if not the only one.