Are you on Google+?

July 14, 2011

Have you heard about this latest Social Networking tool?  I hadn't either until this week and if you'd asked me last week I would've said there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with yet another thing to check or talk through.  I mean, come on!

Well, a talented handmade group, (UWIB) of which I am a member, coaxed us in and I'm really liking it.  To me it looks a lot like... well, Facebook, but with a much cleaner look and a much improved ability to organize your contacts into circles.  This is a phrase you're going to hear more and more of.  (Etsy introduced the circle concept last year on their site, but it really is not so great if you can't create subsets within.)Think set theory where sets of acquaintances are represented as circles.  I currently have Friends, Family, Handmade and some specific business groups set up.  However, I see having a client set and support group (exercise, spiritual, etc.) set in the future perhaps.  Some may even intersect which is true in real life, right?  You can then post items to only certain circles for privacy and relevant audience reasons.  There are a lot of other things it can and perhaps will do in the future.  Here's hoping Google sticks with it as it's gaining a lot of buzz.  Here's also hoping they don't introduce annoying bugs as they bring up new versions!  For more info on Google+, Wired has come up with a Everything You Need to Know article.

Additional advantages I see are time savers:  less email, lose Facebook personal*, perhaps lose 140 character Twitter!Want to add me to your Google+ circle(s)?  Janet Bocciardi  or my business page Honey from the Bee.  Below is a cheat sheet... and you can find it in other languages, too.