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At first I wasn't all that eager to join another networking site, I've got Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and they do the job just fine but to say I wasn't at all interested in G+ would also be far from the truth. The more I kept reading about it, the more my interest grew and after a few weeks I decided I had to take a peek and see what all the noise was about.

The first trick was getting an invite and as no-one I knew at the time was in yet, I had to find myself a way in. After some scouring of the web I got myself an invite and logged myself in with my trusty old Google account. By this point I was a bit excited about getting in on something reasonably early and while it was still an invite only network, a bit nerdy I'd agree but it is what it is and nerds are the new cool, right?

Anyway, back to the story, I logged in and at first I must admit I had a bit of a laugh at how very similar Google+ looked to Facebook, the layouts are pretty much identical along with very similar features. In the first couple of days I followed some of the usual suspects, the big fish in the pond and so on then began getting familiar with the site itself, which didn't take too long.

Once I was comfortable with my surroundings I started interacting with those within my circles and picking up more contacts along the way, one just happened to be one of those big fish I mentioned which alone was enough to make me think more highly of Google Plus than Twitter or LinkedIn which I find to be somewhat stale. Twitter in particular seems to have a very fickle community with an "I'll follow you if you follow me" mentality, as such I deleted about 800 people I was following there to see what would happen. In short I've lost 50 followers in 4 days, point proven? Not yet, but I'll report back soon in another article.

Getting back on track, I'm finding Google Plus to have a more interactive community where people actually converse and debate over topics of interest and then stay in touch via their circles. On the circles, this is a concept I am highly fond of, it makes life very easy when posting to, or reading posts from, those you have grouped in to particular circles. As one person mentioned, it would be perfect for communicating with particular departments within the workplace, especially if you want to hold a video meeting in hangouts.

Naturally there is room for improvement but let's keep in mind Google Plus, for lack of a better comparison, is still in the womb and as time goes on they will make refinements based on user feedback. The one thing that stood out to me, and a few within my circles, is the functionality of the circles themselves, they are a little clunky but I've put forward a few ideas for the circles that my contacts are getting behind, here's hoping the G+ team pick them up and implement them.

Our Thoughts

Well I'm hooked, will I be closing my Facebook profile? Not unless all my family and friends come over to G+ in which case I most definitely would! However, should G+ avoid mainstream adoption that will suit me just fine and in its current state, the potential to push both Twitter and LinkedIn down the list of networking sites is already there!