Google+ sees more than 20 million users; means what?

I keep reading headlines this week of Google Plus’ user gains in the millions. First 10 million, then 18 million and now about or over 20. While the numbers are impressive, what does this actually mean?

Well in first, I think it may mean that many people are thirsty for a new social media platform. Currently Facebook is pretty much the biggest social media site to date. We all know how and why and its accomplishments. Though one thing is for sure, they’re business model continues to improve and it has stood the test of a good few years. However there really isn’t anything too new that keeps that addictive hold it had a few years ago. With ways to block games, nuisance wall posts, ignoring friend requests, or not seeing certain friend posts in your stream. Sure the new video chat option mixed with Skype is new, but it’s not new to most of us.

Rapid gains and launch popularity. So we’ve seen great numbers of people flocking to join +. That’s great for a number of reasons. If you remember Google Wave, there were only a few invites out and it wasn’t necessarily open to everyone, and though it had cool options, it didn’t really make sense to use for more than curiosity. The fact that millions of users are already signed up with Google Plus means more people you know will be on there providing content and sharing.

Rumors about business pages and profiles soon to come. This is almost overdue as an option for G+. There were business profiles that popped up early after launch that were manually disabled by Google because they were not allowing them at the time. There are a few ones that survived the cut, Mashable (*edit: recently updated down to Pete Cashmore’s profile) being on of them. I imagine the business + profiles will be pretty close to Fanpages that Facebook currently offers. But here’s where it can get cool. Add Google Places and Analytics to a business Google Plus profile and you’ll have a serious 1UP for Google. I’m sure Adsense will have a roll in there somewhere too.

So what’s keeping you interested in Plus? Have you tried the Hangouts feature yet? Is it the clean interface that doesn’t yet sport ads that tickles your fancy? What’s the real staying power that will keep people using it over the next few months? Google hasn’t yet release their API yet for Plus, and it’s much awaited.  Imagine Hootsuite allowing you to publish to it from your dashboard. Speaking of dashboards, I can see WordPress plug-ins for plus in the near future too. Let me know what your opinions are so far so we can dialog.

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Why you should try Google+

Google+ IconSo its been a little over a week now that I’ve been in and playing with Google+ (Google Plus).  At first glance it has a good few visual concepts that are both familiar and appreciating at the same time. Like any other Google product, it is fresh and new, and takes very little effort to learn. However why should you get involved?

For starters it has a clean user experience (UX). It reminds me of the earlier days of Facebook before the left and right side panels were littered with ads and game notifications. There’s an easy but small navigation bar that has 4 icons for your jump menu that will take you to either your Home Stream, Photos, Profile (yours), Circles.

To the left is a Stream filter that enables you to either view all of your Streams, or just Streams from certain Circles. So no need to be mad that you missed out about your 3rd cousins new baby because she didn’t qualify as “top news” for your wall, you can simply click on your “Family ” stream and not miss out.  This also helps keep the clutter out of your posts too.

Google+ Navigation screenshot

  • Home – This is where your streams will be. Similar to the Facebook wall. Not much different to the Facebook wall, but what I personally like is how you can make a post and have it limited to just your circles, or specific circles.
  • Photos – Well this is simple; a place to upload photos from your computer. But the cool factor here is the collage of pictures from people your connected to that covers the page. Soon mobile devices other than current Droids.
  • Profile – Here is where you can change/load your picture, details about yourself, location, alias, etc. You can also Chronologically view your posts, view all your photos and videos, and all the +1’s you’ve clicked on around the web.
  • Circles – Here is where you see everyone your connected to. Those that you’re not you can easily send out an invite. Part of the invite process requires an email address (Gmail preferred) and what circle you want to place that person in.

One of the game changers to me is the Hangouts option. Multi-video chat with people in your circles is a nice feature. I haven’t tried it yet with more than one person. It’s been a bit tough getting everyone online at the same time and there’s still a limited amount of people able to get into the site. Speaking of that; since official launch the Google servers have been quite loaded with user’s trying to accept invites.  So if you received an invite, keep trying. Though you have to sign in with your existing Google account.

I had to explain all of that to tell you my number 1 reason why you should give Google+ a try. The great separation of family, friends, and clients in a social media platform. Facebook is great and has groups and some rather difficult filtering options for sharing with certain people while blocking others. With Circles you can easily have your mom and aunts in a family circle and make posts about that client from hell and neither of your family or clients will see your outbursts (provided they’re all in their respective circles). So couple that with a sleek minimalist interface and you’ve got a good baseline to grow something compelling.

Well let me know what you think. And just for stopping by I’ve included a link to @graphicsfuel’s website for some neat Google+ icons. Yes they’re free so get ’em quick! google-plus-icons