For the past few weeks, ever since it was closed to the majority of the public I’ve been toying around with Google Plus. At first I was hesitant to invest much energy in it because I got so burned with the boondoggle that was Google Wave. I immediately noticed that the user interface seemed oddly familiar, as it turns out one of the designers for Google Plus was an old Macintosh designer. Who couldn’t see that coming from miles away? The interface was clean, it didn’t have annoying Zynga games or any of the other dreck that Facebook has to contend with as part of it’s heritage of being a “College Kids Social Site”. Google Plus was something new.

After a time I started to think of Google Plus as a weapon Google designed and aimed directly at Facebook, as it seems that the two products are pretty much direct competitors to each other. I had this view for a few weeks until I saw a slide presentation that revealed that Google’s hubris was a lot larger than anyone had previously considered. Google doesn’t want to fight Facebook. Google wants to fight an entire computing paradigm. Currently the world is in the throes of migrating towards “thin clients” and “cloud services” and Google is angling to become the assumed foundation for that entire new world. There are balls, and then there are Google Balls. It’s not so much Facebook that Google Plus is fighting. It’s like an anonymous-but-incredibly-attractive man in a black leather jacket came into Facebook’s house and almost incidentally smothered Facebook with a giant pillow. You can see that he isn’t really holding the pillow but you can see that Facebook is struggling as if Googles entire weight was holding that pillow over Facebooks head. I’ve already left Facebook for nearly all intents and purposes. The only thing that Facebook retains that is still somewhat useful is their event subsystem, but I fully expect that one of the next steps that Google will take will be a new events system that leverages Google Calendar and Google Plus into a new product, maybe, called Google Events. Only time will tell on that one.

Using Google Plus is as I’ve said, a breath of fresh air. I love using it and I can’t really explain why that is. I think it’s because there are a lot of little things that all cluster together and when you add them up, Google Plus has some seriously powerful features. Instead of Facebook’s Like, you get a +1. At first this seemed rather like a feature-for-feature thing, until I noticed that every single item in a Google Search carried this shimmering (yes, it really shimmers) +1 button next to each item! So Google has found a way to instantly socialize search. Hah. Amongst all the other things, I learned by browsing the web that Google’s Picasa product, which quietly got a cloud-treatment called Web Picasa, that the service has a 1GB data storage cap, but that the cap only counts on files that are bigger than a certain very-large-value and that it’s unlimited storage just like it is on Facebook. Again, Hah. The best part of Google Plus, at least for me, is the Circles functionality. It’s very clean and very elegant. I have my Friends, my Family, Coworkers, Followers, Google+ New People… a circle for each of my social groups. I can control which Circle or set of Circles gets which updates right when I write the updates themselves. This is perfect for me as I’ve learned, in the crucible of Facebook, that sequestering certain individuals in my social life is essential. These people, in the past, have unilaterally demanded on censoring what I have to write, even if those things are my opinions and frankly are none of their business and if I were to be really picky, violate my First Amendment rights. With Google Plus I can make sure that they never see the things that would normally upset them and with one very elegant control choice, make sure that they will never have to be upset again by the things that I write. I marvel at this kind of structure that Google has provided people like me. Google Circles are a virtual representation of how I structure my life! There is Work Andy and Home Andy and Friend Andy and so many kinds of me, all configured specifically for that group. My friends wouldn’t recognize me at work, because I conduct myself far differently than I do anywhere else. Likewise my work acquaintances have never really met the real me. They are the Coworkers Circle, and that Google brought this to the forefront really appeals to me and gratifies me.

Google Plus has half of the keystone for get my full adoration. They submitted an iOS App for the iPhone and that was cleared by Apple and it sits on the second row on my home screen of my iPhone. The other half of the keystone will either make that iOS app they already have a Universal App, or come out with an app formatted for the iPad. Once that comes to pass there will be very little if any reason for me to ever return to Facebook. In many ways it’s almost an odd new competition between Google and Facebook. To see who can come out first with an iPad app. Facebook declared that an iPad is not a mobile device and so they were never going to make a Facebook app for the iPad. Then it was revealed on the web that Facebook did have an iPad app hidden in their iPhone app and once it was revealed Facebook did enough to show their hands as manipulative petulant assholes and immediately put the kibosh on that iPad app. It may not be ready and they may not want to release it because the app isn’t up to their standards, but that’s just a red herring. It would be such a deep coup if Google got it’s Google Plus iPad App approved before Facebook’s iPad app. It would be one more slap in the face to Facebook as Google actively ignores it and snuffs it out at the same time.

If you would like to join me on Google Plus, all you have to do is send me the email you would like to associate with Google Plus and I will send out an invite. I apparently have an inexhaustible supply of invites, so if you aren’t on Google Plus and you would like to see what all the hullabaloo is about, all you have to do is ask.