Never mind... unless you have an invite.

Google+ is in limited Field Trial
Right now, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people.

Never mind, even if you DO have an invite...

Already invited? We've temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon.

Google Google, do everything :)

Pay close attention to that Sparks section. 'When you're free there is always something to watch or share'. You'll want to know how to get your content on there, the more effective Google is with this the more eyes will be looking.

As for how effective this will be, I'm on the fence if only because facebook is entrenched.

Google definitely has a well known brand and they have a much wider access to information, of every kind. They control SERPS and have loads of data on most everyone. I wouldn't discount the potential here.

It will come down to ease of use, imo. People can't be bothered to set up profiles without incentive and it has to be easy and rewarding. People already have a lot of this stuff on Facebook so setting up yet another account is the hurdle. Get the popcorn ready though, when the advertising wars begin Google has a clear advantage since they own an immensely widespread ad platform.

Google is the closest to achieving a one stop for everything online portal, time will tell if that's a good thing or not.

One other thing - 'huddle' looks like a reincarnation of Google wave and in it's current state might just be a step up on TWITTER too. You can gather people into a chat group and announce stuff, deals, etc. It COULD be used as a form of stage for whatever you want to talk to a lot of live people about.

Worth looking into if you want to talk to interested people all at once. Add voice to text conversion in there and it might be an effective marketing method, assuming you can get people into your huddle. I bet if Lady Gaga got into an open huddle there would be a lot of people moving over from both Twitter and Facebook to talk with her live...

lexipixel - another purely search engine? I surely hope so. Who's on first? Bing, for now.

A UK journalists fairly lengthy opinion after receiving an invite
[guardian.co.uk...]

Time will tell, but if I were offered the choice of this or Facebook, I'd take Facebook. But I'd take Twitter's simplicity and speed over both.

lol Twitter's speed?

And all FB has to do now is add some "Circle"-type functionality.

what a fail.... sorry wannabee springs to mind.

is goog trying to give people something nobody is asking for?

Will the circle be unbroken
Google plus, Larry, Google plus
There's a better home a'waiting
Huddle up, Larry, huddle up.

at what point do G give up and admit they just can't "do" social networking or are we going to get humiliating re-invention after humiliating re-invention on a yearly basis?

stick to what you do best, Google. Oh, and you might want to pay some attention to that too because your eyes are leaving that ball too.

Add Google Profiles into the mix. It appears to be a separate thing from Buzz/Plus/Circles or whatever they are calling the "Google Social Network" this week.

"...Decide what the world sees when it searches for you. Create a public profile to display the information you care about and make it easy for visitors to get to know you."

[profiles.google.com ]

I wouldn't be surprised in the Google+ team doesn't know about the Google Profiles team.

"...Decide what the world sees when it searches for you. Create a public profile to display the information you care about and make it easy for visitors to get to know you."

[profiles.google.com ]

I thought that was generally what SEO was about.

I had an uncle that tried to do a lot of different jobs, he wasn't good at any of them. By the time he got good at typewriters and installing 8-track player in car, they were obsolete.

Received an AdSense suggestion asking me to add the Add +1 to my site via AdSense code. I wonder if anyone will read the the 10 pages of "NO" I sent them in reply?

stick to what you do best, Google

Correction: it should be "stick to what you DID best"
Google is no longer the leading search engine. A certain mister Panda destroyed what used to be a good search engine.

Ok, I got an invite and implemented it immediately. I've made over a million bucks from AdSense, been to the 'plex a dozen times, program in a half-dozen languages, built (and sold) a few hundred websites. In other words, I'm pretty savvy when it comes to Google and the Internet.

I couldn't figure it out.

Their instructions are so convoluted, as are their explanation of what it is supposed to do. I implemented it quickly as a test, thinking that it's going to take several attempts to make it work.

I really doubt that there will be a broad appeal to this. It's just too hard to figure out. I'm sure there will be a Wordpress plugin and one for Blogger, but it certainly doesn't pass the "Mother" test. Sorry Mom, I'll stick with Facebook so you can continue to communicate with me.

loving what dataguy says - can't wait to see more.

what I wonder is 'will there be a way to have professional and social networking separated?' ?

i don't want my clients to see I'm kicking back at the beach (unless I want them to know that and it is somehow relevant to something business oriented) and I somehow want to keep these separate.

what my wife and kids do is also supposed to be separate from the business stuff.

right now I'm thinking of doing it with a non TOS approach where I have 2 different FB accounts.

and I suppose I'll know more when and if I get an invite.

so how does one get an invite?

I'm sick of 'sparks', 'streams' and 'hangouts' already.

Then again I got rid of my iphone and shut down my Facebook and twitter recently too. Getting UNhooked from all that is 'online' is refreshing indeed.

The thought may sound scary at first (WHAT, MAYBE SOMEONE WILL NEED TO CONTACT ME FOR WORK.. OR A DATE). No, they won't, and if they do they will still know how to reach you. It's true!

Getting UNhooked from all that is 'online' is refreshing indeed

It really is Sgt. And I'm saying that as someone who loves the internet and how it has changed our lifestyles for the better as long as we keep our focus on its long-term benefits rather than short term trends.

Yet I look forward each day to going out in public places and hoping to bump into an old man sitting on a park bench with a serene expression to ask him -- what was it all about?!

Social media places such as WebmasterWorld are invaluable for interacting with same-industry folks. But even still I know there are times when debates become personal because of misunderstanding due to an absence of tone of expression or body gestures. Those are subtleties that cannot be conveyed via written word. I save all my deep conversations for in-person meetups, for whatever topic, in case I have to defend myself with a smile.

I should add to the above. Some of the people in this world that could teach us the most are the ones that we turn away from. They are relegated to retirement homes, disconnected from society and forgotten about because they "slow us down". We do not find those types of people in online "social media circles". Online social media is for commercialism, not meaningful interaction. We have lost respect for our elders.

what I wonder is 'will there be a way to have professional and social networking separated?
-chewy

Simple. You get one account on Facebook and another on LinkedIN.

[plus.google.com...]

seems to be open to everyone now... no invite required.

Looks more like they are collecting email addresses...

I created a Google account specifically for Google+, then logged in to the url (above), and got the following:

Thanks for stopping by.We’re still ironing out a few kinks in Google+, so it’s not quite ready for everyone to climb aboard. But, if you want, we’ll let you know the minute the doors are open for real. Cool? Cool.

Yes, they ended the notice with "Cool? Cool."

...on the "+" side, Google is the only one to have that email address now, so I can track what happens independently of any other Google account.

Google "is out of its mind" if it thinks I am going to marry any of my established email addresses between Adsense, Analytics, YouTube, whatever else, AND new, untested social network.

Facebook blocks contact exporting tool.

To prevent users from collecting up "their friends" info to import into Google+

"...The activities surrounding the export tool spotlights the value of the data contained in social networks. Google believes people should be able to extract information about their contacts and provides tools to let people do so. Facebook, the incumbent power in social networking, provides only a tool to let people extract what they themselves have put into the network. The friend list it provides is a series of names in plain text--no contact information, and not even a link to their Facebook pages to help distinguish John Smith No. 1 from John Smith No. 2..."

[news.cnet.com...]

Google to Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google+ Push

Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned.

The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+, the search giant’s social initiative.

[mashable.com...]

This might very well kill Twitter, or hurt them enough, since the top users are few and in tech /'hip' crowd. For FB, not so sure, people have deep roots there and feature wise there's nothing FB can't do too in a week.

I don't think they will hurt FB for the same reason -- the teen / twenty something crowd is embedded in FB, and the parents and relatives who joined FB to connect with their college kids at first, and all friends and family now are fairly low-tech and won't want to start over.

Then you have the organizations, musicians & bands and other who are migrating from MySpace (or already have) to FB for ease of use and more access to the FB user base.. etc, etc...

Lastly, you have "business" who have found they can use FB pages, groups and events to promote things for free.

My take is that Google has an uphill battle to get into "social" at this point -- and about all they can count on are "techies" who are anti-Microsoft, anti-Facebook, etc.

Twitter I see as filling a completely different need -- it's basically used to replace the 10-second radio spot -- blurt something out and hope to get some response.

About all Google has going for it now is deep pockets -- but if shareholders start noticing even a blip on the golden-boy of the .COM era's radar, they may panic and start a downward spiral on that front.

I have one or two very good ideas for Google, but I'll keep those to myself unless they decide to call and ask -- or someone else does. :-)

YouTube Launches Experimental Redesign Called Cosmic Panda

Just days ago Google launched a redesign of their search engine and it looks like YouTube is next on their list. Earlier today, YouTube announced “a new experimental experience for videos, playlists and channels.” It’s called Cosmic Panda and there’s no denying the fact that it fits perfectly into the whole Google+, Google redesigned branding experience.


[socialtimes.com...]