What's next for the new Google+ social network? If Google acts on its users' requests, the ability to export data from Facebook to Google+ might be one, as well as an app store.
And one user already acted on his own request: a Chrome extension to export Google+ Stream posts to Facebook and Twitter.
Announced Tuesday, Google's Google+ takes on Facebook in form and function. With LinkedIn serving as a social network for jobs, PCMag.com's hands-on found Google+ to be a social network for geeks, chock full of new features and social options.
Even Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has joined Google+, although his profile page has just one update: a change to his profile picture. Larry Page also has a single public post, but Sergey Brin has yet to publicly announce himself on Google+.
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Within Google+, any comments attached to a public post are themselves public, and early users attached enthusiastic comments to two posts from Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, with congratulations and feature requests. Google currently is conducting a "field trial" of the service, with a full rollout at a future date.
Until then, users posted a number of questions and feature requests.
Facebookoff tool?
Perhaps the most interesting suggestion was offered by Mehdi Sharifzadeh, who said, "I want my facebookOff tool NOW!"
In Oct. 2010, Facebook offered a tool to offload data from its site, called Download My Data. An analysis of the feature by InsideFacebook.com notes that it includes wall posts, photos, movies, and names of contacts (without their contact information), all contained within a ZIP file and matched against an index file. Theoretically, the data could be matched and uploaded to Google+. However, commenters also claimed that the feature either didn't work or was incredibly slow, requiring days to process.
Invites, invites, invites
Not surprisingly, Google+ users wanted to add their friends as well. But they also realized that a social network doesn't just need users, it needs their digital lives, as well: photos, videos, and opinions stored on Facebook and elsewhere.
"Very cool product, but the content is all still on other networks... please open up invites soon so we can spread them around and get our near and dear ones signed on here!" Hrishikesh Diwan wrote.
"I second the invite thing," Alejandro Nijamkin, a software engineer at Google working on the Google+ Android app. "People will probably stop visiting after a while if they can't have more people to share with."
An app store
It's hard to believe that Google wouldn't have something in the works here, although it's difficult to know if this would something along the lines of a Google Chrome extension or a more formal app store. Keep in mind that although Google has a Chrome Web Store, but that marketplace seems to have much more of a lowe profile than, say, the Android Market, where apps are much more central to the mobile experience.
"Hope you'll put in some OpenSocial goodness in the future," Sebastian Mauer wrote. "Extendability via apps is crucial if you're really trying to compete with the 'ol fb ;)"
And then, of course, there's something like Zynga. Farmville on Google+? It's a long way off, even if it's technically feasible.
What's the fate of Google Buzz?
François Bacconnet posted an as-yet unanswered question: "But how Google+ and Buzz stay side by side? Will they be merged?"
It seems likely that Google Buzz, which was immediately criticized for privacy missteps, will end up being folded into Google+. On the other hand, as other commenters pointed out, those that adopted Google Buzz should be rewarded.
"Yeah, it was a successful roll out anyway you look at it - because you invited people like me who would have told you in no uncertain terms if it wasn't," Rob Gordon, an app developer, wrote. "Now go invite everyone who has been active on Buzz - they suffered more then you could possibly know, and are your most loyal users."
Integration across other Google properties
Yang Guo chimed in with some additional thoughts.
"Think about all the stuff that can be integrated!
- Calendar: event hosting
- Translate: auto translate posts from your foreign-language friends (though probably won't happen that much, with circles and all)
- Mail: connect mail to posts on Google+ limited to only one person?
- Reader: I can already follow people that keep Google+ updated with their blog entries. Would be cool to have reader content flow into my Google+ stream"
An API
This suggestion, from Karl Asman, is undoubtedly in the works.
Downvoting
We may have already seen this. Pull out a contact from your Circle, and a red "-1" icon appears. But the ability to "dis-" or "un-" like a person or post has been missing from Facebook, and it may or may not show up on Google+.
Data granularity
So far, as some have noted, Google+ is more of a one-way street, where people can be followed without their explicit permission. It's a different relationship than Facebook, where "friends" are accepted by both parties.
"It seems a shame there's no way to post messages so they are categorised, but ALSO public," Oliver Comes noted. "I tweet in 3 main subject areas, but no-one is interested in all of them, so I have three Twitter accounts so people can choose which "part" of me to follow. It seems Google+ doesn't solve this problem :( i.e. posts have to be public and seen by everyone, or to circles and only visible to people I have added (like Facebook does)."
Iterate, iterate, iterate
Google's new unofficial mantra of late (like Microsoft's use of innovation) seems to be "iterate," or the ability to quickly roll out updates and new versions of existing code. Several Google engineers expressed enthusiasm for Google+ (G+), and rolled up their sleeves.
"I second Bin's comment," Balaji Srinivasan wrote. "Best day since I joined Google. I am thrilled at all the progress we have made and am looking forward to some kick-ass quick iterations in the coming weeks."
