Is google taking over?

Google Plus. Everyone wants to know about it. Here's what I think.

I am a bit nervous about technical writing. I am not techno-savvy, as evidenced by my Top 10 Commenter box to your left without any commenters in it. Every widget I found on the web just won't work right. Does anyone know if this pipe place is just a scam? All the code I have found uses pipes and not a single one of them actually work.

I'm a bit worried that I may look this stupid in the techno department. (O.k. I don't think I am that stupid thanks to my husband who just realized that I had the wrong link oops)


First I must enlighten you about google's attempt at pinterest. It's called What do you love? It can be found at wdyl.com. You type in something that you want to hear more about and it gives you these neat little boxes with lists of stuff from all over the internet. I actually think it's like a mix of pinterest and bing.

I typed in LeGrand. It didn't give me what I wanted. I was hoping the page would be plastered with my hubby, but even though I am a somewhat successful blogger who blogs a lot about my man with a very original name, he was nowhere to be found.

Google did give me a street in California named LeGrand that we could go and see. I can explore LeGrand in 3D. Been there, done that. It gave me a box to start a discussion about LeGrand, which I could totally use on most days. It gave me my man's new logo. Surely brought to us by some company in Europe that sells things that are just grand.

I was really excited about the box called start a debate about LeGrand. Oh you know I did. Feel free to reply or add a question of your own. Unless you are one of my anonymous commenters who like to be mean. You guys aren't invited to the party, although I am sure you won't resist the opportunity to crash it...after all that does seem to be your forte. I feel so bad for party crashers; the only people who give them the time of day, are other people who are crashing a party. Must be a little miserable.

When I type Alice Gold into wdyl (you know I can't resist searching for myself), all the photos on the front page are of the new up an coming British singer with whom I have the pleasure to share my name.

O.k. enough of the Gold's.

On to my take on google plus.

What is google plus?

It's a social network. I think it's google's attempt at combining twitter and facebook. They have done a pretty great job, if you care to hear the humble opinion of a technologically challenged blogger. I am terrified to switch over to wordpress. (Well, and I don't want to lose all my google searches)

The things I like about google plus:

The twitter-like features. I have a lot of friends on facebook and not as many on twitter. I use both mediums for different reasons. I love the hashtags and the ability to just type in a friend's name in the comment box of twitter and they automatically alert the person I am talking to. In facebook I have to go to each individual wall and that gets time consuming.

Circles. Circles are the big selling point for google plus. You can keep all of your people separate and easily share what you want to share with only who you want to share. It's a bit of a pain setting it up at first, and I have a lot of circles so it's extra horrible waiting for the page to move down to those bottom circles every time, but in the long run this feature alone could be a viable argument for using google over its counterparts.

Profile Google put together my profile for me and it even reflected my sense of humor.

A few years ago I received my first capped tooth. Joy.Do you think it's just coincidence that at the time I was living in Tennessee.

Almost a little creepy how it can read my mind, but it was awesome to discover that google had once again done my work for me.


Plus 1 While I am out perusing the web, whenever I hit the google plus sign, they will all be added to my tab under my profile where it will feature everything I like, all in the same spot. Now, that's genius. I may not even have to blog anymore.

Pictures Google automatically imported every single one of my photos from picasa web albums. You can't see them until I go over and hit the share button, but this is a huge bonus for me. We are talking over 5,000 pictures at my fingertip and yours.

Chat/Hangout We have all been using google to chat forever, but now we can hang out. Remember those circles? I can invite all the people in a circle to hang out all at once. Hey book club gals in TN, we can now each use our own I-pads to have a book club from home, even when I live in Utah now. We will all be chatting and viewing each other in video. I don't know about you, but the 15 year old girl in me feels like she just got invited to the best slumber party ever. (My techysavvy hubby just proofread this post for me so I don't make a total idiot out of myself and he thinks that you can only hangout with 7 people at a time - I am contemplating which 6 of you would be the most entertaining to invite to my online book club)

What I dislike about google plus:


The learning curve  I always hate the learning curve. My first try on google plus, I wanted to thank LG's cousin who graciously sent me the invite. I couldn't figure out how to go to her wall so I went back over to facebook to say my thanks. It wasn't until my brother explained to me the twitter feature of just typing the name in the box that I understood that google plus was actually more convenient than facebook. Well, at least technology will always be good for one thing: let's all give our technological training men a huge thankful shout out, right here and now.

Spammers use it. I've already been followed by almost as many spammers as friends. Even though I don't have to add them to my circles, they are still following me and that creeps me out a bit. I feel the same way about the spammers on Twitter.

Nobody is there. Well, I shouldn't say nobody because I do have about 20 friends who are actually using google plus, but that would still mean that I am missing over 800 people.

Why we should all be worried:

Mark Zuckerber is the google plus user with the most followers. Yes, that Mark Zuckerberg.

Only time will tell what google plus will do to our beloved facebook. And do you know what I love about that? The power lies with the users. It's all up to us. The industry will listen to what we want and make it happen. All hail to the free market.

Oh, speaking of facebook, if you haven't liked me there yet, please do. Go over to the box on the right of this very blog and hit the like button. It's that simple and you hold the power of promotion.

And also, just so some of you who are like me and are still learning: at the bottom of every single one of my posts are little boxes you can hit to share my stuff on the likes of facebook and twitter. If you ever really enjoy any of my posts, I would be so honored if you would share it with others. I am anxiously awaiting my first post to go viral.

Thanks to all my loyal readers. Love you all to pieces...Except you anonymous. I don't love you as much as I love my other people.