Steve Jobs

 Image © Apple, Inc

Following doesn’t have to be mutual

Like Twitter, I can choose to follow whoever I want without that person needing to approve our “friendship”. This also solves the friend page vs. fan page problem that well known people have on Facebook where they don’t want (can’t) to become friends with all of their followers due to limitations and the need for some privacy.

Circles

I have the ability to easily share information with everyone on the web, my high school friends, or just my family. Yes, all of this could be done in Facebook using lists but it is a second step in the friending process. In Google+, in order to follow a person you must put them into a circle, making this the first step in the process.

Now on to the changes I would like to see.

The Stream: order of posts

Currently, the stream updates with posts that have recently been commented on. This needs to be updated to show posts in chronological order by default and there should be an option to see the list has it is now. This would be similar to what Facebook has now with its “Top News” and “Most Recent”. What I am suggesting would be mostly like Most Recent and the current display would be Top News.

To get around posts that constantly bubble to the top, there is a feature that lets you “Mute” posts. I have been using this as a “Mark as read” button to avoid seeing the same posts multiple times.

The Stream: circles in feeds

Right now, the Stream shows posts by everyone in your circles. This would be ok if everyone you followed shares items less than five times in a day, but when following popular and high tech users your stream becomes overran. Currently, you can select just one circle to view at one time but you can’t select multiple. If there was an option to display “all circles but…” or to just display circles “a, b, and d” this would solve the problem.

To get around this, a user could click through, one by one, all of the circles they want to see from the sidebar.

Hangouts: limit of 10

Currently hangouts are limited to a maximum of 10 people chatting and using video. This is a problem when hangouts are posted publicly and a rush of a hundred people trying to get in to talk to the well-known person hosting the hangout. I understand that one hundred people can’t stream video into a chat room, but if there was a limit of 10 people with video and the rest could watch/listen and participate in the chat room. When someone, who is streaming video, leaves the hangout the next person inline would be able to start his or her video.

Google+ includes other features (Sparks, Huddle, Instant Upload) I have yet to use but can’t wait to try them out.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Follow me on Google+.

Related Articles

• Google+: The Pros & Cons

Earlier this week Google released their take on a social network, Google+ in limited preview. Although I wasn’t in the original group, I managed to get get an invite from Meitar Moscovitz on twitter and have been loving it ever since. Want an invite (when available), send an email to contact@crader.co.

Yesterday, Mashable writer Ben Parr took a poll on Google+ regarding the Pros and Cons. I gave him some feedback and made it into the article he published earlier today. There are many Pros and Cons to Google+, so I suggest you go and check out Ben’s article.

Click the photo below to view the article and follow me on Google+.

The Museum of Me uses data from your Facebook account and forms it into a video showcasing your Friends, Photos, Words, and Likes. After watching the video a couple of times, I decided to save it and upload it to YouTube to share.

Here is my video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vQPjsCYag&w=560&h=349]

I turned off Pandora turned on CNN for some background noise on the subject. If President Obama was going to speak, CNN would definitely be talking about it. At around 7:45 pm (PST), CNN reported Osama bin Laden had been killed an this is what the announcement would be about.

As the night continued, more and more conformation was coming from various news sources confirming the announcement of Osama’s death. My primary news source was Twitter. Around 8:30 pm (PST), Obama spoke to the nation and world, telling us of Osama’s death and the events leading up to it. (Video below)

During this announcement, I was reminded of two things: the families who were affected by the September 11, 2001 tragedies and the men and women who fight day in and day out protecting our freedom. I have no idea how it must have felt on 9/11 to have your family and friends die in the World Trade Center collapse. My heart goes out to you. To the soldiers, thank you for what you do. Protecting our freedom and fighting for our country is a tireless job and you do it with pride and honor.

I wrote this post as a memory of todays occurrences as I saw them unfold. This is a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life. The announcement by President Obama is below.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/all/modules/swftools/shared/flash_media_player/player5x2.swf

Transcript

Notehall allows users to upload and sell Lecture Notes, Study Guides, Reading Notes, Formula Sheets, Outlines, Definition Sheet, Presentations, Problem Sets, and Labs.

Notehall was featured on the ABC reality show Shark Tank. The appearance on Shark Tank is how I found out about Notehall and was happy to see Oregon State University listed as one of the schools. I began by uploading notes for my MTH 231: Elements of Discrete Mathematics lecture during winter term 2010 but stopped uploading after a few weeks because I got too busy and couldn’t keep up with them.

Beginning Winter Term 2011, I decided that I was going to start uploading lecture notes again. This is a big task since I will be uploading 12 documents a week. One of the things that has kept me going, is that I am also a Disability Access Services notetaker for OSU. Additionally, I am uploading my hand written notes and not typing them. Both of these things make it much easier to keep up with the lectures.

I encourage you to go and see what Notehall has to offer and maybe you will find some notes you need or will start uploading your own.

See the sidebar gadget to find out what classes I have uploaded notes for.

So here is today’s question Do you prefer to talk, text message, or a different communication method?

I prefer to text, email, or any other form of written communication. It’s not that I don’t enjoy talking to other people, it is easier to form thoughts and change the wording to say what I want to say. These forms of written communication allow people to multitask or communicate without being disruptive. In addition, I am kind of a shy person and find it easier to express myself when I write it. Now it is your turn, Do you prefer to talk, text message, or a different communication method?

Here is my first post, will you join me?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sfnQDr1-o?rel=0]

According to the video description, the pig and monkey are both orphans and were put together at the zoo and became great friends. The original video (no music) can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-cMub_WlMc.

Download the “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On a Pig)” song on iTunes.

The extension is a simple popup window that loads OSU mobile. Download the extension in the Chrome extension gallery.

Stop copying Bing. Nobody want to see a picture when they visit google.com. Users want to see a white background with a search box and the logo/doodle for the day. Nothing more, nothing less.

Google homepage with artist background

Remember the old saying “Less is more.”, please keep it that way.

Signed,

Your Users