I use Google products A LOT. Apart from not being too fond of Apple, I’m not really brand loyal when it comes to IT, I use whatever’s best. But if I could be considered to be an extreme user for a particular brand it would be Google.
I know people have privacy issues with Google, but all that shit, all their information gathering, is opt-outable. Which I have…It’s fine…Really.
I’m a Google Apps user, as in I use Google Apps For Your Domain (as it used to be called). That’s where you can use Google’s products and apps with your own domain address, in my case electronicrumors.com. So if you send me an email to my electronicrumors.com email address it essentially goes to Google’s mail servers and I get it through the Gmail interface. It’s the same with Contacts, Calendar, Docs etc…, all tied to my electronicrumors.com domain (rather than gmail.com). It works brilliantly, everything is integrated seamlessly and is instantly available on an Android phone. Google even recently opened almost all the rest of their products to Apps users, Picasa (which I used anyway), YouTube (which I used anyway), Reader (which I used anyway), Blogger (hello!), all under my domain address. Almost all of them.
The one thing Google Apps users still don’t have access too is a Google Profile. Oh well, until the start of this week that meant I couldn’t use Buzz, an app which looked interesting but nothing I lost sleep over. Then Google announced Google+.
I hate Facebook. Not in the emo “I hate Facebook and I’m gonna’ delete my account” way but in the way where I love social networking, I just hate using Facebook’s interface. The Facebook user experience has rapidly gone downhill over the last couple of years. It’s buggy, clunky and depressing to use and the more Facebook heap on new features (movie streaming? news aggregation?) the more Facebook starts to resemble AOL, only more frustrating to use. Also, the fact that Facebook won’t allow the exporting of your own user and contact data is just plain insulting.
So I welcome Google+ with open arms, a social network that looks well thought out and somewhat innovative, that ties in with my existing Google functionality? Yes please!
Denied!
Unfortunately you need a Google Profile to use Google+ so all the Google Apps users, arguably Google’s most loyal and enthusiastic customers (there are many tiers of paid access to Google Apps too), are, so far, unable to sign up for Google+, regardless of invite. We are side-lined to reading reviews of how awesome Google+ is on blogs and tech sites (who are, everyday, enthusing about new features and plug-ins that extend functionality) and quietly, frustratingly, sobbing at our screens.
Google have said the are working on getting Google Apps working with Google+ as a priority…but we’ve been told Profiles for Google Apps users have been on their way “in the coming weeks” for over a year now.
I like tech stuff, hardware, software, web apps. I like social networking, both as a tool and for fun.I like to try out new stuff. I am a geek. That I can’t get involved in a web app that look pretty tailor made for me is so frustrating.
Childish, maybe, but frustrating nonetheless.
If Google want a Facebook killer I am more than willing to help them.
I’m knocking, let me in!
No comments:
Post a Comment