The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect.

Many of you may have heard of Google+.  Some of you may even be using Google+.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to use it a couple of weeks ago, now.  So I've had some time to figure it out... Mostly.
 

I find myself still learning things, like when you're getting used to any social networking site.  (I was so entwined with Myspace, that when I had to finally pull the plug and start using Facebook, I was like a fish out of water.)  However, the nice thing about Google+ is it is a lot like Facebook, only better.

There is a stream, not unlike Facebook's "News Feed".  You can post pictures and videos.   There is a video chat function, called "Hangouts", which allows you to chat one on one with a Google+ user, or with multiple users in the same chat room.

Another major change with Google+ is the differentiating a positive response to a person's post and being interested in something.  Both are called called "like" or "liking" on Facebook.  You can "like" a person's post, or go to a specific profile for a thing, actor, movie, group, or whatever, and "like" it to get news and posts from that thing.  It was a little confusing when they changed adding a profile of whatever thing you were into as a friend into "liking" it.  They should have called it something different to avoid any mixups.

On Google+, these are two very obviously different things.  For instance, if someone on your stream (news feed in FB talk) posts something you liked, you "+1" it.  I don't know why they called it that, but I guess it means you agree.
Now, if you like something, and you want to get posts, news, or info on it, you search for it on "Sparks" and add it to your interests.  This gives you quick access to any info posted on Google+ on the subject.  I haven't tried it, because I can't think of anything in particular to add just yet.  However, I did just do a search for "Harry Potter" in the sparks section, and it came up with some pretty interesting posts/videos/news stories/etc.  So, I think this looks much more organized than doing a search on Facebook for things you may like.  Especially because what comes up isn't just profiles and fan pages.

Another thing Google+ did better was creating "circles".  Instead of having just one list of "Friends", you can add whomever you want to any given circle, or multiple circles.  You can name the circles whatever you please to make them easily identifiable.  For instance, you could make these circles:  "acquaintances", "family" "work friends", "teachers", "college friends", "people i wanna do", "creepers", "friends who like the same nerdy things as me", "people I don't know but who've added me to their circles", etc.  The circles can get as creative as you want them to be, that was just a list of random circles I could think of.
Now, here's where it gets really cool.  Every single thing you post, be it a picture, a video, a link, or just a text post, only shows up to whichever circles you want it to.  For instance, if you want to post a picture of you and your baby niece, you can post it to just your "family" circle.  Or, if you want to post something funny your work friends will only understand, you can send it just to them.   Say you want to post a picture of you getting a lap dance that you don't remember from the night before, but you don't want your family or work friends to see, you can send it to whomever you feel it's acceptable to send it to. The important detail is, you only send it to the circles you want to see it.  This is good not only for you, but for the people in your circles as well.  You're going to save yourself embarrassment perhaps, but you are also going to save the people in your circles the boredom of having to go through posts they don't care about.  Well, in theory, anyways.

I know Facebook tried the whole "lists" thing, but to be honest, by the time this became an option, I had already censored myself quite a bit to mostly accommodate all of my friends, family, AND coworkers on Facebook.  Creating a bunch of lists just seemed like too much work at that point.

Another cool thing about the circles is, you can choose which circles you want to read the streams from. You can read them all, or read the streams of each circle individually.  Which also saves yourself some boredom if you don't feel like reading the "comic book nerd friends" stream today.  Or ever.

If you have an Android phone, there could not be a better social networking app.  It is incredibly seamless.  It's quick, it's neat, you can delete posts from your phone unlike Facebook.  Whenever you take a photo on your phone, it automatically uploads to your Google+ account in a private folder.  After it uploads, you have the option of posting the photos publicly and who you would like to see them.  No more having to upload each photo individually.

Another difference is how Google+ combines all of your gmail contact information into your account.   I like that you can access all of your contacts on Google+.  Well, you will be able to once it opens to the general public (if they choose to sign up).  I like having my information all in one spot.  It makes life a lot easier.  I also have a google phone, so that integrates things a lot more as well.  The less work I have to do to juggle e-mails, friends, contacts, voicemails, etc, the better.

One thing that Myspace was always a step ahead of Facebook in was the tiny amount of anonymity.  You were able to have complete strangers on your friends list.  You can do that on Facebook, but it always seemed a little weird to me to do that because I have so many family members and coworkers on my friends list.  I didn't want to open up my profile to some randoms who might post really strange things on my page and have my parents or bosses wondering about it and how it relates to me.  I got some really odd posts on Myspace, but on Myspace, you had privacy settings that let you approve comments, so you could avoid some of those really weird or awkward ones going straight to your page.
Also, on Facebook, I feel like a lot more personal information is available than was on Myspace, which is also something I didn't always feel comfortable sharing with complete strangers.  On Facebook, a friend can check you in at whatever location you may be at with them.  Which is fine, but, on Myspace, I had thousands of followers.  I really did not need all of them knowing where I was exactly at any given moment.  Google+ gives you the best of both worlds.  No one can see which circle you've put them in, so they won't be offended if they may not see everything you post.  You can post your location, but you can choose who sees that information.  It's all very good for privacy, and this way, you can add people to your circle that you don't know, but may find something in common with.  I like it.

You also can't post on someone's wall, but you can tag them in a post directed towards them.  I think.  I haven't actually done this yet.  But I've seen other people do it.

There's probably a lot of features I haven't touched upon, but those are the biggest ones I've encountered thus far.

I can't wait until Google+ opens to the general public.  I really like it.  I feel like the only thing it's missing is a blog section.  Then, once everyone joined, I would never need to post anything anywhere else.  But don't tell my network host site I said that.

Oh, and if anyone knows how to merge two gmail accounts (I made the mistake of using one for this site, and one for the my google+) let me know.  I'm tired of having to switch accounts when I go between my blog and google+.  Or, if there's a way to change your blogger main email address to another email address, that would work, too.

Anyways, here's a Facebook funny: