This is the two-minute Google+ review.

What you don’t need is another Google+ review of features and benefits. This isn’t that review. Here is a link to my Google+ aggregation, for all your full-review needs.

You’ll like G+ if:

• You like using Twitter via Twitter.com
• Animated Gifs don’t bug the crap out of you
• You want to talk about Google+
• You’re really mad a Facebook and looking for "any" alternative. (The any place but Facebook, crowd)
• You want to be IN with the cool kids like Chris Brogan, Gary V, Michael Arrington, Scobble… (if you don’t know these names, you might be okay waiting on G+ a bit)
• You don’t want to be left out of the conversation about Google+ and social media in general (though you can catch most of this on Twitter anyway)
• You really want to restart your social networks, and build new Circles (see: groups/lists) with new names and new friends
• You’ve got some blockers on Facebook and/or Twitter who you want to try again with and they’re on G+
• You don’t have enough social media stimulus during the day, and you want another tab on your browser to check-in on
• You want to watch Google take over the world as they fold every single web function and web app into Google+ (don’t worry, this might take a while)

You’ll hate G+ if:

• You’ve got a pretty well-organized Tweetdeck or Hootsuite setup for managing Twitter
• You’re social needs to have commerce attached to it
• An endless stream of comments, and people "trying out" Google+ annoys you
• You’re pretty happy with your "friends" set up on Facebook
• You really don’t want to start over, reorganizing and categorizing and learning a new set of social media skills
• You think discussions about social media are boring
• You’re concerned that Google already knows too much about you (they do regardless of your *privacy* settings)

My big thoughts about Google+

• Starting over is fun (since discovery is the most addictive quality of social media, then you can have that "look who I just discovered on Google+" feeling over and over again
• Circles are just groups with a nicer user interface to organize and sort
• At the moment the filtering (how you tune in to what you want to hear) is none existent (you can mute a post, but not a circle)
• I personally love talking about social media, therefore many of the discussions about Google+ that are happening exclusively on Google+ are interesting to me
• The best discussions about Google+ are suggestions and questions about how to make it better (here’s the Google Group that seems to have the most educated discussions about future Google+ functionality.
• Video chat with Michael Dell and 10 or so other people can be really entertaining, or boring, depending on your perspective (Yes, MD is regularly using the final AH HA feature of Google+: HANGOUTS, video chat with 10 of your social associates.)
• Google+ really is a beta, there’s nothing quite perfect about it. Mainly the apps to manage the flow of information inside Google+ don’t exist yet.
• Google IS going to hook all this stuff up into an even more formidable social network. Previous attempts failed, but they are betting the farm and the 2011 and 2012 company bonuses on social projects.

The social media 101 summary: If you like Facebook, stay there. If you like Twitter check out Google+. If you work in social media, you don’t need to be *reading* about Google+ you need to be *using* Google+.

Of course I’m sticking with Google+. I do love a good social media semantic discussion. I aspire to Brogan’s social footprint. And there is a Chrome extension that lets you turn off animated gifs in Google+ (link to StopAnimations)

So if you’re going to make the plunge, by all means, get ready for either fun or overwhelm. Here’s my Google+ address: jmacofearth so you can hook up with me once you are inside. And if you need an invite let me know. The floodgates appear to be open to all.

@jmacofearth

permalink: https://uber.la/2011/07/google/

• Problem with Google+; The STREAM is Too Fast – Filter the Stream or Pause the Stream
• Google+ Circles: Understanding Your Public vs Private Social Networks
• Ready to Start Over with Google+? The Good News About Refining the Conversation
• Pulling You Out of the Lurker Mode; How Can We Make It Easier To Connect?
• The 10th Discipline of Social Media; Socializing Your Content Effectively 
• The Social Sharing Golden Rule: "And What Excites You About That?"
• Auto-Bots Are Killing Twitter; Why Auto-Social & Robot-Social is Bad for Social

And if you want a laugh at the Google+ experience, here’s Google-Minus: