Discussion on:

The top 10 features missing from Google Plus

Link to original post:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/the-top-10-features-missing-from-google-plus/8683

Jason ... even in your article you touch on the subject but without getting to the heart of the matter .. PRIVATE Profiles using Aliases.

Why does this concept not fail google plus for everyone right out of the gate? You said it yourself.. #9 verified accounts ... that goes both ways..

People are making up FAKE accounts for "Paris Hilton", "George Clooney", etc and *you* as well as others think "oh someone should verify they are really them" ... THEY FAKED THE ACCOUNT .... why did they fake the account? because they didn't want to use their REAL NAME PUBLICALLY like that. Or what about the *OTHER* George Clooney? the Other David Hasslehoff (think CBS's new show "Same Name") Real people but what then, who gets to be the real one?

Anonymity on the web is one thing that is both a blessing and a curse..

So do you think the real paris hilton, or the real Clooney should have real profiles exposed so that they can't legitimately, by google's rule, peak in on the world without being mobbed on line too?

Or what about the poor whistle blower? Or the person that just needs to vent steam ... now if they say something true, but don't want people to know where it came from they can't do it on GGL+, anyone can see it because technically you're not supposed to lie about who you are...google says..

Google Says Public Profile - GGL Says no lies - GGL Says no choice on who can know you - GGL Says no choice on who can get that information ... oh just don't share that? So why exclude "the name" It makes ZERO sense .... everything else that you post in your profile can be a lie, just not your name?

for better than 20 years I've been known to family and friends by my alternate name ... and now that name isn't good enough for Google+?

I'm sorry but a lot of the other things beat around that same proverbial bush ... Muting someone? In AIM no one may chat me unless they are on my buddy list .. does that make it harder for them to reach me? sure ... but it also means that we already have communication, we exchange that "hi my name is" on X service and I take the deliberate action to choose to include them in my buddy list ...

I shouldn't have to lie with my "name" and shouldn't have to have both a first and last name .. Madonna, Cher, Prince, Bono, Elvis, Hillary.. do they all have to post their real first and last names? I may not be famous, but the people that know me, the ones *I* want to have in my circles ... they know me, but not john q. public, and I'd rather keep it that way.

Do I want to have a real profile, with real information in it that family and friends only can see? Yes ... do I think that I should be forced to use my real name in that profile publically? NO. And because people can lie about who they are just to create the profile negates google's bs about requiring the name be out there. Let me use my known name ... let a cracker use their hacker alias, let John Smith go by JSmith2135 if they want ... but keep their real public name private for only those in John's *trusted* circle to see.

I'm sorry.. but
Google+ = _FAIL_

I think there are two similar but different issues you are confusing here. My reading of Jason's comments are that he is suggesting that if you are claiming to George Clooney the movie star or Paris Hilton the... whathever it is she does... then there should be a validation process to prove that you are.

That is different than enforcing that if you want to use Google+ you must verify who you are, and no aliases allowed. Paris Hilton can create a fake account under the name Jane Doe if she likes. And David Hasslehoff the shoe salesman from New Jersey can create an account. It's just at the moment they claim to be "the" Paris Hilton or David Hasslehoff that verification would kick in.

If you go to your profile you'll find up at the top where you can select Posts, Photos, there should be a "+1's" , in joy. 8)

That only shows the stuff from outside of Google+ that you have given a +1 (most articles or items from search results). It does not include items that you have given a +1 inside of Google+.

you log in to more than one google account, perhaps on separate tabs?

Well that is a 3party app that allows you to create many different chrome profiles. I use it to log in to several different google accounts that I maintain for other business websites, so using Google apps and other not just normal gmail account.

The cool part is you can customize each one to be unique (themes, apps and extentions). do a google search for Chrome Backup you'll find http://www.parhelia-tools.com/products/gcb/googlechrome.aspx enjoy. 8)

when clicking on another name takes you to there profile and you can click on their "+1's" to see their +1's

8)

G+ already has google talk because there are people who dont have G+ accounts yet that I can see online and chat to on G+

Another thing, you should add a g+ sharing option to this site.

I want the ability to select a circle as the default stream.

That would be a great option.

There are more missing features and issues at Official Google+ Discussion Forum. Some are serious which even involves privacy, I saw one thread that has many pissed off users because Google automatically publicized their Picasa albums.

When I upload photos taken from my phone I would like to organize them into different albums and share the albums between different Streams.
Right now the only way I found to create a new album is to download the photos to my pc then create a new album which you can only select photos from your pc.

Great article, and I wanted to give you +1 but it was not there!:)

at the beginning of the article, just below the article title and to the right of Jason's byline.

I hope Google+ consider this as a serious improvement. I think they will gain credibility if they can control the rotten wood.

I have a business email with Google Apps and that was how I got my Google+ account...Works fine for me.

Google has admitted they don't work together and they don't.

I suspect you may not have a google apps account or you may still have a separate google account with the same email but they are separate accounts and if you end up needing to change passwords for instance you will find that they are not the same account.

You know what...I had one and was in there using it just the other day...I swear...but your right. Doesn't work with that email anymore. Odd


UPDATE: Figured out what happened. I got the PLus account with a google apps email but then the company transitioned to the new system (another huge Google pain in the butt) and it pushed my plus account to a new gmail email I was forced to create during the transtions. Google use to let you have the google apps account and then that email could become a google account too. So you are right, I had both and apps account and google account with the same email.

So glad you didn't pick Farmville as one of the essential top 10 missing features.

I am not going to join every freakin social network that comes along. These people need to get a life if all they do is Tweet, Facebook and now Google Plus. I barely have time to read my email anf Facebook about going to the grocery store. Let alone sign up for another time wasting site like Google Plus.

security issue, where stupid people share their whole lives with the world. I wish this "social networking" crap would just DIE. who cares?

Because TR/ZDnet is beating the drums on praising Google+ as if it was the next Messiah.

I hope you have noticed this, as well as I have, but also add a collapse option to the comments. If you have ever added some of your favourite youtubers to a circle called "youtubers" or what ever you may have named such a circle, the stream as well as that circle's thread can become quite... overwhelming?

200 comments, plus all of the other posts, and for fun expand some of those comments, and then so on, turns into a pdf version of a bible trying to scroll your way around. A simple collapse is all i ask

Though this application is more protective for social networking and has advantages on Privacy of a person and group, unlike Facebook or netlog or Twitter, there are size limitations in this site like 20GB shall make others to navigate out of Google+. This is an obstalce for a group or a single to share more photos with others of his/her choice.

.

a) Ability to group circles. Ie: Make a circle that contains circles!
b) instead of single circle stream or Stream (all) - add ability to pick multiple circles to view in the stream. There are some people whom you follow (like Jason Hiner) who post so much stuff that if you put them into a circle and view stream - they drown out everything else! (Sorry Jason )
c) GTalk is integrated - right there on the left side under Chat
d) Add location is too restrictive - it often puts you close, but not at where you are. Need ability to tweak the location, like manually adding the actual address - and having the system learn from that.
e) related to above - integrate Latitude correctly - a bit screwed up now!
f) You can already sign up with ANY EMAIL ACCOUNT - just need a google profile!
g) Ability to pick a SINGLE photo from an ALBUM and share that! Currently can only share selected photos from your instant upload - not from ALBUMs
h) And when people get the temptation to start building games for G+, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give us the ability to block classes of applications from posting to us - ever!
i) related to above - make seperate NOTIFICATION area for such 'application' type alerts.
I could go on a bit, but these are my top points!
Cheers

You had done great work to list 10 missing features on Google+. But, I have issues with sharing option. I am not able to share URL directly to Google plus post areal. Have any idea about it? If yes so let me know.

Most of the people I know have joined using their Gmail account, so it's not really a hardship to just use that.
It's so deeply embedded that it almost works like Facebook messaging.

Having said that, I still prefer FB :-D

You can post something on your wall, and send it to a single person, instead of one or more circles. In that case, they get an email (if they have the default settings) and only they can see it, and only you can see their responses. It is technically on your "wall", but it functions as a private conversation.

If you have someone in one of your Circles, just put them in the "+Add more people" field as the only person and you have an instant private conversation.

have n`t tried it havent heard the priviledge top join so wow to i join g+

11. Buzz should appear in your stream (sounds corny) - or else what do I do with my Buzzes

Threaded "bulletin board" conversations are rare to find anywhere anymore, at least in the places i haunt. It is very effective, in my opinion. Fb doesn't do it, so people have taken to @ing people so it is known about which comment they are writing. An "L"-shaped arrow can overcome the indenting troubles of more than 3 levels. Some nuanced conversations might need more than 5 levels.

All social networking need more options than just "+1" or "like". I agree (took me a while to come to this opinion) that "Dislike" is a bad idea, like feeding all trolls at all times. But "Interesting" is needed. If the post says "Hitler killed ____ people" or such, "Like" is hardly appropriate! "Funny" would be good, getglue.com has that. They have a drop down marked "Vote" which yields "Funny" "Agree" and "Cool". Not voting is plenty for indicating you find something none of the above. Digg.com's "bury" might have been a good idea there, since it's a numbers game.

I love the absence of farmvillemafiaelfvampire crap. But that said, there could be destination items that aren't annoying. Word games, just-for-fun contests ... some reason to go to G+ even when you have no notifications.

Discussions are already happening about how to spell things like "+1ing \ +1'ing" ... a good sign that G+ is taking off.

I use a Firefox add-on called "Better Facebook" and it lets you hide posts you've read until someone comments again, or you can dismiss completely. This makes it FAR easier to get through your stream! The add-on is a bit buggy, but worth it until Fb improves. G+ needs this to be native!

A few set-backs in Google+
However, G+ have made circles as basic element for only the new features. We still can't get just photos shared in a particular circle nor we can have a calender for circles(with birthdays, party palns, reunion plans, dates ) nor docs within circles. Hope they do it.
User Interface - No words against UI except there is no option for changing themes like in Gmail. It would be pleasent if they allow us to design the themes as in blogger rather than just few pre-built ones to select.

How do I want G+ to be expanded?
WIth apps and games contributing to major part of Facebook addiction, if ever Google is planning on introducing games and apps into G+, they should do it on circle basis. Let only users who are intrested in games and apps form a circle and chillout or hangout rather than spamming all the users in friend list with requests who don't care.

My vision of Smartening the social network
Social networking has become a means of spamming. Why not bring in the old concept of 'filtering'. How?
Its time to be smart. Everyone wants a smart interface and why not we socialize smartly with new concepts of 'Smart share', 'Smart notifications' and 'Smart comments'. These should be provided as an option rather than embedded for all.

Smart share - Any post of a user if reshared, it just needs a notificaton, afterall its their post copied, no need to show all details.So if a photo of me is reshared, I just want notification and link to that reshared post rather than seeing cumilative reposts of mine in stream. This would give me chance of looking into streams from others rather than mine stacked up, for which I have my personal WALL which G+ haven't come up with a name yet.

Smart notification - With this option, a user will get notifications only if a user in one of your circle comments on a post of another in one of your circle. This feature would help in filtering notifications so that if one of my friend in a circle comments on totally strange person's post (who might be in his circle who I don't know), I wouldn't get the notification.

Smart comments - Another potential for improvement is allowing users to comment on others post with circles as sharing criteria so that we can see comments on that post from people only in our circles/all comments. Suppose person ABC has friends circle with 1,2,3,4,XYZ and another person XYZ has friends circle ABC,3,4,5,6, If now ABC shares something with circle, then provide XYZ with an option to either see all comments or comments from 3 and 4 who are common to ABC and XYZ and an option for XYZ to post a comment on it to be seen by all or 3 and 4 who are common.

Even better, the Android app for Google+ is veyr well done. (Spell check)

One thing I have not seen mentioned is the ability for people to place malware and nasty surprises in Google+. For example Wordpress does not allow you to post anything but the simplest HTML code. Can someone confirm that script type exploits are not possible from within Google+?

Jason, all great suggestions. Especially "mute" and "private messaging". I have 2 people in 1 circle that post great things but 10-12 post a day and they are then shared by all the same people in the circle. right now I have 4 or 5 people in a circle where we have 103 of the same people in that circle. Wish G+ could sense if the post had already been received by a G+ member... #justwishin

I disagree with integrated private messaging. I think that Google offers these services, and adding redundant services that exist only within the scope of the Google+ boundaries creates LESS centralized management of communications. I think Google's goal is to centralize and consolidate, and it is a goal I think is worth pursuing. I've already got dozens of different ways of communciating - frequently with the same group(s) of people. I don't want one more stream of information to manage. I'd rather have one less.

If a G-mail account is a requirement to have a Google Plus account, then making G-mail the default method for private correspondence between Plus users makes sense. Why have ANOTHER, completely separate method that is still basically e-mail - only e-mail that is is limited to communication only within the Google+ ecosystem?

Likewise if Google Chat is Google's IM solution, why have another IM solution that is unique to Plus? Aren't these extra wheels, that are less robust than the wheels that already exist, that aren't necessary in the first place?

Everything else is spot on, though.

We're not children, you can actually write an article that is not the "top ten" of this or that.