Google+ Does It All(a)

by Marcus Maurice

The online giant tries its hand at social networking, but the question is if Google+ will catch on.

The hottest invitation in the tech world recently hasn't been to an Apple conference, a Microsoft gathering, or a Facebook party. Instead, everyone has been dying to receive an invite to the newest social network, Google+ (pronounced Google plus). Google launched the field-testing phase on June 28, 2011, which meant that certain people were invited to Google+ and were allowed to share invites with whomever they chose. Within two weeks of the launch, the network blossomed, and Google said that there were already more than 10 million users on Google+ despite the limited trial. While nowhere near as big as Facebook's 750 million user accounts, it proves that people are longing for a new social network.

Google+'s most innovative feature is Circles, a way of grouping people as friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and more so that posts and videos can be shown selectively. Say a person likes horror movies. That person could make his or her own circle of friends that enjoy these scary films labeled Horror. When a user posts a link to a new horror movie that is coming out or a video of a classic scene from a terrifying movie, it's not broadcast to every one of their friends. Instead, the person posts it to the Horror circle and only those grouped in that collective can see it. Privacy settings allow users to hide who is in their circles and which circles they are in. This is a direct response to Facebook, which has developed a reputation for not truly caring about the average person's privacy.

Google+（念作 Google plus）的邀请。Google在 2011 年 6 月 28 日开始进行实测阶段，也就是说有些人会收到 Google+的邀请，然后可以自由选择要把邀请分享给谁。在开始实施 Google+ 的 2 个星期内，这个网络就蓬勃发展，Google 也表示虽然还在尚未完全开放的试用阶段，但已有超过 1千万的使用者。虽然这远不及脸书的 7 亿 5 千万个使用账号，但这证明人们渴望 1 个新的社群网站。

Google+最创新的特色是社交圈，亦即一种把人分成朋友、认识的人或同事等群组的方式，让贴文和影片能选择性的显示。比方说，有人喜欢恐怖片，他就可以把喜欢这些吓人电影的朋友纳入『恐怖片』社交圈中。当使用者贴 1 个即将上映的恐怖片网站连结，或是骇人电影的经典画面时，就不会广传给每一位朋友。相反地，他是将这些贴到恐怖片社交圈内，只有这个群组里的人才会看到。隐私设定让使用者可以隐藏社交圈里有谁，还有他们身在哪个社交圈内。这是对脸书的直接响应，因为脸书给人一种不太在意一般民众隐私的观感。