I'm enjoying Google+ way too much...

I've been on Google+ , the new more-than-social network almost since the select invites went out. I guess the geeks got the invites early to try to break it and work out the kinks before noobs got in.

The good news is that its concept of Circles -- the way you organize your friends -- is much more organized than in Facebook, which has become a mess. People can be in more than one circle, and it's easy to select which groups of people receive any given post of yours. Security and privacy is overall much more easier to navigate and lock down; Google has encouraged feedback to meet the needs of the requests, for instance, allowing the gender of a user to be hidden.

Tech guru David Pogue had this to say in his review, Google+ Improves on Facebook.

At first, Google+ looks like a shameless Facebook duplicate. There's a place for you to make Posts (your thoughts and news, like Facebook's Wall); there's a Stream (an endless scrolling page of your friends' posts, like Facebook's News Feed); and even a little +1 button (a clone of Facebook's Like button), which may be where Google+ gets its peculiar name.

But there's one towering, brilliant difference: Circles.

On Google+, you put the people of your life's different social circles into - well, into Circles. That is, groups. Categories. Google starts you off with empty circles called Friends, Acquaintances, Family and Following (people you don't know, but want to follow, as you would on Twitter). It's a piece of cake to add new ones. They can be tiny circles ("Granny and Gramps") or big ones ("Family Tree"), organization-based ("Fantasy League Buddies") or arbitrary ("Annoying People").

From now on, every time you share something - a news item, a thought, a photo, a chat invitation - you can specify exactly which Circles receive it. In one fell swoop, Google has solved the layers-of-privacy problem that has dogged Facebook for years.

Google+ already has over 10 million users even with this limited slow-mo opening after just a few days (Facebook has 750 million).

Right: someone on G+ is already sounding the death knell for Facebook with this hilarious use of clips from 300.

The major reason to join it is its tight (and soon to be tighter) integration with all of Google's many ubiquitous applications already out there -- Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Picasa, Blogger, etc. -- a huge advantage over Facebook, since so many people are already using the services and are familiar with the interface. And you will want to try out Google's Chrome browser to get the most out of the experience.

And if you have a Droid phone (I've been on that platform for some time as well), it's a seamless experience to have group chats, you can take pix on your phone and they are auto-uploaded to an area where you can select how to share it.

Even with all that jazz I'm not sure it will kill off Facebook any time soon. If anything it will fade out in a long, slow way like MySpace - people and businesses migrating to G+ as it matures.

There's no reason to abandon ship on Twitter any time soon either, IMHO. It's a different animal, a short form of communication that has its own audience and purpose.

I'll be honest - it's much more enjoyable writing short commentary and passing on breaking news quickly than fretting over writing posts up for the blog, which takes a ton more time relatively speaking. Given I receive more comments on Facebook (and probably soon on G+), it's hard to know whether PHB posts are reaching as many people, or people just like skimming short form stuff I do and comment there. That's why I added the widget in the left column that shows what's going on with my Facebook posts and notes, as well as the G+ feed. Those are updated way more frequently than the blog these days. Posts here are reserved for the more newsworthy items that elicit some sort of reaction from me, or if it's a long-form post or original reporting/essay.

Related:

* What G+ is really about? (a great slideshow by Vincent Wong)