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| − | [[Image:Circles.png]] [[Google]] started, less than a couple of weeks ago<wz tip="Launched on June 28, 2011 in testing phase with restricted access. I got there thanks to Junis Rindermann three days later."><sup>(i)</sup></wz>, a revolutionary service: its social networking platform: '''Google+'''.
| + | = Google+ = |
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| − | Of course, what it looks like at first, is that it is just a variation of facebook [http://xkcd.com/918].
| + | '''''Google+''''' was a substitute social network platform (launched on June 28, 2011) to [[facebook]] proposed by [[Google]]. |
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| − | <center>
| + | {{pet}}I believed it to be a revolution in the game. You can [[Blog:Fabrice/The_dawn_of_Google%2B|read why in my blog]]. Unfortunately, Google's bet on quality and maturity of the audience instead of mass-produced puerile, addictive and idiotic content turned out to be, not surprisingly, mistaken and they couldn't compete with the competing fast-food for the brain. |
| − | <wz tip="Artwork by Randall Munroe">
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| − | [[Image:You-should-joing-googleplus.png|200px]] | + | |
| − | </wz>
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| − | </center>
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| − | Given that critics have been extremely positive about the product, newcomers often get puzzled: what is so cool about something which is like... finally, an empty facebook?
| + | == Thanks Junis == |
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| − | For facebook is full of people, estimated at 750 millions at the time of writing, and not only does it have all your techy friends, it also has the other friends, the computer illiterate<wz tip="Those who regard a computer as a magic box, that, a few years ago, would not have laid hands on a keyboard for their live, but in times where technology is so banal that the random man in the street has a computer with 24h internet access, camera, touchscreen, GPS navigation and other goodies in his pocket, it's clear even the most reticent to technology can grasp a virtual identity."><sup>(ii)</sup></wz>, and beyond that, also your parents, grandparents, sisters and their children, the whole family.
| + | We were endowed to [https://plus.google.com/103181678482909847578 Junis Rindermann] for allowing us to put a step in at a very early stage, when invites were put on hold. This way we won almost two weeks of fun. |
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| − | And people like this, of course, because it's nice to see pictures of relatives or places, bars, museums your friends go to (some people get sick of it, they are just not growing with their age, newspapers, trains, the radio, etc., also made this class of people sick when they appeared).
| + | == History == |
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| − | If it took years for your dad to "get his facebook", how is he going to migrate to G+? Or for that matter, why?
| + | I joined in on {{thisday|1|July|2011}}. |
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| − | That is the major asset of facebook. It has seven years or so of advance, that is, in a field that grows at the speed of the internet, an eternity. It's hopeless to overtake them, unless they collapse... or unless you're Google.
| + | On [[15 October|15]], [[October (2012)|October]] [[2012|(2012)]], I reached 100 followers ([https://plus.google.com/u/0/115447017636888078012 Dawn Peterson] made me this honour). |
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| − | I don't think they would collapse, although I think facebook is rotting. Still the mass of people, which is the market here, has propensity to accommodate itself to shit, to accept all sorts of abuses, low quality and even degradation of service, flooded by aggressive advertising, all sorts of scams, confidence tricks, bribery, bullying, intimidation, theft, copyright abuses, etc. I've read recently facebook is about to lunch "facebook money" so that the mass can start paying cash for all the silly apps that circulate around. The list could go on forever. Facebook is essentially an evil product. | + | <center><wz tip="I reached the 100 threshold right when Felix Baumgartner jumped off his capsule.">[[File:g+100.png|link=]]</wz></center> |
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| − | It's an evil product based on an obvious, natural, genius idea, that of social networking. Something a technology-oriented humanity wants (and there's not much of an alternative even if we would want to). Something that will be as natural in 20 years than a book appears to be now, so common, nobody would even question the concept.
| + | On [[10 July|10]], [[July (2014)|July]] [[2014|(2014)]], I collected over a hundred thousand views: [[Image:gplus-100th.png|150px]] and doubled that in [[28 October|28]], [[October (2015)|October]] [[2015|(2015)]]: [[File:gplus-200th.png|150px]]. That was a small number of followers but with great engagements, as was discussed in comparing the number of views per follower ratios for [https://plus.google.com/113703263025599260211/posts/2Xv4BRc1zzM some people of my circles]. |
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| − | That's why facebook is so popular. They did something that had to be done. It filled-in a gap, everybody rushed, now they have the monopoly.
| + | On [[December (2018)]], Google announced they would shut down the platform, which they did in [[April (2019)]]. All content has been lost forever, including posts from [[Linus Torvalds]] and likewise people who don't engage (rightly so) in other types of platforms. |
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| − | That's where Google will save the day. I'm not going to list why Google is way better than Facebook Inc., I'll keep it to their "you don't have to do evil" motto. I'm going to list the key points why G+ is, even at this stage, infinitely better than its corrupt and nauseous precursor.
| + | == Links == |
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| − | == The concept of circles ==
| + | * https://plus.google.com No longer there. |
| − | | + | * https://google.com/+FabriceLaussy for [[Fabrice]]'s Google+ page (or profile). |
| − | I don't care myself much about privacy, but of course it's a fundamental concept. In facebook, everything is locked down.
| + | * https://profiles.google.com/116949925110888055456 for [[Elena]]'s G+ page. |
| − | | + | * http://www.googlepluscounter.com/pages/halloffame0 Most followed people. |
| − | [http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ Tim Berners-Lee], the father of the web, wrote a nice article in Scientific American [http://goo.gl/TWkC7] where he explains the philosophy of the wonderful tool he created, allowing interconnection between people. I'll reproduce the parts I like the most:
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| − | <quote>
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| − | The Web is yours. It is a public resource on which you, your business, your community and your government depend. The Web is also vital to democracy, a communications channel that makes possible a continuous worldwide conversation. The Web is now more critical to free speech than any other medium. It brings principles established in the U.S. Constitution, the British Magna Carta and other important documents into the network age.
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| − | </quote>
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| − | <quote>
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| − | If we want to track what government is doing, see what companies are doing, understand the true state of the planet, find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, not to mention easily share our photos with our friends, we the public, the scientific community and the press must make sure the Web’s principles remain intact.
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| − | </quote>
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| − | | + | |
| − | <quote>
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| − | The goal of the Web is to serve humanity. We build it now so that those who come to it later will be able to create things that we cannot ourselves imagine.
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| − | </quote>
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| − | In this article, Berners-Lee warns against sites like facebook, which "wall off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web". That is the very thing that I realized with facebook and kept me away from it for years. You have to log-in, have an account, to get inside. Nowadays, a typical facebook scenario is that someone will post something to share with others, but to see it, you have to "like it" first. Bullying and insulting your intelligence.
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| − | If I make a search for a friend from the past, someone I've just met and that could become one in the future, a guy who's going to give a talk in the weekly seminar, anybody, well, forget about facebook, they will tease you with "this guy is on facebook" but unless you're part of their game, they won't let you see it. That's a scam, that's immoral, and I hated it from the beginning.
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| − | Google. | + | |
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| − | There is below a snapshot of my Public G+ page as it appears now:
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| − | <wz tooltip="My Public Google+">
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| − | <center>
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| − | [[Image:Gp-july11.png]]
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| − | </center>
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| − | </wz>
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| − | You don't have to be logged-in, you can be paranoid, have the CIA on your tracks, that's for everyone to see, that's like my webpage, Google is making everybody open to the Web again.
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| − | Of course if you don't want to share stuff with the World, or if the people with whom you interact are of this type, then fine, keep it in a private circle. Herebelow is what the page looks to me, rather than to everybody:
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| − | <center>
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| − | <wz tagtotip="public">[[Image:Private-Gp-july11.png]]</wz>
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| − | </center>
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| − | <span id="public">My ''public'' Google+</span>
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| − | I cut it to the beginning only, not that there is offensive or really private stuff<wz tooltip="People from the second post are nice enough to have allowed me to disclose this snapshot."><sup>(iii)</sup></wz>, but you get the point.
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| − | There is the first post that you know already from before. The second is "Limited" and shared with the circle of "friends", the last is extended, it would not reach the wide public but anybody remotely connected to me (being acquainted to someone in my circle, by the rule of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation six links], that makes virtually anybody part of G+).
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I believed it to be a revolution in the game. You can read why in my blog. Unfortunately, Google's bet on quality and maturity of the audience instead of mass-produced puerile, addictive and idiotic content turned out to be, not surprisingly, mistaken and they couldn't compete with the competing fast-food for the brain.
and doubled that in 28, October (2015): 
. That was a small number of followers but with great engagements, as was discussed in comparing the number of views per follower ratios for some people of my circles.