Google+ on the iPad

So Google+ has created a huge buzz this week, at least among lots of early adopter / geeky types that I like socializing with on the web. It’s Google’s latest effort at ‘social’, a potential Facebook rival that Google says is not trying to be one; and maybe a potential replacement for the greatest underappreciated social network, Friendfeed.

There were certainly lots of Friendfeeders jumping onto Google+ last night – and that was big fun to see and to be part of. Google+ looks good so far, though I’ve only just got started with it last night (thanks to Louis Gray for the invite). One of its core ideas is that you don’t always want to share things with everyone, you may want to share different things and discuss certain topics, only with specific groups of people. To help you do this Google+ uses Circles. Circles are holders for people you want to interact with on the service. By default you have circles for Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and Following (people whose streams you want to follow), and you can add more of your own.

I spent most of my time with Google+ last night on my Mac, but I also had a quick look at using it on the iPad. There’s no native iOS app yet, so I accessed it via Safari at m.google.com/plus. The mobile site for Google+ is OK, serviceable for now; but definitely not great. You can see your stream, comment on posts, and share new posts, but you can’t upload photos yet. You can switch over to Desktop view and things look much nicer, but you can’t comment or create a post if you switch to that mode.

Have you tried Google+ yet? If so, what do you think of it? If you want to catch up with me on there you can find me under my full name, Patrick Jordan.

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