Google +

[Torniquet]

Anyone part of it?

Anyone want to check it out?

I have 150 invites lemme know if you want one.

[hallsofvallhalla]

what is it?

[SpiritWebb]

I have it...

@Halls: Its the Google version of Facebook basically

[Jackolantern]

I am actually quite annoyed with it, personally. Not the actual use or mechanics of it, but its existence. I know Google is going to try to get in on Facebook's business and they have every right to, but honestly, people will end up losing out in the end. Right now, everyone is on Facebook. Well, not everyone everyone, but you know what I mean. 500 million people. More high-profile, general-purpose social networking sites are just going to fragment the public into various different services, thus lowering the value of each individually. Right now if I am really wanting to find someone, I just look on Facebook. If they aren't there, they probably aren't anywhere (MySpace is dead, seriously). But what will it look like in 5 or 6 years? They aren't on FB? Ok, first I will check Google+, then MSN Konnect, then Yahoo! People, then AOL ButterNet, then Farmville (which succeeded from Facebook 3 years previously), etc., etc.! And no two services will interoperate with any others.

Maybe I am just being an old man complaining about change, but it is true that a social network's main value is in the people it has on it, not the features it has (they would be worthless without people). And by that standard, Facebook is extremely valuable, but will begin depreciating as more large-scale social networks take bites out of their patronage, and we will likely never have it this good again, with almost the entire developed world on one service, all networked with each other. The numbers Facebook had the day before Google+ launched will probably be the highest numbers on any social networking site ever. And that is kind of a shame.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I know this sounds stupid but I see facebook eventually losing all its steam. After the latest change with the time line or whatever Mark went nuts on people, told them he didn't care if they left he will change what he wants.

This ego will result in the death of facebook, 1 year or 10 years or 50 years, it will happen. If you was to say the same thing about Myspace 5 years ago(which i did)no one would believe me either but it has happened.

[Jackolantern]

Oh yeah, I see it happening, too. Like I said, I bet Facebook never has this number of people again. It is kind of sad, because it is quite convenient having everyone on one platform.

[OldRod]

I hate Facebook - the only reason I am using it is because all my family does and it's a nice way to keep in touch.

I have been so tempted to set up my own Social Network system - something simple and secure - for us to use, but there's only so much time in the day

[Xaleph]

Hehe i had the same idea, and actually started working on it 2 years ago. Facebook wasn`t popular here yet, mostly because we had an "alternative" called Hyves, which at the time was SERIOUSLY having issues on speed. I even got a server for it, it was kind of big for me to get it right from the beginning. I already designed the databases, installed 2 versions of MySQL and a Postgre DB. The Pg was the write master at the time, but due to some technicallities Abandoned it and went to MySQL write masters. I even had 40 slaves running at the time on 1 CPU lol which sucks but the overal result was better then i expected. I could handle 20 to 1 master. Which is pretty good considering the time I spent. The write was a problem, I only got 8 to 1 writes, which is still good enough for me.

Also started coding the application, but as allways, time caught up so I never really got to finish it. but i still have the code somewhere. The backend was written in Java ( weird choice right?! ) but it all worked OK. I never started working on the front end ( except some simple demo idea`s lol )

I was planning on releasing it ( either by code and sell ) or publish it myself. But I never really got in to it all, it`s a shame really. Damn.

And yes, I too don`t like Fb. The stories I hear and the "gossip" about all the privacy issues, grr. I still use it nonetheless. The application itself is awesome. But the whole monitoring, grid-like services running it.. meh

[Jackolantern]

Honestly, I think a good deal of the privacy issues are caused by people themselves. Almost every game or app asks you for personal info you would never want to give someone on the internet, and yet here you are giving it to a company you don't even know or deal with yet on any level. One could make an argument of Facebook themselves trying to engineer people to always click that button no matter what they are asking for. I rarely ever use an app, and I have setup a limited number of aspects I am willing to share with an app or game.

The other thing people complain about are the ads, but they don't really bother me. It is not really any different than Gmail serving you ads based on what is in your inbox.

[Xaleph]

Yeah well, i wasn`t referring to the privacy settings on facebook itself, becuase, in all honesty how private is your account? I mean the gossip on governments monitoring facebook, backdoor deals for the "stange" explosion of funds facebook received and all the rest. How it`s strange that facebook started the middle eastern revolutions ( and twitter alike ) and the rest.

Not to mention the filters and search patterns used for querying everything. If you use certain keywords, odds are you`ll be getting a visit or at the least a torough background check trough your life to see who you are.

And the ads and the rest? A joke, even if you didn`t sign on for the targetted ads program, you still receive targetted ads, weird right?

On the whole privacy settings in facebook itself, yeah, it`s your own responsibility, but it`s still on a micro scale compared to what facebook does. Serving 600+ million members means something totally different.

Anyhow, i was referring to the framework that is called facebook. We don`t know who they serve, what their price for integrity is and the rest, but believe me, EVERYTHING in facebook is for sale. It`s a company like any other, the only difference is they`ve got 600 million registered customers giving all the information. You do the math.