I was reading a post in the Google+ community that got me thinking about social media again (is this going to become a blog where I talk about nothing but Google+? Mmm, not quite).
I've already commented on Twitter. Gossip, rumors and verbal wars seems to be the only real news that comes out of that site. Way down the list of interests for me. It does seem to be a source for researching bigger stories (Manti T'eo and Deadspin anyone?).
Facebook is still something very new to me. And with the new Graph Search everything that one has made public will be searchable within the site. I came in just after Timeline debuted and this hasn't rolled out yet. I'm not sure how this will affect me because I only have one friend on FB (hi, JayPBee! Got your poke, don't know what to do), so I guess I could search friends of my friend. It seems like a really good way for FB to get their advertising info even more targeted. What else can I do there? All of the old friends I have an interest in are either very private folk, the sort that just didn't have a computer to begin with or dead (really). So my YouTube likes, Hulu watches, Spotify listens and Washington Social Reader reads are the only posts I have so far. I'll figure out something to do there. Soon.
I actually have two Yahoo accounts. What is that site, beyond email? Lots of news headlines (I mainly use Google News), a number of apps/sites connections and...? It's good for signing onto other sites! (So is FB!)
The blog post I read was called "Why the Google+ long game is brilliant" (sic). He waxes forth about how he uses Hangouts and Chat and Voice and on and on. As a businessman. For which I am not using G+. I can see the potential for a number of the features, but not for me. For now.
This whole "integration" thing that Google is striving for is kind of a head scratcher for me. I have a YouTube account because I want to Watch videos, not post them. I have a Gmail account because I wanted to get a job, not write letters to friends (see friends issue above). I have a Blogger account (not this one) because I want to write fiction, and if anyone reads it, hooray. Google News is nice because I like to keep up with current events. And Google search is great at finding things.
And that's it. The rest is kind of bells and whistles to me. For example, I decided to "personalize" my Gmail page and add a background. I tried a number of different images from my files until I found one that I liked. That and the others are now a Picassa album! What's that about? It didn't offer to save a image for me, it simply saved, period. Even the rejects. Which I have to delete. Because I didn't want to save them in the first place (at least not on Picassa).
I am starting to enjoy discussing things and reading posts on G+ but I don't see Google as the be all and end all of internet life. As an individual. If I were a business (like Brad Feld, the poster), I, too, would see a "future is now" world coming our way. But, I'm not. I am not out to promote myself all over the web (if you read this far, Yeah!). Here, I just have stuff I want to say as I explore what I encounter with social media.
I'll figure out what to do with FB. I'll figure out what Yahoo is good for besides allowing me to log in to sites. Twitter, not going there. Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest, Yelp: dipping my toe, so to speak. Did you know that Sears new membership is also a social media/shopping network? That Disqus is a social media/commentary network? Yeah, gonna take a look at those, too. Maybe do some research about them on Google.
In the meantime, I'll just keep my separate stuff separate while I can and fight for my small right to not have to share everything with everyone across every feature. Just some things. Like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment