Update: +1, HootSuite, and Google+ integration

As promised I headed over to Google+ to see if I could answer some of the questions I posed to myself earlier today.

First, more on the +1 button:

What happens when you +1 something?
When you +1 something, the +1 button will turn blue to confirm that you've recommended the page, and your +1 will be added to the +1's tab of your profile. Here you can manage all your +1’s and decide whether you want to publicly display the +1’s tab.

If you’re a Google+ user, you’ll also have the option to share the webpage you +1’d in Google+. Just click the "Share on Google+" box, enter your comments, choose the circles you’d like to post to, and clickShare. Like other content you share, these +1’s will appear in the streams of the people you share with.

Regardless of the circles you choose to share to on Google+, and whether you chose to publicly share your +1’s tab, your +1’s will still be visible to others viewing the content you +1’d. For instance, your +1 could appear as part of an anonymous aggregated count of the people who have also +1’d the same thing. Your name could also appear next to the +1 button on a website, or beneath a search result or ad on Google Search. This helps friends and contacts identify which content may be most useful to them.

So, is this working?  Until now, I didn't know there was a +1's tab in my profile.  Then again, I don't usually look at my own profile.  The question is, does anyone else?  Heck if I know...  I have now made the +1's tab Public, and also enabled people to send me a message (anyone on the web) or an email (people in my circles only).  I don't know if this functionality is not intuitive, or if I just never took the proper time to figure it out.  Maybe I'm flattering myself, but I feel like if I have to search around to the answer for something, then it wasn't simple to figure out.  Having said that, Google does provide a thorough introduction to Google+ which I'll now take the time to explore.

To the claim that my +1 "helps friends and contacts identify which content may be most useful to them", I can say I have never, ever seen any site where I noticed one of my friends or contacts had given it a +1.  Even if I had, I'm already on the site, so at this point does it matter that my friend likes it?  This looks to me like a miss on Google's part.

On to my question about who is seeing my posts on Google+.  This is really just as simple as it looks.  If you share a post with one of your circles, it appears in the Stream of the members of that circle.  If you share to Public, it appears in the Stream of members of all your circles, and to anyone who views your profile.  I'm still further exploring how the Incoming stream is populated; as far as I can tell it is people who have me in one of their circles without me reciprocating.

Finally, I did try out HootSuite and at least in the free version there is no integration with Google+.  Disappointing.  In fact, HootSuite is a pilot partner of integration with Google+ Pages, a functionality aimed at enterprises and groups.  This is the only API released, and we can only hope Google will release the API for Google+ personal soon.

Here is an excerpt of a good article at Wired.com describing what's possible now and what should be possible soon:

Google’s finally unwrapped the first public iteration of an application programming interface, or API, for Google+. APIs let software programs and services talk to each other, pulling or pushing data between the two. Every Twitter client or integrated service uses Twitter’s published APIs. Now these and other developers can make use of similar kinds of data from Google’s new social network.

To be clear, they can’t use all of it. For now, Google+’s API is limited to public posts and data only. Applications can also use the open authentication OAuth 2 to allow users to identify themselves on Google+ rather than using the long numerical identifiers and authorize each app.

However, because Google+’s API is limited to public data, you can’t really build a full-featured Google+ or Universal Social Media client around it yet. We’ll probably see a lot of news skimmers, some simple integration with location, check-in, or commenting services, and a handful of somewhat more developed app prototypes. In the very near future, the API gives developers a chance to play around. For Google, it gradually and gracefully extends the overall reach of the platform. It also helps the company see possibilities it may have missed in its own development.

Call me lazy but I say the sooner the better.  As long as I manage all my social media except Google+ in one place it will necessarily remain an afterthought.

Meanwhile I'm still going to test drive HootSuite and see how it compares to TweetDeck - at first glance it looks very full featured.

The first step is the hardest...

I guess I'll do like they suggested in school and use this first entry to tell you what I'm going to tell you.

I love tech.  I love games and gadgets.  I stream netflix from my phone, roku, xbox360, and bluray player.  I'm always on the lookout for the next gadget or service that will make life better or easier or cooler.

On top of this I enjoy what social media has done for all of us.  I get 'updates' on gear and games from Twitter (via Tweetdeck).  I can get feedback from 100's of people by making a post with a hashtag.  Granted, it ain't scientific research, but crowd-sourcing information if a newborn and will only get better.  Just ask movie studios - a new flic can easily be done after opening night based on the power of social media - word gets out FAST.

So what does this all have to do with some Schmo starting another blog?  I think it comes down to the defining value of information - trust.  Let's take a recent example.

After a little under two years with Sprint I've had enough and I'm switching my wife and I back to Verizon Wireless.  As part of the process we were in the market for new smartphones, so I began researching which Android phone would be perfect for each of us.  Not so easy right now as there are some great choices with the Droid Razr, the HTC Rezound, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  Much of my time was spent following trends on twitter, doing searches on Google, and sharing some of my findings on twitter, facebook and Google Plus.  What I found was that I started to have trust in certain people's tweets more than others, and certain people (some I knew and others I didn't) began to ask me for feedback on the purchase I made (I got the Razr for a penny from Amazon).

Reviews from the big tech sites are great, but people still like to ask someone they know what they think about something - and for good or bad after we interact via social media we begin at a certain point to feel that we 'know' one another.  It's not a big reach to follow this line of thinking, after all this is what Netflix's entire movie recommendation logarithm is based on; they start to see similarities between user's rankings and use that to predict what else they might have in common.

Likewise, I follow someone on twitter or facebook because I like what he or she has to say, and over time I get to 'know' the person and value their opinion to some degree.

Or maybe I'm full of crap.

Nonetheless, here I am with my own little tech blog.  Next up I'll share my initial thoughts on the Razr as I continue to break it in and consider whether I'll swap it for a Galaxy Nexus (assuming the latter is ever brought to market).

That's all for now, Happy Black Friday everybody.