Can Google+ Survive the Hype?

Google+, the presumptive Facebook killer, shows tremendous potential. As someone who warms up to any social network with the alacrity of a Galápagos tortoise, this, for me, is saying something.

Yes, I'm one of the lucky ones who got a pre-over-capacity invite. I've tried to share a couple, but new Google+ users are only gaining entrance at a halting pace.

The service, which initially stuck me as a blatant Facebook rip-off, actually has many of its own charms, not the least of which is the useful, somewhat addictive Circles. I know this topic divides Google+ users. Some people do not like to spend time organizing their social contacts. I'm not sure I do either, but the method that Circles employs for discovery and organization (dragging and dropping people into actual circle graphics, for instance) is addictive and easily blows away anything Facebook ever developed.

As soon as I logged in I found myself dropping contacts into the default circles of friends, family, and acquaintances. Yes, I have struggled a bit to decide who is a friend and who the lesser "acquaintance." If there is one thing social can be credited with it's stretching the boundaries of what we consider friends. Admittedly, I probably put too many people in the friends circle—I consider it a hopeful act.

Happily, I'm not stuck with a default set of Google+ Circles. I created a couple of my own and then dragged folks into those. I do hope the names for these circles remain private. I could see people using sardonic titles like "Bunch of Idiots" and then getting in trouble because people found out they were a part of one of these less-than-desirable social circles.

As with all Google social ventures, Google+ has tentacle-like reach into every part of my Google world and connections. Early on, I allowed Google+ to connect with my Hotmail account, which quickly expanded its contact reach. Plus (I have to use the word in a column about Google+), all my Google+ conversations are showing up in my Gmail account. I'm also seeing every single new Google+ connection notification in my Gmail inbox. This is a work in progress, so I'm willing to accept this annoyance, but I hope Google puts consolidating all these updates into one or two daily digests at the top of its Google+ enhancement list.

I'm seeing lots of random photos in my update stream. Some of the most interesting ones are from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who appears to be going through his Picasa archives to share the most interesting shots. People like me are commenting on them, but Brin has yet to respond.