Alone in a Crowd

Rejection can be so bitter. Actually, to put it more accurately, it was the lack of an invitation that had me feeling insecure. I consider myself a net-savvy individual, so I could not understand why Google had neglected to make sure I was among the initial users invited to Google+. I took the slight quite personally. Thankfully, Anas, long-time ex-colleage from Dubai days, sent me an invitation yesterday.

Signing on must have affected me a lot as I had the strangest dream early last night. It seemed as if Google had come up with an online program that was the solution to nearly all the world's problems. It was like pure brilliance how some key components fit together perfectly. I guess the dream was more emotional than factual as I don't really recall any specific details of how a software app was going to mend civilization. It surely felt that way during my sleep though.

Now, upon facing the harsh realities of daylight, I am not so awe-struck. I think Google+ does better mesh with the way in which many folks would like to interact with each other. For example, it's a bit awkward for me to "friend" students on Facebook. They are adults and most definitely there's a relationship but they probably aren't interested in most of my status updates and frankly, neither am I with theirs. Google+ does seem better suited to the real relationships people have. I can share information with a specific group (circle) rather than sending a barrage of information out to all.



I can picture it working well for me as I am quite comfortable with its Google-centric approach. They're just adding a social layer to their far-flung brand of Internet services. I happen to participate already in many of them. I started using Gmail exlusively in May of 2004. Furthermore, I'm adding this to a Blogger.com website. I have an Android phone and commonly use all the services which that may imply. For example, I use Google Reader to subscribe to podcasts, so they're automatically downloaded to my phone. In fact, quite a few of the icons from this Google products page are visited by me on a daily basis.

All this notwithstanding, I do wonder how wide-spread among the general masses Google+ will become. After all, I have added several friends new to Facebook over the past week. I have more who, to this day, are still not interested in being involved in this modern era of social networking at all. Consequently, I'm now faced with an exciting alternative to Facebook but have few people in my entire world view who I'll be able to force into a circle! Damn it.

Anybody want an invite?