Category Archives: The Ideal Social Network

Computers and Internet, The Ideal Social Network

The Ideal Social Network: Google Plus

August 6, 2011 Matt Schlosser Leave a comment

So, it’s been a while since I wrote a last blog post. I had recently been writing about the ideal social network. Google Plus fits a lot of what I’ve been looking for, although it still needs some improvements to bet the best social network ever. Right now, it is a closed beta, so you will need an invite to get in. But don’t worry, those who get in get plenty of invites to share with their friends. If you have a few “techy” friends, chances are, they probably could send you a Google Plus invite.

Connecting with Others

Google has created the ideal “friend request” system. It’s sort of like the privacy of Facebook merged with the “following” of Twitter. Instead of having to request to be friends, users can choose to follow/receive posts from whomever they want, and a user can choose to share posts with whomever they want. Circles make this happen, which is Google’s form of lists. They are a very core part of the social network. When adding someone to the stream, a user chooses to add them to a circle. After a user is added to a circle, they are notified, and then can choose to or not to add that user to a circle of their own.

Circles allow privacy within Google Plus. A user can choose to share a post with only a certain circle of friends. For example, if a user had a circle for Friends and a circle for Family, that user could choose to just share posts with the Friends circle. Then, if anyone in that circle has added that user a circle of their own, they will see the post in their Stream (kind of like Facebook’s News Feed).

It’s very easy to filter the Stream by Circles (lists). All the users Circles are listed in the left-hand sidebar for easy access. When viewing a certain circle, users will only see posts from the people in that circle. And creating a new post while viewing that circle will only share it with people in that circle.

Finding Interesting Content

Another part of Google Plus is Sparks. Sparks allow users to save certain searches for news items and quickly access them through the left hand sidebar. For example, adding “Apple” to the list of sparks presents the user with a list of recent news stories about Apple. This allows users to quickly find news about the interests they care about most.

It’s Not Ideal, Yet…

Right now, one of the disadvantages to Google Plus is that not everyone is on it. It will take some time for all users to join.

Another cool feature would be the ability to add circles to circles. For example, if I wanted to add all of my friends to a list of everyone I had ever met in person, then there should be a way to link those to circle, or to have a sub-circle, so that all Friends will be counted in the circle of everyone I had ever met.

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That’s all for now. I’ll write more on this later.

Computers and Internet, The Ideal Social Network

The Ideal Social Network: Lists

April 26, 2011 Matt Schlosser Leave a comment

In the second post about the ideal social network, I will be blogging about lists.

Twitter and Facebook both have lists systems to manage users friends and followers. However, these lists are too hidden, and should be more at the core of the social network.

Twitter’s Lists

Twitter does a really good job with lists. Users can create a public or private list of certain people, and categorize the list of people they follow. For example, I have a list for the tech blogs I follow, the local people, and the news sites I follow. This allows me to quickly see updates about the topic I want. Not much to complain about here.

Facebook’s Lists

Facebook, however, does not do such a good job. The lists are hidden in the settings for most users. Not enough people on Facebook realize that lists actually exist, and don’t use them. The list system should be more visible, like on Twitter. Users should be able to open a person’s profile, and quickly add them to a list from there. Same with pages. Facebook makes it really complicated to add a Page to a list. Users must create a list, and then when choosing who to add to the list, they must click on “multiple people,” and scroll down to the bottom to see all their Pages.

Users on Facebook should also be able to share a list of Pages with their friends easily. For example, if a user curates a list for local pages within a community, there is no way of sharing it. Users can feature lists on their profile, but it will only show friends, not Pages.

Facebook should also make it easier to share certain stuff with certain groups of friends. Currently, this is all hidden under the big “custom” section, and is too complicated for some users to use. Instead of seeing a list of “everyone, friends of friends, friends, and custom,” it should show a users friend lists instead, allowing a user to check off which lists they want to share a piece of content with.

If I want to filter my news feed by a certain list, it requires up to four clicks on Facebook, where on Twitter, it’s just two. Facebook needs to make accessing the lists easier.

The Ideal Social Network’s Lists

It should be easy to add someone to a list from their profile or page.

For more personal social networks like Facebook, it should be easy to share content with certain lists of people.

Lists should be easily shared with one another, or made private, if a user chooses

A user should easily be able to filter their updates from friends through lists.

The Ideal Social Network is a series about what I think a social network should be like, and why Twitter and Facebook fail to meet these standards. This is the second blog post in the series. Stay tuned for more.

Computers and Internet, The Ideal Social Network

The Ideal Social Network: Check-ins

April 17, 2011 Matt Schlosser 1 Comment

So, I’ve decided to do a little blogging series called “The Ideal Social Network.” Through out the series, I’ll give my opinion on what the ideal social network would be like, and why Facebook and Twitter fail to meet these standards.

Because April 16 was FourSquare day (4^2 (four squared) equals 16), I will be talking about check-ins. FourSquare is a mobile application that allows you to update your Twitter and Facebook accounts with your current location. There are other services that allow you to do similar things, like Facebook Places.

The Idea Behind Check-Ins

Check-ins let your friends and followers know where you are in real-time. The idea behind this, is so that if a friend is near by, they can come meet you there in real life.

Here’s a video from when Facebook first released Places. It explains the original idea for creating such a feature:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfX_ZQag1BM]

Where and Where Not To Check-In

People shouldn’t check-in to every place they go to. I don’t care if you are at the grocery store picking up something to eat for supper. I don’t need to know that about your life. (I have to admit I have checked in to various places like this in the past, and will refrain from doing so in the future).

Checking-in means you want to let your friends know where you are, so that they can come and join you, if they want. It should be done if you are at a coffee shop, a pub, or a community sports events, and similar events where you can meet up with your friends and have a good time together.

Some mobile applications, like Facebook Deals, allow businesses to offer the person checking-in a discount of some sort for sharing their location with their friends. It’s a good marketing idea, but sometimes it can just be “spammy”. If I were to get a deal, I would like to share that [I got a deal] with my friends to. So, if I’m using Facebook Deals, and I check-in and got a 20% discount, it should say in my friends’ news feeds: “(Matt) just got 20% off at [business name]” or something similar, not just “(Matt) is at [business name].”

The one pet peeve I have about check-ins is when people check-in to their own home. THIS IS NOT WHAT CHECK-INS WERE DESIGNED FOR. They were designed for businesses. This is a flaw in Facebook and FourSquare’s systems. Although allowing anyone to add a business to the database, there should be more of a verification process to verify the place being added is actually a business.

Check-ins on The Ideal Social Network

So, to recap, checking in on the ideal social network should only be able to be done from a social place, like a coffee shop. It wouldn’t allow you to check-in to a place that isn’t a business, like your home. Verification for new business would be a bit more strict than today’s check-in applications.

Stay tuned for more blog posts like these!

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