Top 5 Reasons Why I Decided to Ditch Facebook for Google+

Everybody is talking about the new Social Network that Google has released named Google+ and I’m seeing and hearing all of these mixed feelings about it. I personally love it. Yep…I said it, I really do love Google+. It’s simple, easy to use and the interface is just very clean and minimalistic.

I know that people have been already complaining about the email volume but honestly Facebook can be just as bad. May I remind you the stupid apps that everybody is installing on Facebook? I get so many dumb invites and request that I have a rule set in Gmail to send that shiz straight to the trash. Sorry Uncle Ted, I will not join you in Farmville.

So here are the top 5 reasons I decided to ditch Facebook.

5.) Sparks

So I’m not entirely sucked into this particular feature yet and I’m not sure if I should put it in the list because it’s not a main deciding factor in my switch but, what the heck! Sparks are a great way for me to create my own content based on a particular search criteria. If I want to know what’s happening around the web regarding User Experience, create a spark and Boom!

I also see the potential with this with the actual stream. If you create a Spark about User Experience and Uncle Ted is talking about User Experience, he wouldn’t because he’s a Beat Farmer, but if he did I would know about it because of the Spark I created. I like that idea and it’s a lot like Google web alerts but more stylish.

4.) Photos

So let me just start off by saying looking at photos is addictive…being able to see the photos from all of my circles is just awesome. Viewing all of my friends photos in a single page is great! It’s great to see what everyone is up too and I see a lot of potential with this. I wasnt’ a big fan of Picasa but if you incorporated Instagram importing/posting….I’m game.

3.) Google Hangout

I just feel is going to be very successful. I have family around the world and having the ability to video chat with up to 10 people is just awesome. Skype charges for a a service that allows you to video chat with people at the same time but I’m slowly moving away from Skype too! Another time for that story. iChat on my Apple allows up to 5 people which is cool but not all of my family members are Mac users so….this is perfect.

Also it has this really cool theater feature where you can watch YouTube videos together. A lot like the Xbox Live Theater with NetFlix.

2.) Circles

I think Circles is by far the easiest way for me to manage my friends, business connects, family and crazies (Like Uncle Ted) in a way I understand. I can quickly filter the stream of content based on my designated category/circle. I know that Facebook offers it’s own way of showing the content you feel is more relavent to you but I love how Google has executed the circles feature. It’s so easy to manage and I think it’s perfect. I don’t give a crap if I don’t know what circle I’m in. I just like being able to filter the content based on my needs at that very moment. I could see the Circles feature being expanded upon even more like email notifications just for particular people in a circle….

1.) Google Apps

I love the Google Apps Suite and I’m ALWAYS logged in to my Gmail, Calendar, Docs, etc. Having the ability to quickly share in the Google ribbon at the top is super easy. I would think bloggers and social junkies would just love this. The user experience is amazing and honestly this is where I feel Google wins the battle. The amount of subscribers on Gmail alone is huge and now people that are on gmail are on Google+ in one click. Brilliant.

So that’s my initial thoughts on Google+ and I will be hanging out on there when I can. Come say hi!

So what do you think?