For months before I upgrade my mobile phone, I will sit and research all the current phones and phones due for release. Firstly, there is no doubt that it will be a smart-phone. According to Gartner, smart-phones accounted for 23.6% of all mobile phones sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85.6% year-on-year. Then it comes down to which of the major smart-phone OSes you support: Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian?

In the last two years or so, a lot has changed in the world of smart-phones as can be seen by the data available from Comscore and Gartner. If you analyse worldwide smart-phone sales from 2009 to present, things are very interesting indeed. In the days before Cupcake (version 1.5) and Donut (version 1.6), when the only Android phone was the HTC Dream (G1), in the first quarter of 2009, Android only had 1.6% of the world smart-phone market. By quarter one, a year later, in 2010, they were close to 10%, and had climbed above Microsoft and all the other OSes. Symbian, iOS and RIM were still the dominant players though. At this stage, Android phones coming out were on the Eclair (version 2.1) release of their OS and Froyo (2.2) was expected by quarter two of 2010. The only significant jump for the iOS was in quarter three of 2009 shortly after version 3.x of it’s OS was released in June 2009. By quarter three of 2010 though, there were two major changes visible in the sales of mobile phones, as both Android and iOS jumping above RIM and Android showing them both the way of things to come by jumping to the second spot, a massive 15.9% climb over 6 months. By the first quarter of this year, Android would be on it’s latest versions of OS, Gingerbread (version 2.3) for mobile phones and Honeycomb (3.0) for tablet devices.

Things aren’t much different if we look at the US smart-phone OS market. For some reason Comscore, who supply the data, don’t seem to consider Symbian to a smart-phone, not that I completely disagree, especially since Nokia have started going to Microsoft for their OS and Sony-Ericcson have been using Android for a while now on their smart-phones, but it would have been interesting to see nonetheless. Shortly after the first Android phones hit the market in 2009, the Android OS only had a market share of 2.5%. RIM was smiling with a market share of over 40%. I’m pretty sure they had no idea how things would change. Fast forward to May 2010 and Android had overtaken (or almost) the previous number three, Microsoft, and number four, Palm, who were losing market share quite consistently. They weren’t the only ones affected either, while Apple were idling along at around the 25% mark, RIM were just starting to lose grip. The trend continued for Android until sometime around November last year, when they overtook Apple for second place.

By January this year, Microsoft and Palm were choking on their competitor’s fumes at 8% and 3.2% respectively. More importantly though, in less than two years, Android had grown to the point where it was the number one smart-phone OS in the US. I’m not the biggest fan of Blackberry or Symbian phones admittedly, so it’s no big loss, but with Android and Apple controlling close to two thirds of the smart-phone market in the US and dominating smart-phone sales worldwide (close to 60%), it’s going to take something drastic to change the way things are currently going. Maybe Nokia’s move from their now-archaic Symbian OS to the Windows 7 phone OS could do that? But then what about the rumours of the new iPhone 5/4S or even talk of the iPhone 6. You also cant ignore the fact that all-unifying version 4 of Android’s OS due out by the end of the year.

For months before I upgrade my mobile phone, I will sit and research all the current phones and phones due for release. Firstly, there is no doubt that it will be a smart-phone. According to Gartner, smart-phones accounted for 23.6% of all mobile phones sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85.6% year-on-year. Then it comes down to which of the major smart-phone OSes you support: Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian?

In the last two years or so, a lot has changed in the world of smart-phones as can be seen by the data available from Comscore and Gartner. If you analyse worldwide smart-phone sales from 2009 to present, things are very interesting indeed. In the days before Cupcake (version 1.5) and Donut (version 1.6), when the only Android phone was the HTC Dream (G1), in the first quarter of 2009, Android only had 1.6% of the world smart-phone market. By quarter one, a year later, in 2010, they were close to 10%, and had climbed above Microsoft and all the other OSes. Symbian, iOS and RIM were still the dominant players though. At this stage, Android phones coming out were on the Eclair (version 2.1) release of their OS and Froyo (2.2) was expected by quarter two of 2010. The only significant jump for the iOS was in quarter three of 2009 shortly after version 3.x of it’s OS was released in June 2009. By quarter three of 2010 though, there were two major changes visible in the sales of mobile phones, as both Android and iOS jumping above RIM and Android showing them both the way of things to come by jumping to the second spot, a massive 15.9% climb over 6 months. By the first quarter of this year, Android would be on it’s latest versions of OS, Gingerbread (version 2.3) for mobile phones and Honeycomb (3.0) for tablet devices.

Things aren’t much different if we look at the US smart-phone OS market. For some reason Comscore, who supply the data, don’t seem to consider Symbian to a smart-phone, not that I completely disagree, especially since Nokia have started going to Microsoft for their OS and Sony-Ericcson have been using Android for a while now on their smart-phones, but it would have been interesting to see nonetheless. Shortly after the first Android phones hit the market in 2009, the Android OS only had a market share of 2.5%. RIM was smiling with a market share of over 40%. I’m pretty sure they had no idea how things would change. Fast forward to May 2010 and Android had overtaken (or almost) the previous number three, Microsoft, and number four, Palm, who were losing market share quite consistently. They weren’t the only ones affected either, while Apple were idling along at around the 25% mark, RIM were just starting to lose grip. The trend continued for Android until sometime around November last year, when they overtook Apple for second place.

By January this year, Microsoft and Palm were choking on their competitor’s fumes at 8% and 3.2% respectively. More importantly though, in less than two years, Android had grown to the point where it was the number one smart-phone OS in the US. I’m not the biggest fan of Blackberry or Symbian phones admittedly, so it’s no big loss, but with Android and Apple controlling close to two thirds of the smart-phone market in the US and dominating smart-phone sales worldwide (close to 60%), it’s going to take something drastic to change the way things are currently going. Maybe Nokia’s move from their now-archaic Symbian OS to the Windows 7 phone OS could do that? But then what about the rumours of the new iPhone 5/4S or even talk of the iPhone 6. You also cant ignore the fact that all-unifying version 4 of Android’s OS due out by the end of the year.

In this article, I will give present the best Android phones you can buy, in various price ranges. This post is focused on Indian buyers, but is relevant for anyone looking for an Android smartphone buying guide, anywhere in the world.

Let me take some of them for our reference (Don’t forget to see for Nokia 500)

Samsung
Nokia
HTC
LG
Spice

Best Android Smartphones

Spice Mi-410

Spice is a relatively unknown brand, but its latest offering – the Spice Mi-410 is one of the best budget Android phones yet. It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo, with a Gingerbread upgrade coming soon, and has a 1 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512 MB RAM. It also has a huge 4.1 inch display, comes with a 5 MP camera, and is priced around Rs 14,000. If I had to buy an Android device under Rs 15,000, it would be the Spice Mi410.
Priced between 12000 – 14000 INR.

Samsung Galaxy Ace

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is like a smaller, budget version of the Samsung Galaxy S. It is now available for around Rs 15,000.

It comes with a 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display. It also has a 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash and is powered by Android 2.2 Froyo. It comes with an 800 MHz processor and 278 MB RAM.

LG Optimus Black

LG recently came to its senses and bumped down the price of the LG Optimus Black to Rs 19,990. At this new price, the LG Optimus Black is a very appealing buy.

It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo and sports a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel Nova capacitive display. It is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and 512 MB RAM. It also has a 5 MP camera with AF and LED flash.

HTC Desire Z

The HTC Desire Z is one of those rare QWERTY sliders powered by Android. It comes with a 3.7 inch display with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. It is powered by an 800 MHz Qualcomm processor and comes with 512 MB RAM.

It runs Android 2.2 Froyo with the HTC Sense UI, but will receive an upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It also has a 5 MP camera, and is a very good option if you want something different.

Nokia 500 Announced with Symbian Anna and Interchangeable Back Panel

The Nokia 500 has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 640 x 360 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel camera, 2GB of onboard storage expandable up to 32GB using microSD card, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and 3G connectivity.

Nokia has also mentioned that this device would be the lightest Symbian^3 device to date, weighing at just 93 grams. Supposedly, it will include 5-7 hours of talk time, 450+ hours of standby and 35 hours of music playback.

In this article, I will give present the best Android phones you can buy, in various price ranges. This post is focused on Indian buyers, but is relevant for anyone looking for an Android smartphone buying guide, anywhere in the world.

Let me take some of them for our reference (Don’t forget to see for Nokia 500)

Samsung
Nokia
HTC
LG
Spice

Best Android Smartphones

Spice Mi-410

Spice is a relatively unknown brand, but its latest offering – the Spice Mi-410 is one of the best budget Android phones yet. It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo, with a Gingerbread upgrade coming soon, and has a 1 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512 MB RAM. It also has a huge 4.1 inch display, comes with a 5 MP camera, and is priced around Rs 14,000. If I had to buy an Android device under Rs 15,000, it would be the Spice Mi410.
Priced between 12000 – 14000 INR.

Samsung Galaxy Ace

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is like a smaller, budget version of the Samsung Galaxy S. It is now available for around Rs 15,000.

It comes with a 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display. It also has a 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash and is powered by Android 2.2 Froyo. It comes with an 800 MHz processor and 278 MB RAM.

LG Optimus Black

LG recently came to its senses and bumped down the price of the LG Optimus Black to Rs 19,990. At this new price, the LG Optimus Black is a very appealing buy.

It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo and sports a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel Nova capacitive display. It is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and 512 MB RAM. It also has a 5 MP camera with AF and LED flash.

HTC Desire Z

The HTC Desire Z is one of those rare QWERTY sliders powered by Android. It comes with a 3.7 inch display with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. It is powered by an 800 MHz Qualcomm processor and comes with 512 MB RAM.

It runs Android 2.2 Froyo with the HTC Sense UI, but will receive an upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It also has a 5 MP camera, and is a very good option if you want something different.

Nokia 500 Announced with Symbian Anna and Interchangeable Back Panel

The Nokia 500 has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 640 x 360 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel camera, 2GB of onboard storage expandable up to 32GB using microSD card, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and 3G connectivity.

Nokia has also mentioned that this device would be the lightest Symbian^3 device to date, weighing at just 93 grams. Supposedly, it will include 5-7 hours of talk time, 450+ hours of standby and 35 hours of music playback.

The best way to make people love a new technology is to sneak it into their pockets.

I remember friends laughing hysterically when I dropped into conversation that I had a colourscreen mobile phone – the world’s first.

‘Who on Earth,’ they gasped in between giggles, ‘would want one of those?’

The HTC Evo 3D can shoot photos and videos in 3D on its 5MP camera and display them on a 4.3in touchscreen

It didn’t help a great deal that the only use of the colour screen was to play a really terrible bowling game – phone cameras were still a glint in an engineer’s eye at this point. But colour caught on by dint of spreading
through every phone brand until there wasn’t anything else to buy. These days the idea of a monochromatic mobile screen seems practically medieval.

HTC is hoping for exactly the same effect with its latest handset – its Evo 3D comes loaded with a glasses free 3D screen, even though the public haven’t exactly been looking at their iPhones in fury thinking, ‘This is
too flat! I can’t live like this!’

It looks great – sharper than the similar glasses-free screen on Nintendo’s 3DS – and as the 3D effects are confined to specific apps, you can safely use the device without carrying emergency supplies of paracetamol.

The 3D effects are solid, subtle and in particular add a real pizzazz to still shots taken on the 3D camera.

The Evo 3D’s twin lenses can also be used for video, which you’ll be able to output to 3D TVs via an HDMI cable – it might well be the first thing most families watch on their 3D TV, bar the odd golf game on Sky.
Hollywood films, games and even TV will come to the Android handset in the future – although you should expect ghastly superhero tripe such as Green Lantern 3D to lead the charge.
But once Marvel and DC Comics have finished clearing their cupboards of their least interesting comic-book heroes (Marvel is planning to make Ant-Man shortly – no lie), there could even be a few good 3D films to watch on it, aside from ones we shoot ourselves.

The best way to make people love a new technology is to sneak it into their pockets.

I remember friends laughing hysterically when I dropped into conversation that I had a colourscreen mobile phone – the world’s first.

‘Who on Earth,’ they gasped in between giggles, ‘would want one of those?’

The HTC Evo 3D can shoot photos and videos in 3D on its 5MP camera and display them on a 4.3in touchscreen

It didn’t help a great deal that the only use of the colour screen was to play a really terrible bowling game – phone cameras were still a glint in an engineer’s eye at this point. But colour caught on by dint of spreading
through every phone brand until there wasn’t anything else to buy. These days the idea of a monochromatic mobile screen seems practically medieval.

HTC is hoping for exactly the same effect with its latest handset – its Evo 3D comes loaded with a glasses free 3D screen, even though the public haven’t exactly been looking at their iPhones in fury thinking, ‘This is
too flat! I can’t live like this!’

It looks great – sharper than the similar glasses-free screen on Nintendo’s 3DS – and as the 3D effects are confined to specific apps, you can safely use the device without carrying emergency supplies of paracetamol.

The 3D effects are solid, subtle and in particular add a real pizzazz to still shots taken on the 3D camera.

The Evo 3D’s twin lenses can also be used for video, which you’ll be able to output to 3D TVs via an HDMI cable – it might well be the first thing most families watch on their 3D TV, bar the odd golf game on Sky.
Hollywood films, games and even TV will come to the Android handset in the future – although you should expect ghastly superhero tripe such as Green Lantern 3D to lead the charge.
But once Marvel and DC Comics have finished clearing their cupboards of their least interesting comic-book heroes (Marvel is planning to make Ant-Man shortly – no lie), there could even be a few good 3D films to watch on it, aside from ones we shoot ourselves.

Hardware:

After the build quality disaster that is the Sony Ericsson Arc, my biggest fear was that the SGS II would be the same: super-thin and cheap build, resulting in a very unpleasant feel in hand. But, my first contact with the phone was actually a pleasant one. I took the phone out of the (very small) box and the phone actually felt quite good. Sure we still talk plastic here, but the build quality is really nice. Nothing like you could break it with some brute force. And WOW, that thing is ultra thin! 8,49mm thin that is. I felt that Samsung has hit the nail on the head with the extreme thin, yet 4,3″ big device. The feel in hand is perfect.

The front of the phone is dominated by one big piece of glass, spanning over almost the whole device, and the most breathtaking screen I have ever seen on any device. Samsung promised a lot with it’s new screen tech and boy, have they delivered. This 4,3″ super AMOLED plus brings black levels and eye-crushing colors unlike anything I have ever seen. Yes you can nitpick now, and say that its 800×480 pixels resolution is less than the HTC Sensation, but that’s pretty much the tech audience of today: “Sure the SGS II has this resolution, but device XYZ has a better one, so it’s not that good”. Pah, sure, grow up. You know what? I don’t care, the Galaxy S II screen is perfect as it is, and i don’t need the extra few pixels. Speaking of the display, this was one of the major factors why i actually skipped the HTC sensation. It is absolutely brilliant for all day to day tasks, even in sunny conditions, as I have tested last weekend. Pictures, Videos, even browsing around is nothing but fun on this gorgeous piece of touchscreen. I absolutely love it.

Underneath the screen is a physical Home button, with a capacitive menu- and back-button on either sides of the home one. On top of the screen you find the phone speaker, front facing 2MP camera and light-sensors. The whole front is kept in black, which makes the device a lot more stylish in my opinion, and in different lightning somewhere even difficult to tell where the screen ends and the device begins. lovely. Furthermore, Samsung has worked on the coating of the front, as the SGS II is not as much as fingerprint magnet, than any other device I had so far. The sides of the SGS II feature the power-/screen lock button on the right, the volume keys on the left side, a 3,5mm audio jack on top, and the microUSB charging- and data cable connector on the bottom. All very clean, the phone never feels too overloaded. I would have appreciated a physical camera button on the SGS II, but Sammy probably went with the masses here and skipped it, relying solely on a touch cam shutter button.

Turning the screen around, reveals a very welcome surprise, as opposed to Nexus and Galaxy S – the battery cover this time has a nice texture, making the device a LOT more grippier to handle. The battery cover itself is a touch of nothing on this device and is actually quite scary when pulled off, but placed on the device it sits super tight, so I don’t have issues with that. The speaker sits on the slightly raised lower part of the SGS II, being very slightly curved. It’s loud enough for your calls and notifications, although will eventually get a lot more quiet when laying on softer undergrounds. Speaker Quality was good, although slightly creaky when on full volume.

The camera on the SGS II has been cranked up to 8 megapixels, with a single LED flash. The camera shutter is operated via touch and can be either used with the big cam interface shutter button, or via touch to focus. There’s a gazillion of settings and scene modes, spanning from party pics to autumn colors and even a setting for visibility on the outside, cranking up the display brightness to a maximum, and going back to normal after closing the cam application. Nice! Videos are recorded in 1080p at 30fps, a very rare combination for mobile phones, but will eventually appear more often on those powerful high-end smartphones. The autofocus while shooting videos was actually quite usable, something that i always missed on my preferred camera phone, the Nokia N8. Interested in how the camera actually performs? Well, it surely isn’t a Nokia N8, and it never claims to be, but I gotta say, the camera was better than expected. Pictures turned out to be crisp in normal light conditions, while expectedly not reaching the good low light capabilities of the SE Arc or even Nokia’s EDoF camera units. I will be posting a post later on this week, with sample camera shots and some short video clips, showing you the video quality, in 1080p of course.

Price & Availability

Samsung Galaxy S2 is available in India. The price starts at Rs 33000/-.

Hardware:

After the build quality disaster that is the Sony Ericsson Arc, my biggest fear was that the SGS II would be the same: super-thin and cheap build, resulting in a very unpleasant feel in hand. But, my first contact with the phone was actually a pleasant one. I took the phone out of the (very small) box and the phone actually felt quite good. Sure we still talk plastic here, but the build quality is really nice. Nothing like you could break it with some brute force. And WOW, that thing is ultra thin! 8,49mm thin that is. I felt that Samsung has hit the nail on the head with the extreme thin, yet 4,3″ big device. The feel in hand is perfect.

The front of the phone is dominated by one big piece of glass, spanning over almost the whole device, and the most breathtaking screen I have ever seen on any device. Samsung promised a lot with it’s new screen tech and boy, have they delivered. This 4,3″ super AMOLED plus brings black levels and eye-crushing colors unlike anything I have ever seen. Yes you can nitpick now, and say that its 800×480 pixels resolution is less than the HTC Sensation, but that’s pretty much the tech audience of today: “Sure the SGS II has this resolution, but device XYZ has a better one, so it’s not that good”. Pah, sure, grow up. You know what? I don’t care, the Galaxy S II screen is perfect as it is, and i don’t need the extra few pixels. Speaking of the display, this was one of the major factors why i actually skipped the HTC sensation. It is absolutely brilliant for all day to day tasks, even in sunny conditions, as I have tested last weekend. Pictures, Videos, even browsing around is nothing but fun on this gorgeous piece of touchscreen. I absolutely love it.

Underneath the screen is a physical Home button, with a capacitive menu- and back-button on either sides of the home one. On top of the screen you find the phone speaker, front facing 2MP camera and light-sensors. The whole front is kept in black, which makes the device a lot more stylish in my opinion, and in different lightning somewhere even difficult to tell where the screen ends and the device begins. lovely. Furthermore, Samsung has worked on the coating of the front, as the SGS II is not as much as fingerprint magnet, than any other device I had so far. The sides of the SGS II feature the power-/screen lock button on the right, the volume keys on the left side, a 3,5mm audio jack on top, and the microUSB charging- and data cable connector on the bottom. All very clean, the phone never feels too overloaded. I would have appreciated a physical camera button on the SGS II, but Sammy probably went with the masses here and skipped it, relying solely on a touch cam shutter button.

Turning the screen around, reveals a very welcome surprise, as opposed to Nexus and Galaxy S – the battery cover this time has a nice texture, making the device a LOT more grippier to handle. The battery cover itself is a touch of nothing on this device and is actually quite scary when pulled off, but placed on the device it sits super tight, so I don’t have issues with that. The speaker sits on the slightly raised lower part of the SGS II, being very slightly curved. It’s loud enough for your calls and notifications, although will eventually get a lot more quiet when laying on softer undergrounds. Speaker Quality was good, although slightly creaky when on full volume.

The camera on the SGS II has been cranked up to 8 megapixels, with a single LED flash. The camera shutter is operated via touch and can be either used with the big cam interface shutter button, or via touch to focus. There’s a gazillion of settings and scene modes, spanning from party pics to autumn colors and even a setting for visibility on the outside, cranking up the display brightness to a maximum, and going back to normal after closing the cam application. Nice! Videos are recorded in 1080p at 30fps, a very rare combination for mobile phones, but will eventually appear more often on those powerful high-end smartphones. The autofocus while shooting videos was actually quite usable, something that i always missed on my preferred camera phone, the Nokia N8. Interested in how the camera actually performs? Well, it surely isn’t a Nokia N8, and it never claims to be, but I gotta say, the camera was better than expected. Pictures turned out to be crisp in normal light conditions, while expectedly not reaching the good low light capabilities of the SE Arc or even Nokia’s EDoF camera units. I will be posting a post later on this week, with sample camera shots and some short video clips, showing you the video quality, in 1080p of course.

Price & Availability

Samsung Galaxy S2 is available in India. The price starts at Rs 33000/-.

Google Plus is a Plus, no doubt

Google+ A real Plus

Google has arrived with a splash on the scene — which is what Google Plus or Google+ is.  After the failed attempts with Google Buzz and Google Wave, I believe that Google+ is the real deal.  Having launched +1, an equivalent to the Facebook LIKE button, it is clear that Google has now dropped the gloves with Facebook. And, after a mere 48 hours of existence, I am going to say that Google+ is the real McCoy.  Google will have to work through the kinks, but, bottom line, the functionality looks and feels better than on Facebook in many instances.  With the “invitation only” approach, Google is helping to create a little of its own buzz.  People (like myself) have been chomping at the bit to give it a try.  It’s called Shortage Marketing.

Google Plus has a whole number of spaces to play with including Circles, Huddles, Hangouts, Sparks and Instant Uploads. I won’t cover each of them here, but if you want to know more about a key component, Google Circles, I recommend checking out their video below or you can view a broader presentation on this little Google demo.

What makes this Google Plus initiative a real plus?

1. You start by defining your circles of friends: not all friends are equal and, compared to Facebook, which has made a real mess of sorting friends, Google Circles is a fabulous way to get started.  The truth about social networking is that is not just about who you know, but why and how well you know them.  Your network is a part of your e-reputation and, just as we all know we can’t have more than a handful of profound friends, we also need to communicate with our friends, family and acquaintances differently.  Being able to categorize “friends” is a KEY to making the social media network more effective. I am not sure this functionality is, as yet, enough to run circles around Facebook, but I like this part best.
2. Ipso facto, Google Plus will be a wake-up call for Facebook.  That’s healthy competition.  Since there are only a few players (Microsoft, Apple & Google) able to take on Facebook frontally, I hope this one sticks.  I love the fact that within nano seconds, someone came up with a mirror functionality of Circles for Facebook.  If you are not on Google+ yet, but are on Facebook, I highly recommend trying it out: Circle Hack
3. Search Plus.  There is a recommendation engine to facilitate sharing of relevant content.  The feature is called SPARKS.
4. Video is central.  A cornerstone element of Google+ is around the video.  There are some neat functionalities to make video chatting in group or one-on-one easy.  The uploading of photos and videos seems to be easier than on Facebook.  One feature I like: you can upload a still within a video too.  Between Google Huddles and Hangouts, you know that the terminology is 100% American (the former, huddles, refers to the pre-action pause in American Football).  Watch out for these words to be banned on French Television soon?
5. Blogs got an automatic +1 on Google Page Rank: which is sort of incidental to the Google Plus project, but I thought it deserved a mention:  Social Search just took another step forward.Google+ Bells & Whistles: Circles, Huddles, Hangouts & MoreGoogle Plus is still rolling out its invitations.  The early adopters are running all the tests Google needs to find out how well it works for real.  There are certainly some wrinkles that need to be ironed out, specifically, as far as I am concerned, with Circles (to be able to view all the circles at once, sorting of friends via a more robust search mechanism…).  I also have been a little lost without a wall.  But I am sure those are just teething pains.  On the mobile front, Google Plus is up on Android, but is not available on the iPhone yet (funny that).

   The online battle is definitely heating up

   The confrontation between the online giants looks to have gone to a whole other level.  Microsoft and Apple have been hitting the clouds.  Facebook and Google are going at in social.  Facebook is aligned with Microsoft, which bought Skype, which is going to be embedded into Facebook very soon to allow for in-the-flow video chat.

   All said, Google+ seems to be the real deal. We welcome your suggestions & thoughts… Source

Google+ is the latest social networking site from Google is making news. The beta version is launched and the worlds eye on it. Believed to be a competitor for facebook. The history would say it all how better from facebook.

Google Plus is a Plus, no doubt

Google+ A real Plus

Google has arrived with a splash on the scene — which is what Google Plus or Google+ is.  After the failed attempts with Google Buzz and Google Wave, I believe that Google+ is the real deal.  Having launched +1, an equivalent to the Facebook LIKE button, it is clear that Google has now dropped the gloves with Facebook. And, after a mere 48 hours of existence, I am going to say that Google+ is the real McCoy.  Google will have to work through the kinks, but, bottom line, the functionality looks and feels better than on Facebook in many instances.  With the “invitation only” approach, Google is helping to create a little of its own buzz.  People (like myself) have been chomping at the bit to give it a try.  It’s called Shortage Marketing.

Google Plus has a whole number of spaces to play with including Circles, Huddles, Hangouts, Sparks and Instant Uploads. I won’t cover each of them here, but if you want to know more about a key component, Google Circles, I recommend checking out their video below or you can view a broader presentation on this little Google demo.

What makes this Google Plus initiative a real plus?

1. You start by defining your circles of friends: not all friends are equal and, compared to Facebook, which has made a real mess of sorting friends, Google Circles is a fabulous way to get started.  The truth about social networking is that is not just about who you know, but why and how well you know them.  Your network is a part of your e-reputation and, just as we all know we can’t have more than a handful of profound friends, we also need to communicate with our friends, family and acquaintances differently.  Being able to categorize “friends” is a KEY to making the social media network more effective. I am not sure this functionality is, as yet, enough to run circles around Facebook, but I like this part best.
2. Ipso facto, Google Plus will be a wake-up call for Facebook.  That’s healthy competition.  Since there are only a few players (Microsoft, Apple & Google) able to take on Facebook frontally, I hope this one sticks.  I love the fact that within nano seconds, someone came up with a mirror functionality of Circles for Facebook.  If you are not on Google+ yet, but are on Facebook, I highly recommend trying it out: Circle Hack
3. Search Plus.  There is a recommendation engine to facilitate sharing of relevant content.  The feature is called SPARKS.
4. Video is central.  A cornerstone element of Google+ is around the video.  There are some neat functionalities to make video chatting in group or one-on-one easy.  The uploading of photos and videos seems to be easier than on Facebook.  One feature I like: you can upload a still within a video too.  Between Google Huddles and Hangouts, you know that the terminology is 100% American (the former, huddles, refers to the pre-action pause in American Football).  Watch out for these words to be banned on French Television soon?
5. Blogs got an automatic +1 on Google Page Rank: which is sort of incidental to the Google Plus project, but I thought it deserved a mention:  Social Search just took another step forward.Google+ Bells & Whistles: Circles, Huddles, Hangouts & MoreGoogle Plus is still rolling out its invitations.  The early adopters are running all the tests Google needs to find out how well it works for real.  There are certainly some wrinkles that need to be ironed out, specifically, as far as I am concerned, with Circles (to be able to view all the circles at once, sorting of friends via a more robust search mechanism…).  I also have been a little lost without a wall.  But I am sure those are just teething pains.  On the mobile front, Google Plus is up on Android, but is not available on the iPhone yet (funny that).

   The online battle is definitely heating up

   The confrontation between the online giants looks to have gone to a whole other level.  Microsoft and Apple have been hitting the clouds.  Facebook and Google are going at in social.  Facebook is aligned with Microsoft, which bought Skype, which is going to be embedded into Facebook very soon to allow for in-the-flow video chat.

   All said, Google+ seems to be the real deal. We welcome your suggestions & thoughts… Source