Google offers up a circle of friends and family.

What Google’s new plus one network is lacking in bells and whistles it makes up for in practicality. I was pretty excited to have been invited to test the new plus system and I jumped on the opportunity to try it without much hesitation. Although I have not had much time to “fiddle” with it, here is my first impression of the newest social media platform.

Let’s start with the areas that Google plus one need improving upon:

1. It is not very colorful and does not seem to be highly customizable. I suppose they were trying to mimic the scaled down brand of Google. However, people like colorful and I think that was a mistake on Google’s part.
2. It does not really bring anything new to the social media table other than a webcam sharing addition. You can do this on Skype and other media so it is not exactly a new concept just more convenient.

What I do find useful about the Google plus one platform is the contact hierarchy system that it incorporated.

1. It begins with four life circles or “hangouts” where you place your contacts. You can choose where to place each contact based on relativity in your life. By default it comes with the following circles: family, friends, acquaintances and followers. You simply create more as you grow your network and decide what defines your style.
2. To place contacts in the hierarchy.you simply drag and drop them into any of the circles you have. When you send a status message it will only go to the contacts in that circle. It is a great feature for targeted messaging.

What it lacks in color and “cuteness,” it makes up for in separating groups and targeting contacts, but it is not really any different than any other social media platform that currently exists.

Google plus one will offer another choice to individuals a new place to grow their own personal networks, but from a social media marketers point of view it is simply just another day hanging at the water-cooler.

Sorry Google, you get a thumbs down on this for the time being.