back to article Google+ succumbs to Facebook game envy

Google has launched a gaming platform atop its Google+ social networking service, predictably expanding its efforts to turn itself into Facebook. The platform debuted with sixteen games from a handful of Google partners, including Zynga, the Facebook game-king that's set for a $11.5bn IPO; Rovio, maker of mobile phenomenon …

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  1. Spanners
    WTF?

    It may be good

    but I can't tell. I can't get in. I have not received an invitation. I was an early Gmail user, so much for customer loyalty...

    1. Paulus Net
      Meh

      Re: It may be good

      @Spanners: Go to my profile and send me an email, I will invite you to the Google++

      https://plus.google.com/109728619419991620223/about

      1. Spanners
        Thumb Up

        Will Do

        But I am not sure how you will be able to tell me from the 350 others

    2. The Envoy
      Pint

      Huh? Another one...?

      Since I'm still figuring out what to do with my Google Wave account the lack of invitation to this +-thing is nothing I spend sleepless night pondering. And what's this "Angry Birds" all about...?

      1. T.a.f.T.

        Angry Birds

        That's all the women that have had the late night naughty picks of them uploaded automatically to Google+ isn't it?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Customer

      You're not a customer, though; you're a revenue stream.

      Personally, I was hoping G+ wouldn't succumb to the extraneous rubbish... it does the core stuff very well.

  2. Rattus Rattus

    Been waiting for G+ to open up

    so more of us can get in. I've always been a Facebook refusenik, but I might finally give social networking a try when G+ opens to the public.

  3. NorthernSands
    Thumb Up

    Easy to ignore...?

    The thing that interests me is this:

    "If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about". Quote from Google.

    I'm fed up with my Facebook 'stream' being filled up with game updates from my 'friends'. I have less than 100 'friends' yet it's very difficult to see the wood for the trees. I'm really not interested in what animal needs feeding, which gang needs help or what neighbour has just grown a field of corn; I just want to know what REAL LIFE stuff the people I know are up to. If I were interested in these games, then I might want to know what my 'friends' are up to in them, but I'm not, so it looks like Google may be on to something here [with its granularity].

    I actually like Google plus a lot. It's far better than Facebook. I do have a couple of problems with it though:

    1) It's invitation only for now.

    2) You can't have a Google profile with a Google Apps account (which means no Google plus). I have to use a regular Google account, which is really annoying.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They're pretty easy to hide

      See something you don't like in your stream? Hover over it, click on the little cross that appears and select "Hide all updates from this application", and it's gone. I see about 1 new game update a month now

    2. Ru
      Facepalm

      You realise

      you can block notifications from people and applications who irritate you? I've made sure I blocked everything by Zynga some time ago, and my facebook feed has a significantly higher signal to noise ratio as a result.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More copying and closed rubbish from the "open" company

    "We chose to start with a small number of partners so that we could experiment, get the kinks out of our APIs, and get real end-user feedback [before opening up to the world.] "

    I thought open development and APIs were a perfect match for that, how else is Google going to get a good kicking on those interfaces? Is the current API *so* bad that Google is ashamed of showing it?

    For all they try to paint Facebook as closed, at least Facebook has an open APIs, it's all free and documented. I could develop and publish my own Facebook game right now.

    Google's social network is looking more and more like a copy of FB and not even a good one at that.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Do much development then?

      By keeping the initial developer base small, they can change API's without trashing too much code. The companies they have chosen are pretty much the state of art people, so will be more than capable of giving good feedback to the API team (or a 'kicking' as you put it). Once this is all done and the API is good enough, it goes public.

      Seems like a good way of doing it to me. Completely open development of an API would be a disaster, resulting in massive bloat and inconsistency.

      I don't know, but was the first incarnation of FB API's developed as an open or closed scheme? Or was it entirely in house until they released it?

  5. Chris Hatfield
    FAIL

    Seriously, Google?

    The main reason for me joining G+ was to avoid shit like Farmville.

    This, combined with Google's creepiness is making me hate G+ as much as Facebook.

    The no-pseudoyms thing was the first big red flag.

    Dear Google (and Facebook) : fuck you.

    1. Matt Siddall

      actually

      It looks like they're taking that into consideration. You don't get game updates sent to your main stream, so crap like farmville won't be spamming you every 5 minutes. You only see that stuff if you go to the games tab, which presumably those who want to avoid the gaming will not...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bah

    There goes the best thing about G+... no Farmville etc. Well, that's probably the main "shortcoming" preventing my non-geek "friends" from abandoning Facebook.

    But, who really cares? Enough with these social network articles already! :)

  7. Eddy Ito

    Easy enough

    "Google has launched a gaming platform atop its Google+ social networking service..."

    So now Android runs on Google+?

  8. Justin 6
    Facepalm

    yayy stupid privacy invading games

    There goes the g+ neighbourhood....

  9. chr0m4t1c

    I think Facebook are worried

    I posted my invite link on FB so my friends could sign up if they wanted (the feed is only visible to friends).

    Less than half an hour later the post had vanished without any explanation.

  10. Matt Siddall
    Thumb Up

    Two things

    First of all, the article could perhaps be a little clearer. On G+ you have 4 separate areas at present. These are:

    - Stream - where new posts from people in your circles come in

    - Pictures - where you can see pics from people in your circles (pics also appear in the stream when first shared)

    - Profile - where you can sort out your own profile and how the world+dog sees you

    - Circles - where you can manage your circles.

    Games is to be an additional area, and any game related information will be confined to the Games area - so you won't get farmville or vampire spam clogging up your stream - you'll have to go to the games tab to get it.

    The other thing is that a lot of people are still waiting for an invite. I put an app on the google market that lets people submit an email address to request an invite and I've invited over 7,000 people to date. The app works through php (although all invites have to be sent manually due to google's t&cs) and anyone still needing an invite can request one by going to http://zelazny.co.uk/links/gemail.php?email=whatever@domain.com - just replace whatever@domain.com with your email address. You'll get one email straight away to confirm that I have your email address, and then you'll get an invite within 24 hours.

    Alternately, grab the app from https://market.android.com/details?id=appinventor.ai_zelazny.Gplus_invite (there's also a paid version available, but I figured most people would want the free one).

    1. T.a.f.T.

      Buzz & +1

      You also get a Buzz and a +1 channel if you want them. Neither of these are visible on your profile be default and at the moment I don't think either of them gets broadcast to circles.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Once bitten, twice shy

    Google already annoyed me by making my contacts details public and searchable as part of there social media 'testing' first time round.

    Now my so called friends want me to sign up to a beta social network that states:

    "By using this product in Field Trial stage, you're responsible for protecting yourself and your data from any risks, including data loss or disclosure."

    I'll wait for until Google have actually finished it thanks and can at least try to take some responcibility for the data I give them.

  12. IR

    Okay

    People complaining about the game apps filling up their facebook feed, just hide them! Move your mouse over the top right corner, click the X, and select to hide it forever from the drop down menu. Very easy to do, and will not take too long as long as you don't have a million friends who you don't really know, and who sign up to every app they find.

    1. Tom Maddox Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Sure

      But you have to do it with every single goddamn game out there. And then there's the Twitter crap, "Joe Blow likes scatology," etc. The real answer, from my experience is to install the FB Purity plugin.

  13. goodthankyou
    Happy

    learner

    I'm still figuring out what to do with my Google Wave account the lack of invitation to this +-thing is nothing I spend sleepless night pondering.

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