Google+ has recently added a new feature called mutual circle chat which appears in the lower left hand corner of your Google+ profile. This feature will allow you to have a conversation with those people in your mutual circle. This is the first time Google+ has done such a thing. With the use of this feature you can actually chat with anyone in your circle, who also has you in their mutual circle. Also according to Google’s post these people in mutual circles can also chat on Gmail, Google Plus, iGoogle, Orkut, and the Google Talk Client.
The benefits of having this feature are that firstly, according to a Google spokesperson “we’re making it easier to chat with the people you care about”. I agree with this to an extent. If you suddenly see someone that you know appear on chat that you are not directly friends with on Google+ then you can have a conversation with them. It could be that you haven’t seen this person for a long time and weren’t aware they are mutual friends with one of your friends. It is a good way of finding people. The same advantage goes for the person receiving the chat. That person may be glad to chat to you and catch up after a long time. In order to chat to these mutual friends you do not need to know their e-mail address which makes it easier to use the feature. The mutual circle chat has been one of the requested features in the new social networking platform. Everyday users want new features in every social network and these requests and changes are being made.The feature will also make it less tedious to chat with people you circle by forcing you to add them twice to talk to them on Google+ and the chat. This new feature also has the benefit of mutual friends being able to chat on Gmail, Google Plus and the others mentioned above which makes it easy to communicate across other networks. It is a feature with many opportunities to develop further in the feature and other social networks may also think about creating something similar one day.
The downside for some users of this feature is that they may not want to receive chats from various people in their mutual circle of friends. This new feature could be a way for some people to chat to those who do not wish to talk to them, which could lead to problems with mutual friends or even users reporting such events to Google+. Chat within circles means everyone in “your circle” which is going to be a large amount of users depending on how many friends you have; therefore the more users to chat with, which some people will take advantage of. To give a possible example celebrities and famous people may be approached on chat by some fans or even enemies and it is also said that the custom setting on Google+ chat do not offer much guidance on how to control the feature which means it will take a while for some users to get used to the swift change in the chat feature. However, there is no group chat involved nor can you start group chats from circles which are a good thing as it could lead to arguments in some cases over a conversation with mutual friends.
This is going to be a very interesting feature to be seen on the network. The benefits seem to easily outweigh the drawbacks. What are your opinions of this new feature?
I both agree and disagree with your view to a certain extent Karan; I agree on the fact that having mutual circles will break down the now dated way to add or ‘+1’ via e-mail alone, which I agree is tedious, as I know it has become custom with my friends and I to ‘friend’ each other on a social networking website through names only. However, I disagree that blocking certain contacts in chat is difficult; I surprisingly found it to be much simpler than Facebook chat, here is a link explain how to block contacts http://google-plus.com/3098/are-you-seeing-lots-of-users-in-gtalk-or-chat-its-because-circles-for-chat-automatically-adds-and-shows-people-in-mutual-circles/ . In addition, if I follow said person but they are not following me and I wish to chat to them, I have to send an invitation to chat, thus giving a choice to the user that I invited to either chat or not. Also, you state that you can’t group chat; however the following link states otherwise http://www.googleplusers.com/how-to-group-chat-google.html , which is also through invitation only.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mufc1811 to a certain extent, but personally, i think the good advantages definitely over weighs the disadvantages of Google+. having that "mutual circle" breaks down that barrier so that a group of mutual friends can pick up on 'old times'. also, Google+ does give you that control on whether to accept the person that wants to interact which i believe is their selling point.
ReplyDelete