G+/Blogger integration, still not there, can we get some real features please?

// It's amazing what insignificant updates make news these days. Up until now, after hitting "Publish" on a new Blogger post, you were prompted to also post it on G+. Now you have an option and this will be done automatically. That's it. That's a new feature, announced on the official Blogger blog, filling up tech news sites and my G+ feed.

Left: post on Blogger. Right: post on G+

So here I am, testing Blogger again, and not much has changed since the last time I was here. I see that some problems remain:

1) Comment management: There is no central place to see all comments (on Blogger and G+ since these are (or more accurate, you can set it this way) the same thing now). You only have a list of posts an a comment count next to them. So you do not have a way to find if an old post has a new comment recently.

That said, if you had shared a Blogger post as a G+ post you get a notification on G+ for new comments but that's it. Comments from re-shares do not produce notifications (from what I have seen, correct me if I'm wrong). Finally, from what +Jean Abraham reports you get a G+ notification when someone comments directly on a post and +Gideon Rosenblatt reports that you get a G+ notification for shares (even if you didn't share it initially on G+?)

2) Smaller real estate on G+ feeds: Your full post (the text of it) is not posted on G+, forcing people to click through to get to the article. Unless you learn to write amazing first paragraphs, you've just lost a large part of your audience (Yes, people love easy stuff! Amazing insight: the easier you make it for people to read your content, the more people will read your content :)). In addition, your smaller thumbnail image has to compete with large photos from "real" G+ posts, some even taking up both columns of the feed.

I really can't see what's stopping Google from doing a full integration of the two services. Full Blogger posts on G+. Your blogspot.com can remain are your categorised archive and holder of "static" Pages content. A real comment management control panel (see WordPress, Disqus, etc). Am I asking too much? :)

Social media cross-posting with Friends+me

// I've recently posted about +Fotostat (http://bit.ly/g-fotostat) , a new service for cross-posting within several social networks, with focus on images. I have been using it with great success for a site I manage. But if your main network is #Google+, you are out of luck, because #Google has only given write access through the G+ API to selected third-party services like #Hootsuite.

An alternative service is Friends+me, currently in beta. The concept is that your source is Google+ and you can cross-post anything you publish on G+ to #Facebook, #Twitter and #LinkedIn. Both personal profiles and pages are supported, you automate at the same time your G+ profile as well as any page you administer.

The good thing is that it comes with quite a few settings for customising when and what's posted. You can set manually to which networks a post will be copied using hashtags or have some networks as defaults. You also have choices on how the post will be made and how it will or not link back to the original post. Finally, links posted through Friends+me on Twitter have support for Twitter Cards, so followers can have a preview of the linked post/URL.

The devil is in the details though. What really won me over to use Friends+me instead of Hootsuite for a site I manage was that links to pages on the website are actually posted as link-type posts on Facebook. Meanwhile, Hootsuite's automated posting to Facebook creates status-type posts which are less click-friendly.

+Friends+Me is now in beta and free. Some (really cheap) plans will be available in the next months (they are announced on the website but you can't purchase them yet - an interesting approach). Check it out! http://bit.ly/friendsme

Blogger and the Holy Grail of unified comments

// So yesterday Google announced a further integration of Google+ comments and Blogger. If you enable the related setting, if your Blogger post is shared on G+, any comment on the G+ post with your post will also be shown in the page of the Blogger post in the comments section.

This is a Holy Grail for comments on Google+ for people like who use Google+ as a blogging platform, as you can have all (public) comments from re-shares on your original post both to read (if you have many re-shares usually you just don't follow discussion there) as well as respond to.

So this is a post written and first post on Blogger at mgiannopoulos.blogspot.com. I'm not sure where this will lead as not everything is peachy.

First of all, I've been looking for some good premium themes that would have the same look as my current setup at giannopoulos.net but have not found anything decent. Any suggestions here would be great.

The other issue I see is that, when you share a new post to G+ at the time of publishing (while you're on Blogger), you actually create a G+ post which contains a link to the blogger post. This mean that my current G+ followers, who were used to seeing my full posts (complete text and image) on their stream, will now see just a link (and perhaps some intro that I write while sharing). This is less compelling to click through.

On top of that, I would not be able to share a Blogger post on G+ communities without being marked a spammer :) Currently it is generally acceptable to share your own G+ post in a community since you're still keeping people on the platform and they can read the full post inline. See the screenshot above for a terrible "inception" effect :)

So as it is, I'm sceptical on whether this could work. My G+ audience is well, on G+. Sending them to Blogger in order to have all discussions in a single place could actually be counter-productive. Thoughts? :)


[Update] When someone replies directly on your Blogger post (not through a share), you get a notification on Google+ :)

Dear G+, for your next feature

Please, now that you are really keeping track of all the shares and re-shares of each post, show them just once in my stream.

I love +Vic Gundotra announcements as much as the next guy, but I don't need to read them 10 times. It devalues the quality of the Stream and I personally avoid to re-share to avoid forcing people to see something they may have already seen.

Show it to me once along with what the people in my stream commented. You know, like that other site is doing... ;)

Google+: View post on Google+

A really resourceful post!

A really resourceful post!

Reshared post from +Gabriel Vasile

BEST GOOGLE PLUS PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS

These are the best wordpress plugins dedicated to google plus that I found so far. I hope I didn't miss other important ones, but if I did... just leave me a comment on the original post: http://goo.gl/FKz5p. Please share this to help the g+ community.

1. Google+Blog - http://goo.gl/ILvbJ
Automatically crosspost your Google+ posts to your wordpress blog
How to setup Google+Blog plugin: http://goo.gl/Ge1aV
More about this plugin from +Daniel Treadwell over here: http://goo.gl/nfa9O

2a. Google Plus Widget - http://widgetsplus.com/
Allows you to show the visitors of your blog/website your Google+ account. You can also add your Google Plus stream in it!

2b. GoogleCards - http://goo.gl/SbDvZ
Adds a google+ widget for linking to your google+ profile and showing your number of followers. Very easy to use. Upon activating the plugin, you’ll have a new widget available in your Appearance – Widgets section. You can drop that widget into a sidebar of yours, specify a title and your Google Plus profile ID. You’ll end up with a neat card displaying your name, avatar and the amount of circles you’ve been listed in.

2c. Scriptrr Google+ Profile - http://goo.gl/2mP0e
Allows users to add a widget on their blog or website to invite visitors to new Google + Profile. It shows how many followers you got and can also be customized to show your other social profiles as you have defined on your Google+ profile. Very easy to install and can be customized for color and width.

3a. Google +1 Button - http://goo.gl/2uUBO
Easily add Google’s +1 button to your posts and pages, single or lists. Has a choice of multiple languages, placement locations and button sizes, as well as whether to display the +1 count or not.

The plugin comes equipped with a function that you can use inside your theme for manual placement and even a shortcode that you can use inside your posts and pages.

3b. WP PlusOne This - http://goo.gl/lQzb0
Similar to the plugin above but requires no configuration at all. Simply install and activate the plugin and you’ll get Google’s +1 button on every post and page on your blog. You can specify further positioning of the button via CSS.

3c. Plus One - http://goo.gl/dwga9
This plugin not only adds the +1 button to your posts and pages, but also gives you a page full of settings including advanced ones, like JS callbacks and the HTML code for the button placement. Very neat for advanced users and those who’re really picky about where, how and why the button should be placed.

Other useful posts that you might like:
1. How To Import Your Facebook Photos Into G+ - http://goo.gl/nXPqZ
2. Top 25 Most Popular Chrome Extensions And Apps For Google Plus - http://goo.gl/X8bA5
3. 10 Great Tips to Help Photographers on Google+ - http://goo.gl/4wBNc
4. Google plus tips and cheat sheets - http://goo.gl/uGWCn
5. How to track your google plus statistics - http://goo.gl/X1XYY
6. Google plus id shortener - http://goo.gl/LFhtQ

In album Best G+ Plugins For Wordpres (5 photos)

Google+: View post on Google+

You can now share content with the +1 button

What many people have been expecting as an obvious feature when Google+ was launched is now becoming reality. It's not fully rolled out yet to everyone (just tried on a page but didn't get the magic) but you will be able to share the page you are +1'ing on your Google+ circles.

When it’s live: Just +1 a page as usual and look for the new “Share on Google+” option. From there you can comment, choose a circle and share. It’s very similar to the Facebook Recommend button, but it’s all about bringing fresh content to your Circles not your Newsfeed.
When you share content from the +1 button, you’ll notice that Google automatically includes a link, an image and a description in the sharebox. Google is calling these “+snippets,” and they’re very similar to “comments” in Facebook’s Recommend feature

Full article: You can now share content into Google+ circles with the +1 button - TNW Google.

Social media is social but it's not media

Where equals (or close to equals) get together to interact.
On Facebook it 's like a school reunion or a family picnic or an office party. A loose social gathering with no specific interest focus.
On Twitter it looks more like a cocktail party. Lots of subgroups with specific interests. But however it looks, it is not a medium. It's a social gathering. To twist McLuhan, "The message is the medium." This is not a broadcast environment. People are not on Twitter for the content. It's all about the context. And the quality of the conversation is what reigns supreme. And here's the problem...

Full article: SOCIAL MEDIA IS SOCIAL BUT IT'S NOT MEDIA - petereconomides posterous.

Adventures in Google Apps Land

With the introduction of Google+ I made the attempt to re-organise my Google services under a new account also having my giannopoulos.net email on Google Apps. This lead to discovering two things

The most brilliant/evil feature in Google+

I'm exploring the world of Google+ and this option in the sharing window seems to be the best way for a social network to expand.

Google+ Statistics on SocialStatistics.com

You know when your product/service is catching on, when other people are starting to built on it, try to take advantage on it or make themselves more known by being the first on it. From the co-founder of TwitterCounter.com...

Google+ Statistics tracks the top 100 users on Google+. Just add yourself so we can start tracking your own Google+ statistics too. See how many people added you in their circles, your progression and where you rank in the list of popular Google+ users. And yes, that is the real Mark Zuckerberg at number 1.

More: Google+ Statistics on SocialStatistics.com.

Google+ Circles: Rethinking the way we share

I had a full article on the issue but the WordPress iPhone app decided to eat it, so here are some other people's articles instead

Facebook, Google, and the war to lock you in

Facebook isn't necessarily the new Compuserve, and Google might not be angling to be the Hotel California of tech, but all of the big web giants seem intent on locking their users into experiencing a single-vendor web.
Facebook riled users this week by throttling their ability to export their Facebook friends' data for use with Google+ or other services, while Google dumped Twitter from its realtime search in favor of its own Google+. The web as an intersection of seemingly infinite networks threatens to become a limited patchwork of monopolized web experiences that only grudgingly talk with each other.

More: Facebook, Google, and the war to lock you in - The Register.