Google+ is being changed this week based on user feedback

By: Matthew Humphries

It’s been a couple of weeks since Google+ launched, and with the exception of China already blocking its use, people do seem to like it. That’s good news for Google after the failures of Buzz and Wave, and bad news for Facebook who now has a serious competitor in the social network space.

You may think Google could sit back and watch the Google+ network grow, but that would be a mistake. The search company has realized it can’t just watch what happens, it needs to respond to users quickly in order to keep them happy and the network growing. While the general view of Google+ is a positive one, there’s also a lot of criticism and user feedback of which Google is about to tackle.

Today, Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of social at Google used his Google+ account to post a message confirming there’s “lots of criticism for Google+.” Not only that, but before the end of the week we should start seeing changes to address those criticisms.

Although there isn’t a list of what the most criticized features are (or lack thereof), the responses to Gundotra’s post are very telling. Here’s the ones we managed to extract from the 200+ comments he has received so far, most of which have had multiple +1 upvotes:

• Ability to modify circles a post is shared with after posting it
• Reading sparks and +1 comments in the Android app
• Lifting of the 5000 circle cap (really?)
• The ability to overlap circles
• Option of a circle that doesn’t show up in your stream
• Menu follows you down the stream as you scroll
• Easy private messaging option including to person who starts a thread
• Google+ app for other platforms (WP7)
• Blocking working 100% of the time
• Easy way to merge circles
• Sharing and refresh updates in the Android app
• Link to hide all comments again after you’ve clicked to show all
• Better integration of Google Chat with Google+
• Fix issues with instant upload for photos
• Ability to share with all circles, but with an “except” option
• Ability to share Google Docs and Calendar with circles
• Revamp Google Reader to make sharing easier
• File-sharing integration
• Nested comments
• Addition of hashtags to aid searching

As you can see, most of the requests are for more control and more integration with other Google services. There also seems to be a big push for the Android app to be improved quickly.

We know any bugs will be the first thing to be fixed, but also for the control of circles (privacy, merging) and better stream access and controls to be targeted first. I’m sure there’s also a lot of feedback regarding the invite system and how overwhelmed it became.
The other question to ask is whether there’s anything missing from that list? If you are a regular Google+ user or just starting out, checkout our best tips, tricks, and add-ons post and see if it helps you get past, or reveal new criticisms you can feedback to Google.
via Computerworld