I joined Google+ on the day that it became available, and have always enjoyed the service. I generally find the web interface to offer a nice, visual view that allows me to easily connect with and browse the work of other photographers. It’s a much nicer experience that some other leading social networks.
While the Google+ web browser experience was pretty good, their mobile experience (at least on the iPhone) was pretty bad. There was a lot of wasted space, navigation was cumbersome, and some serious performance problems made it an onerous task to do something as simple as post a status update or share a photograph. My mobile photo sharing continued to focus on other applications while I mostly ignored Google+ when I was away from my desk.
The lack of a good mobile app led me to question how much time I’d spend with the service in the future. I became skeptical.
And then last week, this happened:
An update to the iPhone app brings a new, beautiful photo-centric display which makes browsing a Google+ steam a very nice experience… arguably even better than the Instagram stream which now looks a bit plain by comparison. It’s easy to +1 photos (just tap on the + count), easy to comment, and the performance when posting new items is improved. In short, Google got this mobile experience right. Mobile photography is a big deal ($1 billion for Instagram, anyone?), and a beautiful mobile experience represents a big plus (pun intended) for Google.
There’s one big piece that’s missing (still): an API for third-party apps. My current mobile photo workflow involves using Camera Awesome to upload mobile photos to SmugMug and then cross-post to social services (sometimes Twitter, sometimes Facebook, sometimes Instagram). If I could post the images easily to Google+ as well, that would be a huge time-saver that could only increase my usage of Google+ while on the go.
I’m on the fence about switching to Google+ as my primary mobile social network (instead of Instagram). The API would make it easier, but it’s not too bad now with the new app. There’s a local Instagram meetup in a few days; I’m curious to hear what other Instagram users think about the new Google+ interface…
for over a year, and I’m not sure why I didn’t blog this sooner. There are two (okay, three) custom functions that make the user experience a lot nicer.
I generally don’t hide the fact that I loathe Facebook. The company has repeatedly made moves which aren’t good for the internet, yet somehow has convinced most of the world that they should spend hours each week participating on the Facebook website. I reluctantly use the service since it’s a way to keep up with some people who, for various reasons, don’t use the rest of the internet.
I stopped using Instagram and haven’t uploaded any photos since the acquisition. I didn’t go as far as deleting my account, but I wanted to spend some time thinking about what a Facebook-owned Instagram would mean, and whether or not I wanted to participate in such an endeavor.
I’ve been thinking a bit about the 
