Going Google Free: Social Networking

This is part of a continuing series about my quest to become Google Free by July 1st. Read from the beginning to learn more.

I’m just going to start by saying that I never really got into Google+. For me, there just weren’t enough people that I knew on there for it to replace Twitter or Facebook (on a side note, I’ve ditched Facebook too). There’s a joke between my friends and I about the amount of users on Google+. “Did you hear that Google+ has over 20 million users?” “Really? I didn’t know that Google had that many employees!”

The alternatives for Google+ are obvious. There’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, and App.net. I’m sure that there are a lot more social networks, but those just appear to be the big 5. I’ve severed my connection to Facebook and I’ve never been a big fan of MySpace. I kind of feel like Google+ was a revamped MySpace that all Google users were forced to join. Heck, Google+ users usually only spend 3 minutes a month on it!

Basically, Facebook is for people who want to be able to connect with their friends and see what they’re doing every minute. Twitter is for people who want to connect with people that they knew. MySpace is for Tom Anderson and Justin Timberlake. Instagram is for the aspiring hipster who doesn’t realize that Instagram is too mainstream. App.net is for people who want to have real conversations with people. Personally, I think App.net is the best social network out of these 5 because it contains the least amount of spam and relies solely on third-party developers for their apps.

Even without Google becoming creepy, I don’t think I would have ever gotten into Google+. The social network is plagued with many issues. The number one reason I found it hard to keep coming back to it was the lack of original posts and interesting users. That’s not to say that there weren’t interesting people, but pretty much everybody there has a Twitter account that they update more frequently and with more interesting posts. Another reason I couldn’t really get into Google+ was the lack of 3rd party mobile apps. I’m not saying that the Google+ apps for iOS and Android are ugly or unusable, I just like to have some choice when it comes to how I access my social networks. I truly think that Google+ is for 2 types of people: Hipsters who are in love with Google, and Google employees.

Do you use Google+ or have an opinion about it? Sound off in the comments below and tell us about it.

Review: Polly (Twitter Client)

Recently, I’ve been looking for a good Twitter client for Linux. Most of the ones that I have looked at have failed to please me due to KDE dependencies (I’m looking at you, Hotot!!!) or because they lack basic features. Then I stumbled upon Polly. Polly is a Twitter client developed by Conscious User. Polly features multiple user sign-in, paned viewing, and different options for Retweets such as ‘RT’ and quotes (to access these, right click on the retweet button)

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There isn’t much missing from Polly. My only issue with Polly is that it occasionally logs me out of my Twitter account when I open it. (Update: This appears to only be a problem that I have and is probably just something wrong on my end.) This isn’t a big issue as logging into your Twitter account is as easy as clicking a button, authorizing the app, and then copying the code shown.

One that that I’ve noticed is that the Polly twitter account ( @pollyclient ) answers pretty much any question that you could ask about the application. Some people may be deterred because of the ‘pre-Alpha’ sticker, but it’s pretty stable and I’ve never had it crash on me. So if you’re looking for a good Twitter client, check out Polly. Have any questions or thoughts about Polly? Sound off in the comments below.