::Disclaimer::
I am by no means an expert, but I know tech. People keep asking me where I stand on Google+(G+ hence forth) and Facebook(FB hence forth). I am also a self-proclaimed Google fanboi from gmail all the way to android, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt maybe. But to clarify the last statement, I am a Google fanboi because I agree with most of what they do and how they do it. I can not honestly say that about many large corporations. With that said lets get to it.
::Disclaimer::
Circles/Groups
Big surprise I like G+ (did you even READ the disclaimer), but here is why. G+ has taken the time to really see how we interact as human beings. What do I mean by that? When I was probably 16 one of my best friend's grandfather told me something that I today hold close to my heart. That if you want to go places in this world you have to know how to switch hats. You have to know when to be Professional Paul, Fun Paul, Strict Paul, etc. G+ actually gives me that option with the roll out of circles. I can have "circles" of friends that I can share things with. I don't need my work friends watching me take shots at the bar with my out-of-work friends, work people reading this, I don't go out and do shots...out-of-work friends shh.
Another fantastic thing about circles is that I can share information about myself to select groups. I LOVE social check-in features of twitter and the likes, I HATE that anyone can see that stuff, thereby letting everyone know that I am not at home, or that I am traveling, etc. But I really enjoy posting "Hey I'm in Boston", and getting a response from someone that I may not have seen in 5+ years "OMG lets meet up and do dinner." Yes I do understand that someone can in turn "share" this info from the circles that I share this with, thereby allowing more people to see it. But guess what, if I tell you a secret face to face, what is stopping you from telling someone else...mostly social norms, it's taboo...G+ implements this by telling you when you are re-sharing, that the person that shared it with you initially may not want that info going to other groups. This I LIKE.
On top of all this, I think that adding people to circles is REALLY easy. FB groups on the other hand, while it is easy to add people to groups as you add them to your contacts, its not really intuitive to add them to those groups after the fact, also it is not really THAT apparent what those groups can and can't see. This to me is a huge problem, and is also a huge problem for most FB users. I know I have around 20% of my friends that have at some time changed their FB name so that if couldn't be searched for on google etc. They do that when they are searching for jobs, when they are applying for college etc. Circles makes this far easier, if you don't want the general public to see it, don't post it to the +Public circle.
Hangouts
This is something that kind of made me laugh. I have been trying to use various video chat clients for at LEAST the last decade. It just never really caught on, till now of course. Hangouts let you video chat with up to 10 ppl. 10 PEOPLE. Every other service is 1-on-1 with the best I ever saw was through Meebo which allowed 4, but it was ugly. Even FB rolled out FB chat for 1-on-1 via Skype. Skype has always had the video chat, and you upgrade for the "conference" chat.
I can't really comment on FB video chat right now though. There is one of two problems on that front. I either haven't had the feature rolled out, OR I am far to freaking technical to figure out how to initiate it. I have done everything I can think of to get it to work and it isn't working. Maybe I will figure it out this week.
Hangouts seemed pretty natural to me, my wife had a bit of trouble but was easily coached through the setup. And I have done a few hangouts. I even had a hangout with a buddy from Finland. I was amazed at the audio quality as well as the video quality. I can see myself using this in the future without a doubt.
Sparks
Haven't used this feature TOO much yet, as I have other ways that I tend to get my news, but neat feature to have. The results in my opinion are a bit rough on the edges, but it is still really early.
Instant Upload
Some people will be a little leery of this feature. Any pictures and video I take from my phone/tablet get instantly uploaded to a private album that is accessible by G+. I love this, it makes sharing VERY easy. Now I am not going to lie, even if FB rolled this feature out I would disable it... Odd and hypocritical some may say, but the key difference here is my level of trust in what G+ provides over FB. I just don't trust FB farther than I could throw it. That pretty much is the gist of it.
Integration
Ok, I admit this is something that FB just can't compete with at the moment. G+ has the advantage that Google has all these things to integrate with it from gmail to reader. While that integration is not here completely YET, I am pretty sure that the integration is on its way...it just can't survive without it, there is to much info that can be shared in all of Google's other services that I know they don't want to miss out on.
Conclusion
There was a time when I said Google Wave was going to change the world, and it didn't. It still has TONS of potential, and that is why Google is making it open source and allowing people to have public/private personal waves, but still it didn't change the world. I think G+ has a chance to change the way we share, that is for damn sure. Here is what I currently use my Social Media Stuff for.
Google+ - Sharing with people that are on Google+, hoping to make this my default sharing service.
Facebook - Getting in touch with people, I don't really share there too much...but will share this post :)
Twitter - Following people I want to know about, what they are reading, what they are posting etc. as well as tweeting interesting things in my life.
Yammer - Internal Work posts
That is pretty much all I use. Facebook lets me keep in touch with people and stalk their pictures. I am hoping G+ allows me to share with people the way I have ALWAYS wanted to share...
