Does anyone remember Circles? A space for sharing specific content with specific groups?

Does anyone remember Circles? A space for sharing specific content with specific groups?

#imjustsayin

Originally shared by Luke Wroblewski

Introducing Spaces
Today we're launching a new tool for group sharing that aims to tackle many of the pain points we've seen repeatedly:
* getting people together is hard
* jumping between apps to share things is slow
* conversations often go off-topic
* finding what was shared before is painful

We wanted to build a better group sharing experience that addresses these issues and more, so we made a new app called Spaces. More in the official Google blog post: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/introducing-spaces-tool-for-small-group.html

Comments

Bodhipaksa said…
Spaces function quite differently from Circles, though. It's more like a mini-community, as far as I can see. I'm having trouble imagining how I'd use one, although it might be handy when a group of people is planning a project.
Jason ON said…
And that's what a Circle would have/could have been used for.
Stacy Sanchez said…
Kinda like what Wave was for too
Stacy Sanchez said…
I'm losing faith and patience with Google
Jason ON said…
Stacy Sanchez, exactly. I think I left a comment like that elsewhere - how Spaces seemed like Wave mixed with Collections, or Communities.
Gord Wait said…
Google programmers are like the dog in the movie "Up".. "Squirrel!"
Gord Wait said…
Wave had little to no control over who could muck with it.. Thus it exploded with junk scripts..
Bodhipaksa said…
Circles were never intended to work like that, though. They were from when G+ was envisaged purely as a social media network — a rival to Facebook.
Gord Wait said…
"getting friends into the same app can be challenging"

Heh.. And this new app solves this how?

Another app my friends won't install..
Bodhipaksa said…
Those videos were an interesting blast from the past, Jason ON, but they describe a social media sharing model in which you choose who you want to share any given content with, but the the sharing isn't mutual.

People in your circles can't see what circle they're in, and they're not following the same group of people as you are. So it's not a community of mutual connections, like Communities or Spaces are. Those are completely different models from Circles.
Jason ON said…
I don't see what you're saying. With Circles, as with Spaces, you create a space for limited people to come together and communicate about a specific idea. How is Spaces different? What need is there that's no different that Google had to create and entirely new social media option for it?

You're saying that because the Spaces are labeled with the intent of the space it's different from Circles? Because of a label?
Bodhipaksa said…
Circles are like an email sent out by "blind cc." The sharing is non-mutual. Anyone can reply to you, but they can't communicate with each other (and don't even know of each others' existence). Nor can one person you've bcc'd initiate a conversation with the whole group.

Spaces are like an email were everyone is in the cc field. Anyone can initiate a conversation with the whole group. The sharing is fully mutual.
Gord Wait said…
But a G+ post to a private circle enables all the participants to comment to that post.
Although, only with text or links, so I can see the motivation for the Spaces app.

Seems like it would have been a good addition to G+ itself, but I think Googlers have fallen for the anti G+ media hype from the twitterati and avoid working on G+ as if it were the plague.

Ah well, cue the twitterati to call for the end of G+ once again.. in three.. two.. one...
Bodhipaksa said…
Yes, Gord Wait. Anyone in a Circle can comment on a post (if that option's enabled) but the crucial thing is that they can't all post to the Circle, so there's no mutuality there.
Jason ON said…
I see what you're saying, Bodhipaksa, and that is a benefit, but it sounds like a private Community, to me. One that's separated from G+'s search algorithms.

Still not sure we need an entirely new app/service for that.
Bodhipaksa said…
I'm not arguing that Spaces are actually useful. I've no idea what I would use them for, whereas I immediately saw how I could use Communities.

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