Google + Review – A Simplified Facebook , will it attract a Trade Dress complaint?

Google Plus (Google+) has made a lots of buzz recently with its limited invitation only service. With so much of Social networks around, Google+ comes around as yet another Social network. After its failures with Google Buzz and losing users from Orkut, Google has finally figured out the best recipe for a Social Network, i.e. Facebook.

Google+ at a high level is a simplified (for Good) version of Facebook. The uncanny resemblance of the UI, placement of buttons and key functionality like Wall,+1 Button etc are all borrowed from Facebook. Even the friend suggestions, ways to share media in the wall etc are modeled on Facebook.

But something which appears new is the concept of Circles, ability to control who sees your posts pictures, by default Google Plus gives circles namely Friends , Family , Someone Met etc.  If you would have used Orkut, you would have seen the same  concept but not on forefront.

Google is expected to add tools and Games soon, before the full release of the Service later this year. There will also integration with Android and Gmail very soon.

Google has integrated its Google Profiles into Google Plus and you don’t need to enter all your profile information all over again. You can use your Gmail id (Google account id)  for signing up, completely eliminating the signup process for existing Google users .  Google also have integrated Picasa into the Google Plus (rather forcibly), I would have preferred  having a choice of not linking the Picasa account on Google Plus, but didn’t have a choice. Already complaints are popping up from users who accidentally deleted their Picasa albums from Google Plus.

Along with the above “Tight” integration, Google’s announcement that Google Profiles will be deleted if not made public by end of July is another  one of those thingies, which wont go well with “Do No Evil” philosophy.

Add all this to millions of Gmail users, Picasa users and Google search users, then you have a very compelling fan base for a successful Social network. And also a recipe for Anti-competitive practices scrutiny and  complaints of unfair bundling of Services , Microsoft was accused of earlier.

Most likely Google+ will succeed , not by pure innovation but by the control over internet and  its existing user base. But also make some of the competitors to join hands in tackling the Internet Giant like the way Google was sidelined during the Nortel Patents.

We havent seen any official response from Facebook on Google Plus,  though Mark Zuckerberg is the most circled man in Google Plus. Wonder whether Facebook will file a Trade dress complaint on the lines of Apple against Samsung for copying UI. Well it may not apply to Web, but why not?

Should you add your Boss as Facebook Friend?

With the advent of  Social Networking like never before, we tend to add a lot of people into our Facebook or Orkut networks, whether it is a school classmate or College Junior or your neighbor 20 years ago or even a stranger who wants to be your neighbor in Farmville.

But what about your immediate supervisor in office? Facebook is suggesting him as a friend but will you add him?. If he is someone who wants to keep his work away from personal life , by sending a request you might put him in an uncomfortable situation, or if he really considers you as a good friend there will be no issues.

After adding him, will you still be posting all the manager jokes or any office related joke? or will you be conscious, at times it can be irritating. And if you are not the one who is bothered by what others  might think, it still can hurt you like couple of Facebook stories where an employee was fired for a comment on her boss  etc.

For many regular FB users it can be restrictive and after a while irritating to watch out for what you are saying. Personally you can add your superiors in FB, when you are moving out of the project,company just to keep in touch if you had a person friendship with them, and it can even help in future. But  adding your supervisor in your FB can be an avoidable pain.

But if he adds you..well there are very few who I have known to decline the request.

Nokia C3-01 Review and Specifications

Nokia C3-01 is a touchscreen phone with 3G of 10.2 Mbps of High Speed Downlink Packet Access and 2 Mbps High Speed Uplink Packet Access, the screen size is of 2.4 inches with a resolution of 240 * 320, with 262k colors, TFT resistive touchscreen, its dimensions are 111 * 47.5 * 11 mm, 100 g in weight. The phone has a memory of 30 MB which is further extendable to 32 GB using microSD card.

The phone has 5 MP camera with zoom up to 4x (digital), Extended Depth of Focus (EDOF), LED flash, with JPEG as still image format, you can also upload your image on facebook using WLAN and 3.5G. It captures video in QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) with 30 frames per second, with 15 frames per second using VGA and has 3gp video file format.

The other features of the phone include Stereo FM Radio with RDS, customisable radio theme, media player, has music codecs like MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, it is a speaker phone with 3.5 mm audio jack, voice commands, Wi-Fi with IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, dual transfer mode GPRS, EDGE, Stereo Bluetooth v2.1 with enhanced data rate, Flight mode, has full web browsing using touchscreen control, access to facebook and twitter, nokia mobile search, Adobe Flash Lite 3.0, RSS Reader, messaging using MMS, SMS, SMTP, Email, IMAP4, POP3, nokia express audio messaging, flash messaging and etc.,

The battery of the phone is of 1050 mAh Li-Ion battery with talk-time power of 4 h, stand-by power of 440 h, 20 h of music playback. The phone comes in three colors such as silver, khaki gold and warm grey. The expected price of Nokia C3-01 is $110.

Nokia C3-01 Specifications :

3G : 10.2 Mbps of High Speed Downlink Packet Access and 2 Mbps High Speed Uplink Packet Access

Dimensions : 111 * 47.5 * 11 mm

Weight : 100 g

Screen size : 2.4 inches

Resolution : 240 * 320, with 262k colors, TFT resistive touchscreen

Memory : 30 MB which is further extendable to 32 GB using microSD card

Camera : 5 MP camera with zoom up to 4x (digital), Extended Depth of Focus (EDOF), LED flash, with JPEG as still image format, It captures video in QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) with 30 frames per second, with 15 frames per second using VGA and has 3gp video file format

Stereo FM Radio with RDS, customisable radio theme

Media player, has music codecs like MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, speaker phone with 3.5 mm audio jack

Voice commands

Wi-Fi with IEEE 802.11 b/g/n

Dual transfer mode GPRS

EDGE

Stereo Bluetooth v2.1 with enhanced data rate

Flight mode

Full web browsing using touchscreen control

Access to facebook and twitter, nokia mobile search

Adobe Flash Lite 3.0

RSS Reader

Messaging using MMS, SMS, SMTP, Email, IMAP4, POP3, nokia express audio messaging, flash messaging and etc.,

Battery : 1050 mAh Li-Ion battery with talk-time power of 4 h, stand-by power of 440 h, 20 h of music playback

Color : silver, khaki gold and warm grey