I like Google+. +1.
 
It’s interesting to see how many people are almost afraid to say so, stick their neck out, or venture to say this is going to make it. I’m guessing this is mostly because they scrambled to praise Google Wave, and Google Buzz and were later proven wrong. And they were still recovering from Marketer’s PTSD from their ventures into Second Life.
 
But I’m willing to say I think Google+ will be a hit.  

There are so many thinks I disLike and -1 about Facebook: their abhorrent privacy practices, the way they try to decide who my friends are and whose posts I should see, the way they make control over selective posting difficult (the big difference with how Google implemented Circles is usability), the way they make grouping people difficult, their immature handling of API updates, their authoritarian control over brand flexibility on their site, the minimal real estate they offer brands while still applying extensive limitations on use, the fact they insist on it being a destination site instead of an integrated part of your overall web experience, and the fact that I simply don’t trust them. Using Facebook and developing for it feels like a massive step backward in time to the days of AOL and Prodigy.
 
Google+ definitely has a lot of room for growth and improvement. But there’s so much to like. I love having a do-over on my friends list, there are many people I didn’t Friend because I barely knew them but I would connect with them on Google+ and just put them in the circle I felt comfortable with. I love the ease of control over friend/follower categorization and the ease and obviousness of selective posting. I love the ease of export and that it’s termed Data Liberation and Google Takeout, the ease of Circle views is awesome, the very free form posting ability, the fact they have made it an integrated part of your web experience, and not just a destination site with Like buttons funneling to it.  Mashable published a great cheat sheet for Google+ that you can check out, too.
 
It needs a Wall, an iPhone app, and maybe a few Profile improvements. I really want a hashtag equivalent. Lots of work to do on how brands can use it to engage their audiences. Really the main misses in Google+ are what they haven’t yet done but could easily do, what they have implemented I really like.  It lools like a lot of the stuff is already in the works, too as seen on Geek.com article.
 
I have big and pretty well founded hopes that they will be far better about how they handle API updates and major changes for those of us that want to develop for their platform. I believe they will be far more flexible about how they allow brands to build in and around their platform or just incorporate it into theirs. That alone will keep me hoping this makes it. And I think this could be a major Trojan horse for expansion of Android and Chrome market share.
 
I think Facebook will be around and competing for a good while and will remain very relevant. They’ve gained too much market share and mindshare and too many users to just go away. But I think they have a very real competitor. By contrast, you don’t hear Twitter users constantly pleading for a new Twitter or a Twitter competitor. But you hear it all the time from users of Facebook. That’s not a good position to be in, especially when someone the size and caliber of Google actually releases something that’s pretty equivalent and compelling.