Here’s the thing: I really want to like Google+, especially since Facebook insists on taking a crap all over its users when it comes to privacy and security. The trouble I’m having with Google+ right now, though, is the fact that its API is still only read-only. Now, it could be that Google really wants people to use Plus as a social networking publishing platform, and that’s the reason why it has, as yet, to release its API from read-only — and if so, that’s fine. That’s their prerogative. Unfortunately, the way they’re dragging their feet on this is having a negative effect on users like me who really like being able to publish to multiple social media networks simultaneously from a single utility like TweetDeck. I hate having to replicate content several times over, just to make sure it gets to all my hangouts on the web. The way I have things configured right now is that I can write a brief thought or update in TweetDeck, publish it to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously, and then my own website scrapes that down and displays it in the sidebar for folks visiting there. If I want to also update Google+, well, I have to copy the update and paste it in separately. It’s only a couple of additional keystrokes, of course, but it’s the primary hangup that prevents me from really using it. I’d also love to be able to have my Google+ profile receive updates from my various websites and display them as links in my Stream, much the same way I can do with Facebook, but until Google+ releases its API for developers to really be able to tap into, I’m afraid that my Google+ usage is going to remain relatively limited.
