I finally scored my Google+ invite thanks to my friend, Neal Campbell, of GeekBrief TV fame. After surveying the G+ landscape for a day or so, I would say that it has real potential to shake up the social networking world. Right now, it seems to be a real geekfest, given the large array of techies that are participating in the closed beta.
I like the concept of "Circles"--a simple way to identify and target the different classes of people in your life: Family, Friends, Acquaintances and famous folks that your are just Following. "Sparks" is like a RSS feed on steroids and it allows you to quickly find information of interest to you by category. "Hangouts" allow for group video chats with folks in your various circles.
Photos seem to be an integral component of the UI design and it is easy to upload them and incorporate them into "Feed" posts. If you use Picasa, you will find that photos from your library are already there and available to upload.
I think that the real power of this new platform is the potential tight integration between it and other Google applications like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc. It can only add to the popularity of the Googlespace and I look forward to its public release and future development.
