16 August 2011

Is Google+ The Next Big Thing for family history?

The presenters on Monday's Legacy webinar on Google+ are certainly converts.

For serial entrepreneur Paul Allen it was the numbers so far that impressed. Google+, still only in limited release, reached 10,000,000 subscribers in 16 days, a mark that took Facebook 852 days and Twitter 780 days.  Not that Facebook is threatened. He showed that 97% of Facebook users are happy with the experience.

Dan Lynch, author of Google Your Family Tree gave a quick tour of Google+ and it's capabilities, one I'll have to go back an view again to really absorb the material.

For Mark Olson, from familylink.com, it was the personal interactions he experienced with Hangouts - a group video discussion/sharing facility.

You need a Google account to sign up for Google+ which you can do as my guest at
https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DONMuJe8CelU%3AWXxYqwFBBK4

What's the benefit for family history?  Google+ is a tool that can be used in many ways, and as the presenters emphasized the capabilities will only increase. One fact that makes me wonder about the potential for family history is that while somewhat more women than men are genealogists, to date more than 85% of Google+ users are male. All the presenters involved in this webinar were male.

I have to go back and listen again to the recorded webinar (scroll down).

2 comments:

Old Census Scribe said...

Thanks for the invitation. I've been wondering where I could find one, particularly after seeing the webinar last night. Once the last section came on, I was hooked--and I'm far from being a fan of Facebook and even less of Twitter.
That's one of your 150 invitations used up!

Anonymous said...

Thanks John...much appreciated. Now I need to discover all its joys.