I’ve been using Google+ for several days. So far, I think that, by and large,  Google got it right this time.

On the Plus Side:

The combination of video Hangouts with a Friendfeed-like Stream provides a natural conversation platform in which I can easily move back and forth between posting and live video conversations. It’s unlike anything else that so far exists.

The concept of Circles provides a fresh-start to those of us who found something wanting in both the Facebook symmetrical friending and Twitter blanket-followership. Circles should take the focus away from the blatant pursuit of large numbers of followers and place it back on finding others who truly share our interests – and want to engage in conversations about them.

On the Minus Side:

Search? How do I find things? Believe it or not, Google+ lacks a proper search function. The closest it comes is a feature called Sparks, which includes a search bar that suggests “Find stuff you’re interested in…” Surprisingly, it offers only basic search. It doesn’t offered the Advanced Search functions we’d expect of Google.

A pretty darned good start.

So far, an A- for Google on the early days of Google+. And given that I’m talking about a service that’s still in its trial phase, that’s a pretty good mark.