hey guys, remember Google Wave? no? well, it's back…ish. so i got an invite to Google+ and i tried to try it out.  yeah, that's two levels removed from "do or do not".  i guess in the end, that means i did not.  what went wrong?  well, first of all, in the closed "field trial" (scared of the word beta now, are you, Google?) you can hear the crickets chirping.  for a social network, it's super-awkward.  especially since, as far as i can tell, to interact with anybody you have to be in a "circle" together.  so, that one person who invited you can be in a two-person circle with you.  oh, and you have to give it a name.  i looked at that text field staring me down and went "hell if i know!"  so, instead of thanking the person who invited me via the wonderful new service he invited me to…i posted on his facebook wall.  it was a hell of a lot easier.

[also: even if you do happen to have more than one friend on G+, the only way to get at them is by typing in their names manually or via your Google contact list.  all of the demo videos are from these people who have Google contacts that are curated like museum exhibits.  i only ever use Gmail via POP, so mine is (at best) a mishmash of nameless, faceless email addresses.  my pre-populated list didn't even include the person who sent me the invite!]