Is Google Plus Design copied from Facebook?

I had lots of expectations on Google’s new venture , The Google Plus. In my post ‘Google Plus’, I had shared my views on the same. I waited a long two days after the release of google plus ’test’ . I was eager to check this all new thing.. Thanks to @maheswaranm for the invite.

While i was setting up my profile in the Google plus, one of my room mates said, this looks the same as facebook.. just compare the screenshots below.

google plus

facebook

Evident right??? Even the lines demarcating the left panel, main stream/news feed and the right panel has the same dimensions. Is the design of google plus copied?? May be, google engineers have took facebook design as a prototype. In facebook , the notification area is on the top left panel, whereas in googleplus, it is on the right. Online friends are shown on the left panel as thumbnails in facebook. The only difference in this is that, plus shows it in the conventional list style of google. The chat opens in the right side for both.

The feature which is not available in Facebook is , what they call ‘Hangouts’. , where you can have video chat with friends in your ‘Circle’. Unfortunately, I’ve never hanged out with anyone in Google Plus so far.  The concept of ‘Circle’is good, but may be compared with the ‘Group’ feature of Facebook. , But here you cannot have Circles out of unknown persons.

Sparks is something in which you can share your interests…In Google’s Official words, Use Sparks to get a constant feed of things that you’re really into and share it with friends. Anyways , Google Plus is interesting and nice to be in it..

For me , it is not as awesome as Facebook..  but new things will remain best for a small amount of time anyways.. Lets see… My overall rating for Google Plus is 7/10., and for Facebook is 7.5/10..

Windows Live Writer

Let me share something about Windows Writer. This is a tool included in windows live essentials pack, which may be preinstalled in newer versions of windows7. This tool lets you write your posts offline. You can review your post, while you write. This is a screenshot of the working window of this awesome tool.

First of all you have to setup/configure your windows live writer. There are only some simple steps to start writing your post offline. This app will ask for your blog address, username and password. Then it will connect to the blog address given., and download some necessary files needed to determine the template style of your blog.

There are plug-ins so that you can insert links, pictures, photo album, table, maps, tags, videos etc in your post. You can save a local draft of the post in your system for further editing, or can save it in the blog online and edit it later/then.  With just a click on the ‘preview’ tab , you can preview your post offline. You can view the source html code if you click on the source tab.

Using windows live writer, you can add as many blogs as you can. , save any number of drafts, view your dashboard and lot more.

At last , you can set the categories and tags in the bottom of the tool interface. You can even set the publish date of the post using this awesome tool.

If you are a blogger, this app will be very useful for you. You can download the web setup of Windows Live Essentials 2011 from Microsoft Windows Website.

As I am writing this, I am researching , and I am finding out the specialities , cons and pros of this app. When offline editing is done , you can directly publish the post to your blog.

KEEP A SMILE AND LET OTHERS SMILE