Navy eyes Google Plus as outreach tool - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Navy eyes Google Plus as outreach tool

The Navy may soon use another social media outlet alongside Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach sailors and their families.

Google Plus, Google’s latest social network venture, may be the next way the Navy shares news, videos and pictures of the service’s daily affairs.

“We’re considering it,” said Lt. Lesley Lykins, the Navy’s director of emerging media integration. “We’re still waiting to see the platform itself.”

Google Plus, which launched June 28, is similar to other outlets, including Facebook and Twitter but has controls that let users quickly put their associates into various “circles” based on relationship. This allows users to share content — it can be text, a picture, video, a link or a “check-in,” popularized by the social media site Foursquare — with just certain circles in their greater network.

For example, a person could send messages that just friends — not co-workers, family members or others — could see. Additionally, commands could send messages just to sailors, or just the spouses of the deployed, or any other subgroup. Or, a sailor could use the system to share personal photos with friends back home while avoiding their commanding officer. It also allows for group chats and live video conversations between members.

But because of its novelty, the limits, strengths and weaknesses of the platform haven’t been fully explored, making it tough to determine the best way to use Google Plus. Nor is it as widely used as other platforms. In a July 14 conference call, Google CEO Larry Page said the fledgling network already had 10 million users, a figure subsequent reports said has crept to about 20 million as of July 29.

Facebook claims more than 750 million active users.

The Navy is evaluating Google Plus, as well as a handful of other outlets, including Swayable, a website that asks visitors to say which of two options they prefer, and a program that was used to stream the carrier Enterprise’s homecoming online in July, Lykins said. A few factors are being considered, including operational security; the Navy needs to be sure that sensitive information, like ship movements and capabilities, can be kept secret.

While the Navy checks out Google Plus, Google is promising good things to companies that wait. Programmers are developing a type of account designed specifically for “business, brands and other entities,” that’s expected to roll out later this year, said Christian Oestlien, a Google product manager, in a YouTube video statement.

In the meantime, Google is running a small test with a limited number of organizations to determine how they use the platform and is asking companies to hold off on creating a Google Plus presence. Some companies have already joined, with mixed results — Google had deactivated some business accounts.

“We have been watching Google+ take shape over the last week and we’ve seen some really great companies get involved. But frankly we know our product as it stands is not optimally suited to their needs. In fact, it was kind of an awkward moment for us when we asked Ford for his (or was it her?) gender!” Oestlien wrote in a July 6 post.

If habits that stretch back centuries still apply to brand-new social networks, Google likely won’t be as uncomfortable asking ships their gender because, as tradition dictates, seafaring vessels are feminine.