14 DAY TRIAL // Social networking websites are quite the buzz of the Internet nowadays. There are multiple services to choose from, but Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the blooming Google+ have grabbed the attention of the whole planet. Gooce+ is very far from having the number of adepts any of these websites have, but it managed to unite all four of them into a single web page for easier access to the news served through these portals.
Gooce+ is not a desktop application, but a browser extension designed to cohabitate only with Mozilla Firefox, which can be downloaded from here, and Google Chrome, which can be installed directly from Chrome web store.
If you are a Firefox user you should already know that you have to restart the web browser for the extension to install. At the opposite end, Chrome users benefit from a seamless installation procedure that does not require disrupting Internet navigation.
As soon as you got it into the browser Gooce+ is ready to do its job. There are no true settings to tinker with, but the options for Firefox and Chrome are slightly different, though its main functionality remains the same in both cases.
With Firefox, in which case the button does not show in the interface, you have the possibility to turn on automatic updating of the extension. Also, you are given the possibility to open searches in a new tab (the result of a query in the Firefox’s search bar is opened in a new tab). There is also the choice to set the search engine on browser restart, but we never got to meaning of this function.
In the case of Chrome, the only possibility included by the developer is that of hiding Gooce+ button in Google’s browser. Other than this there are the regular options for any Chrome extension, specifically enabling its use in incognito mode. In Firefox the extension will work regardless if you are in private browsing mode or not.
Uniting the four platforms in a single interface sounds pretty interesting, as most users would think that you have full access to the features and functions of each of the socialization services. However, with Gooce things are a bit different. All the extension does is show the news stream in your accounts.
So the main, and only functionality of this browser plugin is reading the news feed in Facebook or view the Twitter and LinkedIn stream.
Obviously, given the privacy and security measures enforced for each of the platforms you have to grant the extension access to information. As such, upon signing into each service you’ll have to deal with the permission screen.
You will be presented all the nooks and crannies of your account it has access to, which is the standard for any application. Just as an example, in Twitter will be able to read the tweets from your timeline, see who you follow, post tweets for you or update your profile. At the opposite end, direct messages remain private, just like your Twitter password.
In Facebook, the liberties for Gooce are also the standard ones. This means access to basic profile information, posting on your wall, reading news feed posts and access to your friend’s information.
As far as integration in the Google+ layout goes, this is pretty much seamless, since the plugin extends the number of the buttons in the header bar. The only hint that the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pieces are not natural to the environment is the fact that they do not get colored at mouse over, making them look somewhat inert.
On the other hand, accessing the news streams for the additional services is not as seamless as one may think. Whenever we moved to the flow of information of a different service we’d first get a look at Google+’s stream and then get redirected to what we wanted to see.
The set of options as far as the news feeds are concerned is limited and in the case of Twitter inexistent altogether; but Gooce makes for a nice way to view information posted by your friends, people you follow or connections.
It does not disrupt the Google+ interface as it fits the extra buttons perfectly in the layout. A larger set of choices for the third party social services would be a huge asset for the extension. Although it does what it has been designed for, it does not make available too many functions included in the original services.
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