Having just migrated to an Android smartphone, I have to say I think it's somewhat life changing. I've deliberately held off, keeping to my old Nokia, and observing from a distance. I intend to write further on this once I've had more time to play. And, yes, I've typed this from the phone's keyboard. In a sort of slidey way with just one finger. Odd but it works, and that's both strange and interesting.

Google Plus, Google+? Both seem to fine, though I expect that the + sign will win the day and G+ will become the norm. Whatever, it's clear when all is considered that G+ will not go the route of Buzz and be an embarrassment to Google. This time, it seems they've got it right. Perfect? No but give it chance, it's still in beta. Even so, over a billion items (such as photos and videos) have already been "shared" and uploaded to this new social network. Considering G+ has been in open beta for little more than three weeks, that's pretty impressive. A cross between Facebook and Twitter — my opinion — once fine-tuning and a refined featureset is in place it's going to explode when it's finally unleashed to the public at large.

Currently there is no business option, like Facebook's Pages but this is only a matter of time and thousands of businesses are already exploring how they can use it with just a standard Google Account. Imagine a more flexible version of Facebook with no 140 limits imposed by Twitter, with the sensible ability to allow people to "follow" you, like Twitter, without the need for a reciprocal "friend" arrangement forced by FB. "Circles" bests Twitter's Lists and facebook's Groups, and the photo gallery feature is first class and, from my persepective, only bettered by that of Posterous. (My own photography portfolio, hosted on Posterous, can be seen here: http://www.portfolio.gregwallis.net )

While there's no need to rush headlong into Plus at the current time, it won't be long before small business needs to, and the best tine to start playing with it and understanding its possibilities is right now. Anyone who requires a G+ invite can email or message me and I'll send one straight out: gregwallis@gregwallis.net

By the end of 2011, the three major social networks will be Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. That's likely to be it (I doubt the market can stand another one) and there's an urgency to not only embrace all three, to maximize marketing potential, but also to actually understand them and why they're different. It only takes a few minutes every day to post short updates on each; time needn't be an issue if you work smart. So G+ is the new kid on the block but don't underestimate it, it'll be bigger than a lot of industry pundits wish to admit.

https://plus.google.com/u/1/112494069482592479384

Finally, I sorted out a creative portfolio. Never really sure what to include in a showcase so I decided to categorize it and have uploaded images that I think most represent my personal photographic style. I'll update this from time to time and am always happy to receive comments. The only answer as to where I should put it was on Posterous and using the built in gallery feature, which was so simple to set up and a breeze to update.

http://www.portfolio.gregwallis.net/

This candid shot of a father kissing his baby son is tender and poignant. Captured quickly with manual focusing and guestimated exposure, I've cropped it to to a square aspect (visually corrected to 11:10) and given it a delicate monochrome treatment.

Another shot taken in Greenwich Park, London, this April on an amazingly sunny day, it just shows how many photographic opportunities are out there if we just have a camera in our hand.

Once, a few years ago now, from the nascent photo sharing market was thrown Flickr. It was different, refreshing, and very much the modish choice for the IT in-crowd; simply, it was outstandingly cool. Then it grew and grew, many things changed and it finally came out of beta. Never intentioned for professional and business use — even, weirdly, with a Pro and paid-for account — features were added, complexity grew and, worst of all, it got bought out by Yahoo.

Now lots of professional photographers use it to display their work, but run the risk of account deletion should some jobsworth at Flickr HQ decide it was being used for promotional purposes. And this has happened, and not infrequently, either. For the amateur and enthusiast Flickr is a great choice and the basic and free account is a sensible option, but I'm looking at this from a pro and semi-pro viewpoint.

In terms of page load speed, things seemed to have slowed down. The graphical look can't be customised in any way, though as it's not meant for anything other than amateur use this can perhaps be forgiven. But it's looking decidedly old-hat, now. I'm also concerned that having a Flickr stream, professionally, may well devalue the images and the photographer in the eyes of potential clients, though that may be stating the obvious.

Are there any decent alternatives? Yes, unquestionably. A parallel photo sharing service is the little known French site Ipernity. In many ways far superior to Flickr and has seen droves of former (and ususally disgruntled) Flickr members setting up shop on a more flexible though similar platform. Although very much worth a look and with a closer-knit and very friendly community, it still has the same downsides to public photo sharing but nevertheless it's fast, free (with a paid option that I've yet to see the point of) and reliable. It's also partly customisable, though not to the degree that most people would wish and often seems unfinished (it still carries a beta tag). But it also has one fab feature that seems unique: you can upload mp3 audio files that can then be used as a soundtrack for a full-screen slideshow and is probably the best of its kind anywhere, and this alone makes it a bit of a sexy choice. It's a hidden jewel and very worthy of consideration.

Professional alternatives? Many. But I've never been happy with any of them, not until I discovered SmuMug. No free account, which is likely a good thing, and three paid-for options which can either be settled annually on monthly, with one naturally being cheaper. SmugMug rocks. I'll say that again, SmugMug ROCKS. No, it's not perfect, it's a little clunky in some aspects, confusing in others. But it can be completely customised, have domain name URLs pointed at it and has an incredible user community for help and advice. It's aimed at the marketing of photographs and if you're in the US this would work brilliantly. As I'm in the UK, it doesn't have the same attraction and I don't wish to sell my work that way, either, so that's fine.

And if you're into video streaming, and want your productions to be embeddable in a web page without branding, then SmugMug is the best choice I've ever seen. Their Flash based player is brilliant, attractive, simple to configure and streams HD video like lightning. Oh yes, and with no bandwidth and usage limits, either. YouTube is fine, but for those requiring a more polished and professional option, SmugMug rules.

Although I've only skimmed over what's on offer, and I'll probably write more in-depth reviews at a later date, the two best alternatives to Flickr are — in my humble opinion — Ipernity (the free one) and SmugMug (the paid one). Me? Oh, I have both.

Here's an example of Ipernity's slideshow, showing a collection of my monochrome images with soundtrack. Just check out how quickly this loads:

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/gregwallis/album/193028/show