Google +1 is failing, miserably • Hacker News Board

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#61

Post by yalimgerger » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 6:46 PM UTC

sorbus wrote: post #54

yalimgerger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ohhh...don't event get me started with Reader. Sharing articles in Reader deserves its own blog post. It looks like the entire UX for sharing is designed to make the user feel helpless. I cannot imagine a non tech user being able to share anything with anyone in that UI. We literally had to involve several software engineers the first time we tried to set the sharing settings among each other.

It's really not that hard. You go to the Sharing Settings, you choose which lists of people you want to see the items you share (admittedly, making a list does require going to Google Contacts, which that page links to), and then when you see an item you want to share you press the share button. I would much rather that it integrate with G+, or at least allow selection of which groups I want to be able to see a singl…

Actually, except for the setup of sharing, I love it.

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#62

Post by yalimgerger » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 6:47 PM UTC

praeclarum wrote: post #42

mike-cardwell wrote: post #22

I'd guess that the fact that Facebook has hundreds of times more users at the moment has something to do with it as well.

997 > 100 * 6, 330 > 100 * 1, 7000 > 100 * 63

Oh, thank you. :-) I also would like to mention again that you don't have to be on Google+ to use +1.

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#63

Post by 01Michael10 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 7:22 PM UTC

yalimgerger wrote: post #60

01Michael10 wrote: post #59

Really??? The author of this post is comparing the number of Facebook likes (750 million active users) to the number of Google +1s (some 25 million users) from a small sample of Internet articles... People really need to stop mentioning how Google+ does not have this or that feature. It's not open to the public at large because it's not a finished product yet!

You don't need to be on Google+ to +1 anything. All you need is a Google account. Most people think +1 and Google+ are related which is not true. But this is what happens if a company build two products with the same name.

You are right but I am guessing well over 90% of the +1s are coming from Google+ users.

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#64

Post by pasbesoin » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 7:55 PM UTC

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #53

pasbesoin wrote: post #38

I was all ready to jump in -- under my real name, even -- until they started shitcanning (entire) user accounts. I am already too dependent upon my pre-existing Google account/services; I can't afford the risk. A bit of irony in that.

This isn't true though. Unless you have some egregious terms of service violation, your account will only lose access to Google+. For example, not using your real name could get you banned from G+, but the rest of your Google account will still be usable and accessible.

Anecdotal, but I'm put in mind of one new user's experience where they accidentally "sent/addressed" (keep in mind, I have no direct experience with Plus) a message/post to all of their circle contacts or somesuch. IIRC, the message basically just said "Hey, I'm on Plus now". I don't recall whether the broad addressing was mistakenly made or the implications of the broad addressing not understood. Either way, that one message was allegedly enough to get the person's Google account suspended.

Um, no thanks.

P.S. I concede that the original article is specifically about the "+1" feature. However, I -- perhaps mistakenly -- view this all as part of Google Plus.

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#65

Post by mdwrigh2 » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 10:12 PM UTC

pasbesoin wrote: post #64

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't true though. Unless you have some egregious terms of service violation, your account will only lose access to Google+. For example, not using your real name could get you banned from G+, but the rest of your Google account will still be usable and accessible.

Anecdotal, but I'm put in mind of one new user's experience where they accidentally "sent/addressed" (keep in mind, I have no direct experience with Plus) a message/post to all of their circle contacts or somesuch. IIRC, the message basically just said "Hey, I'm on Plus now". I don't recall whether the broad addressing was mistakenly made or the implications of the broad addressing not understood. Either way, that on…

Honestly, that story sounds really vague and I can't see _anything_ in it that would even be remotely responsible for an account suspension. What do you think they got in trouble for? Sending a message to too many people? That certainly isn't a bannable offense, especially since there is a public posting option.

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#66

Post by pasbesoin » Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 10:56 PM UTC

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #65

pasbesoin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal, but I'm put in mind of one new user's experience where they accidentally "sent/addressed" (keep in mind, I have no direct experience with Plus) a message/post to all of their circle contacts or somesuch. IIRC, the message basically just said "Hey, I'm on Plus now". I don't recall whether the broad addressing was mistakenly made or the implications of the broad addressing not understood. Either way, that on…

Honestly, that story sounds really vague and I can't see _anything_ in it that would even be remotely responsible for an account suspension. What do you think they got in trouble for? Sending a message to too many people? That certainly isn't a bannable offense, especially since there is a public posting option.

As I recall, it was a specific, first-hand account. And the author was initially as puzzled as you are. What happened? Why?

It's one of several stories/anecdotes I've run across. Unfortunately, I haven't kept a list of links to those.

En masse, they've caused me enough concern to not "push the button". In good part, if something does go amiss, you're pretty well stuck, unless you have a big enough megaphone to garner sufficient publicity and/or enough of the "right" connections to garner some love from fellow geeks.

Maybe I and others are being gamed by opposing forces. I'm not at a point where I care to find out the hard way whether that's the case.

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#67

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 13, 2011, 3:11 AM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #52

Hisoka wrote: post #14

Google doesn't get social... that's all. They demand everyone that applies for a job knows algorithms, but they fail to understand that to nail social, they need to hire people with a different type of intelligence: emotional and psychological. People who know what makes other people tick. We human beings crave attention, impressing others, and thinking we're special. We don't give a damn about placing people in Circ…

> "Google doesn't get social..." The name '+1' bears this out. On the one hand, it's meaning is geeky enough that my mom won't understand it. On the other hand, it's use is so pathetically inarticulate, that I wouldn't want my online profile to be associated with it.

[deleted]

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#68

Post by ditojim » Sat, Aug 13, 2011, 3:12 AM UTC

"i'd +1 that" sounds better than "i'd like that".

Re: Google +1 is failing, miserably

#69

Post by ry0ohki » Sat, Aug 13, 2011, 1:08 PM UTC

ditojim wrote: post #57

ry0ohki wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google copied a bunch of technical features from other networks (Facebook mainly) that do get social. But as the parent points out, they don't truly get social because there is a complexity that confuses me let alone my mom in using Google Plus.

What complexity do you refer to? Facebook has groups, it just has a crappy UX for it. Google's Circles are way better, easy, and kinda fun to setup with a slick UI. Once they are setup, it is easy to filter your content based on circles. Circles make a ton of sense to me (and a lot of other people, too). I can finally share all my information in one place, with different groups and view those groups in context in my…

I agree, but you are talking about technical features again. The interface for circles is slick, it allows new technical fun. I think this is why Google+ is pretty popular with the tech crowd. But now, one month on, even though 60% of my Facebook friends join G+, none of them are using it. My feed is littered with celebrities that overpost because circles are great for limiting who you share with, but poor for limiting what you view. (Google doesn't let you say: show me every circle but X, and if you choose to view a specific circle it will always reset to all)