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Google+ Isn’t Going Away

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Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#41

Post by joebadmo »

tommi wrote: post #37
joebadmo wrote: post #9

I really like G+, but I'm a bit dismayed that they seem to be addressing the concerns of brands over those of users. The nymwars was a prominent example, of course, and even the resulting promise of pseudonymity features have yet to surface, while Pages for brands are now live. The lack of an outward facing platform of APIs is also concerning. I continue to hope that the Plus project is the beginning of a way to impl…

Give it some time. Likely Pages is dead simple to implement compared to pseudonymity. Possibly it was made by "secondary" team while the main tackles the pseudonymity. G+ has not been live that long. Let it grow and evolve.

Maybe you're right. But it's not just Pages. It's also stuff like Ripples, +1 integration with web sites, badgets, etc. These rollouts all seem to point to a prioritization of brands over users.

I'm still hopeful, though.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#42

Post by kisielk »

joebadmo wrote: post #41
tommi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it some time. Likely Pages is dead simple to implement compared to pseudonymity. Possibly it was made by "secondary" team while the main tackles the pseudonymity. G+ has not been live that long. Let it grow and evolve.

Maybe you're right. But it's not just Pages. It's also stuff like Ripples, +1 integration with web sites, badgets, etc. These rollouts all seem to point to a prioritization of brands over users. I'm still hopeful, though.

Not really surprising when you consider that the businesses are Google's customers.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#43

Post by joebadmo »

timr wrote: post #33

"Instead, Google+ is a social layer that has always been intended to sit on top of the company’s flagship product: search." Flash back to an anonymous Stanford office, circa 1996, where two ambitious graduate students are sitting in front of a pile of lego servers: Larry: "Hey Sergey...you know what the world needs? A place where people can share cat photos with their friends." Sergey: "Oh, Larry...how many times hav…

It seems clear to me that the author meant "always" wrt the inception of G+, not the inception of search. So your snark, while amusing, is misplaced.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#44

Post by badclient »

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #38
badclient wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

facebook always had crazy engagement. From the time they had 1000 users to millions of users.

And how long after launch did Facebook release their engagement metrics? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Uhu, way before they had 40M users: "10 million users and over 50% of them sign in daily."

http://theubiquitouslibrarian.typepad.com/the_ubiquitous_lib...

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#45

Post by jamesgeck0 »

bradgessler wrote: post #36

I'll be happy with Google+ if it better connects all of the various apps in the Google eco-system like GMail, Apps, etc. Right now its such a pain to invite people via email addresses in Google Docs and Calendar. I should just be able to type in peoples' names and it just works.

If the people you want to invite are in your Gmail address book, it already works like this.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#46

Post by Helianthus »

Jd wrote: post #22

This is a bit far afield. The most likely prospect for G+ is that it becomes a social network for the more technically inclined while Facebook remains the social network for all -- a bit like the differentiation between reddit and digg. The main reason is not something great that Google is doing, however, but the immense dislike that many have for Facebook. Facebook, of course, is sucking in all data it can get acces…

Ahaha. And look what happened to Digg!

I think the metaphor is even more apt than you realize.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#47

Post by bad_user »

joebadmo wrote: post #39
Jd wrote: post #22

This is a bit far afield. The most likely prospect for G+ is that it becomes a social network for the more technically inclined while Facebook remains the social network for all -- a bit like the differentiation between reddit and digg. The main reason is not something great that Google is doing, however, but the immense dislike that many have for Facebook. Facebook, of course, is sucking in all data it can get acces…

The problem with your assertion is that a lot of technically inclined people know a lot of other people and want to interact with them socially. It's Facebook's most powerful and most difficult to overcome feature: all your friends are already on it. To me, the only truly viable way for Google to combat that is to create a truly open, federated collection of social networks that can interoperate, by releasing the und…

    a lot of technically inclined people know a 
    lot of other people and want to interact with 
    them socially
I remember a time when Facebook was the gathering place for technically inclined people, while normal people would hang out on MySpace or Hi5. I also remember a time when Apple products were reserved for professionals doing either creative work or software development. And speaking of Google, I also remember a time when Yahoo and AltaVista were used by normal people, while people with in-knowledge would quietly type "google.com" in the address bar.

For me, I never liked MySpace or the copycat Hi5 because noise, eye-bleeding page customizations and idiotic comments were actively encouraged and I couldn't stand it. Then Facebook came with a cleaner design and (initially) a more well-behaved audience and so I was hooked. But now that initial advantage is gone, the masses found out about it, so half of my news feed is filled with invites to idiotic games or stupid jokes and I don't have the patience to block them all (on the other hand Google+ has a spam problem already).

The reality is that technically inclined people are the trend setters when it comes to technology, not the other way around.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#48

Post by bad_user »

joebadmo wrote: post #41
tommi wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it some time. Likely Pages is dead simple to implement compared to pseudonymity. Possibly it was made by "secondary" team while the main tackles the pseudonymity. G+ has not been live that long. Let it grow and evolve.

Maybe you're right. But it's not just Pages. It's also stuff like Ripples, +1 integration with web sites, badgets, etc. These rollouts all seem to point to a prioritization of brands over users. I'm still hopeful, though.

I'm just a regular user, not a business per se.

But I like what they are doing with the +1 button, or with the customized search results. I think it's pretty cool experimenting with my own blog / trying to stand out in the search results and it's also pretty cool seeing your face in that list :) -- not that I want to earn any money from it or whatever.

Google's direction is pretty clear to me. They are giving people the tools to promote themselves online. This is not necessarily a bad thing, although the nymwars left a bad taste in my mouth that I hope they'll rectify.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#49

Post by marshray »

mikeryan wrote: post #16

I've found its starting to get hard to analyze some Google products and their likelihood of survival when it comes to Google. In my case its when I get questions about the GoogleTV. If it were any other company I'd say "yeah that product is dead" but its not any company. Its Google, who has 40B dollars in cash reserves. They have an unprecedented ability to continue to develop products which are "flops" if they conti…

WP7.

Re: Google+ Isn’t Going Away

#50

Post by joebadmo »

bad_user wrote: post #48
joebadmo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're right. But it's not just Pages. It's also stuff like Ripples, +1 integration with web sites, badgets, etc. These rollouts all seem to point to a prioritization of brands over users. I'm still hopeful, though.

I'm just a regular user, not a business per se. But I like what they are doing with the +1 button, or with the customized search results. I think it's pretty cool experimenting with my own blog / trying to stand out in the search results and it's also pretty cool seeing your face in that list :) -- not that I want to earn any money from it or whatever. Google's direction is pretty clear to me. They are giving people…

I think that makes you not really a regular user. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine that Google is providing tools for self-promotion and features for brands. But it seems to me that the best feature for brands is a lot of engaged users.

The reason Google search ads have a stranglehold on the market is because they have so much search marketshare. Similarly, it seems to me that the best thing to do would be to aggressively provide users with the best experience possible. The brands will follow, regardless of how good their tools are.

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