If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
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Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#2Just as the only one sharing phone sales is Apple (one exception, Samsung and the Galaxy S2). Just as Apple is the only one sharing Tablet numbers.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#3First, Google has made moves to indicate that Google+ is not a finished product, or even a 1.0 release. Their recent overhaul shows that. Their lack of public APIs shows that.
Secondly, Google has made it pretty clear that Google+ does not stand on its own. The "plus" is in the name after "Google". It's Google, plus. Google+ is just a frontend, an entry point. It's the Yahoo landing site for all of Google's services. Youtube, Google Search, Picasa, they are the "plus" in Google+.
Google+ is not and never will be (and never wanted to be) a Facebook. Google wants it to be a grouping of their services in a way that's easy to consume and share. I'll admit I didn't read the entire article, I skimmed it because there are about a billion points being made in the fashion of a one-man argument.
The entire article could have been just this one sentence:
And yes, Google+ is indeed a layer that goes throughout Google properties.
It is illogical for the author to be irritated by reality. Taking Google+ by itself and comparing it to Facebook is equally illogical.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#4First, Google has made moves to indicate that Google+ is not a finished product, or even a 1.0 release. Their recent overhaul shows that. Their lack of public APIs shows that. Secondly, Google has made it pretty clear that Google+ does not stand on its own. The "plus" is in the name after "Google". It's Google, plus. Google+ is just a frontend, an entry point. It's the Yahoo landing site for all of Google's services.…
You make many good points. However, you failed to stick to the dominant narrative on HN, so expect some more downvotes. Google+ is a massive failure. Groupon is a ponzi scheme. Zynga is evil.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#5So Google's argument is that because G+ is pervasively integrated, you can use it without being on plus.google.com. While this is technically correct[1]... they're still being evasive. Not everyone using G+-enabled Google products is using the G+ bonus features.
Rather than dancing around the single "user" number, Google could give more direct usage stats by breaking it down by feature. 20MM on plus.google.com, another 30MM sharing content onto G+, another 10MM clicking on G+ results in the normal Google SERPs, and so forth. It's still not a complete picture, but it's a hell of a lot better than "enabled G+ once, and is currently active on YouTube" that they're reporting now.
I am inclined to agree with the conspiracy theory that if these secondary stats were any good, we would be hearing about them.
[1] The best kind of correct!
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#6As I see it 90% of Google+'s purpose is to get users to create profiles and then these popup within Google properties in the form of picture thumbnails when the user comments or uploads stuff, etc. Which is perfectly reasonable as almost all web apps now operate around user profiles (mostly Facebook's), what I find to be unreasonable however is the seemingly heightened intolerance some pundits have developed towards G+.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#7So Google's argument is that because G+ is pervasively integrated, you can use it without being on plus.google.com. While this is technically correct[1]... they're still being evasive. Not everyone using G+-enabled Google products is using the G+ bonus features. Rather than dancing around the single "user" number, Google could give more direct usage stats by breaking it down by feature. 20MM on plus.google.com, anoth…
"I am inclined to agree with the conspiracy theory that if these secondary stats were any good, we would be hearing about them."
I don't think it's that simple. Google publishes very few figures that have to do with its core profitability. For example, number of searches a day is not reported. I doubt it's because that figure isn't any good.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#8First, Google has made moves to indicate that Google+ is not a finished product, or even a 1.0 release. Their recent overhaul shows that. Their lack of public APIs shows that. Secondly, Google has made it pretty clear that Google+ does not stand on its own. The "plus" is in the name after "Google". It's Google, plus. Google+ is just a frontend, an entry point. It's the Yahoo landing site for all of Google's services.…
The reality is that Google+ is both a standalone social network as well as a layer being added into both Google properties and sites across the web. It's not illogical that when Google gives out numbers talking about Google+ "users" that it would clarify those actually using the social network as opposed to those effectively accidentally using it because, you know, they logged into Gmail.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#9First, Google has made moves to indicate that Google+ is not a finished product, or even a 1.0 release. Their recent overhaul shows that. Their lack of public APIs shows that. Secondly, Google has made it pretty clear that Google+ does not stand on its own. The "plus" is in the name after "Google". It's Google, plus. Google+ is just a frontend, an entry point. It's the Yahoo landing site for all of Google's services.…
> Google+ is not and never will be (and never wanted to be) a Facebook
I perfectly agree and I have been saying that myself. But it's also true that Google+ does have a component which is comparable to Facebook. The main Google+ stream page, is not all of what Google+ is. But it is comparable to Facebook and other social networks.
And personally, I would love if Google gave me the real number of how many users are actually using that stream. How many are actively posting, etc.
Re: If Google's Really Proud Of Google+, It Should Share Some Real User Figures
#10First, Google has made moves to indicate that Google+ is not a finished product, or even a 1.0 release. Their recent overhaul shows that. Their lack of public APIs shows that. Secondly, Google has made it pretty clear that Google+ does not stand on its own. The "plus" is in the name after "Google". It's Google, plus. Google+ is just a frontend, an entry point. It's the Yahoo landing site for all of Google's services.…
Sure, but by their definition someone who visits Google+ once and then never does anything with Google except search for the rest of time still counts as an active Google+ user.
Those people simply aren't engaged in any kind of social layer, and yet Google is reporting them as if they are.
It might not be correct to measure Google+ as if it were a direct equivalent to Facebook, but that doesn't make the numbers they are releasing any less misleading.