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Google+ grows 43% in June

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Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP: Wrong. Anecdote: Wrong. incongruity: Two wrongs make a right!

George E.P. Box is quoted as saying: "All models are wrong, but some are useful." I would adapt that and say that all anecdotes are wrong, but some are useful.

Surely you have to make an actual argument as to why it's useful though? So far all I've heard is "my friends don't use G+".

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

George E.P. Box is quoted as saying: "All models are wrong, but some are useful." I would adapt that and say that all anecdotes are wrong, but some are useful.

Surely you have to make an actual argument as to why it's useful though? So far all I've heard is "my friends don't use G+".

Truth be told, I'm not arguing strongly in support of the original bit of anecdotal evidence. I was more responding to the quote:

"Why is there the need to respond to data with anecdotes?"

I feel as though I made my case pretty well for a generalized reason, above. In this particular case, as I said:

"The key here is that the number reported is "unique visitors" – what, exactly, is this telling us? Not much at all because it says nothing of intent, much less duration of stay on that page or frequency of use.

I think there's much ado about little data. So, in the face of not all that informative of data, I think a weak bit of anecdotal pushback is wonderful if it gets conversation started.

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#133

I'm reminded that Google+ hasn't caught every time I log on. Between visits, I think I forget it even exists.

I know exactly what you mean. I created a Twitter account a couple years ago but never really followed anyone; the few times I've logged on I've had a chuckle about how apparently Twitter has zero users and then forgotten about it.

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#134
post #80
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, the OA's comparison is meaningless. It focuses on vanity metrics rather than engagement or retention. A lot is written on that topic, so I won't repeat (see Tim Ferris: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/19/vanity-metri... ). This article is excellent optimization for link baiting. And it doesn't matter because most of these sites don't compete against each other. Each of these media sites has a diff…

Claims of G+'s amazing growth always looks silly when I run this bookmarked Insights: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Google%20Plus%2CIns...

Very useful, thank you.

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#135

Wow. Lots of impressions here. MySpace is so small now! And shrinking! Let us never forget that history. Tumblr and pinterest are adding a lot fewer users than I thought. Gosh just look at the page. Google+ looks very clean and beautiful compared to Facebook these days. I'm reminded of when everybody used to say "Facebook looks very clean and beautiful compared to MySpace these days". Google has a big leg up here as…

Lots of impressions and yet nobody but developers truly use it. MySpace isn't entirely dead are we forgetting that Justin Timberlake and Specific Media purchased the company not too long ago and have been working effortlessly in the background preparing to relaunch the website? If anyone should be worried it should be Google, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest because many seem to forget MySpace possess a pretty large ca…

I thought Myspace already relaunched? Or are they going to do a re-relaunch?

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#136

Wow. Lots of impressions here. MySpace is so small now! And shrinking! Let us never forget that history. Tumblr and pinterest are adding a lot fewer users than I thought. Gosh just look at the page. Google+ looks very clean and beautiful compared to Facebook these days. I'm reminded of when everybody used to say "Facebook looks very clean and beautiful compared to MySpace these days". Google has a big leg up here as…

Lots of people link to Google+ posts here. Nobody links to the equivalent Facebook thing, wall posts. That's a bit misleading, because one of the few places G+ has gotten traction is among developers, mostly in the Google ecosystem (go figure). That's a big and important ecosystem, so it's not shocking that people from there would post stuff that occasionally is of interest to HN. Facebook wall posts aren't used in t…

Fair, but shorter posts are far more relevant in the politics game than the developer community. I think it's a content length issue, not an ecosystem issue. Most of those developers were/are on Facebook before they adopted G+, and we never saw wall posts linked to on HN.

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#137

Wow. Lots of impressions here. MySpace is so small now! And shrinking! Let us never forget that history. Tumblr and pinterest are adding a lot fewer users than I thought. Gosh just look at the page. Google+ looks very clean and beautiful compared to Facebook these days. I'm reminded of when everybody used to say "Facebook looks very clean and beautiful compared to MySpace these days". Google has a big leg up here as…

> MySpace is so small now! And shrinking! Let us never forget that history. So telling that you ask me not to forget MySpace's history, but Friendster is no longer mentioned - so I guess this means that we only remember one social network back ;)

Friendster was never really a thing. MySpace was actually briefly popular, before Facebook opened up to everyone.

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#138
Let me know when Google+ actually works with my google apps email address. It says you have to enable it but I did enable it (terrible documentation/help to do so) and still could never get it to work with no useful error about what's wrong.

It should just work by default.

And if it's disabled, they should stop sending me emails asking me to sign up when they know perfectly well that they won't let me.

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#139
post #56

Facebook has been putting a lot more ads in the newsfeed lately. I find it irritating because I can't just avoid them like I do with the ads on the right! These types of actions may lead more users to Google+

Ironic. Google is the world's biggest ad company. But people will run to Google to avoid ads?

Maybe until it becomes like youtube

Having said that though I still trust google more not to abuse their ad showing to the point of degrading the user experience

Re: Google+ grows 43% in June

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but I know dozens of people on LinkedIn. I know one active Google+ user and he's a bit of a Google fanboy to begin with. Why is there the need to respond to data with anecdotes? If I give a Google+ growth anecdote, does that invalidate yours? I have no idea why Google+ is being compared to LinkedIn. They have very little overlap. Even among Facebook and Google+ the overlap is limited. Nonetheless Google keeps it…

> Which is important because the tech field is what generally leads the growth curve. No it doesn't. You only have to look at Digg and Reddit to see that just because you have tech users does not mean you will see widespread growth outside that demographic. And sites like Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram even Facebook grew because of non tech users.

I'm a little unsure what you mean by referencing Digg and Reddit, however both of them were/are limited to the tech field. They both started as programmer link sites, but that side of the sites withered away as they became yet another mainstream site.

LinkedIn was dominated by the tech field. Specifically the valley tech field. That was what gave it the network effect.

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