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Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

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Re: Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

#11

Post by michaelpinto »

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #8
cma wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Facebook offer extensive human tech support?

Nope[1], nor reasonably could they. The cost of doing tech support for 1 billion people is just massive. [1]: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=220217228006012

But think about it: If they're going to get in the business of selling things that may have to change. Also on a meta level they sell ads to big customers which does require a human touch, so if they want to do more of that they'll need more humans. Granted I don't see Facebook opening retail stores like Apple, but at some point my guess is that you need humans. Even Amazon had to buy Zappos...

Re: Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

#12

Post by smegel »

I think people are slowly waking up to the idiocy of having an online "identity" that matches their real world one. If anything there will be a trend away from these spy networks as more people switch on to their purpose.

Re: Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

#14

Post by madprops »

smegel wrote: post #12

I think people are slowly waking up to the idiocy of having an online "identity" that matches their real world one. If anything there will be a trend away from these spy networks as more people switch on to their purpose.

There's a place for that kind of online network. There's also a place for random usernames like radnation. There are a lot of games to play.

Re: Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

#15

Post by codeka »

pcwalton wrote: post #13

Yammer definitely does have traction. It may well be that the author didn't use Yammer at the two companies he worked at, but Microsoft wouldn't have paid a billion dollars for a company without traction.

They just wrote down $6.2 billion on their aQuantive purchase, so I wouldn't be too quick to say that...

Re: Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

#18

Post by jseliger »

mdwrigh2 wrote: post #8
cma wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Facebook offer extensive human tech support?

Nope[1], nor reasonably could they. The cost of doing tech support for 1 billion people is just massive. [1]: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=220217228006012

I wonder if it would be worthwhile for them to sell support as a service—say, $25 or $29 per support call. I suspect a lot of people who are locked out of their accounts for whatever reason, even temporarily, would pay for this.

Re: Why Google+ Still Has Huge Potential

#20

Post by gurkendoktor »

michaelpinto wrote: post #6
mdwrigh2 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When Google+ came out I was blown away by just how well designed it was, but then slowly Google ruined it. Andy Hertzfeld created an amazing product, but then Google worked their "magic" just like they did with Blogger and watered down every strong feature like circles. How have they ruined circles? They work the same as they did on day one as far as I can tell. > In fact Google goes out of its way to not have to i…

1. Circles: They did a redesign at one point where you can browse specific circles by clicking on well hidden buttons buttons at the top. Of course the buttons don't stay there, so you have to keep clicking. Facebook displays everything on the left nav so it's easy to see their version of circles — and having wasted too much time on both sites i can tell you that in terms of functionality (not ascetics) Facebook wins…

> Now I'll grant you that the G+ app looks the most pretty, but it's a pain to use.

This! I can't believe that Google, out of all companies, would go "form over function" on a mobile app. Scrolling through a feed is so distracting that I wouldn't even want all my friends to be in there. (So far I've only scrolled around the food pictures in the public stream.)

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