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The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

nytimes.com

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Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#21

Post by [deleted] »

spacemanmatt wrote: post #9
chilldream wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, exactly this. I was fine with my Google Account; now I have a Google Social Networking Boondoggle. And the rare times G+ makes a difference in my use of other services, the net effect has been worse (I'm still not over the YouTube thing)

I was fine with my Google account, I am finer with my G+ account. In my view, this makes the Google ecosystem better unified and from a lead generation perspective, more like Facebook. What? You thought Google or Facebook were software companies? No, those are marketing and advertising companies. Lead generation is their business. The free software is just the foot in the door. And a nice foot it is.

[deleted]

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#23

Post by Pacabel »

judk wrote: post #17
Pacabel wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. That's pretty widely understood at this point. Were you just repeating what's already known, or was there some insightful point that you were trying to make?

Parent was explaining how this news story is reporting what's already known, and has no insightful point.

It wasn't a very good way of expressing that idea, if so. It makes it appear that the article claims something that it does not, without actually conveying the ideas that it was supposedly intended to.

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#24

Post by [deleted] »

judk wrote: post #16
chilldream wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has an opt-in mechanism called "signing up for a Facebook account." G+'s equivalent is "signing up for an unrelated service, possibly as long as a decade ago."

How do I use Facebook Chat and Facebook Photos without a Facebook News Feed account, and without Facebook Like buttons recording every web page I visit?

[deleted]

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#25

Post by diydsp »

I just fired up plus.google.com again.

50% of the space is "ADD PEOPLE." The other 50% of the space is "DO YOU KNOW THESE PEOPLE."

Where is the V-A-L-U-E ?

Under the fold at the bottom is "Continue to Google+" Oh, I wasn't there already? That was just the interrogation before Google+ begins?

I continue. Long load time. First thing that appears in 50% of the page is a column of the same people from the previous page. "YOU MAY KNOW." I can't close that window, but I can click "View more." I can also click X on an individual, but each time I do, someone even more remote appears... seriously, really weird foreign names. I start to feel bad for laughing at some of these funny-sounding names.

So, over on the left, ah! A post from my friend with the title "get that art." I look at the preview: It's a thumbnail of a thumbnail with the word "site" above it. Probably the site designer's fault...

But what am I really doing here? There is no 'hook.' There is no reason to be here, there is nothing compelling me. There is nothing I can DO, nothing I can move around, paint, color, amplify, organize. And about these borders: fat, fat borders around everything. So much empty, white space between rectangles. Scrolling down a bit, I see a banner "Follow things you love," with buttons for "Fashion" and "Travel." This is like Yahoo in 1997. How do they "know so much about me" that they think I like Fashion and Travel?

Then, eventually, I reach stuff that's just like facebook: my friend's kid eating a donut. another friend talking about cleaning hairballs in the drain of his shower.

Ok, there's a link I'd like to send to my friend, so I'm going over to facebook an give it to him.

Aren't computers and the internet capable of being fun and interesting or informative and useful? I'll tell you, one facebook is enough. I don't need two of them with friends reposting their shrill political screeds from their personal internet silos. I want to do something useful and valuable with my time on this planet. As a matter of fact, I think trying google+ has made me just want to go for a nice walk! It's a beautiful day outside! Yep, standing up now to put on clothes, open the windows and stumble around the block in the ice and snow!

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#26

Post by heydenberk »

>> Before Google released Plus, the company might not have known that you were the same person when you searched, watched videos and used maps.

They did know that you were the same person. You maintained the same session. They may have had limited legal ability to actually use the data from the different services, but I imagine that could have been accomplished with a Terms of Service change without a new over-arching social application.

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#27

Post by opinali »

jinushaun wrote: post #3
davidnu wrote: post #2

This is quite insulting to G+ users to be so easily dismissed and declaring the place a "ghost town". Deeming the community worthless because it's not as large as Facebook's is ridiculous. There is also no mention of G+ fulfilling the purpose of an identity layer to tie in Google's offerings under one pictured profile like every other online service launching today. This attack which lacks any actual news and new dev…

Google had an identity layer before G+. Everyone knew that if they signed up for gmail, they had access to calendar and docs. Even if you didn't sign up for gmail first, there was already a concept of a Google account where you activated features like gmail, docs and calendar. G+ plus provides nothing useful, especially since Hangout is a standalone product in people's minds.

Not really. Some products like YouTube used a separate account. Most products had incompatible ToS so any integration was difficult or impossible. Each product that had comments, like YouTube or Blogger, or a concept of marking something as good/bad/favorite/starred/etc., or sharing, did that in a different and incompatible way, etc. The gmail account was only good enough as a basic authentication token for several products, nothing more. Yes, we could have fixed all these problems by unifying all these features around the gmail account without introducing a traditional social network as a 'bonus' (one that not all users want), but guess what? If you upgrade your account to G+ but you never post in the stream, or circle anything, there's absolutely no difference to that hypothetical scenario of "full integration without introducing plus-the-social-network". Just go to plus.google.com/settings and disable everything and be happy.

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#28

Post by adrianlmm »

davidnu wrote: post #2

This is quite insulting to G+ users to be so easily dismissed and declaring the place a "ghost town". Deeming the community worthless because it's not as large as Facebook's is ridiculous. There is also no mention of G+ fulfilling the purpose of an identity layer to tie in Google's offerings under one pictured profile like every other online service launching today. This attack which lacks any actual news and new dev…

"This is quite insulting to G+"

Please clarify, how an insult to G+ becomes an insult to you?

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#29

Post by davidnu »

[deleted] wrote: post #20
davidnu wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should be over the 'Youtube thing'. Many Google services employ commenting/voting/rating etc, handling these in different, separate siloed systems makes no sense. G+ makes a great deal of sense that its detractors are unwilling to admit. As for the Youtube commenting system which all those who want to be derisive about G+ are quick to point to, they fail to mention how Youtube comments weren't that great to begin…

[deleted]

By whose account? I think you've made your intentions clear with your other comments on this thread, and it's indistinguishable from trolling.

Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google

#30

Post by r0h1n »

IANAL, but "giving away" billions of dollars of prime ad space to entice businesses to sign up for G+, how is that not predatory pricing? [0]

> The company has also pushed brands to join Plus, offering a powerful incentive in exchange — prime placement on the right-hand side of search results, with photos and promotional posts.

> “It is literally promotion that money can’t buy,” Mr. Elliott said. “It is something that Google could make billions off of if they sell that space tomorrow, and they’re giving it away to try to get people onto the social platform.”

[0] http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-an...

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