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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

#31

Post by opinali »

[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]

How exactly are they dead now?

[Checks a 3-day old PewDiePie video. 15K comments.]

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

#32

Post by fidotron »

I can't be the only one that has to use G+ merely to communicate with Google on different issues. Much of the tech community on there are probably like this, either directly, or by proxy. In every other sense it's terrible, especially the "you have these pictures for sharing" stuff. No, maybe I want to backup my photos and not share them. Incomprehensible behaviour, clearly.

Hangouts still baffles me as well. Why didn't they just leave gmail chat as it was? I have not met a single person that believes this was an improvement.

That said, I've quit G+ twice now, but because of the work related stuff have kept having to go back. One day it will snap again.

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

#35

Post by fidotron »

spacemanmatt wrote: post #6

Whereas Facebook is an altruistic service run by the users for the users. Oh, spare me the breathless reporting on Skynet, please.

Facebook as a product does actually behave in a far less user hostile fashion. It's relatively fast and just makes much more sense. I do understand that FB actually are weasels but G+ feels like it was made by weasels.

For all the fuss FB has an enormously superior signal-to-noise ratio than G+. My default G+ page is a horrifying mess of things I have zero interest in.

The Google "but you trust FB with this data" line is tiresome. People trust FB because they're an understood silo. Google showing up in unexpected places is why they're regarded as creepy.

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

#36

Post by opinali »

blueskin_ wrote: post #22
spacemanmatt wrote: post #6

Whereas Facebook is an altruistic service run by the users for the users. Oh, spare me the breathless reporting on Skynet, please.

You don't need a facebook account to do other non-facebook things. You do with Google plus.

You don't need a G+ or any kind of Google account to do other non-Google things, say shop at Amazon or watch a Netflix video. This is the right way to compare. The major difference is that we're not a one-trick pony, we have dozens of services that people want. For a more comparable example, several mostly-unrelated Microsoft online products (Office365, SkyDrive, Xbox, Skype, Outlook.com, etc.) are all under the umbrella of a Microsoft Account. Which also makes a lot of sense, for example I suppose you can buy a unified cloud storage quota that can be used by both Office365 and SkyDrive, among other things. OTOH, because I have a MS account, I also have a (send-only at least) Outlook.com account. But I have no problem with that, I just don't use it.

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

#37

Post by eli »

r0h1n wrote: post #30

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 tha…

Isn't giving away services for free how nearly every consumer internet startup works, at least until they figure out a business plan.

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

#38

Post by r0h1n »

eli wrote: post #37
r0h1n wrote: post #30

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 tha…

Isn't giving away services for free how nearly every consumer internet startup works, at least until they figure out a business plan.

(a) Google isn't like "nearly every consumer startup". It is arguably the most powerful Internet company in the world. Thus its actions must be viewed differently.

(b) In this case Google is using its dominance in the search space (70-90% in many markets) to push G+ on customers who may not normally have signed up for it.

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

#39

Post by microtonal »

opinali wrote: post #36
blueskin_ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a facebook account to do other non-facebook things. You do with Google plus.

You don't need a G+ or any kind of Google account to do other non-Google things, say shop at Amazon or watch a Netflix video. This is the right way to compare. The major difference is that we're not a one-trick pony, we have dozens of services that people want. For a more comparable example, several mostly-unrelated Microsoft online products (Office365, SkyDrive, Xbox, Skype, Outlook.com, etc.) are all under the umbr…

Certainly. But one difference with e.g. Skydrive is that everytime I upload a photo to what used to be Picasa (now Google+ Photos), it offers to share on Google+ and I have to skip that step.

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

#40

Post by frade33 »

Social networking overall has run its course. below are the phases it has gone through like everything else.

1. Initial Launch: OMG! Cool. Signup

2. More people Jump in, it becomes even more exciting.

3. Everyone starts using it.

4. Eventually, excitement starts to fade away.

5. It becomes boring.

6. People’s addiction eventually starts to decline.

7. People totally lose their interest.

8. Eventually, it becomes a ghost town. End.

Sadly, Google+ even couldn’t pass through the 2nd phase and skipped all the way to point 8.

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