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A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

scottporad.com

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Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#31

Post by hosay123 »

scottporad wrote: post #21
bratsche wrote: post #12

If 100% of Google Reader users enthusiastically adopted Google+, would that have even come close to what they were hoping to ultimately get? That's probably a rounding error by Facebook's usage numbers.

I disagree. People who used Reader were early adopters and influencers. Perhaps it was only 8 million users from Reader, but they would have had a multiplier effect.

You nailed it there - some internal hubris led to them assuming the tech crowd were no longer the driver of their business, and so they ignored us.

Now I don't have any reason to have Google Account, and so I don't have one†. Of the users I introduced to Gmail, some have since moved back to live.com (e.g. family) because they saw me complaining so much, even though they had no real reason to move.

I no longer recommend Android since after 2 attempts, watching both my phones with otherwise perfectly functional hardware have their software go unsupported and crumble into the ground as every new update got pushed. And so my mom still has a Blackberry (yep!)

† Not strictly true, I still have an apps account to forward my mail, but only because I haven't migrated the last remaining user off the domain.

Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#32

Post by emersonrsantos »

It's not that. Some people at Gogole said let's tell people we are changing. The same thing that makes Windows 8 and lots of great products go wrong.

We just hate change. Change leads to frustation, to fight-or-flight reactions. That's why people seat at the same spot every day.

Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#34

Post by levosmetalo »

hosay123 wrote: post #31
scottporad wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. People who used Reader were early adopters and influencers. Perhaps it was only 8 million users from Reader, but they would have had a multiplier effect.

You nailed it there - some internal hubris led to them assuming the tech crowd were no longer the driver of their business, and so they ignored us. Now I don't have any reason to have Google Account, and so I don't have one†. Of the users I introduced to Gmail, some have since moved back to live.com (e.g. family) because they saw me complaining so much, even though they had no real reason to move. I no longer recomme…

Just curious, what have you migrated to from Google apps? I don't use much of apps except for mail, calendar, contacts and docs. I could live without online docs, but couldn't find slick email, calendar and contacts available seamlessly on any computer and phone I use anywhere else.

Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#36

Post by hosay123 »

levosmetalo wrote: post #34
hosay123 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You nailed it there - some internal hubris led to them assuming the tech crowd were no longer the driver of their business, and so they ignored us. Now I don't have any reason to have Google Account, and so I don't have one†. Of the users I introduced to Gmail, some have since moved back to live.com (e.g. family) because they saw me complaining so much, even though they had no real reason to move. I no longer recomme…

Just curious, what have you migrated to from Google apps? I don't use much of apps except for mail, calendar, contacts and docs. I could live without online docs, but couldn't find slick email, calendar and contacts available seamlessly on any computer and phone I use anywhere else.

For personal mail I've moved back to a combination of live.com for one account, and mutt for the rest – shockingly, because live.com is quite usable nowadays.

Remaining stuff is all data, so its just on my laptop. Of my last three employers, two were big Microsoft Outlook houses, so that's how corp calendar sharing has worked.

For RSS I am running Selfoss. It's passable, but it's no Reader. After obsessing over sundry services like YouTube I finally just decided to delete the account - playlists and all, since services like that are basically huge wastes of time anyway.

Right now I'm carrying a phone that doesn't even support e-mail, never mind web, and honestly have no intention of changing the situation unless forced by an employer. It's great, the battery lasts about 2 weeks. The only real aspect of this that hurt initially was the lack of a good GPS, but since I don't own a car and live in a big city, turns out it was just another excuse to pointlessly glue my head to a screen

Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#38

Post by mattlutze »

bratsche wrote: post #30
scottporad wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. People who used Reader were early adopters and influencers. Perhaps it was only 8 million users from Reader, but they would have had a multiplier effect.

Maybe. But many of us are early adopters on Google+, because many of us are early adopters of all kinds of technologies. How effective have any of us been? I've got a ton of connections on Google+, but they're mostly other software developers or enthusiasts. All my real friends who are actually on Google+ created accounts and then apparently forgot they had them and never post. Probably because I'm the only person th…

Our early adoption tendencies pair with a tolerance to nerd out over multiple competing systems. Studies have in the past suggested the average smartphone user only uses a few (5, 6?) apps that they've downloaded with any sort of regularity, the idea being they just don't have the time, patience or desire to check in on 6 different social location-aware deal apps.

Facebook is, generally, a better experience for a person that wants to keep up with their friends, because posting, discovering others' posts, organizing groups, having get-togethers in real life are quicker, simpler, easier for the general user.

So they'll ignore Google+ because they don't need that second social network if Google+ comes in second.

Which, for that persona, it really does.

Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#39

Post by erikb »

It's good to have an opinion. Also I like short, focussed blog posts. But the assumption made is too simple to gain anything, neither for Google nor for the HN community. For instance, integrating product A into product B is a lot of work, additionally to maintaining each of the products separately. And to me it seems as if Google simply didn't want to maintain the software behind Reader anymore. This also means integrating it (more costs than just keeping it as it is) is not a valid option. Then it might not even have a positive influence, because there are likely many people who used G+ but not Reader (like me) and many users who used Reader and not G+. For those people the integration of a completely new tool is not different from adding X new features. And we all know that adding X new features does not improve any product, right?

Re: A simple way Google could have avoided fucking up Google+

#40

Post by fudged71 »

People don't seem to understand that Google+ was used internally before launch as though it were Facebook; people only shared with their friends and family. But when the product was launched to the public, it was given a limited release, biasing it to the tech crowd, and they gave the ability to give posts "public" visibility. Well these two things quickly turned Google+ into Twitter rather than Facebook.

Then they spent the next few years trying to fix the disaster they had caused. It would have been a great product if they thought through the launch. But they didn't.

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