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Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

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Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#561

Post by airstrike »

derefr wrote: post #475
smelendez wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the real solution to this turned out to be using different apps. Maybe Facebook for general friends and family posts, Snapchat with friends, WhatsApp chat with another group of friends, Twitter for truly public posts, Slack for work, etc.

That only works for about seven years at a time, though. Eventually, the app where your college-aged college friends are (Facebook) becomes the app where the adult-aged friends you know from college are (Facebook), becomes the app that the next generation thinks of as "the app their parents use", and therefore don't want to post anything public to lest some adult who knows their parents sees it. So far, I'm pretty ha…

> So far, I'm pretty happy with the "isolated communities with shared identities" model of Slack/Discord.

You mean IRC?

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#563

Post by leoc »

varrock wrote: post #527
smelendez wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the real solution to this turned out to be using different apps. Maybe Facebook for general friends and family posts, Snapchat with friends, WhatsApp chat with another group of friends, Twitter for truly public posts, Slack for work, etc.

One thing the younger kids are doing is making separate accounts altogether. I know for certain I follow my younger brother on his "family approved" account and not his "you're my close friend" account.

That's a very logical approach to identity. Try the veal!

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#565

Post by killjoywashere »

madrox wrote: post #548
_uhtu wrote: post #6

Google+ had terrible marketing and release, but it had some decent ideas that I wish other networks had carried over. The idea of "circles", where you had a circle for "acquaintances" "friends", "family" would be great on, say, Facebook, as it would allow me to filter down my feed to just the people I really care about but still have a connection to more distance acquaintances. Currently on Facebook the news feed is…

The release was definitely terrible, but ironically not for the typical reasons of the time...namely servers falling over. From my POV, the release was terrible because it let people in too fast. Social networks need to go through a period where only the "cool kids" are there. It creates a network effect. It was kind of impossible to go through that, so being on Google+ conveyed no status...in fact, it kind of did th…

Agreed. I remember the first person I knew with a gmail account, back in 2003. I remember when I first heard of facebook. Being stuck with a "What is this?" thought for months was my problem and their lucky strike.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#566

Post by nikolay »

No wonder! Google with their notorious interviews false to test one fundamental software engineer trait - common sense! Most of their products are short-sighted and much neglected. I won't ever invest a second looking into another Google offering! Keep off! They have zero respect for your time invested in their toy products!

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#567

Post by perl4ever »

mortdeus wrote: post #538
srtjstjsj wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sean Parker wasn't at Facebook during that interview. This was after his unamicable separation.

He isn't the only person who talks about the dopamine driven feedback loops. Chamath Palihapitiya, who was one of the first engineers at facebook, talks about how they all used to gather in meeting rooms and have intense back and forth discussions on how they actually build this thing so that the entire world wouldn't be able to resist adopting it. He talks about how at the time they really didn't foresee the forebod…

That's a little like talking about how you didn't foresee the foreboding implications of designing a self-sustaining chain reaction involving neutrons.

Although I think the reaction continues and we can't tell exactly what's happening even now.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#568

Post by osdiab »

spenczar5 wrote: post #338
reading-at-work wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd like to think that's not true Facebook insiders have admitted that it is. Mike Allen, Facebook's first president, said this in an interview: “The thought process was all about, ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’,” he said. “And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a pos…

I couldn't believe this quote, so I had to dig it up. It's real, but from Sean Parker. Mike Allen was the interviewer. Source (a slightly clickbaity-looking place, go at your own risk): https://www.axios.com/sean-parker-unloads-on-facebook-god-on...

I actually find Axios to be a pretty great news source. Lots of solid, insightful analysis on categorized topics delivered as regular newsletters that don’t take up all your time.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#569

Post by mindways »

Twirrim wrote: post #242

From my perspective, the one thing Google got _really_ wrong with G+ was their APIs. When G+ was launched, tools like TweetDeck were heavily used for interacting with Twitter, Facebook and the like. All of a sudden along came a service that had no APIs by which you could post to it. Something you needed to specifically go and open a separate application for. If they'd made public read & write APIs from the start, the…

Agreed. At one point I looked up their APIs, planning to do something pretty simple... and it just wan't even possible.

They also blew a lot of time tinkering with minutae / fringe features while fairly basic functionality was sub-par.

Still, on balance I've found G+ both useful and fun, and I'm annoyed it's shutting down. I'm growing more + more wary of relying on any Google services to be around in N years' time.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#570

Post by reaperducer »

stanmancan wrote: post #382
mindgam3 wrote: post #373

RIP. Like so many of Google’s high profile efforts (anyone remember Wave? Glass, etc), a bunch of good ideas and great tech brought down by an utter failure to understand the human element/social psychology angle. Google+ was dead in the water from day one. You don’t beat Facebook at social by building a slightly different product with some cool ideas like Circles. Going for feature parity was a mistake. Instead they…

Big companies typically don't go after small niches. There are so many of them available they can't possibly pursue them all, because ultimately you don't know which one will take off. The book The Innovator's Dilemma focuses on this.

Big companies typically don't go after small niches.

Big companies go after niches all the time. Many microbrews are owned by massive multi-national breweries. Huge drug companies chase niches every day. Giant food companies release ethic niche foods every month.

Whomever told you that there isn’t big money in niches or that they’re not worth going after is someone you should stop taking advice from.

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