"Google says Plus has 540 million monthly active users, but almost half do not visit the social network."
So it sounds like the "active" user count is much smaller -- where does the 540 million "monthly actives" come from?
The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
71–80 of 85 posts
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#72I 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.…
I fired up my plus.google.com again. Beautiful pictures from pro photographers and travelers. Great links on Android Development by developers I'm following. I dislike Facebook because it's mostly personal posts that I care less about. My Google+ stream are much more useful especially to my work. Your network, my network are different. Applies not only to Google+ but on Facebook and Twitter as well.
This is what it comes down to. If you follow uninteresting people, you'll have an uninteresting front page. If you follow no people, you'll have an empty front page. If you put a tiny bit of effort in, you'll have a decent front page.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I fired up my plus.google.com again. Beautiful pictures from pro photographers and travelers. Great links on Android Development by developers I'm following. I dislike Facebook because it's mostly personal posts that I care less about. My Google+ stream are much more useful especially to my work. Your network, my network are different. Applies not only to Google+ but on Facebook and Twitter as well.
This is what it comes down to. If you follow uninteresting people, you'll have an uninteresting front page. If you follow no people, you'll have an empty front page. If you put a tiny bit of effort in, you'll have a decent front page.
Not remotely true. For example, even if you did then the "Share what's new" and "You may know" panels cover around 40% of the actual content area available once you've already got rid of the giant bar at the top and empty spaces at the sides. This is on top of their OCD defying love of spamming notifications. And if you have the misfortune to use it to access some of their developer channels, well the noise level in them is mind boggling.
Compare and contrast with FB, which is almost information overload, but it's got the immediate hooks of who's online, what the latest changes are and a few items from the feed all there on the page at the beginning. It also loads a lot faster, while G+ is noticeably slow even on decent machines.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#74I 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.…
If you follow people who share interesting content rather than because you personally know them then you'll have a better experience I think. Granted, it can be time consuming and hard to discover people that share anything worthwhile. I am pretty happy with some of the circles I've curated and my stream has some pretty interesting content. Sure, much of it is just shares of blog articles (blogspam) but at least there is a way to fine-tune what shows up by using people (with less bias than the authors of the blog) to filter what you see. Same with comments and discussions...instead of anonymous comments on articles you can discuss a topic or article with people you sort of know and trust to some degree.
For those here that are intrested in science and technology, I'd recommend following a guy named Mark Bruce who shares a top 10 list of Sci-Tech advancements or discoveries every week. And if anyone wants to jumpstart their stream, they can message me and I'll share some circles.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#75Whereas 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. You can just downgrade and delete your G+ Profile.
You can very well disable your Google+ Profile and keep any other services. The only extra work needed is in case you have a Youtube channel. In this case you just have to unlink your Youtube and Google+ Accounts first.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#76I haven't jumped on the 'we hate Google' bandwagon yet. I actually use Google+ a lot - my whole family and most of my friends and co-workers are there. I mean I don't use it a lot by Facebook standards, I'll share some pics or thoughts a few times a month. I use Hangouts constantly though. I have a big group chat with my family that's been running for several months, we use it basically the way that I imagine Path is supposed to be used. And I have group chats with various sets of coworkers, and individual chats have entirely replaced SMS and other chat protocol use. Plus - really really easy group video chats, which I actually use quite a bit because of the way my workflow flows.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#77Earlier 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)
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…
It's not just the 'Youtube thing' (as derisive as that sounds), it's that G+ has supplanted many services I used to use and enjoy. So now I have fewer services with constant nag screens prompting me to use something in which I have no interest.
So net result of the G+ 'experience' is that I lose services and have the quality of those that remain impaired.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#78This article goes out of its way to make Google+ look bad when it comes to numbers. "Plus has 29 million unique monthly users on its website and 41 million on smartphones, with some users overlapping, compared with Facebook’s 128 million users on its website and 108 million on phones, according to Nielsen." Is that supposed to be a bad thing? If you have ~1/4 to ~1/2 as many users as Facebook, are you not a very succ…
>If Plus was an independent startup people would be crowning it the next Facebook and saying that Facebook better watch its back. People have higher expectations for Google than for an unknown startup. Google has an audience of 425 million Gmail users [0] to market new services to, after all. It's unreasonable to expect every Google product to be Gmail, but that's where the bar's been set. [0]: http://techcrunch.com/…
I agree that it should be easier for Google to get users than almost anyone else, but that doesn't mean that having X users is any less impressive because of how they were referred.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#79IANAL, 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…
Predatory pricing is "below-cost pricing allows a dominant competitor to knock its rivals out of the market and then raise prices to above-market levels for a substantial time." It would be hard to argue that G+ is giving away space to knock Facebook out of the market and then charge for G+. Classic predatory pricing is things like British Airways driving Laker Airways bust so they could jack prices on the London NY route.
Re: The Plus in Google Plus? It’s Mostly for Google
#80"Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town." Completely false. I've been a member of Google+ for 2 years. I have over 12,000 followers, and I follow over 1,000 people. I see a LOT of activity, particularly the kind I care about. Not everyone wants or needs to see baby pictures. In fact, this is one of the things people hate about Facebook. Regarding the rest of the article, Google+ benefits Goog…
Exactly. I keep adding interesting people, some famous and some not famous, and it makes my feed that much more worthwhile. That said, I don't go there every day, more like every few days when I'm bored or want to post something of my own.
And kudos on the huge following. I have a couple hundred followers and I'm following a couple hundred people at this point.