Although I signed up to Google+, so far I have mostly sat back and watched everything unfold, from stories of it competing with Facebook, to introducing business apps and the controversy of deleting people’s accounts and asking for people’s real names – is this legitimate or is it all about targeting advertising for more money? Now things are starting to settle, I wonder if it will become a social platform that everyone uses, fade into the background, or simply act as supporting material to Facebook and Twitter.
At its root, Google+ is all about sharing, and connecting with others in a humanistic way. It integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services: Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles.
Yes, it has received 20m users in its first weeks with us, but I don’t think people should be comparing this to other social start-up stats. Google is an established brand; other platforms such as Facebook grew with its brand, while at the same time creating a new social world. Google has this foundation to learn and grow from, as well as the added comfort of being a global name.
I am also a bit dubious about the stats. I think that some people (like me) will sign up out of curiosity to have a look around and see what all the fuss is about. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are active users.
In its premise, I like the idea of Google+. I like the use of circles to create groups of friends who only see certain content. In a world where social and work can overlap, this makes thing easier. But all these elements seem like simple Facebook tweaks. I’m not sure if I need another platform to sign into, another profile to keep up-to-date, especially in an already saturated market. I know that I will still turn to Twitter to find out what’s going on in the world, YouTube for videos, Skype for instant messaging and Facebook for updates with friends, but I am not sure where Google+ will fit into my life.
Grouping friends, family and work colleagues into circles is useful but I don’t think it’s a
“delightful experience that rewards people” as Andy Hertzfeld, Google+ designer explained to Fast Company’s John Pavlus. He went on to say that ‘categorisation can easily become tedious, and fun animations help add a twinkle in the eye, some whimsy to the process.” Hmm. I’m not so sure.
The feature ‘Sparks’ brings content to you automatically based on your interests. Each topic you like will get its own “Spark” page and provide links to related articles, videos, photos, etc. Although it has had some negative reviews, if it provided quality, relevant content, this is something I would be interested in.
One issue that I have seen surface, is that if you have a business and social Gmail account. You have to log out of one to use Google+ on the other. And the same goes for if you have an Apps account, you can’t be logged onto the two at the same time, even though that may be inconvenient to a user.
I also find the concept of online ‘Huddles’ and ‘Hangouts’ between friends hard. Setting up video chats to play charades seems a little sad. It might be great for a quick chat but why not actually meet up and have some face-to-face interaction?
It isn’t all bad though Google+ is hot on the heels of Facebook over its many privacy issues. Google+ offers a huge array of privacy settings. Ultimately, respecting users’ privacy and giving every feature its own privacy implications.
With previous efforts such as Google Wave and Google Buzz behind them, Google+ has tried to tackle the four problems in social networking that they think others lack in. By creating a safe environment with solid privacy settings, taking time out of sharing, integrating video chatting and creating easy to set up social circles. Is this enough to make people switch though? When services such as Facebook and Twitter are viewed as part of normal day-to-day behaviour. Rather than ‘just’ a social platform, they are part of people’s lives.
It would be great to see some of these social platforms collaborating – maybe one day we could check Facebook updates through Google, use search fields on Facebook or integrate the Google+ button or Google Maps into Twitter. In my opinion I don’t think Google+ has conquered it just yet. I think that the initial excitement and buzz will soon come to a standstill, leaving Google+ to be embarrassingly swept under the carpet, and plans to be dominators of the digital world put back into action… But, we’ll wait and see what happens!
