Sorry Guys! I Love Google Plus, but it’s Destined to Fail
on July 3rd, 2011
50
Image Credit: pinoytutorial.com
Last few days have been very exciting for Social Media ecosystem. We got an exciting new tool from Google, The Google+. Everyone is excited about the Circle, Hangout and other features of this new Social Networking site.
I asked myself today and after 4 days of using the tool, whether I liked the hyped Google+. The answer is YES. But, I am not quite sure if I will continue using the site.
Here are some of my concerns on the Network, and why I think it is destined to FAIL.
1. It was not necessary
No one in the World actually needed a tool like Google+. We already had Facebook and Twitter, which solved most of the necessities explained by Google itself. The only purpose of the new network from Google that is to stop Facebook. This simply cannot be the reason behind any great tool that is targeting to serve a billion people.
2. Social Network stabilization takes time
Google wants to kill Facebook tomorrow or today. It has gone all aggressive. This is the biggest drawback of Google+. It has lots of features which takes time for people to learn and use. It is neither a simple system, nor an evolved system like Facebook. The mass adoption does not seem likely.
3. Google+ comes from Google and Gmail, not Orkut
From the looks to the features, Google+ has come from Google Search Engine and Gmail. I am not very sure if I needed plus as an extension to these two super products from the Tech Giant. Instead if Google+ had come as an upgrade to Orkut or Youtube, it would have been a better fit.
4. Google+ is actually a Facebook+ and not Google+
I am sure you all will agree with me on this point. Plus has some wonderful features that can be a great addition to Facebook.
5. Google Needs Orkut or Youtube in the same lines as Microsoft Needed Bing; Google fails to understand it. Had Microsoft launched its search engine as Microsoft+ or Search.Microsoft or Search.Live etc, it would have never received the adoption it has done. The reason is simple — we know and love Microsoft as a different brand. The brand is more Enterprise or a synonym for wonderful desktop products. It just confuses me to think it as a Search Engine. Bing is much better.
Image Source: techshout.com
Google+ has the same issue. We all love the brand as a Search Engine. I am using Gmail as it is Gmail. Had it been Google Mail, I don’t know if I would.
6. Google+ does not have a good UI
You might not agree to this point, but if you compare Google+ UI to that of Facebook, it is actually not great for a Social Network.
7. Wrong Focus and Poor PR. Circle is actually useless
Circle inside Google+ is just Twitter List or Facebook Group. The feature is presented well but as people discover it, they won’t think twice on stopping to use the network.
8. Everyone comes together. No one stays longer
All the successful social networks have brought one small community and grown on top of it. This is important as the small community is always beautiful and spam free. The small community builds the process, network keywords and network rules, and when it gets bigger this community works to defend themselves and the network.
9. Social Network is like the Democratic Government; dictators die and puppet governments die faster
I might sound harsh here but all the rules in Google are not defined by the company. We, the users, have not told them anything. Google might be listening to few private testers but I doubt if it is enough. Google+ seems to me like a democratic government installed by a powerful external force. It will be seriously questioned and challenged in days ahead.
Ending Thoughts….
I have expressed this thought on couple of occasions earlier too, and now too I have a strong feeling that Google does not have a Social Media DNA. If it had that, they would have never pushed much loved Orkut to the corner and pushed for Google+ (a brand derivative of a Search Engine).
And if Google thinks that asking people to +1 to make their sites more Search Friendly can give them a Social Media success, I do not buy that argument.
My suggestion to Google, listen and grow the already existing tools like Youtube or Orkut, and not try to push Google as a Social Media brand or try to cross sell a network with Gmail or Google Search. I love Google and Gmail as great products, and if Google wants me to use Google+ or other Social Network, I need more reasons. Give me a good brand that I can recall as a Social Network, and give me enough time to learn.
However, I feel Facebook needs competition and the world needs a open Social Network like Google+. Facebook is too controlling like China — high performing and emerging superpower. But, it is essentially a closed and regulated system. Google needs to be India. Can Google+ take that place?
Google+ has not impressed me, yet. I will be more happy, if the site becomes so compelling that I am forced to use it daily.
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Systems
I don’t agree with you. East or West Google+ is Best. They will work on things that you have pointed out here.
My best wishes for Google to overcome these hurdles. I will be a happy man.
Yaa. I also don’t agree with you my friends. Most in the point 7. Better use it more. Yaa I have also used Google plus for the 4 days. It is more than that of Facebook and Twitter. And at last Google + is Best..
Sure, they will do.
They build various things to poke their competitor only… they are happy with their crawler and algorithm… No doubt G+ will also die like buzz and wave after some time….
Couldn’t agree more.. don’t know if G+ would fail or work.. I might as well say I couldn’t care less.. but what Google has done is make facebook shit in its pants.. it would only mean a better social media for us. Like, since the time Bing has launched we see search innovation from Google every 2 weeks which was lost.. since Google was sitting on its arse.
Dude, will all due respect, none of your points make any real sense.
I could take any point but lets start at point 1., u say “no one really needed plus as we have fb n tw”, that’s like saying “no one needed twitter, we had fb and myspace” or no one needed fb as we already had myspace n orkut”, every product has its value proposition n so does plus.
In fact, to be fair, you have not even tried to point out the actual flaws in plus like circle scaling, stream organization and so on, please back up your post with facts before saying something is “Destined to fail”.
Google+ does not have not a good UI? Good joke! | And also, Circle is NOT at all useless. And neither like a facebook friend list. | And the most important thing u forgot that Google is much more reliable than FB, in terms of security of users’ data. So, people can leave FB for Google+, though not yet sure.
I think your post is all india centric. Orkut never got going anywhere outside india and brazil so what’s the point of making pushing it further. It had to be a new product and that’s what they are trying. just because facebook has got 700 million users, does not mean it is perfect. the fundamental flaw in facebook and for that matter every social product before G+ is that they all considered social as a website or an isolated product. even fb understands that and that’s y they are looking to melt into rockmelt browser or INQ mobile to make a facebook fone. right now when we saw social network we visit facebook.com. but in reality it has to meshed with all our devices like what Apple tired with twitter in iOS 5. so G+ is not just about circles or huddle its about integration. that is beautiful. I agree with you that adoption wont be easy. but I think they have a fair chance with this especially because they have a strong overall ecosystem like android, gmail, search, maps etc. we will always use these products and is social is build in these then its the dream.
sorry for so many typos
Completely agree!
I am just hoping that this craze remains long. I will want Google to succeed like they did in Android and ofcourse World needs a more open Social Network. FB is too commanding and controlling.
Btw, what did you like the best in G+?
I respect your opinion buddy. I started using G+ but soon found that it is asking me to make circles, which I am too lazy to make one. I never made it in FB groups nor Twitter lists. May be my wrong.
I have always found SPAM as a major issue in earlier social networks including FB. It is more prevalent in Twitter, Buzz, Orkut and MySpace. There does not seem to be any way for me to control the SPAM in G+. It gives all power to publishers.
Also open profile with no facility to interact does not appeal me. Quora or Twitter provide a better platform.
Lets hope Google work on those lines. Btw, what excites you the most in G+? I would love to know.
Lets see how things unfold. I am for Google success specially for it being an open platform, and not controlled like FB. Still I have not found it compelling enough.
Are you kidding?
Real Property of Google is only web search engine…85% other main products are from acquisitions! Blogger,YouTube, Doubleclick etc..
They analysed the failure of Orkut, Wave, Buzz, Jaiku etc and came up with Plus. What’s wrong with that? After using it for a few days I already think I can get used to it. Circle is actually a clever and a better way to implement Facbook’s privacy settings. The toolbar at the top of every Google products will show notifications from Plus… so no matter what Google product you use, including Google Search, you won’t be able to get away from Plus. I like the UI, the Java Script is quite good. All in all, I think it is destined to be a hit.
u sound like a die hard fan of fb and terribly afraid of plus.
u should come up with facts. u have talked about your perceptions only. e.g ” I am using Gmail as it is Gmail. Had it been Google Mail, I don’t know if I would.” is this a joke? gmail is googlemail. I love the name “google mail” as much as I love “gmail”.
whoever says its another facebook, I will ask them to give it a little time. its nothing like facebook. In google I trust. I know what iam sharing and with whom. data remains my property. now think of facebook. can u delete your profile in facebook? I would switch to g+ with just one excuse: trust.
Go Google…. rock the world.
You have some good thought, and I admire it. The things you mentioned will bring the techies but I doubt if it will be easy thing for me to pull my dad, or other people, who has learnt only one tech stuff in life — Facebook!
I would love to see G+ be successful, and btw I am not a FB fan. I hate any closed stuffs and FB is a walled garden. YES, FB has excellent service and the UI. I love it. G+ is actually pushing both companies innovate so users like us benefit. I am happy!
Aqeel, I like your view. I think Google had to do all these because of FB else they did nothing on Youtube or Orkut, and brought some real bad stuffs like Buzz. They lacked Social DNA. Now G+ seems to be a better play, and two companies are likely fight for long. Essentially users like us benefit. I am, btw, a huge Google and Android fan; but don’t think thats gonna help Google for me to move me out of FB. So far, I have no reasons.
Aqeel, I like your view. I think Google had to do all these because of FB else they did nothing on Youtube or Orkut, and brought some real bad stuffs like Buzz. They lacked Social DNA. Now G+ seems to be a better play, and two companies are likely fight for long. Essentially users like us benefit. I am, btw, a huge Google and Android fan; but don’t think thats gonna help Google for me to move me out of FB. So far, I have no reasons.
i beg to differ, firstly its not at al complex, its just different to eyes in someways, besides i think y google ripped of alot of facebook stuff like stream and status bar etc is to make the transition from fb to g+ easier. Your dad never joined fb because he wanted to, he did because u were there. so if people around him are using it he will use it too. I believe whats most important for google here is to maintain the early momentum they have got here. what happened with wave was that it was hyped up and after a few days they had nothing to show, with this controlled beta they will ensure they throw in new stuff consistently to keep people busy and of course keep improving the existing stuff too. honestly i dont think there is anything special about G+ as an isolated tool, its kinda similar to fb in most stuff. But as I said before , what is most exciting is gradually this tool will merge with the web and become invisible, google has 20% market share in browser market and once G+ is integrated with chrome browser, it will become invisible and will be always there, then even your dad would be able to use. Same with mobile, if G+ merges with basic functionality of your phone , you wont even know you are using G+, case in point instant upload of photos.
Also, where fb and G+ are fundamentally different in strategy is I think , facebook (as explained by mark zuck in recent announcement) is a platform where they have huge user base and now they want to cash on it by letting other people build apps. whereas google dont care about apps, they care about info, so all they want is let people communicate with each other as well as web (+1s) so they could manage that info and get more ad revenue. since the fundamental direction is different, i believe G+ will become a better comms tool and facebook will become more utility and entertainment platform. my 2 cents
yeah about google mail, untill recently, in UK gmail was actually called googlemail. i believe last year google gave UK people choice of either keeping googlemail or move to gmail.
something else I want to point out here is that, if we look at Google’s social attempts, Orkut was not made by google they bought it from its brazilian inventor. and the time when orkut was famous Google never cared about social networking, simply put they were sleeping and in the later part of Orkut’s life it became a copy of FB. Wave – I truly believe it is fab technology and would definitely come back in some other form, but with wave google took on a much much bigger task, to replace email. that was never going to happen email is like a huge truck, if you try to take a sudden U turn you are bound to topple, thats what happened. Buzz was just a stupid product, they tried to copy twitter, I think Google was scared that Twitter has the real time info and they tried to recreate it. It was very short term thinking and it was bound to lose. So whats different now ?Google is very serious about social now (they have tied all their employee’s bonuses to Google’s social success). They are not making any sweeping changes like they tried in Wave. and lastly they have a much better ecosystem with browser and mobile and other apps than they did earlier. No one knows whats gonna happen but all I am saying is if google could ever create a good social product, time is now.
I love Google plus already. Never a Facebook fan and never will be for numerous reasons! So I have to disagree.
Nice trial but Google is been there and going to be there…
I think I DO agree with a number of your points. I tried Google+ and hoped it might be a good alternative to Facebook. But I gave up very quickly because it just wasn’t instantly accessible. I didn’t get what to do with it at all, and couldn’t see the benefit of learning since Facebook and Twitter are there, ready to use without any real instruction needed.
If Google wants this to succeed, for whatever reason, they have to stop making it so inaccessible – invite only? What’s sociable about that? And anything that needs me to spend time asking and researching how to use isn’t fit for my purpose. If they stop limiting it to invites, allow you to log on with any kind of account, and make it instantly accessible, I’ll try again…
Oh, and kudos on making everyone comment on this using FB accounts…;)
Okay.. I see google fans here to protest in words like “East or West Google+ is Best”. LOL .. Starting a platform to especially to stop a successful one sounds very lame. Google will get succeed in its social networking era (Google+) if and only if, they do some merging with their “Blogger autoposting,Buzz, Importing Youtube friends & subscriptions, Sucking entire database of orkut friends to google+” Google has already started few social stuffs at orkut, youtube, blogger, friendconnect. They must get them merged and show the real social experience/usefulness. Simply cloning a platform and claming that, this new crap will kill the original. Google can NOT make any unique thing to get success. They tried twitter.com with their self bannered haiku.com .. totally mad WAVE, Bought Orkut, Bought Youtube.. How much innovations you see on orkut (except making it dirty as myspace). They dont even know how to make youtube as a profitable business? The problem is monopoly, The problem is., They love google because it gives good things for FREE. But kills corporates. Microsoft is getting back to normal business attitude. But., Google is on its peak., See this stupid move of 17Billion loss in patent issue (Im talking about moto acquisition). They dont have any idea about patents while creating android and making an expensive solution. Thats google. All it has is bunch of engineers, money & fanboys.
Okay.. I see google fans here to protest in words like “East or West Google+ is Best”. LOL .. Starting a platform to especially to stop a successful one sounds very lame. Google will get succeed in its social networking era (Google+) if and only if, they do some merging with their “Blogger autoposting,Buzz, Importing Youtube friends & subscriptions, Sucking entire database of orkut friends to google+” Google has already started few social stuffs at orkut, youtube, blogger, friendconnect. They must get them merged and show the real social experience/usefulness. Simply cloning a platform and claming that, this new crap will kill the original. Google can NOT make any unique thing to get success. They tried twitter.com with their self bannered haiku.com .. totally mad WAVE, Bought Orkut, Bought Youtube.. How much innovations you see on orkut (except making it dirty as myspace). They dont even know how to make youtube as a profitable business? The problem is monopoly, The problem is., They love google because it gives good things for FREE. But kills corporates. Microsoft is getting back to normal business attitude. But., Google is on its peak., See this stupid move of 17Billion loss in patent issue (Im talking about moto acquisition). They dont have any idea about patents while creating android and making an expensive solution. Thats google. All it has is bunch of engineers, money & fanboys.
As of August 31 – you all G+ lovers still think the same?
I completely agree with you….it may take another 2 or 3 years for any social networking site to dominate facebook. Google Plus is only a failed attempt.
I knew then what I know now, G+ is failing. I was thinking to myself, that G+ is more likely a super social network where I can feel the experience of YouTube, GMail, Search, Blogger, Maps (With Latitude), AdWords, AsSense altogether in ONE PLACE.
To see G+ now, well, I’m hopeless. Yet FB was aiming to SQUISH the web into one single “WALL” …
Take a look a what happened to Myspace after they tried to do things the way that Facebook does. I don’t think ANYONE goes to Myspace anymore, except maybe to have access to another game.
Facebook is so ubiquitous to Social Networking, just like Google is ubiquitous to search. I’m surprised most “social media experts” didn’t see through this when G+ launched.
ironic to react through facebook
google+ will win. People are leaving facebook for google+ because google+ looks like a modern original facebook. And its more private. The new facebook starting october 1st will be what will make google+ win the social network wars.
Die Hard Facebook Fan! m/
Good one. I totally agree
Until now all the companies that fought microsoft have been acquired or disappeared. Google did well braking with that through the search market and now the OS market with Android. It is clear that when google decided to go social with Orkut and his horrific Open Social technology, Microsoft and other Google competitors were going to “help the second in the line” or an emerging one to be the first. Microsoft bought Facebook shares, remember? So we should recognize that all this failures in google social realm are due in big part thanks to the big enemies google built in the past. FB became an open platform in the sense that you can have comments in your site using already logged in people in FB, and so on. Those openish things are there to block any other initiative. I share all that you said. Nice article. Hope google can recover. May be that the big idea of google was just to put a Fabian+ in the dark upper bar when you search or map, securing that position for the next battle.
actually i don’t see what’s the use of Google+, as matter fact google+ is just the retarded version of facebook, samething, picture’s place, status, except for the circle thing and it’s useless as you mentioned, Google just want to own the internet, and facebook is about to be the first website in the world, if it isn’t already, everybody gotta realize that GOOGLE+ can’t beat facebook THAT’S IT
Well Soham, i tried so hard to get all my friends and family to switch. everyone tried it and hated it. there are a couple cool things but overall there is no reason to switch. there was a big reason to switch from MySpace to Facebook. Everyone was sick of all the spam, that’s how it all started people just didn’t like how it was so impersonal. Facebook gave you much more control over privacy, plus a whole lot of features…that is why Facebook became successful. But Google plus has nothing really good enough for people to want to switch. they have some cool features but Facebook just implements new features that blow it away. At this time it will take a lot more than what they have for them to compete with Facebook. I used to hate Facebook but over time i realized how beneficial it is. i joined Google plus as soon as the Beta came out. to this day after inviting everyone of my 400 friends only 6 joined and they never update their Google plus account. so for now FAIL.
Bhupendra Khanal – it’s only controlling if you allow it too be. i am an extremely private person but i have all my privacy settings on high levels so no problem. the only thing i liked about Google plus was the whole circle thing and the fact that you can post to who you want to (group, person circle, all) but facebook added that feature and it works great so now google doesn’t really have anything cool at all….oh except that you can make circles of friends really easy.
you can delete your facebook account. it was on the news a few weeks ago. they added that new feature: pay close attention to the last paragraph.
How do I permanently delete my account?
If you deactivate your account from your Security Settings page, your profile (timeline) and all information associated with it disappears from the Facebook service immediately. People on Facebook will not be able to search for you or view any of your information.
In case you want to come back to Facebook at some point, we save your profile (timeline) information (friends, photos, interests, etc.) so that your account will look just the way it did when you left. A lot of people deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and expect their profiles (timelines) to be there when they return to the service.
If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, keep in mind that you will not be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added. If you would like your account permanently deleted with no option for recovery, log in to your account and then submit your request here.
you can delete your facebook account. it was on the news a few weeks ago. they added that new feature: pay close attention to the last paragraph.
How do I permanently delete my account?
If you deactivate your account from your Security Settings page, your profile (timeline) and all information associated with it disappears from the Facebook service immediately. People on Facebook will not be able to search for you or view any of your information.
In case you want to come back to Facebook at some point, we save your profile (timeline) information (friends, photos, interests, etc.) so that your account will look just the way it did when you left. A lot of people deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and expect their profiles (timelines) to be there when they return to the service.
If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, keep in mind that you will not be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added. If you would like your account permanently deleted with no option for recovery, log in to your account and then submit your request here.
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