According to InformationWeek: “Just over a hundred days after Google last provided an update on the status of Google+ for businesses, the company has introduced a way for companies to participate in its social network. Google+ Pages, like Facebook Pages before them, provide businesses and brands with a place to promote conversations related to their products and services.” A number of U.S. government agencies are trying out Google+, including NASA, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Since release of initial Google+ components on June 28 2011, the product is claimed by Larry Page to have over 40 million users, versus some 800 million for Facebook.
The big advantage to Google+ over Facebook is that it has Circles. These allow people to share info only to choosen groups they create, rather than to everybody all the time, like FB does. Of course you can still choose info to be Public (go to everybody as well). Hangouts are cool too, and could be useful to businesses. Google seems to have learned things from FB, while Facebook’s only innovation is a continual changing of its rules on Privacy, without user input or consent. Google is starting years later than FB, but with these innovations, I think they’ve got a shot at it.
Technical advantages are really great, but I don’t think that’s really what Google need to work on at the moment.
I’m only talking based on my experience and the experience of almost every friend I have who has ever tried the site, but my Google+ wall consists of jokes about how no-one uses the site, one guy who posts to both Google+ and Facebook (hint: he’s an outlier), and a Google employee. It was a ghost town at 25 million users, and I think it still is now at 40 million. Google must work out how to get people actually using the damn site.
In all honesty, they dropped the ball blocking everyone out early with their stupid invite system and it’s going to take one hell of a comeback to stop it going the way of Wave, methinks.
Hey,
google+ is a ghost town because:
1. You have no people or few people in your circles
2. You want real friends in your circles instead of connections
3. As a result of #1, your stream is almost empty, thus it is a ghost town
4. You don’t read things like: “Google+ for Beginners”
Here are sample that may help you connect people(not friends in real life) that shared the same interests as you have:
To address # 1 and # 21
http://www.gplustuts.com/beginners-guide/
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/beginners-guide-to-google-plus/
Find valuable connections:
http://www.gplustuts.com/find-valuable-connections-on-google-plus/
http://www.gplustuts.com/find-valuable-connections-on-google-plus/
Startup guide:
https://plus.google.com/photos/114831291174925522786/albums/56324637…
Getting more out from your circles:
http://mashable.com/2011/07/26/google-plus-circles/
You see, there are so many ways you can populate your Google+ stream with quality contents rather than irrelevant game invites, friends’ posts at your facebook stream.
I am talking about quality posts based on your *INTERESTS* your interests could be:
1. Photography(any type)
2. Graphic design
3. Web design
4. Programming
5. Religion
6. Technology
7. Science
8. etc.
numbers are growing.
So there.
I’d call that a disadvantage. Facebook is popular because you can actually see what’s going on.
Why would someone bother using a service where you’re stonewalled from seeing anything unless someone goes to the trouble to share it specifically with you…
@daedliusswartz – Perhaps I’m misunderstanding your post, but you don’t have to individually specify people on Google+. You can make some posts public, for anyone in any of your Circles, for certain Circles, or for specific people.
I dont use any social network stuff at all. Not Facebook, not Google+.
They can come up with features as much as they like, they wont get me.
If it wasn’t for keeping up with old high school friends (yes real friends, not just random people I graduated with) and family that have moved away, I would drop Facebook in a heartbeat. I only joined specifically to stay in touch with the above groups, yet somehow my “friend” list has grown to include co-workers and even people I don’t like and never have. I prune my list occasionally and drop some of the nonessential people, but more creep in to take their place.
Now that my full time job has a private group on there though, I’m thinking of dropping all my co-workers and any work related communication can go through the group. I can also use the new “Restrict” feature for certain people.
I really wish everyone important to me on Facebook would migrate to Google+. My girlfriend has accounts on both services, as well as a few of my closest friends, but not enough to just drop FB entirely yet.
I was a while on Google+. I had almost 60 “friends”, of which 3 posted stuff. The stuff they posted they also put on Facebook.
The “circles” was the big revolutionary feature, but why bother putting in the effort of sorting all your contacts and then having to decided with each post to what circle to post it to?
So I deleted my Google+ account.
Nobody really deletes a Google acount.
I have a totally different experience from yours. I’m into photography, and Google+ is a much better medium for photographers than FB. The thing is to find people who are cranking out original content. Then it’s full potential is realized.
Oh really, here is my the same post above:
Hey,
google+ is a ghost town because:
1. You have no people or few people in your circles
2. You want real friends in your circles instead of connections
3. As a result of #1, your stream is almost empty, thus it is a ghost town
4. You don’t read things like: “Google+ for Beginners”
Here are sample that may help you connect people(not friends in real life) that shared the same interests as you have:
To address # 1 and # 21
http://www.gplustuts.com/beginners-guide/
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/beginners-guide-to-google-plus/
Find valuable connections:
http://www.gplustuts.com/find-valuable-connections-on-google-plus/
http://www.gplustuts.com/find-valuable-connections-on-google-plus/
Startup guide:
https://plus.google.com/photos/114831291174925522786/albums/56324637…..
Getting more out from your circles:
http://mashable.com/2011/07/26/google-plus-circles/
You see, there are so many ways you can populate your Google+ stream with quality contents rather than irrelevant game invites, friends’ posts at your facebook stream.
I am talking about quality posts based on your *INTERESTS* your interests could be:
1. Photography(any type)
2. Graphic design
3. Web design
4. Programming
5. Religion
6. Technology
7. Science
8. etc.
numbers are growing.
So there.
Essentially, you postulate a need to jump through hoops, to train yourself, for the service to have any point. WTH?
Why should we be so invested in the uptake of G+?
Suddenly G+ is about turning it into the central internet hub (under one corp) for hobbies and interests, about following people of interest to you …like there was something wrong with RSS and so on.
What’s the point? There are already more, easily findable, communities and material in each of those fields to last few dozen lifetimes of exclusive attention.
What, new space to fill? Life, internet, mostly the same crap, over and over, forever?
So there.
Edited 2011-11-19 23:47 UTC
To me the whole idea of social networking is waste of time from the start it showed up. I was an early adopter of some of its concepts [pre web2.0 stuff] and I quickly found myself completely bored with people profiles, interrests, posts and overall “user content”. It was hard to find anything reasonable and interresting there, no valuable info, just emotions, relationships and other boring stuff. Nowadays it’s also about commercial backend, ads and other annoyances, and that’s why I didn’t even bother to get a *real* Facebook account [only fake one – to get in touch with small amount of info some unwise people left there and not on the actual internet]. Aside of Facebook I am really tired with all that Tweeter, Identica and co. stuff.
Now to the point: quite of a risky trend to move businesses sites onto the Facebook platorm. It creates closed network, controlled entirely by one corporation which is not even able to assure privacy of data, as time shows.
You talking about these: “once you are inside, you will never get outside!” policies?
Thats another of these reasons i avoid Facespook and co.
Why not view Facebook simply as a communication medium?
That’s how most of society uses it. It’s NOT a way to find interesting things or meet new people or find new hobbies. You can certainly do those things, but you can also do that at the mall.
It has replaced e-mail as the primary way to message someone.
Some of my friends no longer even have IM and just use facebook chat.
It really is a good way to organize events, share photos…
It takes the place of certain social customs like wishing a happy birthday…
And yes, it’s a great way to catch up with old friends and distant people.
I don’t know what you’re doing being bored with people’s profiles. They’re not there to entertain you with their updates. heck, think of profiles as an address. You certainly wouldn’t be excited to go looking at names in the phone book?
Again, I’m sure there are people who use facebook in the ways you imagine. But I think for most, facebook is just a really good communication medium.
Edited 2011-11-15 17:34 UTC
Things which basically expose stats (or conclusions from them, really) about users to… users can be useful though.
Last.fm for example (yes, certainly just a small part of the stats / conclusions is exposed – but, really, all that would interest you as a user) – its vast social network, interests of everybody, used to learn, to train its AI, about how to better serve your interests (which it does mighty fine, with some reasonably sizeable database of your scrobbles: not quite “yup, I love it” for every recommendation, but certainly at least “yup, that’s good” – and never really suggesting something which you wouldn’t like)
Netflix tries to do something similar with its recommendation system, I hear – really, also a social network, if a bit in disguise.
(and, curiously, Myspace is now more about music than people)
Alas, at some point it has not so much merely limits, but effects perhaps better to be avoided… (reinforcement of limited number of fairly homogeneous groups, “walled” thought amongst few separate communities, “disjointed group-thinks” – in effect, strengthening conformity, herd behaviours, lake Wobegon effect; outgroup homogeneity, ingroup, and few other biases bias; but, TBH, all of that dominates in human societies since always)
Edited 2011-11-20 00:18 UTC