Just within the last few days, I've heard references to it amongst friends, seen postings about it on Facebook, and just generally been inundated with Google+. So, of course, I accepted an invitation offer and signed up this morning...
Perhaps most interesting is what this means for the future of Facebook. Will Facebook finally fall- or at least falter? An article in the NYTimes described the importance of social networking sites to advertisers, noting that Facebook is the largest map of connections between people. And the article mentions the number of large companies eager to the 'lucrative trove of social data' that Facebook has long possessed in order to customize its ads. The Times also quoted an analyst as saying, "The battle for the future of the web lies in the social experience."
And in a sure sign that Google+ is having an impact, Mark Zuckerberg is already on Google+... and has 30,000 people following his posts.
1 comment:
Hey!
Thought this post was interesting. I too have loads of invites in my inbox, but I for some odd reason haven't signed up yet. I guess you want what you can't have...and this time I have it?
Rather than taking the time to try it out, I decided I would instead spend this time researching what other people were already saying about it, and perhaps save myself some effort.
Reactions have been pretty harsh. Sure it's clear that this is a play against FB, and sure it's easy for people to backlash against the once start-up now mecca internet company called Google, but the truth is Google + is just trying to do almost the only thing it can do right now...in a market so saturated with dominant players, it can..just try to make things better. And it has. Who doesn't want barriers removed, video ready chat rooms and group texting? I haven't figured out how to do that yet on FB or my iPhone, but maybe I'm just stupid?
To me, Google + just seems like the 2012 version of iGoogle. Now come on, be nice, remember when a personal dashboard was a really new concept? I think Google deserves a little more credit here. FB certainly has some annoying UI issues.
Another comment, I think people are overlooking a serious power play here. Again, in a market so saturated, what competitive advantages are there besides better UI? switching costs. To me, it seems clear that Google is not only doing this because it thinks is has something better, but because it's asking people to invest a lot of time upfront to consolidate all their social networking tools within 1 provider. People scorn the product stating that all the services exist, but wouldn't it be nice to have a one-stop shop?
Well, it's not like another aggregator wouldn't just come along and add Google +...so oy vey. Feels like a never ending circle and a lot of work for me (these products make me uber lazy!)
Last point - people are talking about market share impact on FB, but what about iPhones? Unclear to me how this is going to pan out considering this is built for Android...
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