Saving Google+ one feature at a time

Google+ was first launched in June 2011 as a response to Facebook’s growing members.  On the surface, it seems exactly like Facebook: you can share updates with friends, receive and follow your friends’ activity feeds, chat and even group your friends based on your relationships with them.

After almost 4 years, Google+ has not been as successful as they had hoped.  Although Google claims that they have 300 million active users, most people I know don’t use the service and maybe even some who work at Google will confirm it is a “failed” product.  Is Google being truthful about their statistics or are they being sneaky about their criteria for a Google Plus user?

In a recent CNN article, Google’s product chief Sundar Pichai stated that Google+ will be re-branded.  Although the number of users is billions less than Facebook, the investment was too big for Google to dump (it's a sunk cost!) so they are going to leverage the successful features.

Google+ has had success with the “Hangout” and “Photo” features.  I have used Google Hangout and found it to be very useful for video conferencing for group projects and you can also have a lot of fun with the photo taking feature in Hangout.  These features will continue to exist as products,  just re-organized differently.  The social feed aspect will move into a new service called “streams” and allow users to post to Google+.

In addition to these changes, a recent Mashable article shares information about a new version of Google Contacts that aims to combine users' Gmail and Google+ connections in one place to create a more streamlined experience.  "The new Google Contacts comes with a fresh look and feel, and conveniently pools together all your contacts, circles, and the people you talk to most in Gmail," Google writes in a blog post.  "The new Contacts ensures that the info you see is still accurate and ready to use by blending your contact’s Google profile information with the stuff you already have."

Contacts will be rolling out to Gmail users "over the next few weeks."

WAR! What is it good for?

Google+ (http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-presentation-that-inspired-google-2011-7#) and Facebook are at war, and who benefits? Neither Facebook nor Google benefit, they are both sinking money into competing products. The advertisers don't benefit, they have a more diffuse marketplace to buy space in. The users don't benefit, we now have two places to comment and check on our friends. Yet there are two clear winners who are winning and will continue to benefit from this ongoing war: developers and valuable startups.

First, the developers: the first shot that started this war for the Internet was fired by Google in 2007 with the founding of OpenSocial (http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/22/google-plus-opensocial-facebook/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29). Quick disclaimer: as a developer, I love the idea of OpenSocial. In short, Open Social sought to unite the social graph of the web by providing a common core functions across websites. the return fire? The Like button, the Open Social graph and thus began the Reign of Facebook (http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/25/the-age-of-facebook/).

Round 1 to Facebook.

Second, the startups benefit. Years pass, Google nurses its wounds and then, last month, comes out with it's next big assault: Google Plus. Facebook shouldn't be surprised, but there has not yet been retaliation. Google is compounding this initial assault with purchases of valuable startups like Multiply and Fridge (http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/g-google-acquires-privacy-centric-social-network-fridge/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29). Fridge is a privacy focused photo sharing social network, while Multiply is a shopping centric social network. Clearly, Google+ has an interesting future with potential revenue streams beyond the advertising dependencies of Facebook.

Round 2 to Google?

Google’s Social Side and Its Threat to Digital Marketers

The release of Gmail’s Priority Inbox is one of the most critical developments in the world of email marketing in recent years. Its release signals the increasing importance of recipients’ social networks in influencing the delivery and ranking of your message. Not only do email marketers have to worry about whether or not their messages will be opened, but now other factors come into play like whether or not the email will arrive be ranked high enough to be considered or whether or not the message will appear at all. While this service benefits consumers, it presents a great challenge for members of the digital marketing industry.

For those who think that the Google Priority Inbox is an anomaly, it may be time to think again. Google is increasingly emphasizing your contacts in other areas as well. In its field trial period, Google + is experimenting with different ways in which to classify and unite your different spheres of friends. Circles, hangouts, instant uploads and huddles are new tools designed by Google to bring together your various networks through email, video chat, photo sharing and group texting respectively.

Digital marketers must devise strategies to integrate their brands into the intended recipients’ contacts or social networks or risk being left behind.

Linkedin Future

With the advanced and growth of the current free social networks such as Facebook and now with Google +, is there a future for the Linkedin, and especially for its Premium Pay Business Model? Why would users pay a premium service to get all the benefits from Linked In when all the same users are also on facebook and soon Google +.... Everybody is focusing n the effect that Google + can have on facebook and what about the 100 million users that are already in Linkedin? Is there a niche for socializing just for work rather than a general socializing place...? We know from advances that Google + will have different circles from your different group of friends... isn't this replacing the business circle linkedin completely? Plus now you would be able to have free video conference with skype... which would be also very useful for business purposes...

Google have a huge lead in the business world as most people use google for news and business purposes and have also a google account for larger size emails... so is Google + the end for Linkedin?

Here comes another social network: The Google plus

Google has been working on developing great solutions to engage the masses by offering free solutions to become smarter in today's internet addicted age. While social media is in boom, Google was working since last year to consolidate all their solutions like Gmail, talk, buzz, etc. into one social network that they named it as Google+.



It has been a while Google is trying to come up with a next generation of social network tool however it has not worked for them. There is a hope that by launching this new gadget that has not only features from Facebook but also introducing many other cool features like user maps, video chat, Huddle, Sparks and Circles.


For a complete article visit Google official Blog

This article is also published on my personal blog at Digital Strategist.