To the Social Media Critic, Has Google’s + Project Already Failed?
Social media philosopher-types, with their over-sized cargo shorts, collared whites, and thumb-thick lensed horn rims are peering deep into their $7 lattes and nonplussing over whether Google can really be serious about its Google + Project? Can they truly break free from such a horrific losing streak? Industry speculation aside, because it’s not just the froth lapping intellectuals mulling over Google’s sour social-everyone knows. It’s like the story of the “Boy who cried wolf,” only Google is crying, Social. People want to believe, but after rotten calls on Google Wave, Orkut, and Google Buzz, who can?
While Google’s “new” social media service is expected to interact similar to Facebook, this NYTimes article, Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook states the main difference is: “It is meant for sharing with groups — like colleagues, roommates or hiking friends — not with all of one’s friends or the entire Web. It also offers group text messaging and video chat.” The article also questions whether Google can really catch up to Facebook at this point. Even with considerable resources, large companies like Google have found it difficult to overtake a better engineered quarry. Remember Amazon V. Barnes & Noble? B & N never caught up.
If Google doesn’t want to be a vague memory of what social by Google could have been, they’ll put their algorithm savants back to hosing Panda stalls, and start plucking tunes around the campfire. The average social media user doesn’t care about the fancy tech tropes-they want to swish potions in the gab lab to see what their friends have been stirring up.
What do you think, will Google + Project be another stale chips outta the bag?
As a cautious social networking participant, I would be the first to switch to Google+ if they can make the “Circles” feature work as well as it has been conceptualized. I would be glad to pull all my friends over. I still have a number of unrequited Facebook friendships that I won’t feel guilty about with Circles anymore. Google’s innovative thinking and customer awareness are a strength. Sometimes that innovative thinking may bomb. But they don’t shy away from risk.
It depends on if the influencers of the social community adopts the platform. It also depends on how easy Google makes it for people to bring over their friends into Google+.
I don’t think most FB users will switch easily, they would only reluctantly move over if they think they’re missing out on what’s happening because most of their friends have moved on.
Also, what is to stop FB from implementing the same function? They can easily fix the “group” problem and then the delta between the 2 platform would disappear.
I just don’t see people using 2 platform, its like Myspace fell to the way side once people migrated to FB.
Google+ will have to come up with something even better than just the “circles: if they want to blow FB out of the waters.