Now that Google Plus is opening up invites at a fairly aggressive rate let’s start a discussion about, what some are calling, a potential killer [or at least disruptor] of facebook. Others already dismiss it as another failed attempt to enter the market with something too tech focused, too similar and too late.
I think we can all agree that even someone the size of Google is going to have a tough time breaking 750 million users… Bing v Google, Apple v PC, there’s dozens of examples of failed tries, even from those with huge checkbooks to make a move, and Google has certainly failed at this before… But then there was circles.
Circles that let you segment your connections into an infinite number of groups so that you can share something with whomever you want. And that’s a whole new spin on privacy, an opportunity for many more people in just one place. It’s a big divergence from Facebook’s open approach and drawing a lot of commentary from early adopters and regular users alike.
So SPF, what do you think so far? What are the limitations or opportunities you see opening up?
Although it’s always much easier to critique than praise, it seems like the “Plus” is getting a lot of frowns at this stage in its existence. Granted it’s still way too early to make snap judgments. However, you’ll notice Facebook has only 1,401 plus one’s - seems a tad light, no?
The idea is in the right place, just needs some more traction in order to make an accurate assessment of its value.
It probably won’t catch on with the same force and intensity that the facebook “like” button has.
Google keeps trying to cash in on the social networking craze, but doesn’t quite succeed because what they release is always a knockoff of something else which had already been established and was proven to stand on its own.
I think it will give them a leg-up in a way…people who start using it may be different from facebook users in that they may be more private and reserved. I like Google Circles’ approach to privacy…think their main users may be a slightly older demographic…?
Circles is cool and, if it works, I think it isn’t because Facebook doesn’t offer this functionality (which it essentially does), it is because Circles communicates it in a clearer, more visual way. It’s not a list of settings.
I’ve tried all of google’s products as they became available, including Wave and Buzz. Wave was sort of a fun way to essentially email, but nothing too spectacular, and it died quickly. Google hasn;t accepted my request to join Plus yet, but I’m very interested to see how it works out. Their marketing video is actually somewhat compelling. Having a decent alternative to facebook will be nice, though I like fb too. Just not crazy about monopolies.
It might be a great site but since they stopped accepting new signups almost immediately most people are currently unable to access it at all and those that are able to access it are complaining that they can’t use it because none of their friends are able to sign up.
The paradox [or maybe just conflict] of the closed alpha.
On one hand Google loses a lot of buzz and momentum every day they dont open things up. As you said, early invitees are getting bored and the tech conversations only last so long.
On the other side you’ve got the risk of a site that isn’t ready for primetime and scares of the general populous. Since there is clearly an alternative out there it’s really a one shot, win or go home proposition.
While I don’t have the benefit [or curse as the case may be] of all the feedback & usage data, my $0.02 is that the gates should be opened up while there’s enough people pushing to get something going… Usually the anticipation of slow acceptance works to build up traction but this isn’t a small venture and the only way to get a user to stick is to be so much bolder and move entire social circles moving over in very short order.
Reasons not to do this would primarily be load [no uptime, no bueno], impending game changers [the feature that makes everything so far look unimportant] or the realization that the system as is is not a game changer [why blow your shot if you know you missed it].
Like any network, Plus fails if people are still checking the old site and preferring what they see so momentum is critical. Not to mention it gives Facebook even more time to launch and push features that rival, or supersede anything plus does.
although Google plus is trying to bring in new features…it will probably take a lot of time to beat or even compete with face-book…
New features added in Google+ seem to be very boring and yet different…lets see…what happens to Google+ after its release!!
True. However, I remember when I got my Android phone about a year ago, all the chatter said that Android devices would never catch Apple because Apple just had too much of a head start (now people are saying that about the HP Touch Pad. Now look. FB is likely here to stay, but google may make significant inroads with plus. I hope they do: competition is good.
Well, the project is still under experimental phase. At this point of time we can just speculate things… I am sure this is going to be a tough competition for facebook.
It seems Google is all set to beat major social networking websites because the project appears to have many interesting applications like, +circles, +spark, +hangout etc.
Facebook is pulling its socks up to match the new features g Google +… I ‘ve heard that facebook is collaborating with skype for providing video calling…
Facebook and Google + face-off is definitely going to be very interesting.
I think at this point Google+ has enough cool features to draw in techies and people looking for a Facebook alternative. It has been getting rave reviews from pretty much every sector, and people are fighting to get invitations. For that reason I don’t think it’s going to go the way of wave or buzz, both of which were essentially incomplete projects with bad execution. I don’t think 750 million Facebook users are just going to switch to Google+, but certainly many with privacy concerns and those currently not using Facebook because of those concerns will try this out.
I think Google is entering the market too late, but that said, it might take off. Facebook is here to stay but Google+ might create some much needed competition and even rival Facebook (?).
Still as Zorro D said, all we can do is speculate at this point. Only time will tell. Has anyone from here been invited to try it?
It annoys me that every day I see a tweet that it’s now open for subscriptions (from relatively reputable sources), and then I go to the site only to find it’s not true.
One of the reasons wave failed (IMO) is because they had this same very closed beta idea, and I really fail to see why they would do this again. I mean, what use is google+ to me if I’m on there but none of the people I know are ?
According to Google they are rolling it out in waves, like Gmail was originally, so it’s not actually like Wave in execution. Also in Google+ you can share with people in your circle regardless of if they are actually in Google+ or not, another differentiator from Facebook. If you’re not on the actual network and you’re in someone’s circle, you’ll just get sent an email with the content.
Google has done this “invite only” beta model for many of their releases. That’s how gmail started out. Not sure what their rationale is, but I suspect it’s the simple marketing to scarcity technique. In any case, they have not accepted my request for an invite yet, but I’ve looked over the shoulder of firends who are in. It seems like a very nice alternative to fb, and as said above, much needed competition.
