Article first published as Google Plus: The New Kid On The Block on Blogcritics.
So, I’ve been using Google+/Google Plus (either spelling seems to work) for nearly a month. I think its plateaued. I’ve invited many of my friends–if any reading this think I have forgotten to send them an invite, I apologize. But I’ve tried. I’m following a few different tech geeks, and one thing I’ve noticed is that out of the whole group I’ve got on Google Plus, 80% only have a few friends on it and thus, are not using it for any reason, and will not be compelled to replace Facebook with this any time soon. That’s fine.
My Facebook friends keep asking me on Facebook questions like “how much is Google paying you” or things like this, commenting under my profile picture that states I’ve moved to Google+. I’ve even posted a few how to posts and YouTube videos teaching how to do things like collapse incoming posts and comments, as well as how to sync updates from Google Plus to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. The idea is not to drive everybody over to it, (which I think they should do), but since they’re not there yet, I have to settle for the fact my best “audience” is over at Facebook. I feel the same way about using Apple vs. Microsoft. One may be better than the other, but for the time being, only the minority are using it. Same with the social media networks. But personally, I prefer Google’s so far.
It’s NOT Facebook!
I remember starting to use MySpace in early 2006, and it took me a lot of getting used to. Learning the ecosystem, the difference between wall posts, bulletins, and inbox messages. Then in late 2006, I opened an account at Facebook and it took a lot of getting used to, because, well, it was NOT MySpace. My problem with adapting to Facebook, was I was treating it like it was the same thing as MySpace, when the two were comparable, but different ecosystems of how to do things. I think Google Plus is facing the exact same problem from the start if it’s ever going to become a significant rival to Facebook. People check it out, but because you can’t do this or that like on Facebook, give up (that and lack of people on it).
For examples, I’ve had friends ask me if I noticed something they’ve posted on Google+, thinking I’ve seen it, not realizing that using Circles enables users to share things ONLY with those in that circle. Unlike on Facebook where you can privately message someone or post on their wall for all to see. Many are thrown off that there’s no wall on Google Plus. The other thing I keep seeing people repeatedly express disappointment with is their perception that, since there’s no wall, or no ‘inbox’ you can’t private message people. Again, both of these are based on such familiarity with Facebook’s system, people are finding an easy to use service like its new rival HARD to use, because they’re trying to use it the way they used Facebook. No big deal, but that’s what’s going to make it difficult for people. By the way, there is a way to send a private message to someone–you just write it, but send it ONLY to them, and not a whole circle or publicly in your stream. It may take some getting used to, but it certainly isn’t hard to use.
At any rate, one thing people forget is that if you just do a search online for archives about MySpace and Facebook, you can find things back in 2007 and 2008 where people were debating whether Facebook would ever outdo MySpace. I remember people saying the same things then about Facebook that they were saying back then about MySpace. Do people really have that short of memories?
Keep in mind, Facebook started in 2004. It took YEARS before they toppled MySpace. Google Plus has only been online one month. Granted, in 16 days they already reached the number of users Twitter and Facebook reached in their respective first 2 years. So Google Plus IS coming out of the gates on a stronger footing. But if the history of the Internet and social networking is anything to go by, it won’t change the game over night. I give it at least 2 years, THEN let’s talk about whether to abandon one for the other. Word of mouth and people bringing their friends from one to the other will do the trick, but friends and internet geeks: that’s not going to happen if the only people using it are only using it to talk about Google Plus and tech stuff. The only things showing up in my news feed so far, are those types of posts, because as stated, my friends aren’t doing much on it.
One of Google Plus’s biggest hurdles, but yet simultaneous strengths is that it is not, in fact, the same as Facebook. Not by a long shot, and the similarities are such that both are social. But the differences are significant, and I went into a few of them in my post about 4 Things I Like About Google Plus.
Everyone’s already on Facebook, and many don’t use Gmail. It’s true that a social network is no good unless your friends are on it too! But it has been a great tool for driving more traffic to my blog here and meeting some new folk around the world who found my posts. That I will give credit to Google Plus for and how it’s helped level the playing field in SEO and searches for my stuff. But otherwise, the service has plateaued for me and I’ll wait for it to go public to really make a judgment about if I’ll use it that extensively or not.
