Google's Latest Attempt at Social Networking: Google+

[greenoak]

naturally i deal with the world today.and today im pretty impressed with facebook and my results there...including lots of face to face feedback with customers...actually im thrilled and thankful...and hope it lasts a long long time...
..we know things can change.... look at my old camera, phone,tv, marketing, my whole antique world... etc etc etc.......

[vangogh]

Definitely and I hope I'm not giving the impression that I think you should leave Facebook. I doubt Facebook is going anywhere in the near future. It's gained much more mass adoption than any of the social sites that came before it.

At the same time it's likely that one day people will leave Facebook for some other network. It won't necessarily be everyone, though it could be. When a shift toward another social site takes place it could happen very quickly so I think it makes sense to consider the possibility. My guess is in time we'll see more similar networking sites and instead of everyone being at one you'll see different groups of people at different sites.

The reason I'm pointing out Google+ here is because the early look suggests it does have potential to grow. Do I think people are going to leave Facebook en masse and jump to Google+? Not at all. If anything I would expect high tech users to be those that would consider switching. Additionally those people that dislike Facebook for whatever reason may like Google+ and set up there. Google certainly has a poor track record where social things are concerned, but this time out it seems like they got a lot more right than wrong. From the early videos and reports Google+ has a chance of building a user base. At the very least that would mean it could be another good source of traffic and potential customers so I think it's worth paying attention to.

[KristineS]

I'm watching Google+ with interest. I'm not ready to do anything about it yet, plus it was invite only for a while, and that strikes me as kind of dumb. I think Google wants to make things seem exclusive sometimes when in fact the best draw, at least in this case, would be that everyone you know is on it. That's what first drew me to Facebook, even though I thought it was kind of useless in the beginning, a lot of people I knew were there and it was an easy way to keep in touch. Trying to make Google + more exclusive may not be the way to go.

[vangogh]

Invite only helps Google keep everything to a more reasonable size while they test the system at a larger scale beyond the Googleplex. It's also a way to generate buzz as people search everywhere for an invite. There were so many people signing up this week that Google temporarily closed invites.

Invites are how they launched Gmail. I think they wanted to go back to that launch after the way Buzz launched way too fast. Buzz was pretty much DOA on day one because of the way it launched. Google would prefer a slower rollout this time around. I think once they have some bugs worked out and know the system can scale they'll open it up to everyone. They will need to get people to sign up in large numbers soon of they want Google+ to last.

I've been reading most articles in my feedreader that have a + in the title. Most people seem to like what Google+ has and even more the potential it has. There have definitely been plenty of cons pointed out as well. I'm still not sold on Google's ability to build a social network. They've failed too many times already and I am seeing a few things in the articles that would probably keep me away. For example you need a regular Google profile page to have a Google+ account. Things like that seem silly to me. Offer us the choice to connect them, but don't require people have one.

Google+ is something to pay attention to though. The early adopters are liking it for the most part, which likely means it'll survive long enough to try to get the masses on board. Assuming it does get going it'll likely play a role in the search algorithms, giving greater incentive to join.

[Paper Shredder Clay]

Look what happened to MySpace. MySpace was where Facebook is now, and they recently got sold for $35 Million because of their great decline. There is always someone else out there ready to take over.

I have tried out Google+ it is pretty nice. Honestly, it has impressed me. Their Google Wave and Buzz was a joke, but Google+ is a good contender.

[vangogh]

Exactly. That's why I started this thread. None of us can say how well Google+ will ultimately do or if it will make any dent in Facebook, but it's the first social networking site that looks like it has the potential to grow and challenge Facebook.