David Emery OnlineWalking Around In Circles: As Google+ Opens Up Will People Start Using It Correctly?
3 July 2011
Who knows, maybe I’m just a Silicon Valley guy who has lost touch with reality. It’s entirely possible. But maybe, just maybe, the opposite is true. Maybe “regular” people have been allergic to using groups in the past because they simply don’t want to use groups. Maybe it’s one of those things that’s a good idea on paper or in a brain-storming session, but doesn’t translate onto the web.
Maybe — gasp — the web isn’t meant to mimic the real world.
I go on holiday for a week and come back to yet another social network. I haven’t used it yet, but from what I’ve read Google+ doesn’t seem to offer anything significantly different – significant enough to make people switch away from Facebook, at least.
This article pretty much sums up my feelings – the key differentiator is the ‘Circles’ groups concept, but I’m just not that convinced people can be bothered to split their friends up into groups when social networking. Even with a nifty UI it still sounds a lot like work to me, and I’m sure I’m not alone.
It also surprises me just how similar to Facebook Google+ is – it’s pretty shameless, right down to the UI look and layout. One thing I haven’t seen though is events, which I know was a massive driver for Facebook in the early days and I’m sure could do the same if/when it’s added to Google+.
Otherwise, the only thing Google+ has over Facebook is that it isn’t Facebook. That might be good enough for the geeks (who in my experience have never been Facebook fans, although I’ve never really figured out why) but I’m not sure it will be for everyone else.
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