TMCnet Feature Free eNews Subscription
July 13, 2011

The Google, the Google+ and the Undecided

By David Vaughan, Director of Projects, TSG Global
Google (News - Alert) is definitely good at a couple things - causing disruption and generating press about it. And here we go again as Google one more time takes aim at the social market with Google+.  This is not the first attempt, remember Orkut and Google Buzz? The difference, though, between their failures and Google+ is what many are touting as “the best social experience ever.”  



Before we all drink the Google+ kool aid, let’s look at this a little more.

The Google

No matter what you hear or want to believe, Google does everything it does to benefit its core, which resorts back to making money with search and advertising.  In fact, Google is expected to integrate Google+ with its mobile commerce apps, Google Offers, Google Shopper and AdSense.  This is nothing surprising as we have all become accustomed to Google’s integration of all its core components with anything it offers; and it works.  

Stephanie Tilenius, the vice-president of Google Commerce, told MobileBeat conference attendees that, "One South Bay French bistro doubled their lunch business after a Google Offers promotion."  It's hard to argue with that type of result, especially in today's economy.

Google is known for issues, however, and Google’s issues in the past will come back to haunt the company eventually. Some will recall when Google Buzz launched, the search giant had elated a big ‘Doh’ after privacy advocates whined that the service automatically shared information publicly about who a user contacted most often. This quickly brought the early demise as we all such as the choice of our anonymity to remain ours. Couple that with privacy issues with products such as Street View, and Google has faced its fair share of privacy troubles and that might be enough for some users to balk at joining its latest social release.

Some other Google Flops to reminisce.

The 'Google+'

Lucky enough to enter the public beta, the privileged few of the latest social network made sure to generate huge amounts of buzz leading many to fiercely try and secure an invite dubbing Google+ with monikers such as Facebook killer and Twitter (News - Alert) devastator.  While it is possible their demise may one day surface, Google+ is not worthy of either of these.

    
Facebook (News - Alert): 750 million users globally (and counting) - yep almost a billion.  

Most important about that number is almost all of the users are active using the site each month.  If Google+ is to be the root for Facebook’s demise, it has a long way to go. Some are trying to associate Google+ to Facebook as Facebook was to Myspace.  Let's make one thing absolutely clear Facebook is not MySpace (News - Alert).

And up until last night (not sure what happened) Mark Zuckerburg had the most followers - apparently quite a few who had been in the Top 100 are no longer visible there.
         
While Google+ is seemingly more akin to Facebook, it does contain characteristics of the other popular platform.

Twitter: If you are one of the few tweeting ‘Twitter killer’, well it’s just silly to think Google+ will take down Twitter.

Twitter is simple communication.  Twitter does not require you to follow someone, be a friend, sit in a circle or know anyone in order to see what everyone is saying.  Now, some believe that Twitter's 140 character limit was initially built to work within the familiar SMS model. This limit, however, is exactly what has enabled Twitter to become what it is today: A constant, evolving stream of information to talk about.

Now, yes Google+ does incorporate this in a fashion, but the complexity of everything else that makes Google+ diminishes this as a stand out, go-to source.  So while Google+ will never remove Twitter as what Twitter is (a communication for relationships with brief information) it can certainly expand upon the same information in a limitless more robust fashion.


The undecided (and the future…)

Take the good, the bad and the ugly of Google and this latest foray into the social and you can come to one certain conclusion; it’s too early.  You read that correctly, it is just way, way too early to have any definition of what Google+ will be.  It is way too early to make any bold statements such as referring to it as a Facebook or Twitter killer.  It is just too early to know anything except that there is a lot we do not know about Google+ and what it will be. But the quickest way to begin figuring that is to determine what Google+ is not.  

In the meantime, let's tweet about this and share it on Facebook.


David Vaughan is an industry veteran of telecom, now Director of Projects at TSG Global, Inc. To read more of David's articles, please visit his
» More TMCnet Feature Articles
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Share

LATEST TMCNET ARTICLES

» More TMCnet Feature Articles