Willy Wombat

Google plus opened its doors to the world just 6 short months ago. Hailed as the great rival to Zuckerberg’s Facebook, and Dorsey’s Twitter it was met with some of the worlds leading technology industry figureheads with open arms and backed by the global Internet giant Google!

There was a huge rush to sign up, and according to google, some 40 million accounts have been activated in then last 6 months! That makes Google Plus one of the fastest growing social network of all time. I happened to be one of those G+ champions. Optimistic as to what Google would do, and the great relief to move away from the numerous all too often “updates” seen by the other places. (I am am loathed to call social networks a simple website or product, because for reasons I shall address later, I believe that it is a place; somewhere people visit.

Sadly, my belief and faith in the giant G is rapidly dwindling, as Google began to do, what google does – dictate the rules, and vigorously enforce them. It started with the massive name fiasco. Google laid down the law that it only wanted “real individuals”. It wasn’t interested in anyone that used a Pseudonym regardless of rhyme or reason! Somewhat more bizarrely, Google Plus began to actively discourage business entitles from creating Profiles on their network, and just as it did with individual names, it began shutting down the profiles of those companies who dared to believe in the plus!

So it seemed that while a vast majority of people set to work figuring out what to actually do with Google plus, Google plus set to work, shutting everyone out! Admittedly, the big G did open its doors to to the corporate world and finally permitted businesses to set up the Brand Pages, although it begs the question whether this happened too late? Interestedly, whenever you try searching for anything, you can’t help but notice that google is hell bent on directing traffic to its network, by including profiles in its searches, and placing a handy little “+You” at the top of the page whenever you log into to any google account. Determined to drive the people to the desert of the Internet. I say desert, because as a “place” to visit, there is very little to actually DO when you get there. Save for dividing you friends and acquaintances into the various groups (or circles as they’re known) and sharing links, photos and a bit of news, Google plus, lacks any kind of magnet. Log in, read brief news, log out. There’s very little to keep you logged in. It’s like going for a night out and walking into an empty bar. What do you do? You have a quick look around, nod to the bar man and leave.

I am of the opinion that a social network is a place – its the metaphorical bar. To keep people in the bar, you have to give them what they want. I’m not sure that the usual Google trick of launch first – fix later will work for social networking. It’s fine for products like Chrome and Gmail where you can add on “add-on’s” after the event And disguise it as an update, or announce the “new and improved”, but as I’ve discussed, Google Plus is not a product, it’s a place, like Facebook and Twitter.

Did Google Plus want to rival both these, of course it did, that’s why it’s open for anyone to follow and circle anyone without having to actually know them. Where the others worried? Possibly, as Facebook quickly rushed out its ability to “list” your friends, shortly afterwards.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s rivalling either yet, and although Im a big fan of Google’s work; and not a Facebook fan boy, i do have to question whether, as numbers fall, and less and less people log in, whether it will still be going this time next year?