Google+ lacks the WTF factor

Posted: July 20th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Facebook, Google+, Media, Twitter | 4 Comments »
Box of hammers

Not quite as dumb as Twitter

When MySpace came out, I decided instantly that it was a lame ‘my-first-website’ kit for people too lazy to even figure out Geocities.

When I first heard about Twitter, I thought it sounded dumber than a box of hammers. Who wants a blogging service that limits them to a completely arbitrary number of characters? Cutesy silicon valley crap that nobody in their right mind would ever bother with.

You are mayor of a farm. Whoop-de-do.

I still think Foursquare is a sort of jumped-up version of Farmville – a site whose success is solely a consequence of its ability to spam other social networks.

Obviously, I was wrong. MySpace’s successor Facebook is a completely essential part of my social life. Twitter has almost completely replaced all other media as my source of news, gossip and viral lulz. Eventually, Foursquare, or some equivalent, is going to hook me as well.

All those world-changing social websites were, initially, baffling. They had to be, because they were using a new technology to create a completely new set of behaviours in a massive audience.

So what about Google+?

Well, it’s a mixture of the best aspects of Facebook and Twitter with some clever, useful ways of organising contacts and a slick video-conferencing tool. I like it, as far as it goes, but I can tell you right now that it’s not going to change the world. If they’d released it 5 years ago, I’d have said Google+? WTF?’ Then it might have had a chance.

  • pauljyoung

    I guess you saw this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_M6PzXS9g

    …Perhaps the passive pressure from us all running our lives with google will keep it alive, and maybe one day thriving….?   

  • Buenosam

    Possibly… but a lot of passive pressure can’t make up for the fact that it offers nothing over Facebook apart from some user-friendly privacy settings and a handy video-conferencing tool. Whereas Facebook offers the fact that ALL your friends are already there.

    And people already spend more time on Facebook than Google. They use it for photos, emailing, as a social calendar, and as a crowdsourced research tool (‘anyone know a good restaurant in Camden?’ and similar status updates). That’s a lot of passive pressure.

  • JMQ

    I think give it time. It depends how quickly Google links up all its other products. If they refuse to do a “Post to Facebook” on Google Wallet combined with Shopping, there is going to be a big USP right there. Hangouts is really good for work-from-anywhere creatives as well, apparently.

    Agree on the WTF factor – though as you say Facebook was an immediate FTW.

  • http://www.googledigook.com buenosam

    Is Google Wallet+Shopping an inherently social product? I haven’t really played with them much, but I remember Facebook getting slated when they started posting details of online purchases to the wall.

    Agree with the general point though – some future Android product may well be the secret sauce that takes Google+ to the wider public.