The Google+ Emperor Has No Users
OK. I play the G+ game, but that’s really what it is. A game which I’ll explain below.
I ran across this story, Facebook Gets Pluses From Google’s Mounting Minuses, via my Google Reader (which I can no longer share with you) today.
I have to admit, I didn’t read the article too carefully once I saw this graphic:
I’m not surprised. Google+ sucks. But, damn it, I was posting links to our firm’s G+ page earlier today.
Why??
SEARCH.
We play the G+ game because of search, and that’s it.
So, don’t worry that the G+ emperor has no users. It has something better. The +1 button. Which can help bump you to that coveted page 1 of search results.
And if you like this, please +1 using the handy, nifty button below (happy smile, with a wink).
Absolutely agree. The way I explain it is Google+ is great at search, Facebook is great at social. Facebook lacks search & Google+ lacks social. Yin & Yang.
Google+ lacks social, but Google itself IS social. Circle and be circled on Google+ in order to appear in someone else’s SPYW. Engage on Google+ to get people to circle you back. Google+ is there to begin the relationship which continues in the search box; on Facebook, the ecosystem is in a single site.
Google+ might have the ability to be social, but it’s not social. It’s boring. It’s the same conversations that we’re having elsewhere, which is why it is not sticky. Average time of 3 min/month v. 403/month is HUGE. The payoff to me is in the search.
I think you might even be deceived by the search impact. Google does not return the same results to all. More and more search results are being personalized based on a social graph being increasingly integrated into the search algorithm. Your social graph is based on what you publicly do (+1), what you privately do (search inquiry, sites visited) and what those around you do (IP address, geography, etc.).
The last thing you want to do to validate your participating in G+ is conduct searches for things that are already near and dear to you. Because those things will display prominence on a search engine results page which do not equate to what people and companies more distant to you (outside your social graph) might see.
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Thanks for sharing Heather. At some point, social network user interfaces are not about the code and functionality (pay attention geeks) they are about ease of, and enticement to, interaction. I beleive in several years Google + will be a footnote/case study in what really didnt work. But for now, the Google-ness of it is unavoidable. =)