ogle+. I have to agree with every single point +Robert Scoble makes about what Google+ needs to do to not just pull ahead but actually stay in the game.
I speak, consult and teach daily with companies about the uses and tactics that Google+ provides. To say I preach & evangelize Google+ is an understatement.
The network is a solid 9 months old now, and needs (to me) to be a kick-ass publishing and portal platform – you know, the content that drives Google Search. I will be in here thriving until they kick me out and turn the lights out on me (GASP!). Google+ can be a more successful social network even with significantly less numbers than Facebook (LinkedIn is hardly a slacker and it is no where near FB numbers). The thing here is if you are going to be smaller (or at least smaller for the time being…) you need to offer significantly different/better opportunities. Gains in Google Search with SPYW are only relevant to business geeks. Normal people could give a hoot.
Make Google+ my definitive identity online and let it represent me as a whole, or at least the parts of me that I choose to represent myself.
Reshared post from +Robert Scoble
Facebook clones another Google+ feature, keeps Google+ from gaining mass adoption
Today Facebook announced new photo features that take away yet another cool thing about Google+. This has got to be frustrating for the Google teams, even as the keep a stiff upper lip in public, right +Vic Gundotra? (He runs Google+).
So, why do I keep posting on Google+ and not on my blog? Well, I like the competition between Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.
Facebook, yesterday, turned on a new "interests" feature on my account that totally rocks. Would we have gotten that if Google+ hadn't shown up on the scene? Probably not.
Would Facebook have given us bigger photos if Google+ hadn't existed? Probably not.
But, now that Facebook has shipped these features, what is special about Google+? The search engine and video hangouts and YouTube integration.
The search engine isn't that far ahead of Facebook, though, and is missing HUGE features. For instance, why can't I see every item you've plussed? That's really lame Google and Vic should be ashamed that the search team can't even do that yet.
So, if I were Vic, where would I be going with Google+?
1. Figure out if Google is really going to be an identity play. Today it's not, which is why apps like Highlight are forced to build on top of Facebook. Here's a hint: can you see everything about me on a page on Google+? My family relations? My sexual orientation? Whether I'm married or not, and to whom? My politics? My favorite movies? Books? Music? Sports teams? Whether or not I went running this morning? What my favorite foods are? Etc etc? You can see all that on Facebook and Google has to decide whether it's going to go there, and figure out how it's going to get us there. Not having a write API is a HUGE hole. Being anti OpenGraph-style stuff is a HUGE hole.
2. Figure out if Google+ is REALLY about stitching all of Google's stuff together in a new, collaborative way. Right now it's hard to use Google+ with my coworkers. I'm actually scared of putting something here into public because I missed a setting or two. I'd rather have two separate brands. One for discussing stuff with public and friends, and one for working with coworkers on things like Google's Docs and Spreadsheets. Why is Google letting Yammer and Salesforce Chatter have all the fun at work?
3. Rethink what being social means, especially on Smart Phones. Highlight shows me there's a new way of being social. Plus its mobile app works, is fast, and is simple. Compare that to Google+'s mobile apps that just aren't there.
4. Get over your hatred of iPad. Do a really awesome iPad app that blows away Twitter and Facebook and makes it a joy to use all of Google's things on that. iPad is winning. Android Tablets are not. Get over it. Learn from Bill Gates. In the 1980s Microsoft made the best Macintosh apps. Then, later, when Windows finally got good enough (around 1993) Microsoft cloned the Mac apps and made them work great on Windows. Use iPad as your lab, then move stuff over to Android but MAKE KICK ASS iPAD APPS. Facebook hates Apple. So this is a good way to have a competitive advantage.
5. Fix stupid stuff with Google+. Why does every URL here have a stupid long-ass version and no built in shortener? That makes it hard to tweet and URLs look like crap. This small stuff matters.
5b. Give us custom domain names. Like we used to have on Google Buzz. For instance, mine is https://profiles.google.com/scobleizer but new users can't get nice URLs like these.
5c. Let us see all the stories we, and other people, have liked. It's really lame that you haven't yet matched features little startups had four years ago.
5d. Let us follow more than 5,000 people. Twitter is kicking your ass in flow because of this. (But then you gotta fix your design limitations with Google Contacts).
5c. Let us have a REAL blogging tool here. You have Blogger. Why isn't it integrated here yet?
5d. Let us have videos and photos in comments. Facebook has them and it's a killer feature.
5e. Let us clean up our social graphs. Show us people who no longer post. Start suggesting ACTIVE users to us (I still am getting suggestions to follow people who've never posted). Make it easier to see people's content, trends, and stats, and delete, people from our social graphs. Right now it takes way too long to clean out Google+, so I just let it rot and new users, who probably could really add something to my life, can't get followed because of the limit of 5,000.
5f. Let me customize my profile page more. I want to use different fonts, background photos, and logos to differentiate me from the other writers here.
Anyway, I'm finding I'm rethinking my social media usage patterns. I'm starting to see that +Fred Wilson was right. I should have kept my blog as my home (it's at http://scobleizer.com ). I expected Google to innovate a lot faster than it has for publishers. Hey, Vic, it's great you ship lots of small things every week, like it's better to block spammers here than it used to be, but we need some really big breakthrough features to keep people engaged here and we haven't had one of those in a while. When are we going to see something really eye opening?
If not soon Facebook and Twitter are going to continue to own the social space.
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Facebook photos go high resolution and full screen
Facebook is continuing its quest to appeal to photographers with a couple of new improvements to its photo-viewing features. You can now enjoy your photos in glorious full-screen mode, and Facebook au…
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What part of "he's getting a stipend/salary from Facebook" did you miss?
+Heather Vandagriff I'm not paid by Facebook. Where the f**k did you get that?
+Robert Scoble did say it right, and you have said what I would have. The parallels with LinkedIn are right on the money, me thinks.
BUT, Google+ of course is not 'targetted' like LinkedIn is. LinkedIn really has made its own space.
Google+ on the other hand, as you also pointed out, is pretty much directly competing with FB. Of course, it's way too early for it to even come close to FB's mammoth size (and continuos improvements – controversial or otherwise).
I think the point about iPad and being open about other systems is key. Google+ should think differently and consider it beyond Android. It should be Android's job to be good enough for any social media platform to consider making apps for it etc.
Anyways, there are too many things going on in here and I will keep writing on and on… thanks for the pointers Lynette. Hope +Vic Gundotra and them are paying attention to you 🙂
I don't really care for +Robert Scoble , but I have to agree with him on most things that he said here. I also expected them to build much faster than the rate at which they are going, I would be happy with just the ability to upload photos from picasa (the easiest way to upload to G+) to business pages. And for the love of god, do something with the +1s instead of tucking it away in the profile tab, make it more visual, searchable/sortable like Delicious or Pinterest or …. something.
+Mohammad Khan good points. I'm actually wanting an Android tablet or very lightweight laptop (ruled a Chromebook out though) to start playing with Google+ and related platforms on a non-Apple lockdown. Still love my iPad 1 and desperately want a native HD / iOS application on teh thing for G+.
My co-worker and I were just discussing what we could do to make our company's Google+ profile a destination and not just another social service to try to drive people towards.
We've built a small group of followers, but engagement levels are much lower at present than our other accounts.
We're looking forward to people getting more comfortable on this social medium.
It remains astonishing to me that anyone can continue in good conscience to use a social media network (FB) that is so opaque and yet so transparent about personal data across the platform being for sale to unknown parties. With social media networks being what they are at their mechanical core (aggregators of data) I could no longer justify leaving my data up for sale by a privately run company (FB) that has become increasingly and arrogantly less concerned with ethical decisions. I've said this before: data is only data. It's the end user of significant quantities of accrued data that concerns me. At least Google is a research platform that gives back what we put into it, and has external controls that are part and parcel of being a publicly traded company under scrutiny.
I could analyze and argue each of the points made in +Robert Scoble's post to make my own position more readily apparent but it is clear and has been to me from the outset that Scoble and I have different user biases when it comes to social vs media, and so we approach the issues raised quite differently. Taking an empirical stance about how G+ is doing it wrong is a significant and self-imposed limitation with regard to further discussion: those who proselytize from a position of negation have likely already determined that little can be done to improve their use of this multi-user platform. It's unfortunate, and somewhat paternalistic. Google+ has a fix for each issue raised, but it won't fix the demands of the obdurate user.
It's quality vs quantity for me, and I make no apologies for putting quality of exchange as my top priority. My knowledge of the controls to which I have ready access and my ability to use them to my advantage are the support mechanisms I require in order to achieve the exchanges I desire.
I do have some things that stand out as absolute positives for me – G+ is the first platform that I have used that offers so many possibilities for different broadcast styles, for starters. I can choose from one to one, one to many, many to one, and I can add hangouts to any of the forms of exchange. It's pretty spectacular in that regard.
Everything Robert says is SO true… but I think that the crux of the matter is that Google people think like engineers… which is fine… but they have an extraordinarily tough time trying to adopt the users perspective. Thinking like engineers, the stuff they put out certainly works and is stable… certainly a big plus (no pun intended)… but Google Plus doesn't actually DO what I want it to do. Do they listen? Sure… like engineers… but that makes them woefully S-L-O-W. Example: like Robert says… Contacts is a piece of junk. I'm an active G+ user, so when I found out that Google stuffs my Contacts with anyone on the planet who's ever possibly come into contact with me… and there is a hard limit of 25,000… most of which aren't even active G+ users… and the dumb software said "You've reached your limit for today. Come back tomorrow"… and I come back the next day and get the same message… and the next, etc… I finally figured out by myself that this 25,000 limit exists… and that there is no automated way to cull out non G+ users… and (here is the best part)… I have to remove these strangers ONE AT A TIME BY HAND… like little annoying gnats… THAT'S when I figured out that there is a really a serious problem here with G+. Since the system forced me to take out people one by one, I happened to look at their profiles while I was doing it (super waste of my time, but what the heck!). I guess that I might have reviewed 2,000 or so. What I found was that there were gigantic waves of drops you could just see happening… August… October… January. People would stop by, look around, make a post or two… and never come back. No matter! They still populate my Contacts list and help jam up my system. Is this being attended to by Google? Maybe. When, if ever, will it be fixed? Who knows? No one is telling. They are keeping it a big secret… from whom and why I do not know. Now, make no mistake… I actually LIKE Google! But why is it that they continue to hire people who look like and act like all the rest of the people they stuff into the Googleplex? Why won't they hire someone like me who actually USES the product extensively as a "User Advocate". They absolutely will not do that! And so… we all soldier on… and Robert can write another blast about this every 60 days or so. Really sad, isn't it?
(I should mention that I have no pony in the race wrt Android v iPad – it's the one issue that I can't address since I use neither.)
+Dan O'Shea, is there a reason you didn't use Circle Inactives (a Chrome app) to rid yourself of those who hadn't posted, or cut off access to those in your contacts by using the options for privacy? Again, I don't use mobile G+ for personal reasons, so I don't know if it would have resolved your particular problems of having added 25K contacts.
+P E Sharpe I've tried Uncircle Inactives+1.7 and Uncircle Uncirclers+1.5… but NOTHING seems to remove people from Google Contacts, other than knocking people out by hand, one by one. If someone has a workable solution, I sure would like to hear about it. I'm still removing people one by one. 😉
My earlier remark is untrue. +Robert Scoble is not funded, employed by, or otherwise paid in any way by Facebook or Google. My opinion of him just jumped 500%, and I was wrong to have voiced any opinion on the matter. I apologize to all of you, but especially to him. Thank you for setting me straight, Robert.
+Heather Vandagriff thank you for that 😉
Never been afraid to say I was wrong, and I was.
I am getting a Samsung Galaxy Note. Sold my iPad2 for it (I was not in love with it as such 🙂 )… so can try out the Note to check out the Android apps ? 🙂
I absolutely agree +Lynette Young. I've been telling everyone I know to ditch FB and come over…but only if they're going to be productive with and on it. The last thing G+ needs is a bunch of users who don't contribute, which is what happened with FB and Myspace. I don't get real community on FB. People will like comments, but unless it's a major brand, they rarely comment. And in my own pages the conversations only get jumping when it's something controversial or entertainment related. Speaks volumes to my "network" over there and really puts the onus on me to focus on better quality over quantity.
I've purposely kept it smaller than most, but I find the people unwilling to really engage. I don't get that over here. Sure there will always be watchers. But I think the difference here is that people feel more inclined to participate because G+ took social very literal. I always feel it's a shame when I talk about G+ and people say "you know, I just haven't thought about giving it a try. I don't understand it yet".
At this point, the countdown is on for me leaving Facebook. There is nothing they can do to convince me to give them another chance.