I want to love Google Plus (but I don’t)
I want to love Google+, the hot new social network from Google… but I don’t.
Why not? It’s my least favorite things about Twitter and Facebook rolled into one site. It’s a beautifully designed network that I hate to use.
How it works
Like all social networks, you can post text, links, photos and videos, and they get shared with people.
With most networks, you choose who you’d like to follow. With Google+, you choose who you’d like to share with instead.
You do this by adding people into contextual groups called Circles. You can have a Circle for your college buddies, one for work friends, another for family and so on. Putting someone in a Circle means you’ve opted to share information with them, and when you share stuff, you can choose which Circles can see it.
(For example, a link to a business article might get shared with your work peeps, and your grandma’s birthday gets shared just with family. Sounds good, right?)
It’s too much like Twitter
Right now, I’m getting tons of notifications about Circles I’ve been added to.
None of them are from people I don’t know in real life. They’re mostly people I already follow on Twitter. And they’re posting mostly the same kind of stuff they do on Twitter. Only now they’re on Google+.
Google+ isn’t solving a problem I have with Twitter. It’s just adding another location for me to get more information I’m already receiving too much of.
It’s too much like Facebook
I use Facebook to share photos, videos and updates with my real life friends.
I can do that on Google+, too. Except none of my real life friends are on it yet. And since we’re already using Facebook that way, why would we switch?
Google+’s big advantage is supposed to be that you can select who has access to what. Thing is, you can do that on Facebook, too. They’re called lists. I have a few of them.
Google makes it easier – sort of. But they’re not solving a problem I have with Facebook, either.
Breakfast and Social Media
You know all the jokes people make about Twitter? “Who cares what you ate for breakfast?” “It’s just people on social media talking about social media!”
They apply to Google+, too.
I’d say 95% of the posts I’ve seen so far are something to the effect of, “What do you think about Google+?” That’s lame.
When Facebook first came out, I was in college and all the people in my dorm joined. You know what we posted about? Parties people could attend. Photos from the night before.
Useful and interesting stuff. Not breakfast and social media.
Privacy & Data
I will hand it to Google on this one – it’s a LOT easier to control your privacy and download your data on Google+ than on Facebook, and with more nuance than on Twitter.
They should get major props for that.
Solving Problems
Social networks are just tools. And tools need to solve problems.
I want to love Google+. But right now, it’s just a beautiful tool that doesn’t solve any of my problems.
Paul Hebert
July 11th, 2011 at 8:33 am
What if it solves MY problems? Then is it a good tool? I’m feeling an Apple/Windows fight coming with g+. And frankly – it doesn’t matter.
I like g+ ‘cuz I don’t have to use twitter of facebook. It consolidates and helps me manage my SN. I didn’t do all the work you did on FB to set up lists, etc – so my migration is much easier. And for that – I like it.
G+ is a baby. And like any baby – we have no idea where it will end up. Twitter didn’t have hashtags when it started – now a feature many of us couldn’t live without.
No new technology solved everyone’s problems out of the box. Most new tech only solves about 60% of the problem on initial release and then grows from there. I’m not willing to say g+ is going to remove FB/Twitter – heck we still have AOL addresses …. it’s a long road – and right now… I’m a bigger fan of g+ than FB – twitter still has some appeal but if I do a good job on the circles thing – I may be able to wean myself off of that.
I like consolidation in my browser… but that’s just me. And I use Android – so there’s that too.
Chris Ferdinandi
July 11th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Paul,
There’s nothing Apple vs PC about it. This isn’t an ideological position. Go read my intro again. I want to love Google+. I really do. I went in with high hopes, but they just weren’t met.
And this has nothing to do with the device you use either. Google+ is a beautiful designed social network, whether you’re on a PC or Mac, iPhone or Android.
But beauty and function are not always synonymous.
I’ve probably been on Facebook a lot longer than you. I joined when you needed a college email to get in. I have about 7 years invested and deep connections. I don’t want to combine my Twitter and Facebook circles. They’re different to me.
To your original point, it probably is a useful tool for you.
But I also think Google+ falls short in trying to be all things. It strikes me as a “me too” application without much unique stuff that it does better than the other guys. Their one shining star is privacy and data control.
Kitchen sink apps aren’t appealing to me. In fact, the more Facebook adds to their interface, the less I like them, too. If you look at the most successful social networks and web tools, they’re almost always highly focused and do one thing really well. Twitter is a notable example. Skype. Gmail.
When all of those tools came out, they were unique. To your point, incomplete. But unique. Google+ is not.
I want to love it, but I don’t.
Paul Hebert
July 11th, 2011 at 9:06 am
Let me clarify – I wasn’t saying YOU were having an Apple/Windows type issue – just in general I see some of that coming into the arguments on the web since g+ launched. Also – i only mentioned android as a stab at iphone folks – not really a commentary on the device – i could care less.
I’m trying to remember when I got on facebook – been a while – but never really used it much so you definitely have more time in the saddle there. You mention that you don’t want to combine your twitter and FB circles – but isn’t that exactly what g+ allows you to do – use one interface – and use it differently – for different circles without overlap? That’s what it means to me.
I’d agree that g+ isn’t “unique” – just a bit different. It does solves my problems and that is one reason I’m taking my time setting it up the way I wish I had on FB. Twitter – that’s mass marketing now… hoping g+ gives me a way to do what I used to do on twitter.
In any event – something interesting will come out of this I’m sure and it will be different than anyone could predict – and that’s what makes it fun.
Chris Ferdinandi
July 11th, 2011 at 9:10 am
I guess I look at this way, Paul. Google+ feels a bit like the layout and usability of Facebook with the speed and frequency of posting that you see on Twitter. Quite frankly, I find that pretty damn annoying.
I agree that Twitter is a marketing fest now. I just did another purge of people I follow again, and expect to start having more interactive conversations again…
And hey, if Google+ solves your problems… that’s what tools are for!
Paul Hebert
July 11th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Yup… ‘cuz we know it’s ALL about ME ME ME ME ME….
Lance Haun
July 11th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
I think you’re missing something very important (other than giving Google+ about five seconds to figure things out).
The focus on user behavior is really the issue. I have to challenge the statement that people spent their first couple of weeks on Facebook doing what they do naturally today. They didn’t, at least with everyone I saw who became a new user. And that’s from an early adopter too (on wsu.facebook.com using only .edu email addresses). Twitter was dead for a year and there were very few conversations. Many people weren’t on Facebook two weeks after it was launched at my school. User adoption curves are annoying.
More importantly, you’re expecting Google+ to fix a problem you’re already in control of: who you follow. If someone is posting at Twitter-like frequencies, why wouldn’t you just take them out of your circle? If someone is posting the exact same stuff as they do elsewhere, why would you follow them there? What is Google+ supposed to do about who you follow? Probably the same thing that Twitter does (nothing). The same thing Facebook does (nothing).
Here’s what I like about the tool itself (not just pesky user behavior that is bound to shift):
- It is simplified like Facebook first was. I was a big Facebook lite fan and when that went away, I started using my mobile phone to access much more.
- I’ve blocked hundreds of apps in Facebook (including Twitter, every game imaginable and most of the business apps). My Facebook experience today has required hours of investment in tweaking the interface.
- Sharing stuff is great on Twitter but the arbitrary character limit, necessity for link shortening and photo hosting makes it a pain without a client. Not to mention everything is unfiltered.
- Google+ is more like relationships in real life and it is built with that in mind. Facebook doesn’t compare. I want to share and interact on different levels. And those levels aren’t going to mirror each other necessarily (I might like someone more than they like me, etc…).
That’s why I like it so far. It doesn’t take a ton of time investment yet so no problems there too.
Chris Ferdinandi
July 11th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Lance,
All valid points, and I certainly don’t plan to cancel my account with Google+ anytime soon.
If you figure out a way to stop the status bar notifications from happening outside of Google+, will you let me know? I hate that when I’m using Gmail, I get pinged with a distracting red box every time I get added to a new circle.
I actually think your point about hours invested is a really important one, though. Even without tweaking the interface, I’ve put lots of energy into posting and tagging photos, building a network, etc over the last seven years.
Even if you can easily transfer pics from FB to Google+, the lost tags is a big deal, as is the lost comments, etc. That may be Google’s biggest hurdle on this one.
Rain
July 25th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I appreciate the back-and-forth on this–I agree with you on so many of your points, Chris, particularly about the redundancy (I gave up on Twitter almost before I began; I could not see anything it did that Facebook didn’t already do, and better).
@ Lance Haun–your comments about it being “like Facebook once was” lead me to speculate on how long it will take until Google + takes on all of the annoying attributes of FB. I have enough teenagers (from my church, etc.) on my Facebook friends list to have been able to witness the “MySpace-ification” of Facebook, although this is a slow and halting process.
I have friends for whom privacy settings are a safety issue; in those cases, I can see the appeal of Google +. But the notion that Google is somehow more “private” than Facebook is preposterous to me . . . as it should be to anyone who uses Gmail and has observed the freakily relevant ads that pop up on the side of one’s wall . . .
I haven’t kicked it to the curb yet . . . but I keep waiting for something to happen, and it just isn’t.
Chris Ferdinandi
July 25th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
@Rain – Thanks for jumping into the convo. I actually grew to like Twitter (took a while though!), but it functions inherently differently from Facebook. Google+? Not-so-much.
I’ve not written it off completely yet, but I’m definitely not spending time there, either.
Lance Haun
July 25th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I guess my point was that I needed to spend hours customizing Facebook to make it what it is today. I have blocked 516 applications on Facebook. It was a cumulative effort but it was still effort and if I unblocked them, my Facebook experience would be beyond miserable. I would have quit long ago.
People expecting Google+ to work out of the box the way Facebook does ignores that we’ve spent time “fixing” Facebook to suit us. I have found myself spending less time setting up and consuming information on Google+. I connect with and categorize who I want and don’t worry about the rest.
Chris Ferdinandi
July 25th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Unfortunately, Lance, I think games may eventually come to Google+, too. I’ve seen a few reports floating around on the web. That was, for me, one of the few really key differentiators. That and “no brands.”