I haven’t blogged in a while and to be honest, it’s nobody’s fault but mine. I have every intention of doing it, but work, life, etc., seems to get in the way. Today, I’ve decided to set aside some time and just do it. (Thanks, Nike, the phrase comes in handy every now and then!)
So, what has brought me out of my premature blogging retirement? Well, Google+, of course. I know that you’ve seen everyone talking about it and if you haven’t, you’re apparently not as entrenched in the social media landscape as I am. And don’t worry, most people aren’t. But since this is my career of choice, I’ve been on top of the story since the launch.
A Little Background
Launched on June 29, Google’s top-secret social media project Google+ hit the social media/tech world with a vengeance. Originally only open to press-types, the by-invitation-only platform spread through the Twitter/Facebook grapevine quickly. I was lucky enough to get an invite on Day 2. They are calling us ‘Early Adopters.’ I gotta say, being on a brand-new social media platform on the second day of launch was neat & I totally felt like the new kid at school. I hadn’t felt that kind of feeling since one of my best friends sent me her NYU-originated Facebook invite in 2005. I was giddy then, too.
Let’s Compare
This time, being in the social media world I’m in, getting a Google+ invite felt just a little better. Like a badge of some sort. Comparing the two time-periods may not be fair, but when Facebook was launched, everyone was MySpace-ing. That was the cool thing. When I hopped on Facebook, social media was in its infancy. It wasn’t a worldwide phenomenon. So, I went rogue and completely embraced this new thing called Facebook. No walls, no pictures, just a bio about me, what school I went to, whether I was in a relationship or not & a simple ‘What are you doing?’ question. The fact that it was uniform – no fancy HTML coding needed, nobody’s page was any better than anyone else’s – really appealed to me. It definitely didn’t to some who were busy adding new backgrounds to their MySpace profiles.
As I watched Facebook grow into this amazing thing, I sat back and watched naysayers flee MySpace for this new platform. It was fun to watch. I remember moving back to Odessa, TX from NYC in 2007 & people here didn’t even really know what the heck Facebook was. They had no concept. I was one of few people who’d jumped the MySpace ship. As with most things in West Texas, it just took a little more time. I remember finding a few of my high school friends on Facebook (because the ease of finding people was far superior to anything MySpace had done) & them telling me that I was like a journalist, keeping them informed about what was going on. My college broadcasting major was finally paying off! But I really was like a journalist. I passed along pertinent community information. If I found an article on CNN.com or The New York Times, I posted it. If I passed a wreck, I let people know to be careful in that area. Although my audience started small, it began to grow.
Let’s reminisce a little…
Remember when you could tell who the newbies were by the fact that they would take all those quizzes – What 80s Song Are You?, What Color Represents Who You Are?, etc? After we’d been on a few months, those got old, but we could always tell when someone new jumped on. It was almost like a rite of passage. Oh, those were the days…
Flash-Forward to 2011. Now, Facebook reaches over 750 million people in the whole world (and we’re not even counting China where Facebook is blocked by their government). We are spending more than 700 billion minutes a month on it. And most of us, thanks to our iPhones, Droids & Blackberrys are constantly connected to it.
During the first half of this year, Facebook was unstoppable. It’s growth was exploding. The next generation of users – older adults – were quickly realizing that Facebook was the place to be. Since the college kids from 5 years ago were now in their 20s, they passed the torch along to the high-schoolers/college students. The mid-20-30 crowd had jumped on reluctantly, followed by mom and dad so it was inevitable that Grandma & Grandpa would be next – because think about it, who’s left?
The big question at the beginning of this year was, “Where else can Facebook go? What else can Facebook do?’ The multi-billion dollar company began to debate taking the company public. Other online companies had or were thinking about it – LinkedIn, Zynga, Groupon. Should Facebook be next? Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 20-something, billionaire CEO hinted at it, but never really made anything binding. In late May, early June, he said that he’d probably do it in early 2012 & analysts analyzed all day about what Facebook would be worth – $20 billion, $50 billion? Some estimated upwards of $100 billion!
We all figured that Facebook would remain king. The $2.2 billion they were raking in from advertising was historic. Not only were personal profiles still being created, but the speed at which businesses were flocking on the platform was outstanding.
Enter Google+
Almost out of nowhere, Google launched it’s Google+ platform. For those of us on this side of the industry, we’d heard rumblings about it. We gossiped amongst ourselves about it. Would it be another Google Buzz? (Which failed miserably!) Or maybe it would be something like Google Wave. (Which failed just as miserably!) Google kept things hush-hush, but would, every now and then, drop us a bone. ‘It will be like nothing you’ve ever seen.’ Well, ok. I’m game.
Following our social media bible, Mashable, we learned it had been released. Only the really, really cool people got to be on it the first day. Then, we heard that invites would be given out by the people who were lucky enough to already be on it. We all scrambled to find ‘those people’ who had those invites. I found one. I got on.
So?
Starting any new platform is always a process. Remember setting up your Facebook profile? Or your Twitter page? It’s a process and since Google+ was so completely new, there really wasn’t anyone else to ask for help. It became a lot like Twitter was in its infancy. Lots of people asking, ‘How do you do this? How do you do that?’ The cool thing? ALL of the Google staff (it seems like) was also on. So, they were answering questions. That was pretty cool. How often do you get to talk to the actual programmers, coders, developers? Very rarely. On Twitter we used to be able to Tweet the big guys, but if they Tweeted back that was a good day. Today, I can ask a specific Googler a question about G+ & I can usually get an answer pretty quickly. Already, the way that they have listened to user feedback has been impressive.
What About the Platform?
Okay, okay, so you want me to talk about Google+ now. Is it the Facebook killer everyone is saying it is? Is it as great as everyone keeps saying it is? What’s so great about it? Fine, fine, here I go…
Look & Feel
When you log on, you’re immediately greeted with a very pretty, simple layout. Black header bar, grey sub-header bar, pops of red & lots and lots of white space. It is VERY much like Facebook, in that, you have a menu on the left-hand side, your stream of feeds in the middle, and other miscellaneous stuff on the right-hand side. But again, lots and lots of white.
One of the biggest comments I heard in those first few days was that G+ was ‘clean.’ And it is…for now. (I’ll tell you what I really think about all the white space later.)
You have a profile page that ties into your Google profile, so if you’re a Gmail user, that stuff will already be pulled from your public profile. If you’re a Droid user, you’re also in a good position, because all of your contacts and info will be pulled from that info, too.
You can still upload pictures and G+ has arranged them in a really cool gallery. It’s not uniformed, like Facebook’s, but it looks pretty cool. There’s also a great function for pics if you’re a Droidie. You phone will automatically upload any pics you take with your phone into a folder if you want it to. That folder is kept private, but you can opt to make some of those pictures available to the people in your circles or to the G+ public.
Circles?
In what has been touted as Google+’s biggest new feature, Circles is a way to group your friends into specific ‘circles’ which will then allow you to send posts to only those people…or to multiple circles of people.
Huh?
Yeah, I know. Think of it like Twitter Lists or Facebook Groups on speed. Google+ has made this feature mandatory in order to add anyone to your ‘circle.’ You go to add people and before you’re even able to add them, G+ makes you pick a circle or create one. They have a few already established for you – Friends, Acquaintances, Work – you can use those or expand and make your own. New circles I’ve added, for example, include ‘Tweeps’ (people I know from Twitter), ‘Facebook’ (people I only know from Facebook who are not ‘real,’ personal friends) & Mashable (people who work or write for Mashable.)
Now, let me back up just a minute and tell you about the way gaining friends on G+ is different, yet much the same, as Facebook or Twitter. On Facebook, you must be approved as someone’s friend. Once approved that friend will then show up in your feed and vice versa. On Twitter, anyone can follow anyone but one does not have to follow anyone back. So, if Danita decides to follow Abel, Abel’s posts will then show up in Danita’s feed, but unless Abel follows Danita back, he won’t see any of her posts. Got it?
Well, G+ is more like Twitter on this point, but only slightly. You can find anyone on the G+ network & you can opt to put them into your circle of choice. They don’t have to do the same to you. The difference with G+ is that even if that person doesn’t put you in their circle, your posts will be seen by them (since they are in your circles) and your feed will drop into a category called ‘incoming.’ You’ll also get a notice that says something like, “‘PersonA’ has started sharing with you. View their posts on ‘incoming.'” You can then read their stuff, but if you don’t want to add them, you don’t have to.
You also have the option to put people into more than one circle. Let’s say one of my social media peeps is also a freind of mine that I work with. I would put that person in all three of those circles – Social Media Peeps, Friends, Work.
This is what is cool (or not, depending on how you look at it) about Google+. Let’s say that I want to share a new article about social media. Most of the people in most of my circles could really care less, but my circle of social media peeps would definitely want to see it. I create my post and before it even lets me hit send, it forces me to choose which circle that post will go to. I will then choose ‘Social Media Peeps’ and hit send. Only those people, in that circle, will get that post. I can also opt to choose multiple groups. Let’s say I’m having a birthday party. People in my ‘Celebrities’ or ‘Mashable’ or ‘Google Employees’ circles would have no use for that info. I write my post and choose to send it to ‘Work,’ ‘Family’ & ‘Friends.’ When I hit send, only those people in those circles would get that info on their feed…or in their incoming if I haven’t been added to their circles.
So far, people love this feature, but there are a few that have already realized how out of control your number of circles can get. As of today, I have 22 circles. Some have a few people in them, some have one, some have tons. I’m already trying to figure out a game plan as I move forward collecting more people for particular circles.
So What Else is There?
In addition to the inclusions of ‘circles,’ Google+ has also introduced ‘Hangouts.’ This takes the videochat one step further by allowing you to videochat or ‘hangout’ with up to 10 people. You can keep your hangout private and send invites for people to hangout with you or you can join public Hangouts. While business pages haven’t been launched yet, it will be very interesting to see what ‘Hangouts’ will do for customer service. Let’s wait and see…
There is also a feature called ‘Sparks’ which, so far, is the most lackluster of the G+ features. Sparks is basically way to integrate Google search into the platform. So, if you are an avid runner, you can use Sparks to ‘find stuff you’re interested in…’ You would type in ‘running’ to the Google search bar on the Sparks page and you would be directed to all the articles online regarding ‘running.’ You can then add that search topic to your list. When you go back to your ‘Sparks’ you would just click on the topic & there will be online stories about that topic. Personally, I already have that feature, it’s called http://www.google.com.
There is also a chat feature. Same as Facebook. Woo.
+1
Something else that Google+ has prominently displayed on their new, spiffy platform is the +1 button. Much like Facebook’s LIKE button, the +1 button allows users to +1 comments, articles, pictures or whatever else might have a +1 button attached to it. When the +1 button was launched a couple months ago, we didn’t know what to do with it or what it meant. We already LIKE things on Facebook. Why did we need another one? Apparently, we needed it for Google+. People are +1ing all over the place. It’s basically like a LIKE. Actually, it’s exactly like a LIKE. Google is saying that it will start using the +1 results to help certain things place higher on search. So, I guess, eventually, it will come in handy. Right now, I’m quite happy with my LIKE button.
What About Mobile?
In a very unusual turn, Google+ was launched on the Android platform first. (I know, I just about fell out of my chair, too!) But don’t forget, Android is a Google product, it would only make sense that the mobile app would be available to Google-based phones first. I actually like the mobile app better than the desktop version – minus the hangouts, which aren’t optimized for use on mobile…yet. The mobile app is easy to use & a little easier to understand. IPhone-ers just received their app, and while they’re all screaming about all the bugs & quirks, I think they’re just making noise because for the first time in a long time, they weren’t the first to have a coveted app! Droidies Unite!!
What’s the Bad?
With the exception of a handful of friends who’ve requested an invite from me, the only people on are people from Google, Mashable & lots and lots of tech/social media/IT/programmer/developer/coder/gamer-types. I have been fortunate to meet a few authors, bloggers, and the like, but a majority of my nerdy-type circles are more full than others.
They also have not started to allow businesses to set up pages. They are currently about to launch a beta-testing group of businesses who will be allowed to create pages, but for the moment, those are a few months off for the rest of us.
I’m also starting to get a negative vibe from everyone slamming Facebook. Personally, Facebook is still a very big part of my life. It has to be. It’s still extremely vital to the clients that I manage. Facebook & it’s 750 million people will not ALL be jumping on the G+ bandwagon. I still have one foot out the door…just in case. Remember, I was there for both Buzz & Wave & I’m not very proud of that.
So…Now What?
Well, Google+ is still only available by invite only. It’s been rumored (read, ‘It’s been Tweeted’) that they will open it up to the masses on July 31st. It will be interesting to see what happens & whether or not Google will be able to handle the demand. Even in the early stages, they would periodically shut down the opportunity to join due to the high use of their servers.
And remember that white space I was telling you about? That beautiful white space that everyone keeps talking about? Here’s my theory. There is absolutely no way that Google isn’t going to monetize the Google+ platform. No way! Facebook has done an amazing job of monetizing itself on the business side and even has Google beat on some profit forecasts. Do you really think Google is leaving all that white space white just because? NO! Not just no, but hell no!
So, while it looks very nice now, just wait…those spaces will soon be replaced by pay-per-click campaigns…or at least something like that.
I also think that things like games (which are hugely popular on Facebook) are not far off, either. They will just be designed for a different platform. I think we’ll eventually be fending off requests to join people’s mafias or to help with trees on farms.
So, is Google+ the Facebook killer? Not yet…no. Could it be? While it DOES have the potential…and a very credible Google name behind it (or, in this case, in front of it), I don’t see that happening any time soon. Facebook has a hold in just about every facet of our lives. It’s integrated on our phones. It’s the first thing we check in the morning before we even roll out of bed. It’s our homepage on our Internet browser. And to be honest, it’s taken a while for that to happen.
Think about how difficult it was to get people onto Facebook in the first place. And there are still people who are just jumping on…even now. You really think those people will say, well, forget that, let me go check this out? I doubt it.
Personally, I’ve never really completely embraced G+. Not yet, at least. I’ve been extremely hesitant to let myself fall in love with it. There are definitely some very cool features & the fact that Google is right there listening to feedback is a definite plus, but I just can’t let myself get too excited. As of the moment, I make my money due to Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, the minute that G+ launches the business pages, I’ll be all over them, but for the moment, my livelihood depends on Facebook. My businesses depend on Facebook.
I’m very curious to see where Google+ will go. I call myself very fortunate to have been invited on. Watching it grow since day two has been really, really fun & I’ve already met people who I hadn’t yet run into on Twitter or Facebook.
Are you interested in trying it out? Shoot me your email (gmail is preferred on the Google+ platform, naturally). I have a limited number of invites, but I’m willing to give those out to people who are truly interested. Email me at danitalicious@gmail.com.
And in closing, I want to thank Google+. If it wasn’t for them, this girl wouldn’t have started blogging again.
– Danita
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