To summarise, my main niggle was that rather than disrupting the market place and changing the game, Google+ was a lazy attempt at overtaking Facebook as the king of social networks. I stated that it reeked of arrogance and that rather than trying to revolutionise, it merely imitated - it seemed to rely on it's own name power when trying to win the race.
A few months on and I have to admit that I haven't delved into Google+ too much, but perhaps that says it all. I have no inclination to immerse myself in it, in fact until I just saw the TV advert which prompted this blog i'd barely thought about Google+ since I last wrote about it.
The grim underbelly of consumerism is that products are created, then promoted and shoved down our throats until it becomes a necessity for us to own them, it creates a fear inside of us that our lives will be less fulfilling unless we have it. We need that product to be complete. Ask those people who queue outside Carphone Warehouse in the pouring rain at 3am in morning waiting for the new iPhone, they'll know what i'm talking about.
Google+ does not create that fear. I feel excluded from nothing. From what I gather, Google+ is very popular among the more technical minority, who perhaps feel a bit like they are part of an uber cool select by using it. That recognition creates a certain amount of prestige, but I'd bet my last mince pie that that is not the impact Google were going for. They want everybody and their nan using Google+ - but instead me and my nan are using Facebook.
The commercial which prompted this blog was one by Google Chrome which tells the story of a father who is documenting the birth of his daughter and following it with blog posts, pictures and anecdotes before the advert finishes with him exclaiming how one day he can't wait to go through these landmarks with her.
Sound familiar? Almost sounds like they are trying to create a "timeline"? Like a Facebook Timeline? It almost sounds like it is trying to say "you can do everything you can do on Facebook on Google!".
It of course coincides with the launch of the revamped Facebook page, the Timeline, which makes it easy peasy to go back and look at exactly what you were doing right at the beginning when you first signed up. It also creates possibilities such as being able to document people's entire lives. From the moment somebody is born every step can be documented via word, picture and video on Facebook.
Perhaps not revolutionary in this day and age, but it is definitely worth thinking about - our grandkids will be able to pop on line and look at what we were doing when we were 15 years old, to the date...wouldn't you love that opportunity? Of course, your current spouse may not be too keen on seeing who you were cyber flirting with back in 2006, but that is neither here nor there.
By back handedly declaring that whatever you can do on Facebook you can do on Google, therein lies the problem. There is no innovation, no game changing. Google are arguably the biggest start up to evolve over the past decade, they own a place in the Oxford Dictionary and it is hard to fathom the power they have. But they cannot beat or keep up with Facebook at their own game.
Until they develop something which takes Social Networking to the next level, something which truly disrupts the market place, they are going to continue to play second fiddle to Facebook, at least in that particular field.
The innovation at Google seems to have to slowed down somewhat and they need to think back to how they started, think about how and why they have become the global monster that they are today. Because right now, Mark Zuckerberg is checking in as the King of the Social Media Palace.
Merry Christmas!
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