So Google let the Social Cat out of the bag today. They are soon to offer up their new Social experience called Google +. One only needs to watch the videos to know that this is what Google hopes to be the answer to Facebook. But why leave Facebook? Why start over? I mean, all of my friends and family are already there? What can Google offer me to get me to start all over?
Well, here are 5 things I can think of:
- Don't allow "Villes" into the stream! Sure, I can block them now in Facebook, and believe me, I DO! But I have to make the effort. Nothing against all my buds who enjoy such things. But I really don't care that you found a cow on your virtual property, or that someone attacked your mob. Social to me, has nothing to do with those games, as it only adds unwanted noise to my view.
- Easily allow me to share with Facebook and Twitter. Whether I am on my computer, my iPad or my Atrix, I can easily share stuff I find interesting to all of my buds on Twitter and Facebook. Just because Google is now a Social Network doesn't mean it should be my only haunt. If I can continue to easily share links, photos and videos with those folks from the Google+ interface, making any kind of transition will make me more willing to at least give the experience a fair chance. Otherwise, I am not leaving the networks I already have established.
- Allow my existing Social Contacts to be pulled into Google +. Gmail is not my main email address. I don't have that many friends tied to it. Let me import Twitter and Facebook contacts into Google+. Otherwise, my network is going to be a very small one with no activity. Not much fun.
- Seemlessly tie in the Google stuff I already use! Let's face it! I'm up your butt Google! I absolutely love several of your current services. Voice
is awesome! I use Reader daily through your interface and other interfaces such as Flipboard and Pulse. Latitude could be so much better than Foursquare simply for the auto-checkin feature. Your mobile maps are awesome and continue to get better. Gmail and Talk are dependable. These things need to be in Google+. "Hangout" looks interesting! I like what I see in the video! But you have already given me a similar ability in Talk, minus the group thing. This is confusing. I've uploaded all my digital music to your cloud. Can I share some of this with my circle? Probably not, but it sure would be nice if I could. What about my Google Calendar? Can I easily share some or all of it with my circle's? This would be really, really sweet! If you go off and create something new instead of adding to the already cool stuff you have, you are only making it harder for me to jump social ship.
- Sell Google+ to the World! As I said before, the biggest reason that Facebook is as big as it is, is because everyone is already there. Geeks know about your services, but I'm betting the average Facebook user only knows you as a search engine. There is not much incentive for me to really invest in Google+ when I have 4 friends in Google Friend Connect, and 11 friends in Google Talk. Compare that to 3,500 Twitter followers and 600 Facebook friends. You get them using this service, and suddenly your new Social network looks a lot less like Orkut and more like something that might be better than Facebook. You are not going to get there sending out invitations to a group of Tech bloggers though . . . This one is going to take effort. Remember recent failures like Wave and Buzz. Sell it like Jobs sells the iPhone. Hype it like it's awesome! Advertise it on the Superbowl, and on the News! But don't just throw it out there and hope it sticks. Until half the world is using it, there is really no reason for the other half to leave Facebook. Until there is a userbase, I will happily continue using Facebook and Twitter.
Google's Videos of Google+
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