Comments on: Google+ has great features — now it just needs people

By: Danielle Catherine Sanda

Danielle Catherine Sanda — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:57:08 +0000

So if I add all my facebook friends as contacts but they don’t have Google+, what happens when I post something to their circle?

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:47:39 +0000

+1 this, I totally agree with your point of view. Google+ seems to be very good. I joined and love the Circle + Hangout features.

By: devhed

devhed — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:17:22 +0000

I got an invite, I cant log in? This is crazy, google aught to be letting more people take it for a spin, by time-share if necessary.

Also what are the development APIs and tools for this new toy? No word yet on how we make this do fancy tricks with our own code….slack!

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:27:30 +0000

“Unfortunately for Google, adding people to circles is still kind of kludgy, because if they don’t already have a profile on Google then you can only add them as an email contact, which hardly seems that appealing.”

I disagree. In fact, I would argue that this could potentially be the second killer app for Google+. That is to say, Google+ users can share with non-Google+ users — yes, it leverages email, but this allows non-users to still get updates via email, and attracts them to sign-up. This is actually pretty genius.

Because of Circles, Google+ is more about “friend/contact management” and “sharing” as opposed to broadcasting to everyone you know.

By: chitra

chitra — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:05:08 +0000

Also you need to get your Android app soon – overdue by many quarters!

By: Miguel

Miguel — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:35:41 +0000

I think the key here, as far as getting people to use it, is Mobile. In the developing countries like mine, most people would access the internet through their phones (most people don’t own computers). If Google+ has the ability for users to easily create their accounts/profiles from their phones, i believe it won’t take very long before they get critical mass user count.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:46:04 +0000

I completely disagree with this. Facebook started out with no base and built it up, same with twitter. If anything, google has the advantage over where Facebook and twitter were when they first started up. We can’t expect Google+ to have the same clout as FB or Twitter do right now.

Social networks take time to build, and Google has the advantage because of the amount of subscribers they have access to through their email service. Did either of FB or twitter have close to the same amount of people subscribing to their beta test? nope!

By: Jack C

Jack C — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:17:15 +0000

Yep, you nailed it. This is what we’ve been talking about for months, but success today is all about easy and sensible user transition.

Continue to blend (and eventually supplant) Contacts, Talk, Buzz, Picasa, etc. into the fold of Google+ and deeply integrate it with Gmail, Reader, Calendar, etc., thereby making it (critically) both an easy and natural transition for end-users. That and leverage existing footholds with Academic institutions to hook students in.

Now if Google would just throw me an invite, so I could dig in and give feedback…

By: Debbie Degabrielle

Debbie Degabrielle — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:29:14 +0000

It is unlikely that Google+ will detract from Facebook, but it seems that this time around, Google may have found their golden ticket into the social space. Google has been missing out on the loads of data that has arisen in the era of social media. Meanwhile, brands and agencies are reaping the benefits of tools that allow them to capture and analyze the social conversations and in turn, make better business decisions. If Google can succeed this time around, the data the company will have and be able to slice and dice will allow much better targeting for advertisers and brands and tie into search.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:21:32 +0000

A very good comment, and I agree with your point about our being able to adopt new social networks more easily than many assume.

Circles looks like the kind of feature I would want in a social network. Others have mentioned the mental effort, or anxiety, that Circles introduce (thinking about who can see what in my circles, or in overlapping circles started by me and my friends), and I wonder how much this overhead will affect how circles are valued.

Matthew’s point about reliance on Google account-holders seems possibly relevant, though I know of few people without a Google account (Android sales alone should be a big factor here), and just about nobody unwilling to take 3 min to sign up for one. But it’s still worth a chuckle to think of starting a social network without giving users the ability to invite others.