When I first got into Google+ (thanks to my fellow blogger Rob Diana) I was expecting to see, as everyone else, what Google had developed to finally put a good dent into the social media space. We all saw this chart emerge from AllThingsD where Facebook was basically killing, in terms of time spent on site, all other websites. It was not only in the best interest of Google to put out a good social product to compete with Facebook. We’re talking about the possible death of a massive corporation.
But as I used Google+ more and more, it finally hit me. This is not a Social product. It’s a curation product.
I think Mahendra Palsule is on the right track with his post.
Unlike Quora, where users/moderators need to manually tag Questions to fit their taxonomy, Google could easily auto-tag questions. Further, it could easily AutoComplete your Question in a way Quora could only hope. And even further, in many situations, Google could answer your question without waiting for a human being to respond.
You see, Facebook’s approach has been from the inside out. Post updates for your friends to see. Google on the other hand is taking the outside in approach. Let’s put the +1 button all over the web, make it the web’s most ubiquitous “Like” button and then make a place where people can add more metadata around those pieces of content.
I read yesterday’s piece on Forbes and I was laughing out loud.
By all accounts its a collection of things already offered by Facebook and others, without any remarkable new packaging (see BusinessInsider.com“Google’s Launch of Google + is, once again, deeply embarrassing” or “Google Plus looks like everything else” or “Wow, Google+ looks EXACTLY like Facebook.”) With Facebook closing in on 1 billion users, it’s probably too late – and will be far too expensive, for Google to ever catch the big lead. Especially with Facebook in China, and Google noticably not.
Google+ is not trying to go after Facebook. That is not what they’re trying to do.
Robert Scoble might be right. People won’t just abandon Facebook. But they will see the +1 button and they will see the ever present black navbar with the red notification counter staring at them and they’ll have only one way to go.
And let me just remind you a little tidbit. People basically hate Facebook.
