Tag Archives: google plus

Problem #77 with Adopting Google+

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I’ve been experimenting with Google+ since it emerged, and as much hype as I read from the major news sites, I just haven’t bought into the propaganda they keep spewing out. I keep reading how Google+ is going to replace Facebook, but no matter how much I look into the service, it fails on almost every level. Let me explain:

1. No one is on it.

Oh, I know how they keep claiming a gazillon people are on it and all that, but I’ll let you in on a little secret (if you haven’t used Google+). No one you know is using it. And that’s the problem right there. Sure, it’s great that Felicia Day (creator of the web episodic show The Guild), Wil Wheaton (the guy who played the kid on Star Trek the Next Generation and has been pulling cameos on other shows like Big Bang Theory and The Guild ever since), and Taylor Swift (the singer) are all on it, but what it’s really turned out to be is a glorified Twitter account where you get to actually see postings of these people, instead of blurts of words from their Twitter feed. But again, so few “normal” people are using it, which means if you want to use it to follow some celebrity with a one-sided conversation (where they never hear from you), then it’s fine. But what makes it different from watching some celebrity gossip show? Nothing, really.

2. The Interface Lacks Substance

Everytime I use Google+, I’m convinced I’m missing something because I go on it and then wonder why I wasted the time. It’s like there’s a whole other big room that’s part of it, but I just haven’t figured out the secret handshake to get into that other room. I suspect that other room doesn’t exist, but even if it does, what good is a service if you can’t access it? That’s my problem with Google+. It has nothing going on for it that keeps me interested. I’m a news junkie, which means I want to see things going on. Right now, my Google+ feed is filled with nonstop cute cat pictures from the celebrities that somehow think this is interesting and relevant. I’m not kidding. The only other type of posting seems to be from April Summers who shows naked pictures of herself in Playboy, which can be cool, but not really newsworthy. Every other person I follow seems to practically repeat the same information but a little bit different each time. The people I’d like to follow and know more about don’t actually have an account, or they have an account and don’t use it (like Taylor Swift).

3. It’s Owned by Google

Google is a great search engine, but honestly it doesn’t really innovate in anything. It does a really good job of seeing what other people do and then streamlines it. But there’s rarely any innovation or brilliant thought behind it. Or when there is, it’s designed by engineers who still haven’t figured out how to communicate with the masses, so they set up really complicated environments and expect the people to figure out how to maneuver through them (“I’m looking at you, Google Adwords!”). And there’s always the fear that Google, in their infinite wisdom, will just cancel your account because you disagreed with something they had to say, or do, cutting off four or five services you might be using that had nothing to do with the reason you got shut off in the first place, and like Facebook, they won’t speak to you in order to fix the situation because you’re irrelevant to them, as you’ve always been.

Why Google Plus Won’t Beat Facebook

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I recently signed up for Google Plus. It took finding someone who get me into the beta, or whatever it is they’re calling the early period of Google Plus, but because everyone was talking about how great it was, I had to see for myself. Right off, I can tell you that I’m extremely underwelmed by the experience. The majority of the problem for me is that there’s no one I know already on it, so joining it is kind of useless. Plus, working with Google is a nightmare of proprortions when it comes to user friendly material. Not once, with any product, has Google ever really gotten it right. I’m surprised that I’m still having to make this comment.

One thing that Google fails at is simplicity. Oh, it claims it’s simple, but almost always whenever you want to do something that’s not right out of the original set up, you’re pretty much screwed. I discovered this with Gmail, Google Voice, Google Adsense and practically every other product Google has ever put out. You see, Google wants to integrate all of its products together, but it seems that their process was designed by Kafka, who believes that the more levels of hell that you have to go through to accomplish something the better off you should be. I discovered that with Google Ads. Tried to set up a simple ad, much like I had done with Facebook for one of my books. To this day, I don’t know what I kept doing wrong, but I could never get it to work. However, a few weeks after complete failure, Google charged me $5.00 for “launching” the service that could never be launched. It took me an hour more of dealing with page after page of confusing menus before I figured out how to stop Google from continuing to charge me for something I never could figure out how to use.

Google Plus is a lot like that. I can’t figure out how to add anyone that’s actually on Google Plus. Sure, I figured out how to add a few people I know, but they’re not on Google Plus, so they’re just imaginary names in my “circles”. How to find anyone else, well, Google doesn’t explain that. It just has these annoying little pages that I keep going back and forth on, unable to get any further or to find any way to make the service useful in any way, shape or form. With Facebook, I remember finding a friend the first time out, and in minutes, I actually had a connection. I’ve been on Google Plus for a few weeks now, and much like my real life, I’m still my only friend. My news feed is empty and has never shown me a piece of information. Talk about a social networking program revealing the truth. I’m not sure I want that much truth.

The other thing about Google is that it loves to link all of its products together, so that no matter what you do, if you are involved in one of their enterprises, you’re linked to everything else you do with them. So, if you end up doing one thing wrong, like using a business instead of your name, you might end up getting arbitrarily deleted or locked out of your email account. I’ve seen Google cancel people on a whim before, and giving them more reasons to do so is really not a great idea. At least with Facebook, if they cancel my account, only my account gets lost. I can still receive my email and everything else I do online.

The biggest problem Google Plus has right now is that its owners want it to be the “cool” place to go, so they’re going after the movie stars and celebrities and pretty much saying screw you to the rest of the crowd. But all social networks are actually made popular by the rest of the crowd, and rarely by the celebrities. Sure, the celebrities make it cool after it gets big, but that’s an after the fact thing, and companies like Google just don’t get that. They’re trying to get to the “already famous” stage of celebrity without doing the work that actually gets you famous. Sure, they’re Google, which means they’re big, but let’s be honest. All Google has ever really done great is create a search engine tool. Their email is okay, but it’s not ground breaking, and I’ve discovered myself rarely using it these days (choosing a Yahoo account instead, or my own dedicated one that is tied to no one but me). So, if Google wants to make it big with Plus, it has to do something to make itself famous first.

And my experience with the service has been less than stellar. That, in my opinion, is why I don’t see them being the Facebook killer they so want to be.

Companies That Don’t Understand Social Networking

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We’ve all heard the story of a major company that totally blew its social networking strategy by doing something really stupid, like tweeting something inappropriate, thinking it would drive business but ended up driving it away instead. But there’s something even worse, at least in my opinion, and that’s a company that wants to engage in social networking but doesn’t understand what engaging in it means. An example is a company that advertises that it has all sorts of hip connections on social networking sites, but then turns around and blocks all of those sites from everyone of its employees. This wouldn’t be so bad if the company didn’t keep sending out notices to employees about how they are now on Facebook, starting up on Google Plus, and then asking employees to participate as well. And when that employee attempts to do so, they get a blocked message, indicating that the job considers that site to be an illegal site for viewing at work.

One of my favorite sorts of erroneous activities involves the housing complex where I live. They put up a bunch of signs around the complex, saying: “Add and Follow us on Facebook for current news and activities!” Four months ago, I attempted to add them on Facebook; they haven’t accepted. Yet, each day I see their signs on the bulletin board at home, just begging me to add them to my Facebook profile.

These are companies that don’t get the whole social networking thing. If you want to engage in social networking, you have to actually engage in social networking. You don’t just get a presence and then expect the masses to come flocking to you, but then decide you don’t want to spend the energy actually working with the environment. The work thing is a no brainer because you’re never going to have a real social networking presence as long as the majority of your staff can’t promote it. If the only Facebook presence you have is a Human Resources person who gets paid to have to maintain the connection, you’ve failed in all things social networking. Basically, it’s a plea to join their network but then a follow up statement to say that your employees aren’t allowed to communicate with the masses you just asked to join. Sure, it keeps people from doing something to embarrass you, but what these companies don’t understand is that social networking is about people, not about people interacting with a company’s icon. That’s why Google is destroying any business presence with Google Plus; at least they understand what a social network should be about. Although, I admit, I suspect they’ll backtrack on that once they realize that Facebook will take advantage of their absence.

Personally, my belief is that any company that avoids letting its employees engage in social networking is doomed to be considered old hat. Any company, like my housing complex, that considers social networking one-way only (we speak, you listen), then they’re doomed to fail as well.

Unfortunately, social networking is one of those animals that takes many years for people to truly understand. And as I’m pointing out, sometimes they never do.