63 Days Later, Google+ is Not (Yet) Close to Facebook

The launch of Google Plus on 29th June, 2011 brought a revolution in the blogosphere, even though not in the intended social networking world. Bloggers, techies, and social networks all across the world frantically started asking for invites, in the meantime going through the demo videos and blogging/discussing on FB. Those who could lay their hands on invites were impressed, or at least showed so on Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, Blogspot, WordPress, and what not. Google worshippers turned into Google Plus evangelists, providing free service.


What Is Google Plus

Everyone was curious and everybody tried to be a part of it all. HBO made the quick buck showing The Social Network at least once a week. All the popular blogs published a series of posts on Google’s latest product and the competitors and the competition. Hundreds of sites mushroomed up around Google Plus, enhancing the Plussing experience for those who don’t mind installing Chrome extensions or revealing credentials to unknown sites.

The G+ team has been really busy the past two months; there were 10 major feature additions in July, and 20 in August, averaging one every two days! A floating Google+ bar, integration with Google Translate, Google+ Games, and sharing to any circles from any sites via the +1 button are a few notable changes.
Sixty days later (okay, 63 to be precise, I rounded it off), I’ve 162 people in my 14 circles–only 11 of which are (techie) celebs. 130 people have circled me, out of which I have not reciprocated to 20 people. Oh yeah this is complex, I had to use a Venn-diagram to find out I have 118 FB-style friends. Anyway, the point is, only a few of these people have been sharing stuff and following my shares.

Most of the shares are reshares from Google+ celebs, or jokes about the diminution of FB, or tips and tricks or stats about Google+. Or a link shared at both Facebook and Twitter. Most of the content is reproduced from other networking sites. An average Plusser does not share photos here, and does not post that arbitrary status update.

Not yet.

When I have 500+ updates everyday from my 361 FB friends, the 162 people I am following on G+ update hardly 10 posts, out of which 8 are from Sergey Brinn/Bradley Horowitz/Kelly Ellis/Vic Gundotra. Facebook feels like home. Google+ still feels alien; it does not look friendly.

So Google+ 60 days != Facebook. The inequation may never turn into an equation even if the addendum to the left variable becomes 2 years or 5 years. Even 10.

It is because there is an already existing following of Facebook which will never completely die. Even though this is much different that email, an analogy can be drawn between people still sticking on to Yahoo mail and Hotmail(~300 million users each), even though Gmail(170 million) is more talked about and discussed than its older sisters. The risk to FB comes from the new generation social-networkers, and Google takes care of that with the illusion of elitism it provides by allowing access only through invites. And this pseudo-elitist attitude works with newbies. But it dampens the spirits of a hardened FB user because they might have to move their friends along. Curiosity did help a few registrations, but how long do they stay is yet to be seen. Over a period of time, say a couple years or so, both of these may have a symbiotic existence.

Google + is an excellent product. A brilliantly planned, and well developed web-app, with a striking UX and great features, that has the potential to take social networking to the next level. But, Google has learnt that from other networks over the past few years. (The older ones are leaning from Google+ anyway; see, symbiosis) And that is what the weak point is–the timing.
Google was late by at least half a decade.

Soruce: Plugged In

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Google+ Visitors’ Time Spent on Social Site Has Stagnated, Hitwise Reports

The amount of time U.S. users spend on Google Inc. (GOOG)’s new social network has grown more slowly in recent weeks, according to Experian Hitwise, indicating that the service may struggle to make headway against Facebook Inc.

Users on average spent 5 minutes and 47 seconds on Google+ during the week ended Aug. 27, up about 4 percent from the previous week, according to New York-based Experian Hitwise, which tracks Internet statistics. Time spent on the site peaked in the week of July 16, at 5 minutes, 50 seconds, Hitwise said.

Google+ is the company’s latest effort to help it compete against Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, the world’s most popular social site. While the new service offers some good features for sharing content with friends, Facebook is an entrenched rival with more than 750 million users, said Charlene Li, an analyst with Altimeter Group in San Mateo, California.

“The people that you’d want to add are in many cases very happy on Facebook and they don’t want to have another social network,” Li said.

U.S. visits to Google+ fell 5.5 percent to 1.16 million during the week ended Aug. 27, after rising 2.6 percent the previous week, according to Experian Hitwise. The company had gained 283 percent the week ended July 16. Still, Google hasn’t opened up the service to everyone yet, so it’s too early to judge user numbers, said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc.
Limited Access

“Google says this is a limited field trial,” he said. “Early reactions from people who have used the service seem very, very positive. But we’re talking about a service that hasn’t been widely opened up, that most consumers can’t get access to.”

Google+, designed to help users better share information, debuted in a trial version on June 28 by invitation only. The service relies on a tool called Circles, which lets members communicate with limited sets of friends, rather than blasting everyone in their network.

The company has been working since then to add more features. Earlier this month, Google+ rolled out a games service with developers such as Zynga Inc. and Rovio Entertainment Oy, creator of the hit “Angry Birds.”

Google said today that it hasn’t released any new Google+ statistics for this month. More than 10 million people have joined the service since its debut in June, the Mountain View, California-based company said.

Experian Hitwise’s research methods, which rely on visits to websites, don’t include mobile users or times when people access the service from the black notification bar running across the top of Google.com.

Google rose 26 cents to $540.96 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have fallen 8.9 percent this year.

Source: Bloomberg

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