This week I read an article about Google+. It was written in June of last year and describes the then new social network, Google+. During that time, it was in beta, and only available by invitation. I managed to get one of the invitations and joined. A few of my friends joined and we would occasionally post something. That was months ago.
One of Google+'s advantages was supposed to be the ability to limit what you share to specific groups of people. That was supposed to be the reason people would switch to it from Facebook. So you would not do things like this . You would be able to post something that only your friends could see and your coworker would never know that you posted anything at all. Just exactly like you could with groups on Facebook. So the question becomes, why leave a social network when you are comfortable and all of your friends are for a new network with less of the people with whom you connect?
Most people on Google+ never left Facebook and/or Twitter. They simply added it to their social networks. And after a few days or weeks, many of them stopped updating. Why? Because they already connected with the same people on Facebook and Twitter. I personally have not posted anything on Google+ since December 26, 2011. I had not even logged back into it until today. By not logging in for two and a half months, had I really missed anything? No. All of the posts that I found from various people in my circles were "paralel posts," posts that people have automatically go to Facebook and Google+, Twitter and Google+, or even Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. I find Google+ to simply be redundant.
I had to sign up for google+ for a math class and that was the first and last I had heard of it. I understand you can put people in circles and whatnot, which I think is a good idea, but Facebook already has something similar to this in which you can change who gets to see what. I think all google+ has done is give Facebook a better idea of how to accomplish these privacy settings more efficiently and I think it's only a matter of time before we see circles on Facebook!
ReplyDeletePS. I really liked your link on funny Facebook statuses!!!
-Janelle Moore
I did the same thing as you. I got an invitation to Google+, signed up, and have not posted anything. To be fair, I haven't been all that active on any social media lately because of school. Maybe this will all change once I graduate but I doubt it. Google+ hasn't offered me and mine a reason to switch. Not yet.
ReplyDelete-Darenna Rainsdon
I too think that Google+ is pretty irrelevant in the shadow of Facebook. I signed up right away, but I can't ever remember to post there! My Twitter and Facebook are connected and anything I want to say goes through one of those two channels. I think it's like Darenna said - it just hasn't given me a reason to switch yet.
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