Certainly I support new social platforms. Do not misinterpret this post. But really? Google+ still has me scratching my head in terms of marketing strategy.
Of course I get the “beta” launch idea. Special invites help promote viral growth. Get on the waiting list or finagle an invite from a “friend” from your other social neighborhoods. I did get on the mythical “list.” I did finagle an invite from a friend.
Google never contacted the list as far as I know to say, “Yay! You’re welcome in now, we’ve proved our point.” And frankly, the wow factor wasn’t there to keep me staying tuned for more information.
I watched the experts weigh in.
I watched my friends weigh in.
I got an invite. But then my dad got sick. And house projects came. And work got busy.
Today I decided to discover Google+. What the heck, I thought, I want to see if this is somewhere I want to be.
I clicked on my invite. I waited for the browser to load. I got Google’s message: We no longer support this browser version.
Huh?
It occurred to me that if Google+ is a neighborhood that I am being asked to join it reminds me of the scary ones I visited when searching to buy my home. Ill lit. Keep out signs posted.
Facebook appears a shining beacon of Utopia in comparison and believe me, I have my own love-hate relationship with FB
So as a writer I should be able to equate Google+ to something colorful, right?
Google+ = A flashy amusement park with no clear entrance.
Google+ = An Escher drawing with conflicting staircases.
I do know some people are hanging in there, I can hear them. But admit it, there is a certain apathy about how they talk about it, isn’t there?
Maybe I’ll buy a flash light and ask IT to upgrade my browser. And yes, I could go to the site and sign in/up/whatever again, but I don’t know. My social incentive is pretty low right now.
I have started to feel that Google views us as all as a restless mob roaming to find greener grass just over the hill and that any grass will do. “See, look at this patch,” they say, pointing to the far off Google+.
Maybe we are.
But do we really need another Twitter or Facebook? Wouldn’t it be totally awesome to cross over that hill and discover something entirely new that stops us in our tracks for a moment, breathless at the ingenuity and panache? Something that actually lets people in?
I vote for awesome.
2 comments
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October 27, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Erik Hare
I think that google wanted to see what people want/need – so they threw something out there that was structured well but completely missing a lot of integration and features. There’s a huge risk inherent in this strategy (if that is what they are doing) but it could produce something great in the end. It’s up to users to define it – but if they are quickly bored it will go nowhere. We shall see how the new revision goes.
In the end, however, it’s only a tool in the toolbox.
October 28, 2011 at 12:44 pm
rubyshoetoo
Thanks, Erik, really good reminder on it being the users that help define it into something bigger/better, more useful. I will suspend judgment and watch the next rev with interest too.