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> It wasn't that Google wasn't capable of building a good social network. The the author doesn't dispute this. Building the site was "trivial," but determining
by freyr 11y ago
> It wasn't that Google wasn't capable of building a good social network.
The the author doesn't dispute this. Building the site was "trivial," but determining what to build was the real challenge. And they failed at it, because they didn't understand the users' needs.
Users didn't need a "me-too" social network that was just a facade of the old social network with a fresh coat of paint. If you want to win over users, you'll generally need to either (a) provide something that users need and that the competitor has overlooked, or (b) provide a 10X-better version of something your competitor provides. Google+ didn't come close to doing either.
- mistermann 11y ago> because they didn't understand the users' needs That's generous - users told them repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that they were extremely unhappy with numerous aspects of the platform. Google simply did not care if users liked the product. How they expected it to be a success with that attitude boggles the mind.
- mike_hearn 11y agoFairly simple - a belief that the users who were complaining did not represent the majority of the market.
- Terr_ 11y agoAlternately, perhaps Google cared more about making some of its internal divisions happy than about making customers happy, and that's what drove their definitions/metrics of "success". For example, the "Real-name only" policy was never customer-focused at all, but an incestuous favor to the advertising/profiling panopticon. Similarly, the "forced collapse of all credentials" into G+ (like Youtube identities) probably made some things easier for Google (especially pushing its adoption as an identity-provider) but did a lot of things existing users weren't happy with.
- tamana 11y agoHow does real names relate to advertising? G+ doesn't even have ads. Google already has your browsing history to know your shopping interests. G+ had real names because Facebook had real names.
- Terr_ 11y agoA real name and DOB go a long way to cross-correlating with other information. I work at a market-research company, and we're doing some partnering to correlate with voter records...