> Wasn't it the case for gmail? For me gmail is still the best webmail around. You dont need other people to use gmail to be able to use gmail. Email is standa

> Wasn't it the case for gmail? For me gmail is still the best webmail around. You dont need other people to use gmail to be able to use gmail. Email is standardized, so gmail as a client could be evaluated on its own merits. Since it was good, usage grew. There were no external factors outside gmail which could slow down gmails growth. Social networks show network effects. You cant use a new social network with your real social network being somewhere else. If the initial growth is slow, the early adopters will be pretty alone there, for a long time. The new network has to have advantages over the old to justify the initial isolation period. FB had advantages over MySpace, so users slowly crept over. G+ had basically nothing over FB other than this "not evil" label they gave themselves. Then they started strictly enforcing a real name policy, which many users perceive as evil, and the "no evil" label is perceived as a blatant lie. This removes their (imho) main advantage over FB, and without a net gain, less and less people bother to try.