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Am I the only one who actually liked Google+? I know that some of the features were available later in some other social networks too, but the original premise

Am I the only one who actually liked Google+? I know that some of the features were available later in some other social networks too, but the original premise of making groups (friends, family, coworkers, random people I met I don't know where,...) and posting selective content into selective groups was great.

anonyfox 4y ago
it actually was a great idea and had a good implementation. but google seems not capable to promote/market/maintain/grow a product, especially not something targeting the younger side of the B2C market like a social network. and then the monetarization was pretty bad I guess, so it was orphaned and then killed. Now its tiktok, and these "first gen social networks" (like facebook, twitter, ...) are a boomer playground mostly, even instagram is slowly getting to that list. Aside from the tech or the medium (video vs photo vs text vs ...) I think this will happen every few years when the youth receives friend requests from tgeir parents on platform X - thats the peak/decline moment no matter how great it is.
- ajsnigrutin 4y ago
  Most of those social networks are responsible for their own demise... Facebook was for looking at content from friends, and then it moved to mainstream media recommended content, ads, and every 20 or so posts, something from a person you actually knew. People then switched to instagram, where it was based around photos (and not "statuses"), and it was great... now it's 20 photos/videos of "suggested content" and one of someone you actually know. Social networks should stay social, not become another cable tv provider with "recomended content" and ads.
- hot_gril 4y ago
  G+ wasn't designed to be very usable, even ignoring the part where they had 0 users. It was a nerdy design seemingly trying to bring the fun of ACL systems to the public. Btw, one lasting disconnect between most Google SWEs and the general public: many SWEs consider YouTube a social network today.
wink 4y ago
Some good ideas and horrible execution. First of all the UI wasn't great, then you were forced to use your (back then) "real-name" Google account, and no third party clients. Maybe it was different for people who live and breathe GMail and the google ecosystem but for me it was a walled garden from the start and I kinda hated the UI.
sharno 4y ago
I loved google+, the UI wasn't the best but I had a feeling that if they take their time to polish it they'd have had something that'd attract people.

anonyfox 4y ago

it actually was a great idea and had a good implementation. but google seems not capable to promote/market/maintain/grow a product, especially not something targeting the younger side of the B2C market like a social network. and then the monetarization was pretty bad I guess, so it was orphaned and then killed. Now its tiktok, and these "first gen social networks" (like facebook, twitter, ...) are a boomer playground mostly, even instagram is slowly getting to that list. Aside from the tech or the medium (video vs photo vs text vs ...) I think this will happen every few years when the youth receives friend requests from tgeir parents on platform X - thats the peak/decline moment no matter how great it is.

ajsnigrutin 4y ago
Most of those social networks are responsible for their own demise... Facebook was for looking at content from friends, and then it moved to mainstream media recommended content, ads, and every 20 or so posts, something from a person you actually knew. People then switched to instagram, where it was based around photos (and not "statuses"), and it was great... now it's 20 photos/videos of "suggested content" and one of someone you actually know. Social networks should stay social, not become another cable tv provider with "recomended content" and ads.
hot_gril 4y ago
G+ wasn't designed to be very usable, even ignoring the part where they had 0 users. It was a nerdy design seemingly trying to bring the fun of ACL systems to the public. Btw, one lasting disconnect between most Google SWEs and the general public: many SWEs consider YouTube a social network today.

wink 4y ago

Some good ideas and horrible execution. First of all the UI wasn't great, then you were forced to use your (back then) "real-name" Google account, and no third party clients. Maybe it was different for people who live and breathe GMail and the google ecosystem but for me it was a walled garden from the start and I kinda hated the UI.

sharno 4y ago

I loved google+, the UI wasn't the best but I had a feeling that if they take their time to polish it they'd have had something that'd attract people.