12 ms·

I'd argue different to the other replies so far. The reasons were: First and foremost, it's a Google product. Google's own internal structural failings are pre

I'd argue different to the other replies so far. The reasons were: First and foremost, it's a Google product. Google's own internal structural failings are predisposed to create and then kill products. https://killedbygoogle.com https://killedbygoogle.com It had a different usage model ("Circles") to the things people already had and understood. Twitter, Facebook etc. And it didn't map clearly to those existing understood structures. It was more complicated for end users, was unintuitive and badly explained. I didn't "get it" until someone either on HN or Reddit explained how it was supposed to work. Google tried to use Google+ to replace YouTube comments. Something YouTube users didn't want, something it wasn't good at, and something that was badly communicated and extremely badly received. People actively resented the product as a result. Google mishandled some big issues. Requiring "real names" went down like a lead balloon, something they had to walk back years later, but not before using it to replace YouTube comments. It could have been lucrative and sticky glue between Google properties. Instead it was the crappy old spiderweb you accidentally get stuck to your face while cleaning out the shed.

NikolaNovak 3y ago
Yeah, I was going to respond with a grouchy "Circles are the most intuitive thing in the world" non-self-aware response :P, but you're right. A lot of people didn't know what to do with them! As is frequently the case, my mind can work differently than other people, and Circles were "YES! THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!" instant-love for me. Heck, I've been trying to do it with facebook for years and I just can't - it has a "Groups" or something functionality, but it's burried and difficult to use and complete pain to setup. Whereas for me, circles were amazing to both send and receive. I have a group of friends that are interested in photography, and a group of friends interested in computers, and a group for astronomy and philosophy and bicycling and whatnot. So I can place people and or they can subscribe to what they want to see from me. Similarly, people would create a circle of say interesting photographers, and you can then share that circle and copy that circle and modify that circle and subscribe to that circle. What ended up happening for me is that after a bit of time, I had a daily feed that was just... way better than any algorithm or AI or ML or privacy-invasive company ever managed to accomplish. Just high quality stuff all around. But also my friends and followers also received better quality stuff from me, as I could tailor who gets to see what. I also liked the interface at the time, seemed to actually use my wide screen monitor, be clean, and relatively uninvasive (open FB on a 32" monitor and you barely get more useful text than on the 6" phone to this day)
- jefftk 3y ago
  Circles were so close to what I wanted, but still not quite there. I want to be able to say "these are the people who would probably like to see this post", which Circles let me do, but then it went farther and wouldn't allow others to see the post. There was no way to make the post public but tell the platform that the post was aimed at the Circle.

NikolaNovak 3y ago

Yeah, I was going to respond with a grouchy "Circles are the most intuitive thing in the world" non-self-aware response :P, but you're right. A lot of people didn't know what to do with them! As is frequently the case, my mind can work differently than other people, and Circles were "YES! THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!" instant-love for me. Heck, I've been trying to do it with facebook for years and I just can't - it has a "Groups" or something functionality, but it's burried and difficult to use and complete pain to setup. Whereas for me, circles were amazing to both send and receive. I have a group of friends that are interested in photography, and a group of friends interested in computers, and a group for astronomy and philosophy and bicycling and whatnot. So I can place people and or they can subscribe to what they want to see from me. Similarly, people would create a circle of say interesting photographers, and you can then share that circle and copy that circle and modify that circle and subscribe to that circle. What ended up happening for me is that after a bit of time, I had a daily feed that was just... way better than any algorithm or AI or ML or privacy-invasive company ever managed to accomplish. Just high quality stuff all around. But also my friends and followers also received better quality stuff from me, as I could tailor who gets to see what. I also liked the interface at the time, seemed to actually use my wide screen monitor, be clean, and relatively uninvasive (open FB on a 32" monitor and you barely get more useful text than on the 6" phone to this day)

jefftk 3y ago
Circles were so close to what I wanted, but still not quite there. I want to be able to say "these are the people who would probably like to see this post", which Circles let me do, but then it went farther and wouldn't allow others to see the post. There was no way to make the post public but tell the platform that the post was aimed at the Circle.