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Google+ is not Facebook, and it's just getting started -- At this point, I don't see how anyone outside of Google could think they have a strong enough grasp on
by espeed 15y ago
Google+ is not Facebook, and it's just getting started -- At this point, I don't see how anyone outside of Google could think they have a strong enough grasp on what's in store to come to these conclusions.
You don't see any Facebook profile postings on Hacker News, but PG had to change the HN URL format to accommodate all the Google Plus postings. Moreover, a Google Play link just appeared on my black bar -- Google Plus will come more into Play as it goes mainstream.
- mikeryan 15y agoI don't see how anyone outside of Google at this point could have a strong enough grasp on what's in store to come to these conclusions. I do. I don't believe there's a feature that G+ can add that will overcome the friction of changing social networks from Facebook to G+. I think Facebook will eventually lose its luster, but its going to be to something completely different then another "Social Network".
- dannyr 15y agoHow do you have a strong enough grasp? Do you have insider information?
- huggyface 15y agoI don't believe there's a feature that G+ can add that will overcome the friction of changing social networks from Facebook to G+. To me I've found that G+ sits in a continuum where LinkedIn is far on one side (the professional world), Facebook on the other, and Google+ sits somewhere in the middle. They can grow from that niche.
- Retric 15y agoFacebook is dying on several fronts. Most notably it's made a deal with the devil by allowing it's profitability to become closely tied to Zenga style 'social' games which drive people away. That's not to say it's going to die quickly, but neither did Yahoo. I don't know if G+ is going to win or if something else is going to show up. But Facebook as a public company is going to be squesed to extract ever more revenue from it's users and that's exactly the behavior that drives people away from 'free' sites.
- saraid216 15y agoI think Facebook will eventually lose its luster, but its going to be to something completely different then another "Social Network". The thing about Google+, at least how I use it, is that it's a news aggregator rather than a friend feed. I find it more useful to compare it with HN than Facebook.
- antics 15y agoI hesitate to write this, but: Google Play is cool, but social isn't about features. It's about people, and the people are on Facebook. Maybe Google+ isn't designed to supplant Facebook, and maybe it shouldn't be, but it's hard to argue that it wasn't designed at least with Facebook in mind. Like it or not, Facebook directly stores and controls a tremendously large chunk of the data in the world, and to top it off it is arguable that it is this data is most important to people personally, since they spend so much more time with it than they do with, say, Wikipedia. Regardless of whether G+ is a direct Facebook competitor or not, this chunk of information is also off-limits to Google, and the result is that Facebook as an entity poses an existential threat to the entire company, whose job is expressly to make information accessible and searchable. Search isn't going anywhere, but if the most important information is locked away by Zuckerberg and Company, then it may also not be going anywhere especially interesting. In spite of what I just said, I will grant that you're right when you say that Google+ isn't Facebook. The comparison is almost certain to be unflattering to Google+, and it misses something essential. In particular, regardless of what TC or any other pop-tech journalism firm likes to admit, Google did get one thing profoundly right with Google+. The ability to share blog-style posts in a more freely social setting has catapulted the site to popularity among a nontrivial portion of very prominent academics, not to mention the very influential tech people who use it. Facebook was the minority when it launched to ivy league schools, but one key to their success was that they had the attention of the right people. Google may not be popular, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. Time will tell what happens from here on out, but it will be ironic if the prominent hackers who jump ship because Google is changing ended up jumping ship so that a new set of hackers could build something cool in their place. While I ended up agreeing with a lot of the points of the original TC article, I think your conclusion ended up being more right, and it is truly unfortunate that Google+ does not get defended as it probably should.
- espeed 15y agoSearch isn't going anywhere, but if the most important information is locked away by Zuckerberg and Company, then it may also not be going anywhere especially interesting. As Google+ grows, it could put pressure on Facebook to open up.
- rbarooah 15y ago"Google+ is not Facebook, and it's just getting started -- At this point, I don't see how anyone outside of Google could think they have a strong enough grasp on what's in store to come to these conclusions." You can say that about any product from any company. With smart players, it's often true, but it's not informative.