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In my world that makes about as much sense as 'your corporate intranet facebook'. Heck, just as much as Contoso YouPorn. Zero. Social networks, ignoring the pr

In my world that makes about as much sense as 'your corporate intranet facebook'. Heck, just as much as Contoso YouPorn. Zero. Social networks, ignoring the problems with the current implementations, are for your social life. I enjoy social interactions at work, but most of my social life is _not_ connected to work. So social networks and work don't mix for me. And in what kind of business would you share stuff on a kind-of-but-not-quite blogging platform? That seems to be a SharePoint (no fan either) contender from a very weird angle..

timothya 14y ago
I think it depends on the company, but I disagree with your point in general. There are plenty of companies that would benefit from an easy model for sharing content internally, whether it be links to articles relevant to the company, wide discussions about internal (confidential) topics, or pictures from a recent company BBQ. With the features Google launched today, companies can safely use a social network and assume that internal information will stay that way.
- darklajid 14y ago
  Thanks for the reply. That is done today already. Ignoring SharePoint: Many companies I know of deploy wikis internally (for content) or just have shared network drives (for pictures, movies). Why should that leave the corporate net? And what feature is G+ offering? That thing is about social interactions ('share content', 'chat', 'follow news'). So I have some issues here: 1) Mixing a type of site that is mostly for procrastination (FB, G+, this site) into the company culture doesn't seem a smart move 2) All the useful features of G+ are probably already deployed internally (which company doesn't have a way to share documents/news?). 3) What kind of (business) and size of (numbers of employees) would ever go for this thing? For lots of businesses storing stuff in the cloud is a no-go. For small-to-mid sized companies this seems .. laughable. Posting on G+ to your circle of co-workers sitting behind you/on the same floor, connected to the same network? I'm sure I'm extra harsh because I don't even see the benefits of (some/most of) these products in general, but at work? There's just no way that I can see any added value.
  - Matt_Cutts 14y ago
    Having seen how vibrant the discussion is using these features at Google, I have to disagree. In my experience, G+ is really well-suited for this, and it's way easier than editing a wiki, for example.
    - darklajid 14y ago
      Well, you're talking from experience here. My problem with that datapoint? You work at Google. G+ is your (company's) product. I assume that you had a headstart using G+ (the basic thing) as well and I also assume that this thing is already heavily used. I just don't think that this translates to other places. (Forgive my ignorance and correct any mistake in the generalization hereafter): A huge company with a number of global offices all over the world, full of internet savvy, always online, 'young' early adopters doesn't seem to be a good example for things that make sense in general. Or in other words: I have trouble mapping your experience to any place I worked at so far, plus any customer I've been in contact with here in Europe (with a heavy focus on Germany).
      - dannyr 14y ago
        His experience is his data point. Albeit, he works for Google. What's your data point? Have you used a similar product before? A company I used to work for with 400+ employees had heavy engagement with Yammer.
      - Matt_Cutts 14y ago
        Here's a post from another company that's been using it: http://tomcritchlow.com/private-google-plus-engagement http://tomcritchlow.com/private-google-plus-engagement . I understand that some people might be skeptical of G+ in the workplace. Some people were skeptical of Google Apps in the workplace, and that's fine. But G+ can be a really powerful tool for companies that want to use it. One more anecdote: I have a friend whose company just moved from Lotus Notes to Google Apps, and they love Apps. I can easily see people in that company hopping on video calls or posting internally.
  - timothya 14y ago
VikingCoder 14y ago
"Going for a bike ride this weekend, does anyone want to join me?" "Is anyone else having trouble with the printer on the third floor?" "I think we should buy copies of Beyond Compare. I used it at my last company, and it was awesome." "Hey Chuck, when you get a chance, cal you tell my team about that library you wrote? We have a few questions for you. I'll let them hop on the conversation and ask." "I'm sharing a link to an article I found about that project we did last year." And you can SEARCH these conversations (and the results can show up in your google.com search results, if you use that feature). Even the conversations that happened before your start date.
- duaneb 14y ago
  All of these things could be better done with personal email and mailing lists. I'm much more excited about corporate video conferences.
  - VikingCoder 14y ago
    I think personal email is far worse, particularly because it is not visible to people who start at the company after the conversation starts. Mailing lists are pretty good, but generally companies don't have good tools to quickly make impromptu mailing lists. And I think you're not giving enough attention to the fact that things shared on Google+ can show up in your search results. If you work at a Zoo, and you search for "python," it'd be great to see relevant links about the animal. If you're a programmer, it'd be great to see relevant links about the programming language.
    - duaneb 14y ago
      I mean, meeting someone for lunch doesn't need to be searchable. Mailing lists are searchable at later times. Google search integrates gmail results now. The mailing list software is a good point-does google sell Google Groups software?
msabalau 14y ago
I can empathize with this point of view. I was very skeptical when our company added Socialcast--which scratches a similar itch--but in a large enterprise with people spread out in multiple locations around the world, I've been able to share information and learn from other people I'd never normally interact with because they're in a different continent or line of business. And, for whatever reason, I've found people more likely to share, comment, or help when the interface looks like a social media site. I don't know if smaller, less geographically diverse organization would find this type of tool as helpful.
r00fus 14y ago
No, this is a competitor to SalesForce's Chatter and the like, not Sharepoint (which is more of an enterprise content management tool). The implications for sharing in a social sense aren't as significant as that for work - especially if you happen to work in a more tightly secured workplace - how many families or friend groups will kick you out for inadvertently sharing sensitive data? - that's a real potential career limiting move in the enterprise space.

timothya 14y ago

I think it depends on the company, but I disagree with your point in general. There are plenty of companies that would benefit from an easy model for sharing content internally, whether it be links to articles relevant to the company, wide discussions about internal (confidential) topics, or pictures from a recent company BBQ. With the features Google launched today, companies can safely use a social network and assume that internal information will stay that way.

darklajid 14y ago
Thanks for the reply. That is done today already. Ignoring SharePoint: Many companies I know of deploy wikis internally (for content) or just have shared network drives (for pictures, movies). Why should that leave the corporate net? And what feature is G+ offering? That thing is about social interactions ('share content', 'chat', 'follow news'). So I have some issues here: 1) Mixing a type of site that is mostly for procrastination (FB, G+, this site) into the company culture doesn't seem a smart move 2) All the useful features of G+ are probably already deployed internally (which company doesn't have a way to share documents/news?). 3) What kind of (business) and size of (numbers of employees) would ever go for this thing? For lots of businesses storing stuff in the cloud is a no-go. For small-to-mid sized companies this seems .. laughable. Posting on G+ to your circle of co-workers sitting behind you/on the same floor, connected to the same network? I'm sure I'm extra harsh because I don't even see the benefits of (some/most of) these products in general, but at work? There's just no way that I can see any added value.
- Matt_Cutts 14y ago
  Having seen how vibrant the discussion is using these features at Google, I have to disagree. In my experience, G+ is really well-suited for this, and it's way easier than editing a wiki, for example.
  - darklajid 14y ago
    Well, you're talking from experience here. My problem with that datapoint? You work at Google. G+ is your (company's) product. I assume that you had a headstart using G+ (the basic thing) as well and I also assume that this thing is already heavily used. I just don't think that this translates to other places. (Forgive my ignorance and correct any mistake in the generalization hereafter): A huge company with a number of global offices all over the world, full of internet savvy, always online, 'young' early adopters doesn't seem to be a good example for things that make sense in general. Or in other words: I have trouble mapping your experience to any place I worked at so far, plus any customer I've been in contact with here in Europe (with a heavy focus on Germany).
    - dannyr 14y ago
      His experience is his data point. Albeit, he works for Google. What's your data point? Have you used a similar product before? A company I used to work for with 400+ employees had heavy engagement with Yammer.
    - Matt_Cutts 14y ago
      Here's a post from another company that's been using it: http://tomcritchlow.com/private-google-plus-engagement http://tomcritchlow.com/private-google-plus-engagement . I understand that some people might be skeptical of G+ in the workplace. Some people were skeptical of Google Apps in the workplace, and that's fine. But G+ can be a really powerful tool for companies that want to use it. One more anecdote: I have a friend whose company just moved from Lotus Notes to Google Apps, and they love Apps. I can easily see people in that company hopping on video calls or posting internally.
- timothya 14y ago

VikingCoder 14y ago

"Going for a bike ride this weekend, does anyone want to join me?" "Is anyone else having trouble with the printer on the third floor?" "I think we should buy copies of Beyond Compare. I used it at my last company, and it was awesome." "Hey Chuck, when you get a chance, cal you tell my team about that library you wrote? We have a few questions for you. I'll let them hop on the conversation and ask." "I'm sharing a link to an article I found about that project we did last year." And you can SEARCH these conversations (and the results can show up in your google.com search results, if you use that feature). Even the conversations that happened before your start date.

duaneb 14y ago
All of these things could be better done with personal email and mailing lists. I'm much more excited about corporate video conferences.
- VikingCoder 14y ago
  I think personal email is far worse, particularly because it is not visible to people who start at the company after the conversation starts. Mailing lists are pretty good, but generally companies don't have good tools to quickly make impromptu mailing lists. And I think you're not giving enough attention to the fact that things shared on Google+ can show up in your search results. If you work at a Zoo, and you search for "python," it'd be great to see relevant links about the animal. If you're a programmer, it'd be great to see relevant links about the programming language.
  - duaneb 14y ago
    I mean, meeting someone for lunch doesn't need to be searchable. Mailing lists are searchable at later times. Google search integrates gmail results now. The mailing list software is a good point-does google sell Google Groups software?

msabalau 14y ago

I can empathize with this point of view. I was very skeptical when our company added Socialcast--which scratches a similar itch--but in a large enterprise with people spread out in multiple locations around the world, I've been able to share information and learn from other people I'd never normally interact with because they're in a different continent or line of business. And, for whatever reason, I've found people more likely to share, comment, or help when the interface looks like a social media site. I don't know if smaller, less geographically diverse organization would find this type of tool as helpful.

r00fus 14y ago

No, this is a competitor to SalesForce's Chatter and the like, not Sharepoint (which is more of an enterprise content management tool). The implications for sharing in a social sense aren't as significant as that for work - especially if you happen to work in a more tightly secured workplace - how many families or friend groups will kick you out for inadvertently sharing sensitive data? - that's a real potential career limiting move in the enterprise space.