John D. Sutter

John D. Sutter 

First if all, from what Google has told us, Google+ isn't a competitor to Facebook. If you don't have that in your article, then you don't really understand what your're talking about and probably shouldn't be explaining it to other people as a voice of authority.

Google Plus, Google's much-chided version of Facebook, celebrated its first birthday last week.

Google+ isn't facebook anymore than LinkedIN is Facebook or MySpace is Twitter. Or, to put in terms everyone can understand, my motorcycle is not the same as my truck. Sure they're both mediums of travel, but they serve two different purposes and uses. Facebook is a great place to connect with your friends and acquaintances, Twitter is where you broadcast and G+ is where you connect to the world. 

Another thing I'm tired of seeing in all these articles chastising Google+ for not being Facebook is how it's all a numbers game. Oh, Facebook has 900million users and Google+ only has 250million, 150million active users? Well, where was Facebook at it's one year mark? Where was MySpace or Friendster? LinkedIN's been around for years, has it hit the 150million user mark? Yes, but after 9 years. How about Twitter? Because the people are on the book the Brands are there and as the people come to Google+ more and more Brands are coming to Google+. It's that simple.Basic market analysis the only real qualifying condition is that FB has a 7 year head start and marketing professionals jumped on that bandwagon. Google+ is still creating it's market.

This line of thought reminds me of that quote: 

*“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” 
― Albert Einstein*

People, these tech writers, keep comparing the Plus to Facebook and potential users who might take the Plus up are getting bad information. What very few tech writers are noting is that Facebook is good at what Facebook does: it connects you with your friends from your real life, whether those friends are people you haven't seen in years or those people you see every day. For the most part, you're still within your real life connections.

Google+ is more open to the world, connecting people who we might not otherwise have met in real life. We are connected by mutual interest, not whether we grew up in the same town or work at the same place or are someone's ex's brother-in-law.

To get back to the Einstein quote, if you're comparing a fish to a squirrel and chastising the fish because it cannot climb a tree, then you truly do not understand the fish. Or, 

*“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” 
― Albert Einstein*

If you're only way of explaining something is to tell me that it's not something else, then you don't understand it.

Originally shared by John D. Sutter

Main reasons G+ isn't dead: You're reading this; new features; mobile apps are rad; it's the "social glue" for other products; and... you're reading this. 
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/02/tech/social-media/google-plus-not-dead/index.html

Comments

Trey Collier said…
"G+ is where you connect to the world" ?      G+ is where you connect with others on subjects you are passionate about and where you engage and make new friends.    Could be down the street, or around the world.   Where matters not.   Engagement does.
Jason ON said…
Trey Collier, And that's what I mean by that. There are no existing restrictions, whether real or inferred, to whom you can connect to, while on most other social networks, like Facebook, you generally need to have some sort of pre-existing relationship with the person. LinkedIN restricts to people you already know, FB is supposed to be for exiting friends although some people consider it a numbers game and connect to everyone they can, especially famous people. Twitter connects to the worlds, but can you really have a conversation in 140 characters or less? Could you have typed out that previous comment? Could I have typed out this one?
Tim Bond said…
Jason ON You said essentially what I was typing, so I'll start over.

You can hold real conversations here that are completely impossible in Twitter. I wish people realized that rather than trying to hold chats or conversations on Twitter.  The professional organization I am in, for instance, holds a weekly Twitter chat that I used to participate in. When G+ came about I suggested that they at least TRY to use this because it allows actual conversation, but they chose to keep with the less-than-useful twitter chat (and I have stopped participating). 

As for the Facebook comparison, if people could just stop imagining an either-or world, they'd be much happier and get the most out of both networks. Facebook is, as you mention, for people you know and want to stay connected to.  Google+, while similar, lets you more easily join in and begin conversations in areas that interest you with people you don't already know.
Ryan McReynolds said…
Does anyone have a graph of user adoption comparing FB, Twitter and Google+ on a timeline?

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