I was asked for my take on Google Plus on the day of launch. So here it is:
1. Competition can only help the social networking space. If Google+ gains any traction then Facebook may look to match and better. Hopefully the user wins.
2. The social networking space is littered with shipwrecks over the last decade +. Just on the odds alone (not the product) the chances of anyone succeeding are low.
3. The social networking space has also been one of rising and falling stars. MySpace.
4. Google needs this bad. Social search is a big hole in their search offering. (Not good for a search company) Social recommendations can be an important factor in the decision to buy.
5. Because its important Google will probably keep evolving this. Think Chrome, Gmail & Docs. What we see now could look quite different a few years down the track.
6. Google has attacked the biggest weakness in Facebook – controlling the level of intimacy – with its drag and drop Circles. Interesting to see how well it works. Just as interesting will be the workarounds to allow Facebook connections to be move into the Google ecosystem.
7. Facebook does not need to fail for Google to be successful with this. The +1 data are are potentially more valuable to Google than its non-search competitors. And Google can monetize anyone in its ecosystem by serving paid search results.
8. Google has existing properties – like YouTube – where the +1 could be rolled out straight away.
9. Fits nicely with Google’s new inititatives in local business, payment and deals. e.g. have “show me deals” enabled on your mobile, get the alert, grab a meal across the road, pay with Google payment and give a +1 rating. Google makes money on the front end – deal and payment – and gets the +1 data for its backend. Nice business model.
10. Hangouts group video chat looks interesting. Could we see another MS (Skype) vs. Google (Hangouts) battle for this space?
And if you’re not sure what this is about A simple explanation of Google Plus is here
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