I don’t get it.
What’s the rush?
Why do so many feel the need to play judge and jury when it comes to Google+?
It will either change our lives or it’s another Google failure.
I don’t know what will become of it, but I do know this: no one truly knows what will become of it. Pretending to know a true answer is as foolish as calling yourself a “social media expert.”
Youʼre probably like me: you jumped on G+ shortly after its release in late June. Shiny object, meet social media nerds. And while some of the bells and whistles were interesting, G+ quickly became a barren wasteland.
But hold on a second: Google claimed millions upon millions of users. Many were convinced it was the Facebook killer. Others labeled it the Twitter killer. It would surely end up “winning” whatever the heck competition we’re keeping score of here. Besides, its initial growth dwarfed the respective starts of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
Millions more people are using social media now than when those other three sites launched. Wouldnʼt it make sense that a social network would grow faster these days, especially if it was engineered by a tech superpower? But just like we should not overly praise G+ for its initial numbers, itʼs also foolish to bury it because of its inconsistent start.
Think about Twitterʼs launch. That was back March 2006. When did you become an active tweeter? If you claim some time in ʼ06 youʼre either lying or youʼre the earliest of early adopters.
How about Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg unleashed his time-consuming invention to the world in 2004. Except, it wasn’t for the world at that time. It was for college kids.
Despite starts that didn’t match G+ in sheer numbers, Twitter and Facebook have done ok for themselves.
G+ has essentially come at us in two waves. The first was the “invite only” stage. Exclusivity peaked interest and the wave went up. Not much happened while on that wave though, and it went down.
Then last month, G+ opened to the public. Google also used its homepage, the web’s most valuable real estate, and “advertised” its social media site. Up the wave went.
Now we’re in another lull, but more waves are coming. Google is slowly bringing more celebrities and athletes aboard. Soon, we’ll see the long-awaited release of brand pages.
Is all of that going to make it a huge success? Maybe, maybe not.
It’s still way too early to predict it as a Facebook killer, just like it’s too early to call it Google Buzz, Part 2.
Why don’t we all just take a deep breath and let it breathe a bit? It’s ok if we don’t know what will ultimately happen with G+.
Let’s stop rushing to judgment and just enjoy the ride.
