Some quick thoughts on why Google+ (still) hasn't worked
James Whittaker, an ex-Googler, writes about how Google+ has sucked the real innovation from what used to be one of the web’s greatest innovators:
The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.
A user exodus from Facebook never materialized. I couldn’t even get my own teenage daughter to look at Google+ twice, “social isn’t a product,” she told me after I gave her a demo, “social is people and the people are on Facebook.”
I think the quite above is the most insightful. Advertising is the real business behind most web companies.
Dot-com’s tried this back in the heydays of the web, but it didn’t work. This isn’t because the model wasn’t right, but for two other important reasons:
Firstly, the Internet is now mobile. Most of us have faster, more reliable connections in our pockets than we could have ever imagined. Companies that are getting the advertising business model right like Facebook are now designing everything for people using their services everywhere.
Secondly, the products were crap. This was partly because the technologies available were still in their ascendancy but mainly it was because of a misconception that people would keep coming back to consume content written for them. It turned out most people didn’t really want to do that, they wanted to share.
This is where it comes back full circle to Google+. They decided to play Facebook at their own game by building a social network. I think all they needed to do was to embed sharing more into their products.
Imagine if Google+ was a great, simple way for you to share and collect things you’ve created or found across Google’s products, without the need to maintain another profile. Google gets what it needs – better data about you so it can target more effective ads, and you’re more likely to use the tool because it doesn’t force you into behaving in particular way, it just happens as part of your normal Googling.
It’s a subtle distinction, but one way Google could have won the next round of social.
