Google+ Initial Impressions from Rosemont Media Team
Google+ is the search engine giant’s latest attempt to grab a piece of the social media pie. While initial impressions are favorable with a Google-confirmed 10 million users in two weeks, serious doubts remain regarding the potential success of the platform (Orkut anyone?). In addition to recapping some of the latest Google+ news from around the web, stay tuned to the Rosemont Review for further impressions from the RM team.
As mentioned in the video, Google+ is not open to everyone yet. So what happens when the novelty wears off and everybody has had a chance to try the supposed Facebook-killer? According to the RM team, there’s only one way to continue to attract new users and have any chance at making waves in the social media community: don’t screw up.
Facebook to Google+: Don’t Worry, We’ll Mop Up Your Mess
Comparisons are inevitable. Google isn’t pulling any punches and clearly wants a piece of Facebook’s success. Why else would Larry Page tie all Google employee bonuses to the success of the company’s social strategy?
A single mistake in Facebook’s shadow would likely send users packing; the attraction, outside of the exclusivity currently driving support, just isn’t there yet. 10 million users still falls well short of Facebook’s total user numbers, somewhere around the 700 million range, and the more than 250 million active users.
Nevertheless, you won’t win much money betting against Google, so the RM team is weighing in on the good, the bad, and the socially fatigued. After reading through our initial impressions of Google+, visit the Rosemont Media Facebook page and let us know what you think of the platform.
Google+ Initial Impressions
What we love about Google+
- Google+ Circles is a major hit with the RM Team so far. Creating separate channels of friends, family, work, and beyond distinguishes it from Facebook. The ability to spread your stream of news across as many, or as few circles as you’d like in a straight forward, easy-to-use manner is just what the doctor ordered. Score one for Google+.
What we hate about Google+
- One problem we have Google+ is the inability to connect our work email through Gmail with a Google Profile. To begin to see personalized search results, we have to sign in with our personal Gmail accounts. This issue is likely to be solved as Google opens up Google+ for businesses, but we’re curious about how this will happen.
- This one is a potential negative. How will Google integrate advertising into the platform? Some of the team already worries about the unsolicited emails many users will receive as more and more invites are released. But we all know the advertisers are waiting. How Google handles this step could be the make or break moment for Google+.
What success looks like for Google+
- Our CEO Keith Humes says the most important element to the success of Google+ is user adoption. While 10 million users in two weeks is impressive, what happens when everyone has access to the community, the novelty is gone, and we’re faced with rebuilding our social presence in yet another place online? He adds that if Google+ is going to be successful, figuring out a way to syndicate a user’s social media content and collect everything a user creates online in one place is a great first step.
What we’d add to Google+
- We would like to see some further development of the “+1” or “Like” button, so we are not only able to contribute to the success of quality online content we happen to enjoy, but can also tag a site with a “-1” or “Dislike” button for sites that offer nothing of value. This seems like a necessary step in the evolution of social media, and one Google would do well to introduce before Facebook. After all, as search results become more personalized, and take cues from our search habits as well as our friends, how else can we tell Google we don’t want certain things in our stream?
Google+ Questions Remain
- Google+ Circles: one concern we have is whether the simplicity of Circles will remain when more people sign on. Will members of your community continue to fit neatly into their respective buckets, or will list of best friends, work friends, forgotten friends, and acquaintances complicate the issue and leave us more confused and overwhelmed than before?
- For Humes, the elephant in the room concerns Google’s answer to one of the biggest Facebook successes as far as the Rosemont Media team is concerned: Business Pages. He says the potential is huge, as the first layer of Google+ is impressive. However, without a significant upgrade from Business Pages, it’s tough to make a case for building another network from scratch.
Final Thoughts on Google+ Impact
While Google+ is still in its infancy, the first two weeks have exceeded expectations from our viewpoint. The next two weeks should tell us a great deal more about the potential within the Google+ platform, and just how entertaining the Battle Royale for social media dominance will be.
With rumors that Google is pushing up the release of their Business Profile, and the nervous activity coming from the Facebook camp (see Zuckerberg Shamed into Reactivating Google+), we’re betting this will be the summer blockbuster we’ve been waiting for.