There are many social network sites that people use, but the majority of people seem to be on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, there are other social media sites out there, and Google have been pushing their Google Plus social media site for a long time now, but it just does not seem to have taken off in the way other networks have.
Let’s have a look at what Google Plus offers us first, as to be honest, it offers a lot more than other social media sites, plus it looks pretty damn modern and sexy next to the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
Google+ - What It Offers
FIrst of all, you have what Google call “Circles”. These are basically group categories where you place friends and acquaintances you have met in order to limit where your posts go, or in order to target particular groups. These circles can be named whatever you like, however the basic categories are “Friend”, “Family”, “Acquaintances” and “Following”. An obvious addition here could be “Work” or “Club”, but the possibilities are endless.
The second import part of Google+ is the way you can post comments. It may not look much different to Facebook, but sharing your updates is easier, with a fantastic layout and a much more intuitive design and the sharing capabilities work wonderfully.
I have already touched on the design of Google+, and it’s a feature that cannot be overlooked, the whole layout is perfect. Nice big chunks of space filled with text and pictures, and if you’re viewing on a mobile device it’s even nicer, with great animations of the incoming updates. It modern, it’s sexy and it puts all the other social network sites to shame.
Finally there’s Hangouts. Google Hangouts are a video chatting service with a difference. First of all, its highly integrated into your Google ecosystem, secondly it works seamlessly among all devices regardless of if they are a PC, mobile phone or tablet, and secondly you can video call just one person, or as many as you want in a real virtual hangout! This is a service I use a lot of, video quality is excellent, audio quality is outstanding, and it works every time, flawlessly without fault!
Google+ - Where Is It Going Wrong?
So, Google+ offers all the above, plus it’s simple to add friends and find new friends, Google even give you your own personal named Google page (mine is https://plus.google.com/+MarkAdams1970), so where is it going wrong?
I have been on Google+ since it’s inception, and I follow quite a lot of people on it, but for some reason, unlike Twitter and Facebook, people do not follow back on a similar ratio. I believe the one problem of this is that Google+ does not have a system such as Facebook where people add friends and they instantly become friends of each other, both following regardless.
Some people may see this as a Google+ plus point, however it just means that everyone lives in their own little bubbles, with little to no interaction for the the majority of the posts. Google need to act on this now, and give people the option of unfollowing once the initial follow has been made. Google+ at the moment is like a colourful newsfeed, very much like Twitter on steroids. That is a shame, and one which Google could easily rectify.
Where Next?
I'm going to stick with Google+ and hope that one day it will catch on in a way other social networks have. There has to be a way of making Google+ the go-to place for social media, after all, it does everything so perfectly except making people follow each other in an open and constructive way.
No doubt Google know their flaws, and someone will read this blog post and let me know if I’m just doing something wrong, or if Google really is doing something wrong. Please let me know in the comments below, or on any posts where the link to this blog is posted.
