After playing on the periphery of social media for years, Google recently launched the newest evolutionary level in the world of social media, Google+.
“Whenever a company with the size, power and reach of a Google launches anything, it is a big deal and you have take notice,” said Kieran Hawe, Stamford-based digital and social-media consultant.
Pronounced and sometimes written Google Plus or G+, the social network service was launched on June 28 in an invite-only phase. The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends, who are above 18 years of age, to the service to create their own accounts. Currently to become a user of Google+, you must be invited by a member.
Hawe said he remains cynical of the new service because Google has missed the mark before with products like Google Wave and Buzz.
“Google+ has the same hype but the product itself is more solid and has had almost endless praise for its use of social elements like Circles for people management and content discovery,” said Hawe.
Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services like Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles.
Kris Ruby president and founder of Ruby Media Group in Mount Kisco, N.Y., said Google has taken a model defined by Facebook and capitalized on some of the sharing issues users run into. Ruby said by giving users the ability to set up barriers, called Circles, between people they are linked to, there is a greater degree of control.
“The ”˜Circles”™ feature will serve as a new approach to social media in terms of the ability to categorize content efficiently,” said Ruby. “This is a very specific need that is not being addressed in Facebook and Twitter.”
Google+ is also offering a feature it calls “Hangouts,” which permits up to 10 users to participate in a video call; a service that could ease multiple locations employees to engage in a video conference call. Google+ also offers unlimited photo space for its users.
“Another major difference is Google+ instills a new concept of targeted grouping of contacts to make it easier to sort friends,” said Ruby. “It is interesting to note that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, immediately joined Google+ after its launch.”
Google+ will also be available as a desktop application and as a mobile application, but only on Android and Apple”™s iOS operating systems. On July 14, 2011, Google announced that Google+ had reached 10 million users two weeks after it launched its limited phase. Facebook reported over 750 million users this year.
Jon Victor, CEO of Engage 121 Inc. in Norwalk, said his company is currently skeptical of the longevity of Google+.
“Consumers conspire to create monopolies,” said Victor. He said it can be difficult for consumers to change from their standard-use channel even if there are other technologies out there.
“Today the standard is Facebook,” said Victor. “No one wants to transfer all of their pictures and content to another platform.”
Hawe said he doubts Google+ will replace Facebook.
“Facebook is not a MySpace,” said Hawe. “However, if I was Twitter I would be worried. Being on G+ since it went live, there seems to be a huge overlap in regards to the content people are sharing on both G+ and Twitter.”
Hawe said he is still unsure Google+ will have as great an application for businesses as Facebook or Twitter.
“At the very least companies need to keep an eye on the impact Google+ will have on other Google products like Places and search results, both paid and organic.” Hawe said the business options could turn out to be endless or minimal, but because it is Google you have to pay attention.
Ruby said businesses that have difficulty grasping Facebook and Twitter will again have difficulty grasping another major player in the space.
“I do expect Google+ to be a tipping point where businesses can start to actively look for advanced social media services,” Ruby said.
Ruby said the biggest advantage of Google + for businesses is the ability to separate the content you share for personal contacts versus business contacts.
“Facebook does not have a feature like this,” said Ruby. “By categorizing friend groups from colleagues to family and friends, the information shared will be more focused and appropriate for each group, rather than sharing it with all 2,000 contacts at once.”
Ruby said it has been released that a business-oriented version of Google+ will be released later in the year.
“If Google+ tried to do exactly what Facebook does then those needs are served,” said Victor. “The next generation for Facebook is e-commerce. Facebook is already becoming a giant, worldwide shopping mall open 24-7. However Facebook is a novice in e-commerce. Google is an expert. Google facilitates more e-commerce than the rest of the entire web combined. If Google takes the e-commerce path with their social networking then they could gain parity in the long-run; if they play the exact same game as Facebook, then no chance.”
