Google Plus Once the Future of Google Is NOT a Gone Goose

May 31, 2015

I read “Death of Google+ Greatly Exaggerated, Says Its Chief.” This came as a surprise to me. I don’t use any of the social media directly. We have software which squirts some info into various social media channels, but I am happily oblivious to the bloviating about the social media revolution. Isn’t Facebook a version of Geocities? Isn’t Twitter a messaging application? Isn’t Google Plus a chat/bulletin board system? You may find truth, beauty, and the American way in these social apps, but I see variations of email, the telephone, and the old school video conferencing of Databeam (a client decades ago).

The article reports that Google Plus is not dead. Okay, but I didn’t know it was doing much more than trying to figure out how to do what Orkut did before it found itself the object of a certain user cohort’s affections. What did those Brazilians do with Orkut? Gee, I just don’t know.

The write up says:

Google’s embattled social network is alive and well, the product’s boss said at a press event Thursday. But the team behind the product — which has had trouble gaining traction with consumers — is rethinking the goal of the service.

I suppose it is good to have a goal for an expensive, complex service which, if I read the passage correctly, is not exactly growing like Topsy, an electrocuted elephant. Those amusement parks are interesting places.

The new Google Plus will do the Flickr thing with automatic categorization. The new push is, according to the write up:

So why separate the photo features from Google+? Bradley said the social network has a new mission: to connect people based on shared interests. Earlier this month, Google announced a new feature for the product called Collections, which is similar to what rival Pinterest does with its online bulletin boards.

Now there is a “goal”? Splitting up Google Plus services? That rethinking is moving like the pre-electrocution elephant it seems.

Stephen E Arnold, May 31, 2015

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Google, News, Social Media

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.