WebRev Blog

We discussed Google Plus here on WebRev - while it was still in a limited invitation-only beta trial.  in mid-September, it opened up to the public, and saw an immediate surge in membership and traffic.

A web analyst group called Chitika published a report on Friday showing that the new social network's popularity may have been short-lived.  Traffic immediately returned to beta-testing levels within a few days after the site went public (a plunge of nearly 60%).  Obviously, a spike in traffic is going to occur shortly after a successful media promotional campaign and "grand opening," type hype.  After a spike, there where inevitably be a fall in traffic, but a fall to the pre-opening level is a bit of a surprise. 

The Chitika analysts suggest the reason for the decline may be that the site does not really provide a significant service that is not available elsewhere.  They recommend an acceleration in innovation for services like the "hangouts" feature in order for the site to be successful (more on Chitika's blog).

My personal opinion is that in an attempt to become the "next Facebook," Google immediately started replicating Facebook's marketing model (which has worked for Google, too, on its search engine) by incorporating the privacy violations and other data-harvesting "features" that Facebook users find annoying at best, and unacceptable at worst.  In fact, Google took things a step further, and in an effort to make sure all of its users had advertiser-worthy online purchasing credentials insisted that all of its members use the name on their drivers' licenses - even requiring documention from some and encouraging other members to rat-out anyone they knew of that was using a pseudonym.  Suspected violators had their entire Google account (Gmail, photos, ect.) suspended.  (See If your life is not an Open Book, Google Plus may not be for You, and Privacy is not Dead, but its hiding from Google and Facebook).

The other problem Google Plus is going to run into with trying to grow its social network is that unless it finds a way to seamlessly integrate with Facebook, it is actually going to have to pull users away from there.  Facebook has over 800 million users, now, which means that everyone who wants to social network is pretty much already there.  Even though they might be upset with Facebook from time to time, most don't want to go through the trouble of moving all of their pictures, notes, groups, friends, and events over from Facebook to Google Plus without a really good reason.  And joining a new start-up with a reputation for flops like Google Buzz and Google Wave is not a good enough reason.

One thing is for sure.  If "Google Plus" doesn't get this figured out soon, all of those "Google Minus" spoofs might not quite so funny anymore.

(Hat-Tip, MailOnline)

About a month ago, I wrote that Privacy is not Dead, but it's hiding from Google and Facebook, in response to Google's roll-out of it's newest social network, Google+. I had some reservations about it at that time, and hadn't joined yet.

Please note that this new social network, Google Plus (or Google+) is an entirely different feature of Google than an earlier rollout with a similar name, Google +1, which we've covered here before, and which is a way for you to bookmark sites or posts or pages you like.  Google Plus (Plus.Google.com) is a social network, which is meant to eventually compete with Facebook.

So this week, I finally had to give in and join.  It's pretty hard to claim to be interested in social networking without at least TRYING the site that has become the biggest news in social media so far this year, because to its insistence on everyone using their real names.  To get a taste of public opinion on that issue, check out the Twitter feed under #nymwars (that's short for "pseudonym wars).  I have also written in the past on the use of pseudonyms online, but that is a whole different topic.

Let's just say I was shocked at what bits of my private life and past immediately became "public information" as soon as I logged on.  Fortunately, I've always been pretty careful about what I post publicly, so this was all more along the lines of "embarrassingly old," rather than "professionally damaging," but still....

I spent a very frantic half hour or so deleting old photos links to web pages I haven't used in years.  From a third-party perspective, this would probably just be funny, but because it was my life that was suddenly on display, I found it just a bit humiliating at first - then it made me angry.  I found that all of these sharing features were opt-OUT which means that if you don't want to share the information, you have to manually adjust your settings to disable it or remove it from your profile.  I really had to go through every link and page on the site, and I was surprised at just how much information Google had stored over time, and was now "sharing" for me with the world.   I've been using Google for years, so some of those old photos were of people I haven't had contact with in several years, and might not appreciate me sharing on my profile now.  So it wasn't even just MY privacy that was being violated. 

Some of the older information had been uploaded to a feature of Google which is not available anymore which allowed you to post an "enhanced" profile which would show up in the right-hand side-bar of a Google search.  One of my former website domain names has since been purchased by someone else, and is going to someone else's web page.

While I'm trying to figure out how to delete my Google profile without losing information I've stored there, let me just offer two bits of advice:  Consider waiting a while before signing up for Google Plus.  If you don't want to wait, at least review your Google profile, your photo albums (your photos may have originally been uploaded to Picasa), and delete anything you no longer want to share.

I know all of you have been wondering when I'm going to write about Google+, Google's newest attempt at a Facebook-killer.  Well, I've been waiting to receive an invitation to the beta, but I've also been reading preliminary reports from beta testers. 

The timing of the rollout of the new social network happened at a time when a lot of Facebook users were having their accounts suspended for using pseudonyms.  Facebook has a history of periodically going through its ranks and deleting a bunch of accounts with obvious "fake" names.  This is very frustrating for people who use online "handles," for privacy and security reasons.  It's mostly for show, however, because with over 600 million users, Facebook's enforcement of any policy to use "real" names can only be spotty at best.  But during this last wave of banned Facebook users, Google opened up its new social network to beta testing, so many of the Facebook rejects flocked to Google+. 

Many assumed that because they already had Google accounts (Gmail, etc.), they would automatically be welcomed with open arms at Google.  Well, as it turns out, in a move being dubbed as #plusgate by Twitter users, Google is not only banning users with pseudonyms from the new social network, but it is then freezing their Gmail accounts, effetively locking them out of Google altogether.  Huh?  Andrew Bunner, of Google is even encouraging Google+ users to report anyone they suspect of using a "fake name," explaining he only wants real people on the network (apparently, he does not consider those who use avatars to protect their privacy and security to be "real people").

The outrage over not being able to sign up for (and thus keep up with) one more social network seems a little overblown to me, but I do not think this is a smart move on Google's part.  Yes, it is a lot harder to harvest people's personal data and sell it to advertisers and marketers if they refuse to give you their full legals names, but people who use their real names for much of anything but online profile management and job hunting tend to skew young (read: lack of actual funds).  Obviously, there are exceptions, but most have nothing to lose, so they don't yet understand the value of protecting their privacy and securing their personal data online.  The people who actually have bank accounts and businesses and families and jobs to protect are a little more stingy with their personal data.  Just sayin'.

Oh, well.  Google is a good search engine and up until now has been a pretty good email client, but their other projects have not gone so well.  It's starting to look like Google+ is simply going to be another Google Wave or Google Buzz (never heard of those? Don't worry - most people haven't.)

Meanwhile, if you have anything stored in your Gmail account of value, you might consider backing it up before you jump into Google+.