It’s been about a month since Google started testing its shiny new social media platform on the world at large. Well, on social media enthusiasts at least. It seems that they only people posting in my stream are the extreme social media users – the guru’s and the wannabe gurus. Each day I sign in there is countless posts from the same few people. It’s a bit like Twitter in that if you are following a heavy user your stream gets bogged down by their constant dialogue.
I know there is a way to hide these constant chatterers from showing up in your stream but then doesn’t that defeat the purpose? It’s not very sociable to hide – but then at any party, who hasn’t taken measures to hide from the annoying guy who won’t stop droning on about every minute detail of his day? And just like any social occasion doesn’t it seem like they are talking to their own clique and not really mingling with the other guests?
Once its unleashed on the general public it will be interesting to see how well this new platform is excepted by the masses. Will the draw of circles be enough to pull market share away from Facebook? Will users be willing to trust that one circle can’t be viewed by another? What will Google have to do to earn not only the trust of new members? How will they capture loyalty and stem migration back to the current giants?
If they don’t hurry and open the platform up to the masses I wonder if they will miss their opportunity and fade quietly into the background. People won’t sit around forever waiting – they will move on to the next new bright shiny object that catches their fancy. Hurry up Google, hurry up!
