Google’s long-rumoured new social project finally arrived this week and there’s little doubt that it’s off to a good start.Consisting of Facebook-style sharing and discussion; group video chat; mobile group messaging and automated content discovery, Google+ has been met with the general approval of early adopters lucky enough to get in. Demand for access is high, with invites even being sold on eBay. However Google+ has one huge challenge ahead – relevance – both in terms of finding a place in people’s everyday lives and making sure it serves users with exactly what they want.
Where does Google+ sit? Despite a positive early reception to the service, the big challenge for Google+ isn’t pleasing users in its first few days, it’s finding a solid place for it in their lives in the long term. What will that place be? At present, it’s difficult to say. Looking at the currently big social networks, they fit into a few core categories: Sharing and communicating with friends: Facebook, Hyves, Orkut etc. Sharing quick thoughts, news and opinions: Twitter Business-focused networking: LinkedIn, Xing, Viadeo etc.So where does Google+ fit into this? It manages to sit across all these verticals. The use of ‘Circles’ to organise friends and contacts means you can share business-focused information with your colleagues and photos of a night out with your friends in the same place without too much fear of them crossing over into the wrong audiences. The big question is, can Google convince a groundswell of people to make the switch from their existing social networks? Read more: TNW
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Where does Google+ sit? Despite a positive early reception to the service, the big challenge for Google+ isn’t pleasing users in its first few days, it’s finding a solid place for it in their lives in the long term. What will that place be? At present, it’s difficult to say. Looking at the currently big social networks, they fit into a few core categories: Sharing and communicating with friends: Facebook, Hyves, Orkut etc. Sharing quick thoughts, news and opinions: Twitter Business-focused networking: LinkedIn, Xing, Viadeo etc.So where does Google+ fit into this? It manages to sit across all these verticals. The use of ‘Circles’ to organise friends and contacts means you can share business-focused information with your colleagues and photos of a night out with your friends in the same place without too much fear of them crossing over into the wrong audiences. The big question is, can Google convince a groundswell of people to make the switch from their existing social networks? Read more: TNW
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