Facebook minus, Google+?
Don’t know if you’ve seen this thing called Google+, but it looks like it might just sorta kinda be a big deal?
Facebook has seriously dominated the Social Media world the past few years, enough so where I don’t actually know if even the almighty Google can give them some adequate competition.
Here’s how I see it:
People are on Social Media sites because other people are on them. Google+ is starting out at a disadvantage because it has no people on it (I mean, relatively. It’s invite-only at this point). Facebook has such a ridiculously large userbase that just attracts more and more people to it. So, I imagine Google either needs to:
1) Create a system that, in creating a profile on their site, links to your Facebook account so you can still do Facebook stuff, but on Google+
2) Convince enough people that their system and site is superior enough to Facebook that they start switching, and other Facebook users, seeing all their friends on Google+, start switching.
Point 1 is unrealistic; I don’t think Google would benefit much from just making a Social Network that linked to other social networks. Point 2 is a good business model, but overall bad for consumers.
Thing is, I don’t think the idea of “competing social media sites” works out in the consumers favor. Sure, we get better features and services when companies are competing for our attention, but Facebook has reached a point where it controls so much of the market share that the average user is going to be forced to choose between contact with their 500+ Facebook friends, or go with a better site.
It takes effort to start up a social media profile. You have to fill out fields of interests and whatnot, confirm that, yes, you are in fact a real person to the site, send friend requests to people, get guilt-tripped by that one random insecure friend for not being friends with them right away, upload an appropriate profile picture, upload other pictures you want people to see, and so on and so forth. I think enough people are not going to want to make the switch that it will actually make it a tough decision for people. Whereas before you had to make the ever-so-difficult decision of a tween-and-glitter-infested Myspace to Facebook, you now have to choose between something that works really well (albeit with some major privacy concerns) and something that also works really well.
Another thing that will be interesting to see pan out is if Google does anything about the “exclusivity” idea that Facebook started off with (you used to need a .edu email address, signifying you were actually a college student). Facebook built a solid reputation and image by just having those types of users. They presented a clean look that wasn’t cluttered with people who wanted different background images or embedded MIDI files. Basically, if Google+ turns out to be Myspace, but all Facebooked-out, it will lose some appeal.
I love Google. Gmail, Android, Chrome, all of it. I want to see them succeed. I want to see Facebook suffer for it’s lack of attention to user privacy. I want to see Mark Zuckerberg squirm a little bit.
I don’t want to start from scratch.
