Google+ Doomed to Fail?

By | 27 June, 2012

I have G+, and I open it for updates on my circles once, maybe twice a week. I spend a few minutes looking around then I go back to Facebook, which has been open since the minute I got up. The notifications make me constantly want to check who-posted-what-where and when my girlfriend poked me. The Pavlovian effect of wanting to click the red notification icons is irritatingly irresistible. I am not alone in this: there are plenty of FB users who love stalking or posting or liking or poking or adding or messaging. This is why Google+ is getting less and less attention despite its cleaner UI, saner users and better performance.

Blogger Tom Sizer-James wrote a nice piece on the seemingly inevitable fall of Google+. I am attaching the Browser Media infographic on here as well. Tom’s key statistics are shocking yet indicative of our (read: we G+ users) disinterest in Google+:

  • 30% of G+ users make one post – and never post again!
  • People spend a combined total of 134,000 years on Facebook each month.
  • Users spend 30x more time on Pinterest than Google + and 136x more time on Facebook!
  • The average post on G+ receives less than 1 reply

I like the people in my G+ circles, they are a talented, witty bunch. But they’re also on Facebook, so I get to see them there. I’ve removed most of the riffraff from my FB wall and opted not to follow most of my friends. I just get updates from my favorite shows or authors, and my family has its own page — and I’ve yet to introduce G+ to the rest of my family…

J. Angelo Racoma talked about the G+ makeover, and put in words what we G+ users like about this service.

The close integration with basic services like Gmail and Google Apps for Business is a big come-on to individuals and organizations wanting a seamless way of communicating, collaborating and getting social with online friends.

Personally, I don’t think G+ will fold. It will continue to suffer user inattention, but it will survive till well past 2050, after all the twits have stopped updating and the foobers have ceased poking.


Google+ infographic from Browser Media



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