right, google plus failed bc it was a platform problem. Who would prefer to use that product over facebook, twitter, etc that duplicate the functionality 90%. ello was another hilarious example (that somehow... still exists...)
The thing is, Google+ had a dedicated user base. It just wasn't the Facebook killer they thought it would be.
Same thing with Google Reader, too.
If you want to "take on Facebook or Twitter", you will fail. But if you just want to create a community of people, you absolutely can outcompete those companies in that niche, because Facebook and Twitter traded in quality for scale.
> The thing is, Google+ had a dedicated user base.
Indeed. I really preferred Google+ to any of it's competitors. The circles idea just makes a lot of sense. Most other social media ignores the fact that people in your social circles might have different interests. People interested in programming languages might not be interested in baking and vice versa. Why spam all baking followers with your latest programming language realization?
Google+ had a big user base of tech people talking to other tech people. Facebook had the college crowd, and they got their families to join. Twitter isn't all that big, but they got the brands on board.
yeah, was also more annoying to use. it read trying to solve the problem of broadcasting everything to everyone, so it had this concept of circles, whereas Twitter people WANT everyone to see everything they say, either for like or conflict. Facebook was similar, but you could throw sheep at your friend/girl you liked, and it might be ambiguous.
plus made you define your social circles as literal "circles", that's not the MySpace top 8, or Seinfeld speed dial.
plus might have just been the right tech for the wrong model.
I liked the idea of circles. It solves the problem of having to create multiple accounts (one for work, one for friends, one for parents, etc) that a lot of people were doing on facebook/insta so that they didn't have to self-censor as much. People don't always want to broadcast a night of drugs and drinking to your employer or your Mom but still want to send photos of your wild night out to your friends.
I actually liked Google+ to an extent, but mostly because I found it to be so easy to get away with shitposting there. For some reason shitposts got a ton of viewers as opposed to Twitter and Facebook. Good memories, even though I was the only one in my friends group to visit often
