By Gurbaksh Chahal, Chairman & CEO, RadiumOne @gchahal
The world doesn’t need another social network. Especially when you have one that already has 750 million highly active users in it.
The reasons why Facebook overtook MySpace was because it was different and solved a different set of problems. Facebook introduced “real identity” to the web. And, the “newsfeed” created a whole new distribution channel for sharing on the web that now rivals with likes of search for traffic.
But, now with 750 million users, with 4 billion things being shared everyday, noise has taken over the channel. Therefore, you don’t get to see the content you want to see; Facebook decides what you should see. This becomes a fundamental problem that causes frustration and where Google+ got it right with Circles.
On my Facebook account I have 474 Facebook friends. These range from family, close friends, co-workers, passive contacts, and acquaintances. However, when I log into Facebook – my newsfeed isn’t relevant. I rarely see my family and close friends – it’s basically about everyone else. Not a week goes by, when I have to hide connections from showing up on my feed. And that’s the bigger problem of the social web. Everyone loves the concept of the social graph, but the real defining graph – is your “implicit graph.”
While it took me some time to get used to, I now understand why Google+ forces you to organize your social graph into circles: Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Following and any other circle you wish to create. The first two groups are your “implicit graph”, Acquaintances becomes your “extended social graph”, and Following becomes your “interest graph” much like Twitter. Even though, not many people are on it yet (10 million vs. 750 million)– I already love the organization of the feeds. It makes sense, I get to now control the information I want in the circles I create, and I get to see my implicit graph come to life on a social network. This is a key difference and behavioral insight that gives Google+ a real chance to compete with Facebook.
I’ve always been a big believer that the “social graph” was just our explicit graph – an index of our address book of connections. But, the Holy Grail is going to be whoever can ascertain our “implicit graph” to show the content, messaging, and social experience consumers really want. It seems Google+ will be bringing that to a social network. Coincidently, the main reason, we started RadiumOne – was to create an implicit graph of the sharing conversations and incorporate them into advertising on the Open Web.
For those on Google+, you can follow me here: http://gplus.to/gchahal
Well said G But I still feel As Facebook has already huge fan base it will still not be easy for google + to maybe leave facebook behind and as the feeds visibility you mentioned the only thing which facebook lacked was the posts such as game feeds etc coming on your page when you open it otherwise all the updates whether they are your close friends or just an acquaintance shall be important because i have added a person as a friend i should know when he needs me…..for example if a just an acquaintance writes he is visiting my city unless i see it on my page i might miss him if i would have wanted to meet him, its just that google + might be an additional extension of facebook where people might just keep their close friends and family in circles and for everything else facebook would be there
Can’t you do with FB lists what you can do with Circles? Their drag and drop is easier (and more glitchy), but if I’ve already spent them time making lists on FB, G+ isn’t really that different..
Gurbaksh, I appreciate you supporting an edge towards G+, however, let me tell that I have a facebook friend list which consists of 15 groups which includes family, friends, acquaintances, college, school, etc which I have segregated per my requirements and relations. Apart from this I have a security set on each…I understand your point that G+ is going to automate this and give the end users a simpler way to manage contacts…
In a recent article in a widely read Newspaper in India..there was a topic “GOOGLE is GOD”.
Mentioned there if you question GOD sometimes you wont even get an answer but GOOGLE gives you a set of answers not only one.
GOOGLE is one company which strongly believes in Innovation i mean what simplicity and what a way to add your friends, colleagues absolutely fantastic as term it “CIRCLES” thats where GOOGLE has an edge and rest assured this is just 20-40% of G+ we are using, thats what the rumor is; the rest 60-80% is still behind the curtains specially G+ for Business..so its just not one normal Social Networking Website, but GOOGLE has always been providing Business tools all over the net and 60% of the Corporates are happy to use them..So lets wait becuase as Mr. Himanshu Sharma said above it would be difficult for GOOGLE to take over FACEBOOK but in terms of Corporate & Business users FACEBOOK is definitely a step behind..
Mehul correct me if I’m wrong but you can only post to one list at a time. With Google Plus you can pick which list you want I.E. Family and friends etc. So if there is something you only want business friends list one and friends to see but skip family and business list two you can do that in GPLUS. With facebook you would have to post twice.
Totally concur G, but i am with the opinion that Facebook seems much more familiar, as most of the people are still not using high bandwidth internet plans this is the point where Google+ lacks. Low band-width incapability still persists in google products (orkut, g-mail) and most of the people are still approaching internet through low band-width data plans.
Whereas, facebook let users to sigh-in and get online much more quickly and in simple way may be its high or low band-width.
Nice blog…… The rapid rise of +1 is seen everywhere, Google +1 Button are on more homepages than Tweet Button
Excellent post Gurbaksh. It will be interesting to see how G+ progresses and if it will affect Facebook operations. As Goutam above said and I agree “The rapid rise of +1 is seen everywhere, Google +1 Button are on more homepages than Tweet Button”
This is an interesting post indeed!! Yes Google’s +1 has taken social media on a whole new level. Compared to FB, it is much more refined & with regards to the privacy aspect (which FB has failed to address :/) is more or less taken care of….since you decide who you “trust” and “want” in your circle and u don’t need to block anyone from your news feed :)! Its amazing how in such a short while, Google now captures 92% (!!!!!!) of all searches in the UK. Facebook has 54% of all social network traffic. YouTube 21%. Twitter just 3%.
Cause GOOGLE is the BEST.!!!!
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