What Google Plus is all about

[xtabber]

A fascinating article in today's NY Times explains why Google is trying to force everyone to join Google Plus and Hangouts, even though the company has no interest in competing with Facebook as a social media site and is perfectly content to be derided as an also-ran in that area.

Needless to say, it ain't out of the goodness of Sergey and Larry's hearts.

[rgdot]

Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town

First sentence being false makes me not want to read the rest. I have only ~200 friends and member of a handful of communities and there is lots going on.

Also, even if ignoring my previous sentence .... it may not be as big as facebook but nothing is.

[Innuendo]

First sentence being false makes me not want to read the rest.

-rgdot (February 15, 2014, 09:41 AM)

Maybe the NY Times writer has no friends?

[Jibz]

Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town

First sentence being false makes me not want to read the rest. I have only ~200 friends and member of a handful of communities and there is lots going on.

-rgdot (February 15, 2014, 09:41 AM)

My personal experience is also that there is a lot going on. So much in fact, I should probably turn down the volume of some of my circles, because I can't keep up.

I think if you include the rest of the paragraph, he perhaps does make some sense:

Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town. Want to see your old roommate’s baby or post your vacation status? Chances are, you’ll use Facebook instead.

The thing is, I find these kind of facebook updates (which is all I am seing on facebook) to be horrible. On G+ I have found new and engaging people and content, on facebook I have found duckface selfies and "Took the kids to socker practice" posts.

But I know a lot of people are interested in the stuff that facebook offers them, and those people will stick to it, and to them G+ could seem like a "ghost town", in the sense that their family and friends aren't there (yet).

[40hz]

Their bat, their ball, their ballpark - therefore their rules.

Don't [like/want/need] it?

Don't play. Go elsewhere.

[J-Mac]

Their bat, their ball, their ballpark - therefore their rules.

Don't [like/want/need] it?

Don't play. Go elsewhere.

-40hz (February 15, 2014, 02:47 PM)

I don’t! Personally I don’t have the time for either (FB or G+), so while I do have accounts for both I don’t monitor them.

My wife had to tell me about my "wall" filling up with "likes" for Islamic pages all over the damn thing. I went a little ballistic at first - until I discovered that you can't really contact Facebook to complain about such activity. Thought maybe I'd been hacked but it's an email address that was created for Facebook and has never been used for anything else - just logging into Facebook. I can see all activity for that address and there was none at all, except for my Facebook logins of course. Plus I was able to see where - and from what IP address - all logins had been submitted and they were all really me.

Finally I found out that a lot of people suffer the same problem. It seems that there are services that sell "likes". E.g., you have a business and (for some stupid reason!) you want thousands of "likes" for your FB page. You purchase the likes from a service and they immediately generate however many you paid for. I guess they have found a way to associate "likes" with people's accounts without logging in and without any contact with the account holders. Nice, Facebook, really nice.

Anyway I just abandoned the damn account. I don’t visit it, don’t login. I don’t "play" there anymore. Can't be bothered with deleting it. I don’t really care - nothing else of mine is associated with it.

Jim

[Stoic Joker]

Fanciful friending tactics aside, I think the point of the article lies here:

“If you want Google search, they’re going to shove Google Plus at you pretty hard, so the consumer’s forced to take the product they don’t want to get the product they want,” said Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies antitrust law and the Internet.

“That raises big questions under antitrust law,” he said. “It reminds me a little bit of Microsoft when Microsoft was fearing Netscape and decided to bend over backward and do anything possible to tie Explorer to their operating system.”

Google declined to comment on this issue.

[Insert Favorite Do Not Want Meme Here]

And despite what some vocal users have said, few have fled — a sign, perhaps, of Google’s sheer strength on the web.

“If people want to use your platform enough,” Mr. Elliott said, “you can get away with quite a lot.”

I think they meant to say if sheeple want to use... But never the less the point stands. Folks are getting turned into a pair of eyeballs with a - soon to be empty - wallet.

[Renegade]

Multiple accounts.

Use of VPNs.

Use of multiple browsers.

Multiple OSes.

Running my own email servers with multiple domains and accounts in addition to other email accounts on servers I don't run.

More accounts that I can count all securely managed.

F**k them. I turn the tables and let them know what I want them to know.

Want some info wars? F**king bring it!

Google is your enemy. Pure and simple.

[Edvard]

This:

Plus is now so important to Google that the company requires people to sign up to use some Google services, like commenting on YouTube. The push is being done so forcefully that it has alienated some users and raised privacy and antitrust concerns, including at the Federal Trade Commission.

and this:

“It’s about you showing up at Google and having a consistent experience across products so they feel like one product, and that makes your experiences with every Google product better,” Mr. Horowitz said.

are the reasons I don't.
Mr. Horowitz, quit blowing smoke up my butt and telling me it's sunshine. 

[Vurbal]

Multiple accounts.

Use of VPNs.

Use of multiple browsers.

Multiple OSes.

Running my own email servers with multiple domains and accounts in addition to other email accounts on servers I don't run.

More accounts that I can count all securely managed.

F**k them. I turn the tables and let them know what I want them to know.

Want some info wars? F**king bring it!

Google is your enemy. Pure and simple.

-Renegade (February 17, 2014, 09:15 AM)

Google [replace with Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, or your preferred corporate villain/hero] is not your enemy. They are also not your friend. "They" are, technically speaking, not even a they but rather an it, and it is a corporation.

You forget that at your own peril.

[Jibz]

Google [replace with Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, or your preferred corporate villain/hero] is not your enemy. They are also not your friend. "They" are, technically speaking, not even a they but rather an it, and it is a corporation.

You forget that at your own peril.

-Vurbal (February 18, 2014, 01:57 AM)

+1

[wraith808]

Google [replace with Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, or your preferred corporate villain/hero] is not your enemy. They are also not your friend. "They" are, technically speaking, not even a they but rather an it, and it is a corporation.

You forget that at your own peril.

-Vurbal (February 18, 2014, 01:57 AM)

+1

-Jibz (February 18, 2014, 02:23 AM)

+1000