Google+ at least did what Buzz and Orkut could not. It got off to an impressive start, made quite a bit of noise, and made Facebook look over its shoulder to see if this latest pursuer is legit. It achieved 25 million users in no time. But people started realizing that the biggest thing missing from Google+ is the one thing it truly needs to endure – critical mass. Very few of the early adopters’ friends were on Google+. To grow this new social network, at a minimum they’d need to double the time they put into Facebook. And, they started asking the other big question Google+ needed to answer. What glaring need is not being met by Facebook that is being met by Google+?
The only major difference I can see is that you can add people to your circles without their permission. That might appeal to some people, but obviously not enough to make a real dent in the Facebook population.
So, now we come to games. Games are one of the strongest drivers of traffic and stickiness on a website. So, Google went after game creators hard. The pitch? “We’ll only keep 5% of your generated revenue when Facebook keeps 30%.” Will it work? Time will tell, but I don’t think so based on what I’ve seen so far. They are getting a few of the major established game makers to place their games on Google+. But show me a few major games that are only available on Google+, and I may start to believe in the strategy.
NetMarketShare reports on the huge drop in traffic driven from Google+. It appears Google+ is headed for the same fate as both Buzz and Orkut (anyone still using either of them?).
I think politician Joel Burns said it best in, ironically, a Facebook post: “Google Plus? Oh, yeah, I remember that week in July.”