A week ago, Google launched its latest attempt to break into social networking, Google Plus. The internet giant has successfully moved into email (Gmail), picture sharing (Picasa), blogs (Blogger), and video (YouTube) and its search and mapping remain ubiquitous. Surely, with Google Plus, it can finally get its social networking party started?
On paper, perhaps. But social networks like Facebook and Twitter are successful because they have achieved a critical mass of users, while others – such as businness network LinkedIn – target specific groups. Google has struggled, both with its collaborative Wave tool and later with Buzz, to offer us a viable social Third Way.
Gaining critical mass is a black art; if you could do it by numbers, we’d all be making squillions as internet moguls. But Google has more clout to launch a successful social network than any other company (even the gigantic News Corp couldn’t stop MySpace falling from grace).
With Google Plus, it may succeed. Most of us have already got a Google login. Despite its size, most of us still believe Google’s open web intentions. Most of us have, at one time or another, objected to some area of Facebook policy. And most of us is what it will take to make Google Plus succeed.
When Google Wave was first announced, it generated only a third of the search interest of Google Plus. If those same ears continue to be pricked by the time we get to the public launch of Google’s latest venture, Facebook might want to ask Rupert Murdoch to get his chequebook out again.