If Google, with all its resources, can’t challenge Facebook after nearly five years of trying….who can?
Not sure if you heard this news yet in regards to Google essentially dismantling their Google+ product into separate parts, but it comes as no surprise to many in the tech and social media marketing space. Just look at this post from almost a full year ago detailing the demise of the network.
No, no one is shocked that this is happening, or with the timing of it either. What DOES surprise me right now is the relative ignorance toward the news, and the WHATEVS attitude even upon discovery.
Look, when Vic Gundotra “left” the Google+ project last April, rumors started swirling about….well about what is ACTUALLY happening right now with the fracturing of G+ components. Its just that Google themselves wouldn’t admit it, and in fact they were still denying that anything of that nature would happen:
“Today’s news has no impact on our Google+ strategy — we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts and Photos.” – Google rep on 4.24.14
Well, that person was only 33% lying, since yes in fact they will move forward with developing Hangouts and Photos. (This is not necessarily a bad thing). Maybe turning their massive eyes towards those individual portions will mean we will all benefit, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with Hangouts in particular as that seems to have huge potential.
Whether Google was ever really going to challenge Facebook as a social media platform is something that has now been decided. Despite the regular claims of huge numbers of active users, the ACTUAL stats say that only about 9% of the 2+ billion G+ “users” were actively posting(!), and I’m pretty sure that our own Brian Fanzo was keeping the whole thing running.
I guess I’m just a bit surprised that more social media marketers aren’t talking about this, because after all it IS Google, and this comes on the immediate heels of their Glass project also being pulled back (but NOT killed entirely, according to reports). These are two of the very large initiatives taken on by Google in the last five years, and I’m not sure that they anticipated BOTH projects going downhill.
Be that as it may, the public made the decision for them. Still stunning that a site like Ello lives on while G+ is all done.
