Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Social Networks and the 'cool' factor

We are now a few weeks into being introduced to yet another social network - this time from my favourite tech company, Google (I'm totally lost without their search or mail servies, and depend quite a lot on google maps).

I have pretty much liked the interface, and do well appreciate the circles concept (simpler to organise compared to lists/group of friends in facebook). The only hitch seems to be that a lot of friends active on facebook are yet to be active on google plus, and also the difficulty of managing multiple social networks. Some people are so used to facebook that they find the interface of plus intimidating. Now, is that a case of people being used to working on windows finding it difficult to work on linux? Is plus a much more geeky network? I don't know the answer.

Looking back, we have had similar transitions in the past- the first social network I ever joined was Hi5 but I hardly used it. I was then using the now almost abandoned Rediff iLand for blogging which also had a networking side to it. Then came along orkut which was such a big hit. I got back in touch with a lot of long lost friends through orkut. The party didn't last very long, and very soon using orkut was considered 'uh-so-2006-ish' and facebookingh was in vogue. The same folks who just added you on orkut without bothering to scrap/message/call now also added you to facebook without really communicating. Maybe increased friend count boosted their ego.

For some reason Google+ has not yet found that coolness factor. I wish they do something about it before it goes the google wave way.

2 comments:

  1. i think the google wave wont go away, its just gaining momentum... it will take some time for people to get used to it... and yes as you said,the bother of managing multiple networks... i think it will definitely fare better once it crosses the experimental stage...

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  2. @sowpar
    the trouble seems that most people who initially joined have left it. My timeline in G+ hardly has any posts in it

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