Everything in its right place
by Volker Weber
your underlying Google Account won’t be searchable or followable, unlike public Google+ profiles. And for people who already created Google+ profiles but don’t plan to use Google+ itself, we’ll offer better options for managing and removing those public profiles.
'A more focused Google+ experience', Google? Why don't you just admit defeat? Force-feeding Google+ was a terrible idea.
Comments
I cannot make Youtube comments anymore unless I join Google+ (I use Google apps for my domain, but am sure it is not related to that). I never wanted to join this Plus thing (Wave anyone), and so I cannot comment. Now I want it even less. Not complaining, just saying - Google did not help themselves here.
If you read the article I linked to you will find that Google is going to fix Youtube first.
I know, I read it. Wanted to strengthen your point, sort of. A bit late for them to fix that is what I tried to say.
Actually, I don't get the Google+ Bashing. My stream worked perfectly well from day one. No ads. Yes, it needed some carefully crafted clicks on "Report this post". Which social network doesn't? How many fail to actually learn from these clicks?
A quick roundhouse kick from a mostly consuming persons point of view:
To me, Ello is a ghost town. A ghost town dying hard to look oh-so-special.
Facebook is the place where the mob gets rounded up in a big hole. When any hole gets big enough it develops tides. In this case its mostly tides of little shitstorms. It's hard to care less for me.
Instagram and Pinterest are glorified photo forums. I never understood what is wrong with the written word.
Apropos: Twitter is just the next insult to the written word. It is not really a thought if it fits in 140 characters. Your sensitivity of the moment is not a thought.
And re Youtube comments: do I actually know someone who fell *that* deep? I am in full denial.
It had been coming for long. And I admit I'm glad about it. OK, g+ appeared with a claim to do things better than FB. They probably even did (though I personally have to disagree, because it has always smelled way to geeky, not SIMPLE enough for people who just wanted to post quickly, not caring about who was in which "circle").
Things got worse when google started doing things the Microsoft way, i.e. trying to force things upon you that you had never asked them for. I think, these blog post lines here were pretty telling, even more since the guy who wrote them departed for - Microsoft:
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Larry Page himself assumed command to right this wrong. Social became state-owned, a corporate mandate called Google+. It was an ominous name invoking the feeling that Google alone wasn’t enough. Search had to be social. Android had to be social. You Tube, once joyous in their independence, had to be … well, you get the point. Even worse was that innovation had to be social. Ideas that failed to put Google+ at the center of the universe were a distraction.
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Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/13/why-i-left-google.aspx
One thing the "techy" approach never got right was that a social network depends on: the people on it - even if the software is worse.
I've found it far easier to use Google+ than other networks, easier to engage with others and more conducive to engagement from all but a few friends. (Facebook is better for friends I have known for a while, and now that you can edit posts/comments, is fairly usable.) I have a lot more varied people who interact with me on Google+ than on Twitter or Facebook. I've had fewer problems with spam and abuse on Google+ than on Twitter, though about the same as on Facebook. None of which really matters if the powers-that-be decide to take Google+ apart. I just hope they don't, as it has been the closest to an on-line home for me of any social network (including other smaller, more specific networks I have been part of).
