New Google nav hints at Google Plus desparation

I recently blogged about the new navigation that Google was rolling out across it's varied and rich estate of sites. The older black nav bar looks to be consigned to the scrapheap (at least for some areas) and the new navigation sits right-proudly in a right-aligned format on top of some of Google's principle functionality (Search, GMail, Calendar, etc.).

Although this change may have been done to easily give consistent and easy access to further Google areas... I can't help think that the search giant has also tried to put the link to Google Plus, it's own social networking platform, in a more prominent place. Google has therefore moved this link from the far left (where is sits as a link with your name and a plus symbol) to center stage, where it now the first of only three text links.

To be frank, there can't be anywhere more obvious to the user than putting the Google+ hyperlink in its new place and hints at desperation to drive users to a tool that still doesn't seem to have the user adoption that it might have expected or hoped.

Linking your blog to Google+

I've resisted the temptation to get serious about Google Plus over the last year or so, mainly as I didn't see much value in Google's social network. To me it just seemed a little errr... pointless. However to be serious about search engine optimisation, I really needed to have more of an understanding of the platform. (No, this is not an admission that Google+ is something I now use privately, just something I use professionally).

My first step towards using Google+ was linking this blog to my Google account. Usually this is a process of just checking a box in the back-end of the Blogger.com administration and off you go. However in my case this was a little more tricky, as my blog was created in an older Google account and my public Google+ profile sits under a different one. This was resolved by adding the account with my G+ profile to the list of authors and administrators of my blog and then subsequently going in a removing the older account.

Having then linked this blog to my Google+ profile, it was only a matter of days before I noticed that this link was recognised by Google's search results.

Meaning a picture of my face and a link to my Google+ profile was now evident.

I am still not using Google Plus

There are enough things in my life to keep me busy (and provide a distraction) including the time I spend online. Of that online time I now spend a lot more of it blogging and on Twitter than I used to, mainly because this is where I get the most benefit and get my news. This therefore means I spend less time on Facebook as well. So although I can instantly communicate with friends and family there, I really don't use it as often as I used to.

As for Google Plus (Or Google+ as some call it), I've never really got into it and still don't really see the purpose of it. Sure, some friends use it and some business contacts are 'hanging out' there, but for me I don't need either another personal social platform or another business-orientated social network.

Perhaps, like the Dunbar's Number (the amount of people somewhere between 100 and 230 that it becomes almost impossible to sustain social relationships with), there's also a maximum number of Social Networks that the average human is capable of using at anyone time? For me it is around 4 (if you include the two blogs that I write for, plus Twitter and Facebook), but for others it might be higher or lower.  This might also go some way to explaining why I don't really find Pinterest Pinteresting and why Instagram hasn't gripped me.

I'm also not going to force myself to use Google Plus. Yes, I am aware that there are quite possible positive effects for using it (e.g. for SEO) and this does not mean other individuals or organisations shouldn't use it as a social media channel. It's just not for me right now... or at least until I stop doing something else and get less distracted!

The decline of Facebook?

“All good things must come to an end” goes the phrase, but is the beginning of the end up for Facebook?

I’ve currently no hard statistics to back up my claim, but I suspect we are now seeing the peak in Facebook’s: domination, user numbers and therefore its hugely-overated potential market valuation.
Why do I say this? Well, for two reasons:

1. Twitter
What started off as an also-run to Facebook as a way of connecting everyone is now turning out to be an increasingly-popular communication tool. For me it has replaced SMS for a lot of my messaging needs and now is the first social media platform I check before I get out of bed in the mornings (and indeed the only one I consume until the car radio goes on as I drive off to client offices).

2. Google Plus
Let’s face it, it took a while for Google to get there and indeed a lot of people (including me) still don’t have access to it… as it is still in ‘limited field trial’. However, if the Demo (http://www.google.com/+/demo/) is some indication, then further attention will be quickly drawn away from Facebook to Google Plus.

And where will this leave Facebook… well only time will tell and I wouldn’t start drawing any comparisons with MySpace just yet (at least not until everyone who requested access has tried and complained about Google Plus).

How Google Plus can gain ubiquity

Following on from my earlier posting on Google’s introduction of Google Plus, I was taking along a further understanding of its potential thanks to the comments by my old friend Boudewijn.

His comment below really struck a chord with me:

If they'd make something that has the wow-factor of wave, would focus on cellphone users, and that would enable commerce without pushing it in the face of the casual user... then we'd have a winner.

And he's right (in my opinion). If Google were to develop their new Google Plus social networking platform to be ubiquitous to the ever-growing mobile internet population and to incorporate payment functionality... such as their Google Shopping Cart product, then they may be able to take on the might of Facebook as the default social platform for posting, sharing and interacting with friends and other contacts.

Without that ubiquity, Google Plus could just be another social media also-ran.

The battle for the web continues

My post last month declared that the battle for the web has begun, with the rivalry between Google and Facebook escalating to the point where a Global PR agency was hired by Facebook to tarnish the reputation of one of Google's products.

And now the battle over the eyeballs & attention, browsing behaviour and therefore the wallets of the majority of Internet users has taken another step forward with Google's announcement of Google Plus ... its own social networking site that lets users post photographs and videos as well as comments and messages. In addition it claims to allow users have "real world interactions" and "real life sharing" (whatever that is, but my guess its somewhere between a Facebook status update and a Twitter post).

This latest dive into the social space by the mighty G has already built up a healthy cynicism for the digital elite, who claim that Google's previous attempts at social networking have been less-than ideal and I also have my already-documented reservations about their ability to understand and develop social functionality.

However, let's not forget that Google already has a working and popular social networking platform... http://www.orkut.com/ . Now it may not be that popular in Europe or the United States, but Orkut has over 100 million global active users... with a high proportion of them in Brazil and India.

So before we all dismiss Google Plus as a venture as flawed as Buzz and Wave (which I still think will make a magical and evolved appearance when the world is ready for it), consider that Orkut is in the top 100 of all sites according to Alexa. And furthermore, ask yourself what would happen if it decided to merge this community with its newly-created Plus service?

The battle continues....