If Google plus has died, what affect will it have on our business?
Google’s Facebook
Back in the day, the platform was of course touted as ‘Google’s Facebook’ with arguably its sole aim being to wipe Facebook off the planet. That of course never happened and in all honesty Google, it was never really going to happen was it?
TechCrunch sounded the alarm last year when it claimed that “Google Plus was like the walking dead,” leading to speculation that it was only a matter of time before Google Plus would be shut down. Not long after, the chief architect of Google Plus shot back, saying that TechCrunch was talking “utter nonsense,” which led to a lengthy back-and-forth exchange.
Regardless, since Google hasn’t reached the goals it predicted, you might think they would abandon the Google Plus project. But that’s not the case; Google isn’t backing down. In an exclusive interview with ‘The Drum’, David Besbris, Google’s new Engineering VP, said, “we’re dedicated to creating a product that people truly love.”
Unloved?
David Besbris and Google have a long way to go before its platform is ‘absolutely loved’ by its users, although it is arguable that it has served a seemingly valuable purpose in unifying its products and services – it is questionable as to whether that function is endearing enough to warrant such an emotional attachment like love…
If Google want us to use the platform it will have to change. Change however may manifest itself in to something us ‘social’ types wouldn’t want so much, that is a complete migration away from social engagement towards a move focused solely on the acquisition of big data.
Don’t get me wrong, data is good but too much data not only gives us guys paralysis by analysis but it also costs but bucks.
In fact, it could be said that we are already seeing more of this data acquisition in motion especially with the latest Google Plus unification of products and services that has been happening over the last few months.
The other worrying issue for us as a business community is the impact this might have on our Google Authorship strategy. If the social aspect is cut back or extinguished altogether where will the connections between our content we create on the web and the creators of the content go?
They will disappear too, and what impact will that have, if any to our SERPS and brand?
This change to Google Plus maybe arriving sooner than we all think. In fact, you can see subtle changes happening already as Search Engine Land detail in one of their articles. We shall wait and see then.
On the plus side
Regardless of what the ‘experts’ think, Google Plus is still very much alive in our office, albeit purely to help grow our general influence on the platform, and increase the value of our authorship, of course*.
How Google plan to move the platform forward is anyone’s guess at the moment.
Do you use Google Plus daily or have you given up? Let me know.
*Since writing, Google’s recent authorship changes have been acknowledged, however it’s too early to see any results from this. If any. This piece was originally posted on thesocbox.