Hands up anyone who's fed up of hearing the question about whether Google+ is going to be bigger than Facebook. Who knows and who cares, right? But last weekend I was contacted by a long lost aunt who found me on the web through Google+ (if you're reading this - hi Jennifer!) That was interesting.
And today I was reading about how President Obama's office has joined Google+ (yes, they of the famous here's-how-to-use-social-media-for-a-political-campaign case study fame).
And here, Robert Scoble gives an entertaining and to-the-point argument as to why Google+ beats Facebook and Twitter hands-down.
We've all seen the stats about how Google+ amassed 10 million users in sixteen days, whereas it took Twitter and Facebook two years.
But hang on a minute, the BBC says that Google denies Google+ death reports - which of course will add fuel to the naysayers' fire. Apparently Google have stopped issuing stats about how many new Google+ accounts are being created and there are rumours of a dip, or people leaving. I wouldn't find this at all surprising - signing up for the newest thing, using it a lot at first and then losing interest and not using it for ages is very common. I was the same with Twitter, that's how I am with Google+ at the moment and I know plenty of people the same.
Personally I can only see Google+ becoming bigger as the +1 buttons become more ubiquitous, as people start using them more, as businesses set up and promote their Google+ pages... and after all, we're not talking about a tiny startup with a cute name (as was Twitter) - everyone knows what Google is, and Google+ may well become our natural search+social hub on the web before we even realise it ourselves.
I'm going to revisit Google+. Now's definitely the time - before usage reaches a critical mass, before it's corrupted by scammers. spammers, gurus and other bandwagon-hitchers. It's three and a half years since I started moaning about how Twitter would soon be a very different place when the masses (and the mass media) got interested in it. And I wasn't wrong. So let's enjoy Google+ now - carpe diem, as they say!
