article on The Next Web! (via Tumblr Tuesday: What Should I Put on My Tumblr?)
on point.
Running In Circles //
I want to like Google+ for all the reasons I have come to hate Facebook. But ironically, its those very same reasons why I think it may be doomed. Facebook over the last few years has pirated a diverse range of features from competing websites - photo sharing from Flickr, social graph surfing from Friendster, status updates from Twitter, chat from MSN and social applications from MySpace - and integrated them tightly with a tyrannical wall protecting their core platform. You could say they learned that last trick from Apple. In contrast, Google’s application suite ranges from the bizarre to the brilliant, from ubiquitous search and email services, to strange dead projects like Wave and small but essential utilities like Reader. And yet, they remain disconnected with poor integration and a lack of consistency. I warmed to the folksy, anthropological tone of the Google+ marketing on YouTube, but the reality of the platform left me a little cold. Here’s the thing - I’m just not convinced that Google has the organisational DNA to be enough of a bastard to pull off a tightly executed social platform.I respect Google’s commitment to openness, but as a user, I also feel the frustration of dealing with a democracy of fully stock vested genius running wild without an overall game plan. Let me give you a classic example. Google Enterprise Apps recently decided to force users to consolidate their personal and work accounts under a single email login. Fair enough, but with a half finished account migration tool - long term users of products like Google Reader suddenly discovered that they had to abandon years of folder organisation, star ratings and followers in order to complete the transition. Not smart Sergey. Why decimate the social graph of one product to tidy up the technical administration of another? Here’s my prediction - alpha users will play with Google+ for a bit, and then some unexpected emerging market like Nigeria or niche user group will adopt it as their personal playpen, before it is quietly shut down. That said - I do think that Google has a play in the social space, but it will be led from their Android platform rather than as an extension of their Profile tool.
This is so true. I wonder if anyone has developed an FB app that auto posts to friends’ walls on their birthday? the ultimate in social media laziness.
— Karl Lagerfeld (via patt-ruiz)
Interesting stats when bearing in mind the recent development of Facebook’s ‘Sponsored Stories’ (via Mobile Social Media Usage Affects Shopping Habits - eMarketer)
True and Yes. (via Do Gamers Use The Word ‘Gay’ Too Casually? | Kotaku Australia)
— One of my favourite social commentators, music journalist and general literary heroes Neil Strauss reflects on the social media ‘elephant in the room’. (The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture - WSJ.com)
