Why Google+ is Not the Facebook Killer it Thinks it is
Google+ has attempted to usurp the King of Social Media, Facebook. While it will start things with a slightly changed interface, it will not be the change that we are all looking for, as the Google insight into social media is the same as it was, and the same as it will be until a fundamental shift in ideas occurs. Despite the majority of truly innovative products that Google has developed over the years, the move into the Social Media space makes Google and Google+ a big, yes, you guessed it, copycat.
People will always see Google as just that: Google. Google is merely about information and passing information from one person to the next, from one point to another. This is all about marketing 101 - branding. Google is an information or "search for information" brand, not a social networking brand. Google+ does not have all of the quirks that made Google, "Google" when it came into the business of transferring information. Google was in and of the same - it was it's brand but it was also it's action, and it's essence. No disrespect for one of the largest companies on the planet, but they represent things that are far to mundane - search information. Social media from the outset is about information as well, but it is more about the organization of the information that is important to our ego centric lives - with which Facebook has done admirably. Has Google+ organized information differently than a standard search? Yes; the idea is still the same, however. The same, for the most part, as Facebook. Consumers will see this.
Social media at this checkpoint or baseline in time has a tremendous amount of social momentum. Think that 750 million members of Facebook have a lot of momentum? Probably, just a little. It is this negative pressure that will stop a lot of people from moving; moving will appear to cause you to somehow still live on the same block - this is why it is not a good solution to change. The rewards are not high enough for the risk or the disruption of moving, to benefit anyone to actually move.
Google+ is just a "me too" attempt at social media. Microsoft, when it fully introduces its recently leaked efforts into the social media space, will meet the same fate. It is not innovative, it is simply repetitive. Google is becoming the great copycat. Google and any other newer social networks that come online in the near future have an actual advantage in the technical side - they can basically copy all of the technical features that their competitors already have - put on a few twists and try to rebrand it as "new and improved". This is like the Russians and Chinese of old copying almost identically the same product, yet adding a feature or two that made it "different" (and avoiding any lawsuits).
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