My Thoughts on Google+ (Part 2): Challenges

This is part 2 of my thoughts on Google+. In the last post, I discussed the innovative features in Google+ project that will likely spur other social networking sites to adapt and change. In this post, I want to touch on some challenges that Google+ has to deal with to become a viable Facebook and Twitter alternative.

There is a reason why group is missing from above;
because Google+ has no group

Absence of Group

There is no group in Google+. At least the group in the sense that we all understand from Facebook and LinkedIn.

Let me explain. When we think of a group, we think of them as clique where we share information with everyone in the group and members in the group to be able to respond to other members post. In other words, group exists as an entity. Group mailing alias, Facebook group and LinkedIn interest groups are good examples. A group gets created by members, and everyone either joins or leaves the group, shares or does not share updates in the group. Whatever update gets posted on group page is expected to be shared with everyone else in the group because group members can access the group page.

It almost sounds redundant to explain group in this way. It is because we grew so accustomed to group membership and group sharing to happen in a symmetric way. What I share in a group is visible to all other members in the group, and what everyone else shares in the group is visible to me. Group is a separate entity that people can join or leave.

My Thoughts on Google+

It has already been close to a month since the launch of Google+, and I feel obliged to express my thoughts around Google+ on this blog. After all it's only fair that I give a due time and attention to what Google created, the company that changed the way I use the web. Especially how Google fumbled earlier social attempts with Google Buzz, Wave and Orkut, they must have learned from those lessons.

I'm happy to report that they have. Let me talk about those few points that I think make Google+ shine on this blog post. In following blog post I will talk about some challenges that might slow down Google+ adoption.

Why I Believe Social Network Is Future Of Communication Platform

I was having lunch with my coworkers yesterday and talking about some websites that were still using static HTML to render their content. While describing them, I said they looked like they were from 1990's. Then I quickly realized that it was only 1995 when Netscape popularized websites, and most websites were developed after 1996. That was just 16 years ago.

Since the birth of graphical world wide web technology to allow people to communicate each other and share information have been evolving in dizzying pace. Pagers have been replaced by mobile phones, mobile phones by Blackberries and Blackberries by touch-screen iPhones. Email which quickly became de-facto electronic communication standard evolved to become webmail, then mobile messaging, and recently to microblog messages called tweets.

Abusing the power of email to the max;
how many of these group emails do you get a day?
(Don't worry, I know better not to send this particular one,
but I've done my own share of group replies)

But businesses still rely on face-to-face meetings, phone calls, conference calls, and emails to get our work done. As most of US economy has shifted to service industry, most of us derive our value from communicating or collaborating with other workers. Although some rock star programmers might be reluctant to admit, we spend our better part of day communicating and collaborating, not coding.

It's safe to say that most businesses would come to its knees if mail server is down and emails do not get delivered. We've become so dependent on email for almost all communication activity that we do, it's fair to say that our day revolves around email.

The problem of email is that it's meant to be private exchange of information between two parties. It's built using postal service analogy. There is a sender and there is a recipient. Message travels from one person to another. The message is not public, and is not meant for sharing with other people. In fact sending too many mails and asking them to reshare is prohibited by law (chain letter anyone?). Well, same applies to email.

Amazon AdMash: Will It Catch On?

While I was looking for the next batch of books to read on Amazon, I started looking at Kindle 3G. It was right on the landing site selling one for $114 (Wi-Fi version). That sounded really cheap. It wasn't too long ago Kindle was selling for $150 or so, I thought.

It turns out I was about right. The third generation Wi-Fi Kindle was selling for $139 until early April. Amazon is marketing that Kindle is now on sale for $114 to make the e-reader even more affordable.

What's interesting is how Amazon is moving from premium to ad-based discounted model. Yes, Amazon is lowering the price of Kindle by displaying ads when Kindle is turned off or showing its home page. Usually we see many freemium to premium movement especially from small start ups looking to grow user base quickly. But it's interesting to see that Amazon is now lowering the price by introducing sponsored advertisements.

Why Facebook Gets Bad Reputation For User Data Privacy

If you are a long time Facebook user, you'll remember Facebook's humble beginning as college student network. Facebook used to operate around the networks that you belong to. Facebook user could choose school network, work network, even regional network to share private information.

To most of you all these network-centric sharing would be distant memory. And so it was with me. I have long forgotten this network-centric sharing past of Facebook, and even the fact that I entered my network as FaceTime Communications (Actiance used to be known as FaceTime Communications).

Don't Make Me Think: Recycle, It's Good For The Environment; It's Good For Users

Recently I enjoyed reading Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think, The Second Edition. For those of you who are Web design practitioners, I strongly recommend that you pick up a copy and go through it.

After reading through it, one of the lessons that stuck with me was the benefits of leveraging established user interface design: Fancy word for recycling what's known to work.

In some sense this flies in the face of innovation. Innovation is good, as long as it is done in a way that minimizes the user's mental exercise to learn and get accustomed to it. If the learning curve is too steep, or even worse the interface is not guiding users where to begin, it will fail. In other words, the center of innovation should be human, the users.

Safe Facebook = Clean Coal?

There have been lot of discussions around energy recently in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear disaster. Especially there have been increasing talks about clean burning coal technology and its hopes and reality.

I don't know about you, but when I hear clean coal, I know I have to pay extra attention to actual scientific claim to differentiate marketing and political spins from scientific facts. I get the similar reaction to late night TV ads like no exercise weight loss drug. Something smells funny.