Google rarely fails at anything.
They’ve successfully expanded from a search engine to a corporation that is seemingly entrenched in every corner of our lives. But Google does have one project that isn’t a success right out of the gate: Google+. The service has been discussed a lot recently because of Google’s revamping of the notorious YouTube comments section that now forces YouTube account holders to make a linked Google+ account.
I can honestly say that none of my friends use Google+ (unless bound by rules like the above). And this is precisely why I don’t use it. If it’s a social networking site, then why isn’t my social network on there? If Google+ wants to compete with Facebook and Tumblr then it should have followed their example and first appealed to a niche market. Facebook was originally for elite college students. The “elite” factor made everyone else want to join. And when everyone and their cat joined, the new crop of cool kids moved onto Tumblr, whose attraction might be waning as Yahoo! takes over and companies swarm to self-promote on the site.
The lesson for Google here is that when it comes to social media, people seem to prefer what looks like organic growth spread by word-of-mouth over what looks like a hostile corporate takeover.
Source: “Why Google+ is Failing” by Rodney Brazeau