Comments by Jeff Gibbard Subscribe

On Is Google + Providing Users With a False Sense of Security?

When you post that drunked photo to last weekend's party to your "Friends" circle...your Friends see it.  So unless you put your boss in your friends, you boss won't see anything.  That's actually the entire point of circles.  If you follow someone you will only see posts that they share publicly, or with a circle that you are in.  

Here's a chart, this might help: https://skitch.com/jgibbard/fe4im/circles

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

Interesting that you should say that, I don't think Facebook's success is a result of their business focus.  In fact, I think that could ultimately be their weakness.  MySpace fell once people perceived it as changing from "my" space to "their" space.  Once the News Corp merger occured, MySpace ceased to be a place for friends, and instead became just another place for companies to serve ads.

Facebook has been successful by integrating social gaming and by extending Facebook out into the world with FB connect, like buttons, like boxes, etc.  

I think that if you don't see value added from Google+ then you aren't looking quite hard enough.  G+ has taken many of the best features of Facebook and Twitter and merged them into a network.  Facebook owns the social graph, and Twitter the interest graph, G+ does them both, and quite well.  Hangouts is exciting, Huddle on the mobile version is neat and a better implementation of a cross platform messaging system than FB messages.  

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

750 million people do not migrate immediately.  I stand by my statement, at this point in time, Facebook is too big to fail.

Many people take issue with that by bringing up MySpace.  MySpace never got this big, not even close.  MySpace had no such thing as "MySpace connect."  MySpace never had an entire application eco-system. Businesses never really adopted MySpace.  To compare Facebook now to MySpace then is to fundamentally misuderstand the current social media landscape and how far it has developed.  It took years for MySpace to finally die off entirely.     

In the context of this article "My Painful Realization," saying that Facebook is "too big to fail" means that in the forseeable future, Google+ is not going to replace Facebook, it is simply added to our channels.  Think about your own network and tell me that your mother and less tech savvy friends are jumping ship from Facebook where "all of my friends are" to go to a new network populated, currently, by techies, geeks and early adopter.    

I know that the concept of "too big to fail" is political-charged given our subprime mortgage meltdown. In this particular case, I'm willing to stake my reputation on the theory that Facebook is too big to fail and here to stay, at least for the near future.

I personally love G+ and think it is 100 times better than Facebook, but that doesn't mean that the average user cares enough to leave Facebook.

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

@Trockr,

I wish I could but in all honesty I have a list of 75 people waiting for invites from me and Google+ hasn't given us any.  I have a feeling it will be open soon enough.  The buzz about it is great and they certainly have the capacity.  I know it sucks to wait for it but my guess is you'll love it once you've got it.

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

I've heard this comparision a number of times re: MySpace and Facebook.  Here's a HUGE difference: MySpace was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Facebook is still owned by (primarily) the founders (minus the ones that got screwed).  MySpace's decline is as attributable to Facebook as it is the acquisition by News Corp.  Once it becamse corporately owned, it ceased being MySpace (Our Space) and instead became another corporately owned place where we didn't feel safe to play amongast ourselves.

Beyond that, your hatred of Facebook is blinding you to the obvious fact that as strongly as you hate it, there are more that LOVE it.  Personally, I hate Facebook too and that is what triggered my painful realization.  It's not going anywhere, anytime soon, so you might as well get used to it.  

This is what I do for a living and I struggle with my own personal bias against Facebook daily.  The truth is that in business, that doesn't matter, you advise your clients based upon what "is" not what you "wish is."  If that day comes where we say "Oh you're still on Facebook" I will grin ear-to-ear as you will, but the reality is that 750 million users aren't going to mass migrate overnight, keep checkingyour Facebook notifications.  

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

Julie, I'll be honest: I hope I'm DEAD wrong.  I love G+ and I just don't like Facebook.  I don't trust them and when I lost my ability to trust them I never felt comfortable there.  

There's also something about Zuckerberg that I just can't stand.  He's arrogant, cocky and condescending.  I'm just hoping for all his dirty laundry to get aired out paparazzi style.  

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

Thanks Terry, glad you liked it.  

I love Twitter and find it to be my most valuable and well connected network.  It's by far my favorite, with G+ taking a close second.

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

Steven,

I'm not ignoring privacy, trust me, I've written plenty on the topic of Facebook and privacy. Personally, it's the biggest reason I can't stand Facebook.  They are shady and constantly push an opt-out model.  But that's not my point in this article and for a very specific reason: The vast MAJORITY of people on Facebook are uninformed average internet users.  They don't even know how their privacy is being violated and in most cases when they do know, they don't care.  Many of us care because this is our industry, we are responsible for thinking about these things.  

My painful realization isn't an opinion about the services merits or features but rather my perspective on the actual state of social media usage.  If Social Media was only full of tech geeks, Facebook might already be dead.  My painful realization was that I can't swap one for the other, instead I'm adding a new set of notifications to check on.    

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

Jason,

I appreciate that you fervently disagree with me.  I'd like to push back if I might.  

1) Do you REALLY think that MAJORITY of the 750 million Facebook users are concerned with their privacy enough to leave the network "everyone" is using?  

2)  What's more important to the AVERAGE Facebook user: Privacy and selective sharing OR Farmville and having an existing network?

I read your post, and I don't disagree with the benefits you outline about G+ and for the record I LOVE G+ and generally despise Facebook and their shady ways.  But if we step back for a moment, out of our own shoes and think about this realistically, how soon do you think Google+ could take down Facebook?  MySpace never had the kind of numbers Facebook does.  The point of the article, the "painful realization" is that, in reality, it is unlikely that I will be abandoning Facebook in the near future.  This is what I do for a living and as much as I'd liek it to change, my clients have spent a ton of money getting into Facebook. 

I am not overestimating Facebook, they have too much money to protect and will fight with every dollar they have to replicate popular features and keep people on their site.  This is true whether we like it or not.  

Response?

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

Vinny,

I'm glad you took the time to comment and I appreciate that you disagree.  One thing for clarification though.

I don't believe I said anywhere in the post that Google+ wouldn't catch on.  

I absolutely LOVE Google+. The point of this post was not to say that G+ has no future, but rather it is unlikely that it will REPLACE Facebook, especially in the near future.  Will it hurt Facebook?  Probably, but it's also going to push them to create more features and fight tooth and nail to keep their users.  It's probably going to hurt Twitter more than Facebook.

My painful realization is mostly that because of my business I am unable to replace one for the other and instead I'm forced to add a channel.

In response to your question about friends with Gmail, I would respond with my own question.  How many of your friends, family, acquaintances and others still use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo, in spite of the obvious superiority of Gmail as an email platform?

As much as our personal preferences may want G+ to overtake Facebook and Gmail to be the dominant email provider it's important to recognize that the vast majority of people just "don't know any better."

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

I honestly believe that the mass migration could happen, I just think it's unlikely.  If you look at the demographics of Facebook and who it appeals to, many of them aren't ready to jump ship for the new, hot thing in social.  Over time it could happen, but I think for right now Facebook still enjoys a very active and satisfied userbase.  Facebook has far surpassed any success MySpace once had and has offered many more iterations and features and I think it's obvious that theywon't go down without a fight.

On Google Plus (Google+): The Painful Realization

On G+ people are notified that they've been put into A circle, but they don't know the name of the circle.  Your mother is safe from knowing how often you really want to share with her.  This graph should help: https://skitch.com/jgibbard/fe4im/circles