Early last month, I wrote an article titled “When Will Google+ Be Released?” Since that article was written, nothing seems to have changed as Google+ remains in limited release limbo since the initial launch on June 28th. So now that we are approaching three months of limited release, why is it taking so long for Google+ to open up the membership to others?
My impression is that Google+, despite having the distinction of having grown faster than any other social network platform, isn’t really making much of an impact against Facebook. The clear market leader, Facebook has at least 750 million members although I believe it is now beyond 800 million members and still growing. An example of Facebook’s strength in the current market is a recent article on the web that states that the social networking leader has reached the over 450 billion page views milestone amid rumors of 1 trillion page views. By contrast, the amount of member postings on Google+ has decreased.
What seems to be buzzing now is that some Google+ members aren’t logging onto their accounts as often and others have abandoned Google+ altogether. Coupled with Google’s refusal to release the platform to other potential members awaiting public release, it appears they might just end up dropping the service altogether. My previous article questioned the success of Google+ and I do so once more. My very basic premise is that these Google+ members also have Facebook memberships and simply prefer the latter because their friends are already in place. In addition, why would a member want to take the time to re-upload all of the photos, create new groups and re-invite all their friends once more? My feeling is that even if Google+ was released to the general public, the interest is waning and advertising revenue is slumping in another semi-private platform that competes with the more established social networking platforms.
I don’t know what Google plans to do at this point. Clearly it made some headway in social networking, but it has not even come close to reaching the amount of user time compared to dare I say it again, Facebook. In fact the market leader has introduced new options on their site to mirror some of Google’s main features such as Circles and Google either needs to release Google+ to everyone in order to remain competitive and grow, or maybe pull in their reins and admit that it they’re getting trounced by other platforms and should put Google+ to rest. Yet just by logging on to their site, Google assures us that it won’t be long before it’s ready for everyone. If they wait too long, they might experience a colossal financial failure. Hopefully by September 28th, three months after the initial launch, we’ll have a better idea of what to expect with the New Kid on the Social Network Platform.