What is Google Plus?
If you think Google Plus is just another social site, you are in for a big surprise. What has been created is, put simply, a phenomenal tool for human communication, and much more. But it takes you to experience it, embrace it and ‘get it’ before this realisation really comes.
Introduction
Since its launch in 2011, Google Plus has been gradually moving towards being one of the most active social networks with hundreds of millions of people having active accounts. But what is Google+? And is it any different to any other social network? Well, as you will see in this video guide, it is very different indeed but you may need to let go of what you are expecting…
So, let’s begin! As Google’s Vic Gundotra during his fireside talk Guy Kawasaki, says “what we see is very… heavily influenced by our own experiences and our expectations. Do you see a duck or rabbit below
Whilst referring to the image of the rabbit/duck which first appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1892, he says “I suspect most of you see a duck.” And he continues, “if you run the test at Easter many kids see it as a bunny.” That makes sense, as when you change the context you are likely to change perceptions.
Vic Gundotra continues to explain, with Google+ people’s “expectation with social sites (being compared to the small garden I go to) is: I share with my friends, I get ads in there and that’s a social site.”
Google+, however, is something different and as such needs new language to explain the experience.
In essence…Google has added a “social layer across the services” people love and use every day. We can see this includes search, Gmail, YouTube, Calendars, Android and so on
As Vic Gundotra says, it is difficult to understand until people experience it.
So when people ask, “What is Google Plus?” there is the temptation of saying it is “like Facebook” or “like Twitter” but once you get involved, it is not that similar to either. Yes they all involve “social” and “people” and “communication”, and both of those other social networks can be great at doing what they do, but Google+ is something different. It is bringing people together within the context of many of Google’s services. It is, quite simply, something to be experienced for yourself.
This is also why so many people cannot understand the concept of Google+. It is not simply a new social media platform, and many people are yet to grasp the concept of a social layer.
