5 Million Views On Google Plus

I have five million views on Google+. How do you explain that? Is it because my photos on Google+ are being shown on Google maps and those views are being counted? Or the articles that I read and share are being circulated beyond the 500 people that follow me?

Google Plus is my favorite photo sharing service. So it scares me when I read articles that say Google might sunset Google Plus. It is working for me!

I most definitely wouldn't want to lose all the pictures I have shared on Google Plus. I have shared tens of thousands.

YouTube Commenting: A New Paradigm

Español: Logo Vectorial de YouTube (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So far I have always totally ignored comments on YouTube. They tend to be very low quality, and let me not even get started on the out and out flame wars. But this changes things. This is a great leveraging of Google Plus.

YouTube Announces A New Commenting System, Powered By Google+, With Threaded, Ranked And Private Conversations

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Google Plus Is Google's Bing

Image via CrunchBaseTechCrunch: How The IPO Ruined Google

I never thought Google Plus was going to one up Facebook. Facebook is the social king. And that will stay. Just like Google is the search king and that will stay. Facebook tried to one up FourSquare, and failed. It gave up. But Facebook can not ignore the location space, and Google can not ignore social.

But I do think Google Plus is an arrival of sorts. Google wanted a player in the social space, and now they got it. They needed an also ran, and they have it now. Google badly needed a social layer to its services, and now they got it.

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Google Plus Numbers In A Year

Image via WikipediaIf Google Plus has 90 million users now, that was achieved in half a year. So even at that growth rate it should have 270 million users by the end of 2012. But it is most likely the growth will accelerate. Say it ends up with 350 million users by December. Those are rad numbers. I see no fog between 90 million and 500 million. As in, there is no stopping Google Plus from hitting 500 million users. I just don't know how long that will take.

If it can grow to 90 million users in half a year, then it is 270 million users by the end of 2012, and to 450 million users by the end of 2013. But that is saying growth will not accelerate. I am saying it will.

If Google Plus has not hit 500 million users by the summer of 2013, I will be surprised.

TechCrunch: Larry Page Is Super Excited To Announce That Google+ Has 90M Users

"I have some amazing data to share there for the first time: +users are very engaged with our products — over 60% of them engage daily, and over 80% weekly."

Google Plus Plus Google Search

Image by Squidooer via FlickrMonths and months back, more than a year back I went on record hoping Facebook would do this, it would let me search through all my wall posts, and the wall posts of all people I might be connected to. I guess I was waiting for Google Plus the entire time.

Search, Plus Your World

Google just married social to search. I can't search through all my wall posts on Facebook, to my great consternation I can't search through all my tweets (They are all on your servers!). But now I can search through the walls of everyone I might be connected to on Google Plus. Tremendous value has been added.

Of all the features that have been added to Google Plus since its launch, this is the most exciting to date. I am digging it. Facebook had the option to get into search last year but instead it outsourced that to Microsoft. And Microsoft did not quite do it. I guess search is hard to do. Google has the secret sauce.

The Google search engine suddenly has become more valuable. This is not just about Google Plus. This is not even primarily about Google Plus. You smell a conspiracy. Google never meant to launch a social network like Facebook. It always meant to add the social layer to search itself. It was always about search. Google Plus perhaps is smoke and mirrors.

Following 2700 People On Google Plus

Image via WikipediaA few weeks back I discovered this list. That gave me a start of sorts on Google Plus, even though I still don't show up daily like I do on Facebook and Twitter and Gmail of course.

It is like I signed up for Tumblr early, not long after it was launched, because I read about it in the news. And then I forgot about it. When someone convinced me to "get on Tumblr" I believe in February 2010, when I went to sign up, there already was a user by that name, and that was me. But Tumblr for me took off when I came across a list by David Noel. I ended up following most people on the list. These were tech entrepreneurs and VCs.

I have gone passive on Tumblr since summer. I still reblog once in a while, but I probably came across the tumblog post somewhere else. My primary blogs hosted on Blogger still feed into my Tumblr, so I still provide fresh content.

When I show up on Google Plus, my stream always surprises me. I follow so many great quality people. If I want some intellectual company, Google Plus is that place. Google Plus has displaced Tumblr for me for now. Even though I got inactive on Tumblr before Google Plus came along, and I am not doing the daily thing yet on Google Plus that I used to do on Tumblr.

Google Plus does not compete with Facebook, just like Twitter does not, Tumblr does not. They occupy different spaces. It is like when I got active on Quora I realized the FourSquare guys were on there, active. On Google Plus that person has been Alexis Ohanian. I see him often in my NY Tech circle. He is there, and he responds. I think he circled me back.

I mean, there is the MIT Media Lab circle, for instance. Joi Ito is really something. And it is an honor to be able to follow his crew.

My Number One Feature Request For Google Plus: Blogger Integration

Image via CrunchBaseIs now on the way.

Google Plus: What Went Wrong?

It is one of those moments where you feel like maybe you had a little something to do with it. I did blog about it only a few days back.

Google Plus is not a rich blogging platform. But Google Plus has a rich, open social graph that Blogger does not have. I want to use Blogger to put out blog posts, and I want to use Google Plus as if it were the comments sections to my blog posts. That would be a great combo.

Considering I am an avid blogger - I blog daily, usually multiple times a day - this one feature might turn me into an avid user of Google Plus. So far I have not been.

Good things happen to those who wait. And vent on their blogs.

TechCrunch: Google+ To Integrate With Blogger

Google Plus: What Went Wrong?

Image via CrunchBaseNothing went wrong. Google Plus continues to grow like a weed.

But I have not been using it daily, or even weekly. It has not become an integral part of my life. Contrast that to the fact that I use Twitter and Facebook every day, Twitter several times a day.

What went wrong?

For me it really bothered me that I could not feed my blog - hosted on Google's very own Blogger - into my Google Plus stream. I'd have liked it if my blog posts showed up in my Google Plus stream and gathered some comments.

Google Plus' Quora Quality

Image by Eva Blue via FlickrOne of the first things I noted about Quora at the beginning of the year was that people I wished blogged but were not blogging were active on Quora. They were speaking. I am feeling the same way about Google Plus.

Look at this Hilary Mason post for example. Hilary is a big tech brain at Bitly, the URL shortening service. I think this woman has data for breakfast while the rest of us are still asleep. And she is a permanent fixture on the speaking circuit of the NY tech ecosystem. You go to some random event and there she is on a panel.

Did I Get An Email From Hilary Mason?

The discussion she has started has generated some intelligent comments. It is a robust discussion. This is not exactly Fred Wilson's comments section, but it is pretty good.

Google Plus: Symmetry, Asymmetry: Both

Image by jdlasica via FlickrOn Facebook there is symmetry, we have to friend each other. On Twitter there is asymmetry. You could argue there is asymmetry also on Google Plus. So far I have not had to ask for anyone's permission before adding them to a circle.

But where Google Plus is different from Twitter is I can only add a total of 5,000 people to circles. On Twitter I follow and am followed by 45,000 people.

A million people might still add Ashton Kutcher to their circles, but Kutcher can not reciprocate. He can only add 5,000 people to his circles. And so the experience stays intimate for both Ashton Kutcher and his fans. His fans also have that 5,000 limitation. And so there is quality to that circling. Those fans can not add 50,000 people to their circles. That adds value to every time you get added to some circle.

The 5,000 Limitation On Google Plus: A Good Thing

Anil Dash

If you want to interact with a million people, that is what Twitter is for. I am glad Google Plus has that limitation. So people are more careful in terms of who they add to their circles.

Facebook also has that limitation. Facebook perhaps is the inspiration to that Google number. If you want to interact with more than 5,000 people, well, there are Facebook Pages you can create.

I think a limitless number of people can follow you on Google Buzz. That would be the Google version of Facebook Pages. I think there is no limit to how many followers you can have on Google Buzz. But I don't know for sure.

Google Plus Has Buzz

Image via CrunchBaseObviously Google Plus is no Google Wave or Google Buzz. This thing has legs.

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Has Google Finally Cracked Social?