Tag Archives: Google

Well, that’s a plus. Sort of.

Posted on by

There’s no doubt google can be awesome. Check out (FNAR) this video they made about online checkouts:

That said, they just can’t get a handle on social media. I have some big problems with G+.

Running the trial almost successfully google-wave-style-choked it, limiting the people that you can share with to a small fraction of the amount of people you *want* to share with… So, they have brought together a group of people to sit and stare at their screens, asking “now what?”.

Also, because g+ has only just launched on google apps, I was using a seperate google profile to use it – now if I want to use my main email address, I have to start all over again… and I don’t fancy that…

I read that Google have canned Buzz, their version of Twitter, to focus on G+. This was after Google canned Wave in order to focus on stuff like Buzz.

Google’s like that chum you have who’s full of GREAT ideas, but stumbles a bit when starting them off. Google do some things brilliantly. Docs, Analytics, tools like that. They’re not that good at Social Media, but why should they have to be? in an attempt to widen their protfolio, they’re in danger of dooming their good work by association with their bad.

UPDATE: I think I’ve worked out what I’m trying to say here… (sorry, I’m very tired)…

By setting themselves up as “the next Big Thing” they have massive boots to fill very quickly – and unless they can claim some big successes (credibly) very quickly, they are inevitably going to suffer from cynicsm towards the hype that they founded.

By becoming a specialist sort of place, for techies and beardwearers, they are probably fulfilling what they should have set out to do in the first place.

Sean will be on the panel during one of this year’s Leeds Digital Festival Lunches, details soon…

Say hello… Wave Goodbye…

Posted on by

Google WaveSo, Google are effectively closing down the Wave programme.

Odd, for a creation that picked up so much hype, to end up being so underused – it’s difficult to know quite what went wrong.

Officially, the uptake wasn’t as high as they wanted – and I can see why. Pitched as the great new social collaborative working tool, it was originally offered out as an Alpha release (and then Beta) to a select group of people. It integrated seamlessly with their address books, so they’d be able to connect with anyone else on the trail.

Here’s where the logic machine breaks – if you’re creating a collaboration tool, but none of your friends have the invites yet, you’re not going to be able to do much on there.

But the good thing here is that gave it a try. Google can’t be blamed for the hype that whipped up, and their commitment to innovation should be praised. That said, they could have handled what happened next better. By integrating it more closely with gmail, or mobile software, they could have held people’s interest that bit longer, and got the engagement they hoped for.

Perhaps this just wasn’t meant to be – innovation can be great, but all great innovators miss the mark sometime!