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Google+ isn’t Dying, It’s Evolving

Since Google+ first garnered its 20 million users in record time, it has very quickly dropped out of the spotlight. Today, over 80% of its profiles are inactive, meaning most users who signed on to Google+ no longer really use the site. Many speculate that Google+ is by and large dead.

Google+

That isn’t true. Google+ was launched as a hard shot at Facebook and social media in general. That shot clearly missed. Few people would dispute that.

However, as a social network, Google+ is still very much alive. It has a core group of users that still use the network religiously. Google is using its +1 feature more and more to gauge the quality of websites, which influences search rankings.

Google+ isn’t dead; it’s simply misunderstood. People are still comparing it to Facebook, which isn’t a good comparison. Instead, it’s a completely different social network altogether.

Users Make the Network What it is

Social NetworkSocial network programmers don’t always get to determine what the social network’s eventual goal is.

LinkedIn wasn’t originally built as a social network. It was meant more as a profile viewing tool for professional connections. However, as the social networking field exploded, LinkedIn had to adapt and added many of its social networking features.

MySpace wasn’t built as a music platform. But as Facebook overtook MySpace as a generic social media platform, MySpace had to adapt. Today MySpace is still fairly successful as a platform for musicians to showcase their music and connect with fans.

Orkut was launched as a generic social network, but quickly died off due to lack of hardware and engineers. However, for some reason it really took off in Brazil. Today it’s the largest social network in Brazil, something Orkut’s creators would have never expected.

The bottom line is, the creators of a social network often don’t have much of a say in what the network eventually becomes. No doubt Google+ was designed to overtake Facebook as a generic social network. That hasn’t happened and probably won’t happen. But it’s shaping up to be something very different entirely.

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