A Tentative Google+ Use Case

Since joining Google+, I’ve learned the three things that seemingly everyone on there is learning:

The number one topic on Google+, is Google+
Despite the service’s focus on relevance and modeling actual human social grouping, there are still people who think of social connections as ‘points’, and aim for a high score
Very few people really know where it fits in, in their social media mix

But I think I’ve cracked it. Google+ is, in part, the solution to Facebook Connect authentication.

Facebook is trying to own identity online. This is what FB connect, and ‘Sign in with Facebook’ buttons are really doing - if your access to a million different things is tied to your Facebook identity, their data set becomes more valuable, and you chances of closing your account decrease to near zero.

The downside of this, is that suddenly Facebook is a public space. Even people like me, who responded to Google+’s circles concept with ‘I already do that with Facebook lists’, start decreasing thier use of Facebook as a place to share - to me, Facebook is turning into it’s namesake; it’s a static page that identifies me, and shares information about what I do elsewhere. Unlike a yearbook, we’re talking about what articles I read on CNN, not whether or not I was in Chess Club, but the idea is the same.

Google+ is far more focused on sharing content, and publishing content as well, to specific networks. Given my current use of Facebook, I don’t think there’s actually any overlap.

Facebook shares a more-or-less static profile, and online activity that you choose to tie to that identity.

Google+ offers a way of publishing content to select groups, but doesn’t really focus on sharing anything about you. Because (spoiler) Google doesn’t give data away. Google stores massive amounts of data, and then uses it behind the scenes to 1) sell things to you, and 2) sell you to things.

So what is Google+?

Google+ is a solution for the fact that status updates and link sharing on FB doesn’t actually make sense anymore, given what Facebook has become.