That was my first reaction to Google+. In a matter of 2 days 40 connections were added to my circles. That is when I realized that it could be a serious competitor to facebook. Here's why:
- Rebuilding social graph is quick and simple. Everyone I have interacted over email can be found in my gmail which makes it easy to add connections. That's viral.
- "Hey, look what my dog did last week!" - yes, one can now have side conversations with a relevant group of people instead of broadcasting to all. That's less noise.
- I can call in sick at work and still talk about my day off with my friends without worrying about getting fired from work. That's better privacy.
- Sure, I will accept invite from my mom. On facebook, it is awkward to let friends, family and co-workers see everything. It's not a problem on Google+ since not everyone can see all my posts. That's more freedom.
- It is all about sharing nearly real-time information. Older conversations are irrelevant. That will make it easy to switchover to Google+ once the social graph gets built.
Lastly, Google has a track record of challenging well established players. Just when people thought "who needs another search engine" or "who needs another email", Google surprised everyone. Can they do it again?
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