Todd Lyden

Four years, I wrote a series of blog posts about the advent of the "Google Plus Project." We are now seeing the pre-written eulogies for G+. The most recent that got me off my duff to write this is here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/04/17/five-reasons-why-google-died/?utm_channel=Technology&linkId=13615995 I really can't fault  @stevedenning  in his logic as to why Google Plus "died." But he assumes that it was built to take on Facebook where it lives, and if you look back, my contention was that it was NEVER designed to take on social. He also assumes (like everyone, you would think) that it was built to "succeed." My newest contention: it wasn't built to last. It was built to get more people on the "Google platform." I said that all it would take is "nibbles" at the other "social" tools. Is it just coincidence that Facebook is rolling out a SEPARATE messenger web app along with its reg...

I should have been giving Google Plus a little more attention in the first month of service. It still feels very much like it is reserved for the special people, but that's probably a good thing. I've decided to experiment operation out of Gplus primarily for the next week. I set up my feed to head over to Facebook and Twitter . I will still address stuff that is in those places as if I were still posting from there, but I am going to try to do all the posting from Gplus and see how it works. You can selectively send posts from Gplus to Twitter and Facebook, but I don't want to worry about that. I generally share tech and specific stuff to Twitter and more personal stuff to Facebook, so that might get a little dicey. Thoughts? How can you keep the fans on either more popular site happy, while integrating Gplus?

So far so good. Is this what Twitter was like in the early days or FB back when it was .edu only? Great product without people to populate it? I mentioned yesterday that Google doesn't have to KILL Facebook. Folks finally seem to be coming around to this logic. Yes, they basically copied the ideas and improved them based on what people DIDN'T like about Facebook. Is it enough to hurt/kill Facebook? Insanely doubtful. But they don't have to. I was reminded of the riddle/question "how do eat you an elephant?" as I pondered why folks kept suggesting that Google could not takedown FB with G+. Even if it was their goal, there is no magic bullet for them. Nothing particularly original is going to change people's minds. Facebook was once in a generation- just as Google was for search, but Google has done other things that people like. Will the loyalty work? It might considering the suite of products that actually make up Google plus. Also, it will integ...