
You're Just Too Monetizable for Google+ to Ever Go Away - xmpir
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/how-google-plus-helps-google/
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lmg643
gotta admire the approach. facing off against a formidable competitor
(facebook), they just keep trying to add incredible features that will make it
a compelling destination for people to use.

this is the kind of luxury only a big company can pull off, but most big
companies are not able to get out of their own way long enough to figure out
what those incredible features are (and build them). we'll see if google can
pull it off.

thus far - it hasn't persuaded me to use regularly - but hangouts was cool
enough that i set up a g+ account and tried it with my dad and brother a few
times a year ago.

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res0nat0r
Why would Google+ go away as of right now? It seems to be doing just fine.

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xmpir
I do not know a single person (in Europe) that uses Google+ as social network.

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cromwellian
I don't know any friends or family who use it, but that's not what I use it
for. I visit Facebook once a month to see photos of friends or family. I use
G+ to engage with _interesting people_ who may or may not be my friends.

G+ is like Twitter or Groups rolled up together, but you know, with an
threading/posting interface that is actually useful for having long form
conversations. Many of the G+ features also handily trump Twitter and FB, such
as handling media/embedding, multi-party chat, video chat, photos, etc.

G+ photos alone is useful even if you don't have a single person circled.

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res0nat0r
According to the link below it is up to 540 million active users, so it sounds
like it is doing OK.

[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/google-540m-monthly...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/google-540m-monthly-
users-lags-behind-facebook-article-1.1500403)

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mullingitover
G+ has done what none of Google's competitors could do: make me look upon
Google with utter disdain. Google has been extremely pushy about getting
people to use G+, and doesn't offer any kind of "Never bother me about G+
again" option. The more I get pestered to sign up for G+, the less I like
Google overall.

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yuhong
This article that was submitted on HN has a section on Vic Gundotra on this
topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6420546](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6420546)

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xmpir
Unfortunately Google has the ability to force their users to help the dirtiest
growth hacks to succeed...

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danmaz74
How is this any different from what Facebook et al are doing?

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xmpir
I think many "users" of G+ don't even know what G+ is...

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magicalist
does it matter?

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xmpir
e.g. comparing to Facebook there are very few accidental sign ups for
Facebook.

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magicalist
Sorry, does it matter for anyone not trying to keep some kind of score based
on companies' self-reported numbers?

Who really cares if someone using Hangouts to do a show on youtube realizes
that they're using what Google defines as a Google+ feature? Nag screens are
annoying; this falls on the bottom of my list of things to care about.

