

Google+ Now Lets You Conference People Into Hangouts With Free Voice Calls  - sidcool
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/01/hangouts-voice-calls/

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runjake
It seems like Google+ is going to become highly useful whether you like it or
not. I'm not sure whether I like Google+, but I admire Google's endurance
behind it.

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betterlabs
I don't get it. It just feels like they are trying to do too much too soon. I
don't know any other than marketers who are building content on Google+ and I
wonder what their engagement metrics look like.

Another thing is for conference calls, there are already several free and dead
easy solutions out there, so its unclear who this is aimed at.

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mullr
What's not to get? This is clearly the leading free multi-way video
conferencing solution. My team recently ditched Skype's paid version; it was
flaky as all hell, while hangouts is rock solid. This brings me and 6 other
people back to google+ every day. It also got 5 of those 6 people to sign up
for google+ at all.

So given:

\- "hangouts" is a compelling product with early traction (anecdotal but
strong)

\- it drives continued engagement to their strategic product

\- it accelerates google+ adoption by providing a concrete reason for people
to register there, because "that's where the meeting is"

Therefore, the right thing to do is to invest more in hangouts.

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betterlabs
If Google+ is aimed to be a utility then yes, I agree with your point of view.
But if they are looking to create a competing product to Facebook then, I am
not sure that creating a free multi-way video conferencing solution is the
going to help. And, I feel, users who signup to Google+ to use this free
service, are not likely to adopt Google+ for their social networking needs
just because they are using this free utility.

I agree that Google may acquire a few new users with this but this cannot help
them compete with Facebook. They need to get the core (the critical mass,
social sharing dynamics etc.) right where as, I feel, they are investing in
building utilities to get users which they are not getting based on the basic
social networking product.

This is what I meant when I said "I don't get it".

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fpgeek
I wouldn't say Google+ is a utility, I'd say that Google+ is about integrating
existing and new services that Google offers so that the overall package is
more useful and more compelling. For instance, there is integrated support for
jointly watching a YouTube video or sharing and editing a Google Doc from a
Hangout (though, oddly, the first requires an ordinary Hangout and the second
requires Hangouts with Extras).

The reason Google+ is primarily social is that, before Google+, most of
Google's services were, at best, poorly integrated from a social perspective
(if they were socially integrated at all). That naturally encroaches on
Facebook because they provide a number of social services, but the more I look
at it, the less I think Google+ is about "beating Facebook". I think it is
more about addressing weaknesses in Google's service portfolio that Facebook
(and Twitter, etc.) have highlighted. And that can be done without "beating"
or "replacing" alternative social services.

For example, one thing Google+ is _very_ good for is for interacting with
Google engineers and product teams. That's a part of Google+ that has nothing
to do with Facebook (or Twitter, etc.), but is still social and very valuable
to Google.

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jamilb
yeah! let's all hang out on the web!

you go do that, i'll grab a beer with my non-imaginary friends.

