I look at Google Plus as an organized, helpful place for professionals and adults. There are several reasons I enjoy Google Plus.
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Why I Like Google+
No one site is for everyone, and maybe you like Facebook. Heck, maybe you like LinkedIn. More power to you! To each his own.
However, for me I enjoy Google Plus for a number of reasons:
- I can count visiting my G+ site (page or profile) without having to worry about anything Kardashian popping up.
- Google Plus communities are active with adults who know their stuff. I'm active in the #Evernote community for instance. Ditto the #Scrivener community. I don't know how I would have learned anything after the basics of Scrivener without those folk in the G+ Scrivener community. It's not the most user-friendly software (but it's a must for writers).
- It's got lots of pix and images to entertain me while I eat lunch at my desk or I'm bored beyond belief on a conference call.
- It's easy to access via my Toolbar and via HootSuite.
- [THE REAL REASON I LIKE IT] Posts on Google Plus appear in the search engine results of Google Everything Search. That's right: Google indexes the posts that are published on GooglePlus.
I'm Worried Google Plus Will Disappear (I Remember Google Reader)
Long ago, I loved Google Reader. It loved me back, and it was the happiest of RSS Feed relationships.
Then Google killed off Google Reader, just like that (fingers snapping). No one asked me, and apparently no one asked or cared about tons (TONS) of other Google Reader fans out there.
When Google wants to kill off one of its products, there's no pardon by the Governor.
It hurt then, and the memory hurts now even though I am happy with Feedly, my new RSS Feed helper. The anxiety of what to do when I learned I was going to have to find something to replace Reader was a real stressor, though, and I'd rather not go through that again.
I work for a living. I need dependable tools that work for me because I have research, writing, and clients that bring me angst enough. So, I am worried in the back of my head about G+ and I know lots of other folk are, too.
Will Google Kill Off Google Plus?
Last month, there was a big conflab where a bunch of Google Powers That Be announced spiffy new offerings from Mountain View and curious by its absence was any mention of Google Plus. Add to this the departure of the Big Kahuna for Google Plus (Vic Gundotra) and the removal of Google Photos from Google Plus, and things looked pretty bad for G+ .
Many are waiting for the other shoe to drop where there is a quiet announcement that Google Plus is no more as of such-and-such date. I'm thinking that this may be true, but I'm not completely sure it will.
Granted, Google Plus never turned into the monster truck that is all things Facebook. Odds are it never will. Doesn't make Google Plus bad, though. It has its fan base of active users.
Plus, there are reasons for Google to keep G+ around. Guru Mark Traphagen wrote a great article explaining all the reasons why G+ is NOT dead and will not be executed in an April 2015 article entitled, "Google Plus Is Small, But Still Not Dead Yet."
Read Traphagen's piece. It will give you comfort.
And one more thing. For me, one of the keys to Google Plus is not what it brings to me, but what it brings to Google.
Go check out your GMail account, and down on that left sidebar you can scroll down to see all your Circles there, duplicating email messages within them that are also in your mailboxes (at the top of the sidebar).
Google has integrated its G+ Circles with email so that I can do things like email someone on Google Plus whose real email I don't know (think about that, stalker wannabes).
That's just one example of how Google Plus helps Google because G+ helps Google know a heck of a lot more about identities of me and my people as well as connections, interests, etc. And that's all really important stuff for advertising.
And advertising is how Google makes its money.
So as long as I see those Circles in my Google Mail, I'm going to sleep okay at night and not worry that G+ is sitting on Death Row.