When Google+ first launched, most people saw it, correctly, as a competitor to Facebook. But as you try Google’s social network, you realize that it has a lot in common with Twitter too. That versatility could be Google’s strength — but it could be its downfall too. Is Google+ trying to do too much?
In fact, my early impression of Google+ is that it is being used more like Twitter than like Facebook, that is more as broadcast than as friendly sharing. Of course, my circles are mostly filled at this point with tech journalists, both because those are the people who got early invites and because they’re the people I know. And tech journalists are notorious blowhards. So the use of Google+ may change as it expands to the general public.
As Google+ expands, though, I wonder if people will know what to make of this Swiss Army Knife of social networks. After all, what killed Google Wave wasn’t that it did too little, it was that it did too much. It was an email system, a chat network, a file sharing service, a project management device and more — it did so much that people couldn’t figure out how to use it.
The fact that Google+ can be both Facebook and Twitter at once (with maybe a little Tumblr thrown in) could be its greatest competitive edge against those other services. But it could also leave users bewildered.
And the confusion won’t be confined to how you share things in your own account. Maybe more difficult will be knowing what to expect of the people you follow. When I follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter, I know what I’m going to get: That portion of his thoughts that he thinks are appropriate for thousands of people he doesn’t know. If I were to follow him on Google+, I don’t know what I’d get, because I don’t know how he’ll see the forum. If Lance decides Google+ is like Facebook, I may see almost nothing because he’s only sharing with his actual family and friends. Or I may get the same kind of firehose of pronouncements I see on Twitter.
