As Google+ continues to gain momentum in the social networking arena, possibly still a month or two before it is opened to the general public, a lot of users have come out to play on the search giant’s new social playground. But not everyone is accepting the prestigious and hard-to-come-by invites. What could be holding them back, and is it better off that way for now?
“It’s a lot of things,” Gary Hempstock said. “I think a lot of people are just really happy with Facebook right now. Google hasn’t rolled all of it’s features yet for G+, so even if these people signed up there, they would all probably be like ‘hey man, where’s Farmville?’”
Some people are leery about the entire thing, remembering previous and rather anemic attempts by Google to get in on the social networking scene; Google Wave washed out on the beach, and Buzz hasn’t exactly been catchy. But Google+ is totally different, say fans of the new service.
“I love it!” said Jennifer Sloot, a college student. ”It’s like Twitter, but really more like Facebook. And it’s new, and you have to be invited to even get in. I mean, how cool is that?”
She’s got a point. There is something to be said for exclusivity, however fleeting. Soon, Google+ will be open to the public, and hopefully the appeal won’t have been limited to just how hard it was to get an invite.
How many people are still using Internet Explorer? Too many, it seems, to take advantage of installing Start Google Plus — an extension for Google’s Chrome browser that allows users to sign into both Facebook and Twitter (and update and read streams from both) from within Google+. Despite that it’s been demonstrated time and time again that Internet Explorer is an inferior product, people still use it because it is believed to be the standard.
“Well, it just came with my PC,” says Clem Whitticker. ”If it’s on there, I guess they know what they’re doing putting it on the computers, so I’ll just use what they gave me.”
Sadly, this is the most commonly encountered attitude. By true standards, people should be using Google Chrome by now.
