the tindog coffeehouse

I’ve been on Google+ now for three weeks, and I really like it.

Actually, I should rephrase that. I’ve been on Google+ now for three weeks, and I really want to like it.

I want to use it. I want other people to use it. I want it to be awesome. So far, though, it’s been mostly disappointing.

Like me, it seems like a lot of people just haven’t found a good use for it. Maybe because it doesn’t really fit in with the existing Facebook/Twitter ecosystem. Nothing about it feels natural or cohesive or intertwined with any of our other social networks. Of course, this is largely due to Google not publishing their API for third-parties to use, but I think it’s also because anything posted there seems so incredibly redundant.

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It was exactly one year ago today the I broke my leg. One long year ago. But I’m still reminded of that moment daily.

Our house backs up to an undeveloped greenbelt, and we have a 4-foot wrought iron fence along the back. Because the HOA wouldn’t do any landscaping behind our house (like they were supposed to), we had a hard time keeping the grass trimmed along the fence, so I took matters into my own hands and decided to trim it myself, which required climbing over the fence because we didn’t have a gate at the time. While Christy was busy studying for school and the girls were watching TV, I climbed up onto the fence and hopped over. And that’s when everything went to hell.

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Don’t call Google+ a social network.

Even though its users have profiles, follow others, post status updates, upload photos and videos, and “+1″ a bunch of stuff.

But don’t call it a social network.

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Most people are familiar with the Old Testament story of Job, the innocent man allowed to be tormented by Satan as a test of his faith. Satan took away all of his livestock, killed his servants, and then killed his 10 children. When Job remained faithful to God, Satan then cursed him with terrible boils from head to toe. But still Job didn’t sin. Convinced that he was being punished for some past transgression, his three friends plead with him to repent, but although he felt sorry for himself, he could only defend his innocence.

Then a young man named Elihu confronted him, angry at Job for refusing to admit his guilt and sure that he knew exactly why God was doing the things He was doing. Elihu said confidently:

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I may have been wrong about Google+.

At first glance, it’s easy to compare Google’s new social network to Facebook since there are a lot of similarities. And if Google+ is really meant to replace Facebook, then I don’t give it much of a chance to succeed. After all, with 750 million users worldwide, it’s gonna take a lot to convince them to pack up their digital belongings and move to Google. But what if it’s not Facebook that Google+ is meant to replace?

What if it’s Twitter?

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Like millions of other techy folks, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on an invite to Google’s new Facebook wannabe, Google+. Now that I’m on, however, I can’t think of a single reason to actually use it.

Way to go, Google.

It’s not that Google+ is a bad product, although while it’s still in its early stages, it’s extremely bare in functionality. Rather, the problem as I see it is that it’s completely unnecessary. There’s nothing it does that other, more established social networks don’t already do, the biggest of course being Facebook. And this redundancy provides absolutely no value whatsoever.

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