Google Plus turning negative

Jack Schofield charts the background to Google’s failure to promote its Google+ service into the social network Premier League. Then he looks at how things might go in the future.

He writes:

G+ started out as a slow, bloated website, it attempted to gain users by compulsion — locking G+ to YouTube comments, Gmail and other Google properties — and it tried to enforce the use of real names…

All of these were unpopular with many users…

The clincher is in his conclusion:

G+ might have done better if it hadn’t been delusional about replacing Facebook, and aimed at providing something that users — rather than Google — actually needed.

There are useful things in Google+. Google Hangouts are OK even though it can be a struggle to get them working as well as FaceTime or Skype. However, there’s no logical reason why Hangouts should be part of Google+ and not a stand-alone app or, possibly, integrated into Gmail.

Google Plus is not the company's first foray into social networks and messaging. Google Wave was around before it was closed in 2010. Orkut and Buzz were forgettable attempts.

Google Plus is turning negative, but dont bet on it going away | ZDNet.