Google’s Deal for Polar Shows It Has Not Given Up on Google+

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/11/googles-deal-for-polar-shows-it-has-not-given-up-on-google/

by t23 • 12 years ago

25 27 12 years ago

blogs.wsj.com

The problem with Google+ isn't that it has a bad mobile experience, it's that it offers no reason for people to leave Facebook. I don't see how hiring the founder of Polar will have any effect on that fundamental problem.

imgabe• 12 years ago

Facebook provides plenty of reason to leave Facebook. The only problem is getting a critical mass of people somewhere else. Everyone's still on Facebook because all their friends are on Facebook.

Karunamon2• 12 years ago

Not to the average person, it doesn't. HN's hatred of facebook is a well documented thing, but to the average user, it's the place where you go to look at pictures and talk with friends and so on.

crdoconnor• 12 years ago

Facebook provides plenty of reason to leave Facebook.

While true, G+ doesn't actually address any of those reasons.

spankalee• 12 years ago

I don't think Google+ needs to have people leave Facebook, it simply needs to offer great ways to share content with people so that users have a seamless experience on YouTube, Photos, Gmail, Docs, Hangouts, etc.

The Google+ stream is basically more of a (much, much) better Twitter than a Facebook clone. I use it for public work related communication and specific topics via communities and hashtags.

Disclaimer: I'm a Googler

psbp• 12 years ago

I think a G+ nearby feature: http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/06/06/exclusive-google-wil...

Would go a long way to make G+ compelling. There's still not a good tool for sharing pictures/video on mobile. MMS/SMS is too clunky when I want to share something with 2 or more nearby friends.

I wish I could take a picture, swipe up and to the left from the picture to initiate sharing, and click on the "nearby" or "frequent" chat-heads that I want to share the picture with.

wodenokoto• 12 years ago

I think you mostly hit the nail here.

Google+ should have been a seamless (and transparent!) way of sharing content from all Google services.

Instead it is a weird social network, seated between the seats of a twitter and a facebook clone. It's probably great for twitter style yelling in the wind, but it really looks like its a facebook style only-shared-with-mutual-friends kind of network.

And Google services are awkwardly connected through G+. Are my pictures on Picasa or G+? And when they are on G+ are they shared with people I've added to my circles or with people following me? Or are they backed up until I decide to share them? This can all be controlled for sure, but it is completely non-obvious.

It is the same with hangouts. If you go to google.com/hangouts (a google search for hangouts will take you there as well!) you get an ad for the hangout app for mobile devices. But if you want to access hangouts online you have to go to G+. And from G+ you can log out of hangouts (what?) so what is hangouts? Is it a seperate service or is it g+ chat? If it is G+ chat, then why do I get an email instead of a G+ notification when people write me on hangouts?

VikingCoder• 12 years ago

I have no intention of leaving Facebook, and I use Google+ daily.

I have no intention of leaving LinkedIn, Hacker News, Reddit, CNN, Stack Overflow... They're different things, and I use them for different reasons.

27182818284• 12 years ago

I have the feeling Google+ is widely used, just not publicly. My family uses it daily, but it is a private circle so you'd never see the traffic.

Additionally Google tends to head-shot products that aren't working (Wave, etc) so I'm inclined to believe they have private metrics that are promising.

jaaron• 12 years ago

My extended family does a weekly Google+ Hangout and we regularly share photos on G+. Again, it's all private, but it works great.

t23• 12 years ago

I love Google Drive and Gmail, but hardly ever use Google+. An improved G+ user experience would be great...

pavlov• 12 years ago

Huh. For a moment, I thought Google is acquiring Polar: http://www.polar.com/en

...Which would make some kind of sense in the light of the wearable hype, but certainly wouldn't do anything for Google+.

gorner• 12 years ago

I figured it might have been the Toronto-based Polar (né Polar Mobile, now focused on Web native ad platforms): http://polar.me/

Too many Polars out there right now.

acheron• 12 years ago

Could've been Polar soda. http://www.polarbev.com/

nnain• 12 years ago

Maybe this team can make G+ a bit more engaging. They executed a rather simple idea of collecting 'Yes/No' polls very well and were able to conduct polls for big companies (MTV, TCrunch, Forbes and many more). Seems like a good team to acquire.

Google’s Deal for Polar Shows It Has Not Given Up on Google+

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