Posted on 3 September 2011

Originally posted on Google+.
—-
tl;dr: I’m not going to be posting anything on G+ for the foreseeable future. Follow me on Twitter.
The subtitle of this is “for now” because I’m not going to rule out Google+  ever being used. But I’ve been in for over a month, and I’ve posted very infrequently, and rarely about anything other than Google+.
The issue for me at this point is it just adds no utility as a place to share. There’s a few people there that I follow that I don’t follow elsewhere, and that will probably continue to be the case. But there are not enough people on this network that aren’t present on any other networks to make it worth my time or theirs for me to write the same things here that I do on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Anything I post here is just going to be a repeat of what they see on those networks. And that starts to get spammy.
Facebook has most of my real-world contacts. I post once or twice a day or less with what I’m up to, plus the occasional link. I also use it as a quick messaging service. It has its issues, but people are there and there have been a few changes (prompted by G+) that made controlled sharing even easier. Basically, it ain’t broke yet.
Twitter is my extended network. I’ve seen some people saying that G+ is better for this because it lacks the 140 character limit, but the fact is that 140 character limit is what makes Twitter work for me. No one takes up too much of my attention with super-long posts (like this one). And for people on Twitter who I absolutely must-read– real-life contacts, key industry people, etc– lists work just fine.
And for rich media (video, music, photos) and longer posts) I am still very happy with Tumblr. Not as many people are there and it still has occasional downtime issues, but that’s all made up for in the customization. My Tumblr page feels like my Tumblr page, not some brand experience. I can customize the look and feel of it to no end, it’s great for sharing and listening to music, and it has a browsable archive. And the community is great.
These are the three networks I use that Google+ seemed most likely to disrupt. And aside from making the privacy and group settings on Facebook a little better and possibly a few innovations to come from Twitter, it hasn’t changed much. There’s been no mass migration of real people in my network. There’s barely been a trickle.
Like I said, I’m not going to rule out ever using G+. It is clear that Google has big plans for it, and as it integrates deeper and deeper into other Google services that I use (mail, maps, docs, blogger, reader) I’m sure I’ll be back on here, just as everyone else probably will be. I’m using that “+1” button across the web more and more. I’m also seriously considering migrating my Flickr account over to Google’s Picasa/Plus photo service (unlimited storage!). But until then I’m posting this on my G+ page as an explanation/warning to anyone thinking that I’m “present” on this network. Because the truth is, at the moment, I’m really not.

Filed under: social media