For a company that has had trouble understanding social, the response to Google+, the company's new social network platform, has been remarkably good.
But no-one so far has suggested that Google+ will be the proverbial "Facebook killer'. And nor should they. We have no idea how the mass market will respond to Google+, especially since there's no agreement among early adopters yet.
Still, at least in terms of ideas, Google+ is very interesting - innovative, even. In fact, the ideas are so surprisingly good, I think Facebook has a reason to worry - if, of course, they decide not to steal those ideas for themselves.
Circles solves the sharing (and privacy) problem
The big problem with social sharing online these days is that everyone's online network is diverse. For me, some of my web friends are into gaming, others books, while there are lots into tech, food or any other number of things, and they' don't often overlap.
Inevitably, you want to share things with certain people. Often, your friends really into cooking don't want to hear about you building a computer, or maybe you simply want to share certain things with people your closer to, but not everyone. By making creating groups easy, Google+ makes a step toward making this kind of issue far easier to deal with, allowing you to share certain things with certain people.
Bringing social to video
Hangouts is Google's way to integrate group video chat, which in and of itself, is neat but not revolutionary.
But a less-discussed feature is the ability to watch YouTube video with your group still there on their webcams. If Google were, for example, to cut a deal with Netflix or another video provider, groups of people could watch TV shows and movies together, something that could provide a compelling reason to use the site.
It's also a sign that Google is thinking about how to integrate online video and social experience in real-time, something that no-one has done very effectively yet.
Google already has a huge mobile headstart
That means that instead of slightly lame looking Facebook phones, Android could have another major selling point: fully integrated social networking at the level of the OS. That's a seriously compelling feature.
It's more open
Google are serious this time
More than anything though, this isn't another half-hearted attempt at social like Buzz or Wave. As Techcrunch pointed out, even the name is significant - this is Google plus, not some sub brand of something Google does. The organization is all in on this one. Despite their failures in the past, that's a big deal. And certainly reason for Facebook to worry.
About the Author
Navneet Alang is a technology-culture writer based in Toronto.
