Google+ … Too Little Too Late

September 26th, 2011

Watching the continuing economic troubles in Europe and politicians toying with a government shutdown as we fall back into recession, the phrase “too little too late” comes to mind. Whatever policy comes out of government runs the risk of not having their intended effect in the face of insurmountable forces.

And yeah, that’s the feeling I’m starting to get when it comes to Google+ in the face of (pun intended) the insurmountable force of… Facebook.

Hard to find anything to disagree with in this Business Insider article. And a recent chart shows how Facebook’s share of user’s time spent online continues to track upwards. Google+ has had no measurable effect.

The thing is — I like the technology of Google+. It’s clean, runs fast, has some passionate users, and Google seems to be more or less listening to its community and trying to put them first for once. But it’s entirely possible they waited too long to put this thing into action.

In some alternate universe, Google would have purchased FriendFeed and positioned that service as its Facebook competitor. But that didn’t happen — Facebook bought FriendFeed and its team instead in 2009. And we now see the brains behind FriendFeed playing a larger part in driving Facebook’s future plans.

I just wonder what would be happening now if Google had purchased FriendFeed back then, effectively launching Google+ back in 2009, against a weaker Facebook. Maybe they thought Google Buzz or Wave would be enough.

But things didn’t happen that way. Facebook’s walls grow higher, enclosing an ever greener garden where the vast majority doesn’t seem to care about the thorns. And the ball is definitely in Google’s court to demonstrate how Google+ won’t be yet another example of too little, too late.