It is a well-documented fact amongst those that know me that I generally don’t tolerate pointless bleating. And while there is the usual white noise that suffuses the open-plan offices and braai lapas, nothing has hit quite an unnecessary pitch like the petulant whining that comes with each change of a social network. One of the most annoying First World problems of 2011, I reckon.
I have had my Facebook account for six years now. That’s longer than most of the houses I’ve stayed in, longer than the time I spent in university. It has been through so many changes as to barely resemble the original layout. And I’m still using it, and so are 880 million other people. And while Google Plus is…nice, I suppose, it doesn’t have everyone there. It was hard enough getting my family to understand Facebook, never mind porting them over to Google Plus. (Which does make Facebook your mom’s network.) Most people aren’t going to bother with the move. It has stagnated mostly, except for the small surge of people that joined it when it was open to all a few days ago. (Their excitement was cute.) Having been there since day one courtesy of tech guru Tally, I can say that I have mostly lost interest. Its more of a bizarre mix of Tumblr, Twitter and Flickr. There really isn’t as much intensely personal overshare as Facebook and the circles idea was great. But as for the hangouts…well, I don’t have the bandwidth or inclination. At the end of the day, its not a Facebook killer. Maybe that isn’t what it should be trying to be.
For some, it all boils down to fandoms, and people pledging alliances to things as indifferent to their love as Google, Facebook and Apple. Friend SJ said that he’d rather Google take over the world than Facebook and Apple, but considering that all Google does well is email and search engines, they really aren’t that close to any kind of domination. After the failure of Buzz, Wave and the sputtering of Google Plus, maybe they should just stick to the stuff they do really, really well: making the Internet an easier place to be. And paying for YouTube, that is quite charming of them. I have made my arguments for Apple before, and Facebook is an interesting phenomenon in that it really is the best way to share each other’s lives. With the new subscriptions and lists, its much easier to squeeze out the info I want from the people I like while adding the people I’m not really allowed to defriend to the Restricted list. I am aware of the security issues, but we have to make peace that everyone knows where you are. I’m not so sure why everyone gets upset about security on the net, but invite pizza delivery guys to their houses or readily put their residential address on any form they are asked to sign.
Ultimately, if the Facebook changes bug everyone so much, then just use it less. There’s a beautiful world outside and it doesn’t need a news feed.
Zojo Dojo 
I think i’s a bit premature to give up on google+ yet.
There’s quite a bit to love about it, particularly the circles aspect. I don’t really like twitter as the appeal of hearing how Britney got her hair done today really does not make my life 20% more enjoyable. However googles “following” circle provides people like Richard Branson and Larry Page to post decent length posts, videos and images that really capture what they are trying to get across rather than the mindless drivel of twitter.
I also have a family circle, I want to engage with my family, I want to hear about their life but that kinda gets drowned out on FB by the millions of friends by random pointless statuses of friends and acquaintences(Don’t judge I R’s spelling).
Google’s separation of groups is just the sex because that is how society functions. We don’t communicate to the masses at whatever party we go to, we meet up with our group there or flit from group to group. We don’t all stand with microphones screaming to everyone at the top of our lungs.
Also just on the side, google’s android’s OS share is greater than apple’s in the mobile phone market, google is releasing an OS to rival MS windows, google owns 80% of the search advertising revenue on the net, google invests absurdly huge sums of money into alturistic projects, google’s engineers are encouraged to work on social projects once a week (an example is people finder for countries that have been hit by disaster).
The “scandals” that they get “caught” in aren’t even scandals, like the picking up of wireless details by their cars. They offered the best solution which was to delete the data but almost every government screamed like little children that they needed to check it first. Why?? The crime is now committed by the governments!!! Why the hell do they need to check our data?
Anyway the point is that google has a track record of being good, working in the consumers favor and producing the best search results by far. That is why I trust them. Every other corporation from BP to Microsoft to Apple show in one way or another how they will fuck you over if they get the chance.
BP – not investing in safety
MS – Forcing manufactures to use them, locking the consumer to one choice
Apple – Not tolerating dissent, using sweatshops, closed eco-system, locking the consumer to one choice.
Google Plus is a flat line. And I left Facebook about two weeks ago (I am still trying to churn out a decent article about that). I just didn’t want to be a Zuckie anymore.