Crossing the Chasm for Google+, what's the magic number?

Whilst it is still too early to predict much regarding Google+, I anticipate that Live Hangouts and Huddles will drive sustained participation. right now early adopters are driving growth, but until Google+ crosses the chasm we won't be able to predict anything. That however poses a huge question, what number would constitute crossing the chasm? Facebook and twitter has set the bar extremely high, Facebook was not first to market but Twitter was first. Google is the market leader in search, digital advertising and many online productivity apps.

These and many other factors will determine that number, it could be 150 Million users, or 189 million or 220 Million, many will say 100 Million worldwide users. Determining that number has become a science for consumer electronics, so marketers know exactly what they need to do to reach that number, not so much in an unpredictable world of social networking platforms where there are many more failures than successes. To be sure, whatever the number, getting there will take a very flexible and highly responsive strategy from the Google+ team. In my opinion, beating Facebook, or killing fb as some have suggested, is not part of Google's objective, but building Google+ to function similarly as fb functions (and thus capitalizing on established habits), is a clear indication that they want to encourage significant G+ adoption. This, I think, is the main factor that will help Google+ to cross the chasm.

My first login to Google+

I must say I was quite excited to recieve an invatation for Google+, I could not wait so I asked a group of friends, via Facebook, and +Jennifer Weiss responded. I immediately spent several hours trying everything, adding friends=creating Circles (so much easier than facebook) and sending invitations. I logged in using my main Gmail account and immediately saw the familiar Gmail navigation bar at the top with a new tab containing a "+" sign followed by my name! (on a side note, I highly recommend that you create a Gmail account, for the simple reason that it gives you instant access, once you're logged in, to virtually all Google products, like Picasa, Search, YouTube, Maps, Calendar, Documents, Photos, SketchUp, Reader, etc.) On the right side of the navigation bar my full name is still there but two new boxes appeared, the first with a zero in it (Later I found out it is for notices and turns red with the number of notices, the second was bigger and is a share box, allowing you to post a comment to your stream from anywhere including gmail. You would then find an icon with your profile photo. Click on it and a drop down menu gives you access to your Account Settings, Profile, Privacy and Circles. The Tools icon comes next and it is configured for Google+ with tabs for Help, settings, Feedback and your web history.

At first glance it is so clean! Not busy or "pushing" compared to Facebook. The Masthead contains the Google+ logo, four Icons and the ubiquitious search box. The Icons are Home, Photos, Profile and Circles. There are three columns below the Masthead. In the middle is the "Stream", it contains the posts from ALL your Circles (you can also view the stream from individual Circles, more on that to come) and allows you to "+1" which is equivalent to "Like" on Facebook. You can also share and comment. At the top of the left column is your profile photo and your name, then a Welcome button followed by a Stream hyperlink and a list of your top 5 Circles witha further option to add 'more'. Below the Circles is the Sparks link (later I will explain how to add Sparks) and this is followed by your Gmail contacts-with the full functionality and notices of Google contacts.

In the right column you will find an abridged list of the folks you've added to Circles, suggestions for people to add to your Circles, followed by the Hangout link (you definitely want to learn this), an option to add your mobile device and a hyperlink to Invite people. In that order. Thats it. All clean on a white background, uncluttered and very pleasing on the eyes.

Welcome to Google+ for Dummies!

Google+ (Google Plus) is the new social networking app by Technology giant Google, Inc. It is still in active development and as such they are releasing accounts on an invite only basis. You can also register to receive an account when they open access to everyone. Although no release dates have been announced, they are slowly granting more invitations to current account holders, allowing access to more people everyday.

Over the next few months we will post a constant stream of tips, how-to-dos, news, reviews and announcements for everything regarding Google+ and so much more. Register to recieve email updates from this blog.