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Facebook Says That Google+ Has No Users
dkd903 noticed another amusing shot in the battle between G+ and Facebook. CNN is running a story where Facebook's director of game partnership Sean Ryan basically says Google+ has no users. The article is mostly about casual gaming on social platforms, which I am really sick of individually blocking.
He is quite correct. I have a Facebook account and several of my friends who wanted to see it also do.. but it's empty. There's nothing happening there. This interesting article also says the same - there is nothing happening in Google+, while people just use Facebook like before. It also points out that the circles by design make Google+ less social "social network" by greatly limiting what people share and see.
I don't see it changing anytime soon either. Google+ misses all those things that make social network social. There's no pages either. I've noticed Facebook works nicely as some kind of a rss reader if you join the pages that interest you. Besides, I'm not quite comfortable with Google's datamining. They already have my searches, youtube views, analytics from everywhere of the internet..
Facebook will become the next Myspace.
Yah it's done. unplug it.
No hot chicks = no users.
The only people using it are a bunch of nerds.
No reason for anyone to use Google+ as a social site.
There are no companies (users in Facebook speak) actively mining your content on Google+.
That's attractive, actually. Or at least, would be, if google would let those of us with google apps accounts have profiles and access google+.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
More at 11.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
I'm with you.
I'm also one of those 'no users', still have facebook (for now), but I really wish FB had a block ALL games/apps feature.
Fix the large Google+ vs. Google Apps problem (the one where those of us using Google Apps cannot use Google+ - period) and a lot of your "lack of content" issues will be solved.
For now, we Google Apps users are stuck on Facebook, etc.
C'mon Google - you've got the developers, now get to work.
From the "thank you Captain Obvious" department, something that's in an invite-only beta practically has no users. Really? How did you ever get THAT idea?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
My name is: No C. Users and I'm a Google+
They should have made a Facebook importer (friends, info, pictures, videos) along with something to see and respond to facebook updates from Google+. People have invested too much time into their facebook profiles to throw that away.
It's also way too difficult to setup the privacy for circles. They should have made better defaults. Facebook actually has a straightforward table of permissions where you can see how everything is setup. It may be less flexible than Circles, but for a general audience of non-computer nerds, simplicity trumps flexibility. I don't want to spend my time fiddling with permissions.
It's a shame because facebook is a pretty sluggish site, and Google has an opportunity to beat them if they can match and beat facebook's usefulness.
The service that hasn't actually officially opened yet to the public has no users? I, for one, am shocked. Absolutely shocked. It's invite only, for crying out loud, shut up already. Let's just wait and see what happens when they actually release the damn thing. You can't say it's dead and you can't say it's going to kill Facebook because IT HAS NOT EVEN BEEN OPENED FOR PUBLIC REGISTRATION YET. Good lord, people. Let's all take a step back for a second, take a deep breathe, and give it a little time before you make your baseless predictions.
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
Isn't no Farmville spam the entire selling point of Google+? Everybody I know using it is there precisely because it's NOT Facebook and doesn't have all the annoying spam (and even more annoying emo users) that make Facebook a wasteland of human stupidity.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
I have 49 friends in my circles and have had close to that for weeks now. Only 5 or so of them are actually regularly active on Google+. Most notably, none of my friends have "summer" photo albums on there, so there's no reason for me to use it.
It might be of note that about 10 of my friends on Google+ have NEVER had a Facebook account (and never will). They're still not active on there, though.
Google+ has no users, but Facebook has no users worth talking to.
I think I'll take Google+ if I'm forced to choose one.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Google+'s biggest strength is that it puts circles front-and-center so that you can control who sees your posts on a per-post basis. Yes you can do the same in Facebook, but it is a tedious workflow in Facebook.
I am starting to think this may be Google+'s biggest weakness as well. Now that people can share posts with sub-sets of their friends list with ease, Google+ overall feels less active. I wonder how much of that feeling of inactivity has to do with not being aware of private, walled off conversations between members of your circles. Honestly, how many close friends do you have on Facebook or Google+? It is more than likely that the bulk of your friends lists / circles are acquaintances or friends of friends and those are the people that you are less likely to share posts with ... and vice-versa.
https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3Dl1U-un51wJc%3AoJyH2EUK8x0
I've noticed Facebook works nicely as some kind of a rss reader if you join the pages that interest you.
Have you tried using Sparks in G+? It's a better RSS reader than following Pages any day in my book.
There are a few things G+ is missing to seriously contend, at least in my eyes, with FB... for me and most of my friends.
First, I can do without pretty much all the apps, games, and all those other random application things that I have to keep adding to my "block posts from [app name]."
However, one of the biggest things I use G+ for, apart from general communication, is events/coordination type stuff. If G+ had a decent "Create an event" thing, that'd be a major plus [hahaha...]
On the communication side... *some* sort of wall, page, message, etc., would be nice. Not necessarily necessary, but could be nice.
A "page" of some sort; e.g., I have an ultimate frisbee group. It'd be nice to have a "group" for that. I suppose I could just make that a circle, but people can't manage their own subscription/membership to my circle then...
is that lot of informative discussions(LKML type) are happening there since most of the kernel developers are using it. A average linux user who cant track LKML can easily see some of the most informative discussions which cannot be found on facebook or twitter.
It's sad watching people argue over which advertising conglomerate they want to give all their personal information to.
Probably the biggest problem is I can't upload pictures from either of my iDevices. There isn't a Google+ app in the App Store so one of the things I do (upload pics) isn't available. I am on it since my daughter is using Google+ more than Facebook.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
On a lark, I created a username and accounts on both Yahoo and Google, then using a name something along the lines of "Honeypot", created an account on Facebook using one of the email addresses (Y! I believe). I then added a bunch of contacts in the address book of both Yahoo and Gmail, different people in each address book. In short order, I began seeing ads within Facebook while logged into the honeypot address suggesting I friend people from the address books of the account NOT tied to the Facebook account. Can't recall which email service I'd done this with first, but I am pretty sure that a Yahoo account was associated with Facebook. In other words, I would log in to Yahoo, then to Facebook, then to Gmail. Yahoo was associated with the Facebook account. After a few days, I began to see names of people whose names were in the GMail account (and I knew were email addresses associated with real Facebook accounts) suggested as friends in Facebook.
I then repeated the same; creating a new address in Gmail then a Facebook account. Few days later of going back and forth, I started seeing names in the second Gmail account popping up when I logged into the new Facebook account.
Certainly none of this is a shock to anyone, but I don't get why Google feels the need to come up with G+ and compete with Facebook. Stick to fscking search, stick to what you're best at. I don't understand this Microsoft mentality of "Oh, we didn't have this first and make money with it? Lets do one of our own! And fire the people in charge of marketing and precognition. They should have known social networking would become such a huge hit."
In terms of market for casual gaming companies, Google+ does indeed have "no users".
1) G+ launched without gaming integration, so no one on G+ went there for the gaming, and thus can't be considered a "user" from the perspective of gaming companies.
2) G+ launched without gaming integration, and was a major reason many early adopters started using it. Many of G+'s users are NOT users from the perspective of the gaming companies because they went to G+ specifically to get away from the gaming spam.
It's frustrating - I can keep games from showing up on my general news feed, but if I want to see what a specific friend has been up to lately, if they game I can't find anything other than gaming spam. (Gaming spam isn't hidden when you look at the player's profile.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I use FB Purity. Awesome.
http://www.fbpurity.com/
That and a couple other tweaks in FF makes FB a reasonably enjoyable experience.
My other sig is a Porsche!
"because they don't have any users,"
is a bit better presented as...
"Google ['s game revenue cut] is at 5% because they don't have any [gaming] users,"
This intent is a bit less hyperbolic, and truer to the intent of the statement. Not that Facebook has been overly honest in their war with Google, but they aren't ignoring the Google+ userbase either.
I primarily use Google+'s instant upload feature on my phone. At first it was a little scary but not I really really like being able ot manage my pictures in picasa like as soon as I take them. No more uploading BS... :)
Here's how you find something happening on Google+.
Follow Trey Ratcliff.
Follow Colby Brown.
Follow Leo Laporte.
If you are masochistic, follow Robert Scoble.
Scan the profiles of people in their circles and follow anybody that looks interesting.
Wait for posts.
Scan commenters' profiles and follow anybody that looks interesting.
Behold! There are things happening on Google+! Why, it's a vibrant community of tech geeks and...photographers?!?!
he is correct. The Hitchhikers Guide shows us there is no mone, no people, no sex and therfore no users.
Ascii artist &
Everyone who's ever intensively played a 'social game' on Facebook knows the simple truth: they're surrounded by fake accounts. For over two years I managed in excess of 40 Facebook accounts without ever being flagged... I presumed most of my 'friends' were fake as well. Even now the accounts are just sitting there, untouched, unused, but inflating FB's user numbers.
I recognize I was cheating. It was wrong and I shouldn't have done it. For my actions, I've chosen to exile myself from FB games altogether. Certainly, not everyone cheats or creates multiple accounts as I did. But I venture that enough 'gamers' do it to seriously distort Facebook's numbers.
Google+, if you don't see your friends posting often, their talking about you.
I'm sure that MySpace thought that the upstart Facebook had no users in comparison. Now look where we are? I don't think that Facebook should take Google+ and Google lightly. I feel that Facebook's usability and function is more geared to college network (and hence where they cam from) opposed to one that is more adult. By default I don't want to have my posts go to everyone. I also don't consider everyone to be a 'friend'. Studies have been shown that the max amount of personal relationships a human can handle is about 150. So that means that if you have more than 150 give or take people in you network some of those people a bound to not be a 'friend'.
Badges!?! We don't need no stinking badges!
Facebooks the most hated company on the internet... proven by several polls now. Their on their way out. If Google acted anything like Microsoft does, Facebook would have been dead years ago. It's only a matter of time.
I want to delete my facebook profile and switch to google+ fulltime. Unfortunately almost all of my friends and family still use facebook, though some of them have google+ accounts aswell. What exactly can I do to get them to switch over? No one wants to use a service that has no activity and no users. It's a chicken and egg problem.
For the time being I've gone back to using email almost exclusively. I never used 99% of the facebook features anyway, I disabled the wall, didnt post pictures, etc.. I basically just used facebook as messaging/email service (though it has the worst interface that I've ever seen for that purpose).
like the 4chan meme of PS3 when it first came out.... Google+ has no games.
That's essentially what that FB guy is saying.
"Google ['s game revenue cut] is at 5% because they don't have any [gaming] users,"
Does Google+ require that games on their system use their billing system? Facebook does, but it's not clear if Google does. With Google's Schmidt commanded to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 21 on Google's antitrust issues, I'd be surprised if Google did require that. 5% is a reasonably competitive price for a payment service. At 30%, you look into handling your own credit card payments.
Facebook exec quoted as saying Australia has no inhabitants (pop. 22,680,971, Google+ estimated at 25,000,000).
I wish my sites had "No Users!" I'd be very pleased with the "No Users" count of 25 million.
I'm happy when there are 300 active users...
How many stories have we heard about where a company sees a post from an employee and they get fired... Having Circles in G+ allows separation so I choose what get's shared with whom i choose to. This might lead to more relevant conversations with people you actually know and less "shaking the tree boss" look at me i am self important banter.
Time will tell if the system becomes another wasteland of "I woke up..".."I had breakfast"..."I brushed my teeth".. useless drivel
Nowhere in the article doesn't actually say "no users". It's an attention grabbing, flamebaiting, tabloid-esk headline that CNN and Fortune should both be ashamed of. Here is what it actually says:
The similarities between the two models have obviously ruffled some feathers. At the event, Facebook's Ryan argued that Google's gaming foray was like McDonald's (MCD) recent efforts to offer premium coffee, competing in the same space as Starbucks (SBUX). (That business went on to become huge for McDonald's...) "Google is at 5% because they don't have any users," he said dryly. Google declined to comment on the statements, but confirmed the percentage it planned to take from game makers.
Obviously from the context, they are talking about why Google charges so low is because they have no real user capitalization to begin with. But Facebook is not pulling a Baghdad Bob: "There are no US troops in Iraq. They're making it up!"
It was a figure of speech. And one obviously pointed out in the author's preface that also indicated just how foolish it would be to actually rely on it as credible. It's a lot of piss and moxy on Facebook's part to laugh off the competition. But nobody with half a brain is buying it.
I8-D
Personally, I've really enjoyed the lack of activity - it's a relief to log in a day or two later and see that only a handful of status updates are in my stream vs far too many to keep track of, even in a single day, on Facebook. To me, that's a strength - fine-grained control and no overwhelmingly large floods of content from my friends, their friends, and people I've not talked to in years - and no, I don't prune my friends, I'd might as well invest that time in Farmville...
FB Purity uses your browser to implement a whitelist of applications that get to your feed, so even as new games are "released" (usually in the case of Zynga, poorly reimplemented or bought) you won't see their spam unless you specifically allow them.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Google says that Facebook has no profit.
Well, Facebook has no FACE!
He's left out of everyone's circles and isn't seeing any posts. :)
Facebook will read my Twitter status and add it to my wall. Google+ needs the same ability so I can post to all three services at the same time from my mobile.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
It's the signal to noise ratio. So far, in my experience, FB has more over-all content, and even more "good" content numerically, but I have to filter through so much garbage to get to it. It's too much work. With G+ the noise level hasn't gotten that high yet, even though G+ has less content.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
That is actually what I have begun to think as well. That and the fact that I actually have to select circles to share with for every post. On Facebook, I simply set a relatively sane default (all friends minus the people from work who are just coworkers, not friends). Anybody who should see even less than that I put into the aforementioned coworkes group for a week so they think I accepted them, then I silently delete them again. At the very worst, some not so good friend suddenly sees I play WoW, am an atheist, like the Suicide Girls or drink beer. Well. I can live with that, as at least my boss knows 2 of the 4 and probably suspects the other 2 and wouldn't give a damn. My parents, they know all 4. But on Google+ I have to think who exactly shall read whatever I post every fricking time. Sounds good on paper, in practice, not so much. I for one am waiting how this pans out...
heheheheheheh Facebook workflow??? Now that's the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time on /.
He said Google+ *GAMES* have tiny market share compared to Facebook ones, and their taking only 5% from developers compares with 30% for Facebook may be either the cause or the effect of this. Not Google+ as a social platform. The headline makes him sound like a retard, and the editors as illiterate.
Invites: https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DxmhtvZItnXc%3ADk9W5Sieo7g
It sounds like all you need is two circles to duplicate your facebook experience.
I have family
friends
dnd
acquaintances .
a couple private groups
I don't go overboard but I could see how you could overdo it.
On facebook, everything was mashed together. It caused me stress and embarassment occasionally.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
It's users have no privacy, no real opt-out, no right to it's own content.
Scientia est Potentia
A lot of colleges are switching their email go Google services. So I predict soon students will be switching to Google Plus. And I will say... most of the incoming students haven't even heard of Google + yet. But they got real excited after I told them about the video chat with 10 people at once. Most of them have been using ooVoo.
As in most religions, it's the followers that turn people off to the religion. And Mac users are the worst.
they have plenty of users. not a day goes by where im not reminded through email about these users...some of whom ive gone so far as to call 'friends' in the past, in something called 'real life,' before their google+ email campaign began.
Good people go to bed earlier.
It's sad watching people argue over which advertising conglomerate they want to give all their personal information to.
As compared to the more important Bluray vs HD-DVD, Mac vs. PC, Steelers vs. Browns, Blue state vs Red, US vs Canada, Star Trek vs Starwars, Missionary vs Doggystyle, Christians vs Islamists, or Pepsi vs Coke debates that needlessly consume our lives?
I use google+ and I don't have a facebook account. It is slowly replacing twitter for me. I love it. I have about 50 people in my circles.
Me & Linus are on Google+, what more do you need?
I bow my hat to you. Your fellow Dungeon and Dragons players are closer than your acquaintances.
The rest of the world continues normal business, Earth still rotates and the majority of people are doing stuff face to face rather than sitting in front of a computer updating/stalking on a social network like Facebook or G+.
B-)
The current campaign is now 19 to 20 years old. The prior one only went 12 years.
Looks like we'll wrap it up about the time we turn 60. Maybe transform it then. Maybe start something new.
Wish we had time to play 4 times a month like the old days.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I see more comments about lack of messages in G+ than I do complaints about over-zealous messaging in Facebook... but isn't that the point? Maybe most people like getting 10 pages of messages per day on Facebook just like they like receiving 100 pieces of spam per day.. makes them feel wanted. As for me I spend a lot of time adding inbox filters so that what lands in my inbox is the important stuff, and the rest is sifted into folders for when I get time. Circles=filters=good!
Why would facebook lie about it? Anyway, if there's a lack of user maybe it's about time to open it to the public, I've been like one month waiting for it and haven't got a way to get a damn invite (all the people I know use only facebook, or that spanish rip-off called twenti which is even worse).
Facebook has become nothing but a pile of useless status updates and likes. When I scroll through my G+ stream I see real conversation, interesting ideas, collaboration, and a sense of community. Google+ is far from being a ghost town. The people making this claim are approaching it like another Facebook, rather than a new system. Follow some interesting people and join in some conversation. If you don't like something about the system, send them feedback. This project is in beta and there are many active Google employees around to listen to your criticisms and discuss solutions.
Agreed. You get the clique feeling where people are cut out of conversations instead of democratizing it where unrelated friends on the side can quip some comments in. FB has exceptions if you really want to keep somebody out of a conversation. G+ has no such understanding.
G+ is black&white social networking, while FB is more fuzzy. The social world is more fuzzy than B&W.
Can we please get an objective article on these issues from time to time?,earlier today we got what was essentially a corporate ad praising Android's African success and now we get the flipside with some Facebook PR guy defending his home turf.
G+ is nowhere near close to being a threat to Facebook yet, we know that, but it does have 25 million registered users in what is essentially a closed beta test.
Predictions this early are useless and will all but reflect individual bias, preferences and loyalties. If you feel like it. you can look at past precedents like Gmail (hit) or Wave (miss) and get a slight idea of where things are going; a Facebook exec is the last person I'd trust to tell me how Google+ is doing.
It'll be the first thing I've posted in there in a while, since I've essentially moved all my operations to Google+. It'll probably also be the last thing I post in there, given Facebook's reaction to people posting shit about Google+.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
This seems to sound like the Barbara Streisand effect to me...
I already have more friends there than on Facebook. Also, keep in mind that Google+ is new whereas Facebook has been around a little while longer.
I hope this comment is well received... I could have moderated instead!
Persecutors will be violated!
In reality I think that Google+ biggest problem is that it is only cool in an extremely nerdy sort of way. Sure, I am not surprised that just about everybody here would prefer Google+ to Facebook, but then again - everybody here also would prefer Linux over Windows, Java over PHP, Computer over Girlfriend etc. A simple fact is, while it can be annoying as hell, Facebook is kinda cool and until Google+ become cooler than Facebook it will not take off.
C'mon - Google+ - read it out loud - it sounds like some laundry detergent.
Yes, well...
They're not going to get me until they roll it out for people who use their Apps for Domains service. But they don't seem to be in any rush for that.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They are not officially on the way to internet oblivion until Rupert Murdoch buys them.
Actually now that I think of it that was only MySpace and a few dotcoms like one I was in - the stuff he bought in 1993 just kept growing.
Why would that lead to more quiet? Many people seem to prefer sharing publicly, but if you want to share something, but don't want to share it with everybody you know, G+ still lets you do that. In Facebook it's apparently possible, but definitely harder. There are less obstacles to sharing on G+.
Of course they are. The overlap between my "friends" and "gamers" circle is huge. How would a fellow gamer be less than an acquaintance?
They're probably saying your grammar is poor.
If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
I have flashbacks about Windows vs Linux flame-wars...
or else I am reading messages from dead people, and video conferencing with several of them at the same time using "Hangout".
I also like that msgs that Linus Torvold posts. He must be dead too, even though he is learning to scuba dive.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
And BSD is dying...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If there is nothing happening on Google plus in gaming, then why is Steve Jackson on it.
What you meant to say was "there is nothing spamming me invites from friends" on G+.
There, corrected it for you.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You can't share with everybody "except some people" in G+, unlike Facebook.
G+ doesn't let you do that explicitly for a single-post even though you can easily create a Circle to do that. How inane and unorthogonal is that?
I cannot believe that people are still trying to put a positive spin on Google+. Let's look at FACTS....In the last 4 weeks, less than half as many people have signed up for Google+ as signed up in the first 2 weeks. So sign ups are less than 1/4 as much as before. This at a time when everyone can invite 150 people. (Most people are reporting that NO ONE is accepting their invites, with the estimate being about 95% are going ignored.) Traffic is STILL falling for the 4th consecutive week and now averages less than 1 page view per day for every 16 million users. And when you factor in the power users that use up most of the page views, it is more like 1 out of 80.
Meanwhile, Facebook's traffic, total users AND new sign ups have increased by a larger number than Google+'s over the last month.