Google Goes Social: A Look Back at the Launch of Google Plus

Google Goes Social: A Look Back at the Launch of Google Plus | Media Tapper:
When Google announced this year that it was working on a new social network, critics immediately chastised Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google didn’t ‘get’ social, these critics said, it would just become another failed adventure, like Google Buzz and Wave.

Well, when Google Plus, as the new network was called, was actually launched in June, ‘influencers’ immediately jumped at the opportunity to experiment with this brand new website… and they loved what they saw. I’m sure you can recognize yourself in my own experience: I saw that G+ was launched, saw who had joined and immediately asked those I knew who were on it already, to send me an invitation.

In little to no time, I did indeed receive my invite. So I signed up and in and gave myself a quick tour: what was this new network all about? What interesting people should I follow? How was this network going to be different from, especially, Facebook and Twitter.
I was struck immediately by the sheer quality of the posts on G+. It was truly amazing; it blew me away. Here were all the great influencers – at least those who were into Tech and Social Media. Here we all mixed with each other, debated about articles and new products, and inspired each other to become better at whatever it is we did for a living… or as a hobby.
Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Anderson and Mike Elgan were probably the people who truly helped Plus have the great start it had. Their posts were always interesting, always informative (and even inspiring). All of these individuals immediately understood what G+ was going to be all about: your interests. They were quickly joined by the best photographers in the world, who suddenly discovered that they could share their best photos with thousands (even millions) of ‘non-experts,’ who are – of course – in actuality their customers nonetheless. Especially the way in which Trey Ratcliff used G+ was the best kind of PR Google could have hoped for. He not only shared his photos, but also his ideas about photography. Before Trey knew it, he was circled by thousands of ‘amateurs’ who loved his HDR photography.
Shortly after G+ was first launched, it was reported that the new network had gained 10 million users.
10 million in less than a month. I can still remember thinking to myself,”Wow this is going to be very big indeed!”
I wasn’t disappointed. Over the next few months increasingly more people signed up until G+ now has more than 40 million users. Never before had a social network grown so fast, had so many people created accounts, and had they embraced a new service that quickly.
In short, Google was onto something with G+.

Still, there were (and are!) those who criticized Google. According to these critics, G+ would never become ‘big’ because there were no brand pages. When these pages were actually launched, they said they leaved much to be desired and would never truly be used by brands. Well, those of us who are actually on Google Plus know better: brand pages are quickly developing. They’re getting better and better, and companies are using them increasingly more. In this regard, Facebook will encounter a very serious challenge to its hegemony.
But there was more: Facebook and Twitter fans said from the get-go that G+ lacked important features. It was a ‘half finished product,’ they said, ‘what a disappointment.’
Oh my, if only these individuals had shown some patience and restraint, we could have actually taken them seriously. You see, Google never waits with launching a new service until it is ‘perfect.’ No, Page and friends strongly believe in feedback. They throw something online and then wait for feedback from users. You and I tell Google what we want, they will make it so. We saw hangouts being improved (with extras), a ‘what’s hot’ feature was added, and many more improvements were made over time.
As a result of this confidence and trust in the G+ community, Plus is now well on its way to becoming one of the most influential and biggest social networks out there.
All that is great and wonderful, of course, and we can be very happy that 2011 was the year that Google launched Plus. However, have no doubt that 2012 will be even better. If that isn’t something to look forward to, I don’t know what is.

Art: Flickr / Magnet 4 Marketing Dot Net.

Fliers, think before turning on electronics

Fliers, think before turning on electronics  – USATODAY.com:
Many airline passengers using Kindles, iPhones and other portable electronic devices bristle at flight attendants' orders to turn them all off before takeoff and landing. Why? What's the harm? Fliers routinely leave devices on and the planes don't crash, so the rule must be bogus, right? 

OPPOSING VIEW: Superstition and what-ifs

That's what we thought, too. Then we decided to take a close look at this question after actor Alec Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to stop playing Words with Friends on his cellphone. That research, coupled with Gary Stoller's reporting in today's USA TODAY, changed our view.

Plenty of scientific evidence shows that electronic devices can interfere with airliners' radios, navigation units, collision avoidance boxes and even their fire detection systems. As an estimated 43 million people take to the skies this holiday season, many with new smart phones or tablets, that's a finding worth heeding.

The case is even stronger when you combine the technological evidence with dozens of chilling circumstantial incidents in NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, where pilots can anonymously report safety-related problems. Among the reports in NASA's database:

•A regional jet was climbing 9,000 feet last May when the pilots' directional indicators suddenly went haywire, leading the airliner 4 miles off course. After the confused pilots asked passengers to make sure their electronics were off, the cockpit instruments returned to normal.

•As a flight was climbing out of Charlotte-Douglas airport in North Carolina, there was such a loud buzzing on the pilots' radios that they could barely hear controllers. The captain warned passengers that if they didn't turn off all devices, the plane would have to return to the airport. After "nearly the entire plane" checked their electronics, the noise stopped and the flight continued.

•The pilots of an airliner flying at nearly 300 mph toward Philadelphia suddenly got a warning on the instrument panel that they were about to collide with a plane a mile ahead of them. They made an emergency climb before controllers said their radar showed no plane there. A flight attendant later told the pilots she had caught a woman making a cellphone call to her daughter during the approach.

•Pilots descending to land in Baltimore watched their instruments swinging oddly until they broke out of the clouds at 1,800 feet almost a mile off course. They concluded that numerous passengers using their cellphones had caused the error.

Not every device in every seat on every plane is a problem. Incidents seem to depend on which devices passengers use and where they sit, which could be near an antenna outside the fuselage or an electronics bay hidden away inside the plane. On one long over-water flight, for example, pilots began having trouble with their instruments and asked flight attendants to check the cabin. The attendants asked passengers to turn off their laptops one by one until they found the one that was causing the problem.

Some fliers have protested that pilots can now use iPads in the cockpit, so why not in the cabin? Simple: If pilots noticed problems, they could quickly switch their iPads off. And they're required to use them in "airplane mode," which shuts off all transmissions and makes them unlikely to cause problems.

OK, then why not let passengers use their devices in airplane mode, too? That would only work if everyone knew how to operate airplane mode (a surprising number do not), and if it didn't mean flight attendants would have to police each passenger's device.

Soon after Baldwin got the boot, he appeared on Saturday Night Live dressed as an American pilot. He called the rules about electronic devices "just a cruel joke perpetrated by the airline industry." The bit was funny, but the rules are no joke. Given the evidence, everyone from the Federal Aviation Administration to flight attendants should have "words with friends" about the need to turn devices off. It shouldn't take a crash to make the point.