Official Student Newspaper of Henry M. Gunn High School

The Oracle

Official Student Newspaper of Henry M. Gunn High School

The Oracle

Official Student Newspaper of Henry M. Gunn High School

The Oracle

Google+ has yet to reach its peak

Written by: Utkash Dubey

The few, the proud—but no, I’m not referring to the Marines this time. I’m talking about the brave souls that face the wrath of completely adopting the newest social networking misconception: Google+.

“[Some name] added you in their circles.” Sound familiar? The least successful of Google’s attempt at taking over the digital world, Google+ is a social networking hub that bears a striking resemblance to internet giant Facebook—with some of its own nifty features here and there. At first, the social platform seemed to be the miscarriage of the companies’ apparent rivalry that still somehow made the cut. Of course, that negativity brings up the issue of why I use Google+ in the first place.

Hear me out—Facebook is cluttered and unappealing. Google+ is simple and consistent. Facebook is immature, yet the social dinosaur. And at the end of the day, Google+ is professional, refreshing and most importantly, functional.

The most noticeable quality of Google+ is its look. The color scheme, use of white space, friendly user-interface and excellent front-end make Google+ the pick for the few and the proud (and myself). Clearly, from a layout point-of-view, the guys in Mountain View are definitely on the top of the game.

Google+ undoubtedly has the upperhand when it comes to functionality. Take those “Hangouts,” for example. In all honesty, I’d much rather talk to my friends in person than connect one-dimensionally. But for obvious reasons, at some point I’m going to have to settle for video-conferencing. Google+ practically implemented a GoToMeeting in their social network, which puts the social hub at a new level for productivity, functionality and of course, sociability.

However, the combination of signature services provided leaves me hanging.  From my own experience I am unsure as to what the implications of Google+ are—in the sense that I don’t know how or if society will use it. Will it be another MySpace or Facebook, where I wouldn’t have to worry too much about poor grammar, awkward syntax and my professionalism, or will it be adopted as a medium for businesses to communicate internally and with one another, and be a more mature and LinkedIn-like environment? The unpredictability of this product leave a lot of room for failure.

However, regardless where Google+ goes, I know that I’m prepared for Facebook’s doomsday’s arrival. Essentially I’m getting at this: I update my Google+ on some arbitrary basis knowing it can be huge someday, and while it doesn’t seem likely now, Facebook is destined to tumble from the top of the social food chain. I’m prepared for the rainy day, when Facebook loses a class-action case for the loose privacy policy, or when Facebook servers get hacked and leak information, or when Facebook just gets too many Average Joes on the site.

Admittedly, I may not exactly be the most social person in the world. But I do know this: Larry Page rises when Mark Zuckerberg falls flat.

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