Instead of reinventing social networking from the ground up, Google+ just copied the best qualities of all the other popular social networks, which is why it’s so amazing and gaining traction so quickly.
Here are some things that I’ve noticed they copied:
Facebook’s Layout
Everyone is used to Facebook’s layout. So why not lower the learning barrier by making the user interface the same?
Facebook’s Likes
Google noticed that users really loved Facebook’s “Like” feature. Leaving a comment is a lot of work but allowing people to easily give you feedback with a click of a button incentivizes more status updates. Google copied the “Like” with a “+1” which functions identically.
Twitter’s Retweeting and Tumblr’s Reblogging
Who doesn’t love a reblog or a retweet? Google made it super simple to share your friends status messages with your followers.
Twitter Followers
It’s pretty cool when you can get an inside look at what your favorite American Idol is having for breakfast. Google makes following a possibility (something you can’t do on Faceb00k). This allows a one-to-many relationship and opens up the amount of connections you can have.
Quora’s Notifications
All top social networks (Quora, LinkedIn, Facebook) do whatever it takes to show you notifications. Google went to the extreme on this. You get updates at the top bar of all Google properties (Google.com, Google Reader, Gmail, etc) if you are signed in, and they also email you updates.
Color’s Nearby Tab
Google knew that early on peoples newsfeed would be pretty empty since most people would have less than 10 connections when starting out. So they adopted Color’s idea, which is to show you what people near you are posting. This allows you to feel an instant sense of community and engages you right away.
I’m not bashing Google here by any means. I love Google+ and I think they made a smart move by just going with what already works. Once they reach their 25M+ users next week, like PC Magazine predicts, then they can innovate like crazy and change the world.
Update: Awesome comment on Hacker News to this post:
I want to point out that so many companies get the “copy first” part right, but never get around to the “innovate later” part. Copy first is becomming a mantra. Facebook was a copy of The Face Book, in fact. The reason facebook is what it is is that they did get around to innovating later. The reason there’s no competition for the iPod is that the competition never got around to innovating (or in MSFT’s case, got around to it way too late.) – econgeeker
One innovation thats hidden in G+ is they made search social. Which facebook can’t do yet/
I think Facebook had a chance to do it if they partnered with Google and made their service more open.
haha thats everything Google stands for.
Let somebody make something, and Google comes in and makes it better.
Maulik – that is exactly what GE did back in the day.
And Microsoft!
And Apple!
Doubtful that anyone at Google looked at Color as an example of what to copy 🙂 Or that anyone anywhere would as Color has not really taken off.
hahaha so true. I’m pretty sure no one is copying Color.
I do give them credit for popularizing the “Nearby” option – it was widely talked about in the press.
The “nearby” feature is something Google tested with Buzz for mobile already. So it’s seems to be from them, originally. 🙂
Cool – I didn’t even know Buzz had a mobile version
Also think another nuance here is more than just copying what works. Its also not having to re-train users how to think about the product and how to use it. They are basically leveraging the education that Facebook, Twitter, and others have already taken the time to teach.
Great point. Which is probably why Google Docs looks like Microsoft Word.
It really makes sense for them to go with what users are already comfortable with.
The biggest thing they can do with google+ is give you great integration on Android
and across their google properties that people are already using that’s where they should innovate the rest should stay the same as what already exists so that the learning curve is much faster and adoption is much easier
I wouldn’t have used google+ the first day if i had to learn where things were, how to post a status message, how to look someone up, etc
great point Manisha! The only thing people have to really learn is the “Circles” concept. Pretty funny how that is the one thing people are complaining about.
Whats funny is I’m finding myself wanting to +1 this comment! Haha I guess they are already training me well.
+1
I think their Hangout feature is absolutely awesome! I’ve “hungout” with so many of my friends recently that I feel genuinely better connected to them.
Anand – Every time I tried to use it there was a ton of lag, but it looks like you had a better experience with it.
Awesome post, Rishi. I definitely agree it’s good to copy and then innovate – takes a lot of the risk out of it. In terms of selling stuff online (physical or digital products), I often recommend starting as a “spy” by selling your competitors’ products (via affiliate programs, for example). With this approach, you can dip your toes in the market with no product development costs. You can also get a first-hand sense for conversions and get a sense for what you could be making as the product owner. Then, you create your own innovative product. And if you’ve been building a list during the initial phase, you now have an audience to promote your superior product to.
Pete – I never thought of that man. Brilliant idea!
Sell a competitors product and then build it once you know how to get customers.
Peter Drucker called this Creative Imitation….
Google is always at the back waiting for an idea to become old before it moves in and breathes new life into it. It started like that with its first product google search a decade ago, and then later with gmail.
Good point about Gmail. Its almost like they are waiting to see what is mainstream and then innovating on it.
Good one Rishi. Glad you came up with a comprehensive points. A few things I’d like to add, if I may:
1. Pete’s point stands well, that’s the same approach I generally recommend to anyone who wants to jump into an industry or business. Know how things work, what’s in and out, and then go for the gold once you know all (or most) the tricks of the trade you’re getting in.
2. I agree with the idea of picking up with what others are doing successfully, then moving ahead. In this day and age, reinventing the wheel means you’re left behind by at least 3 versions unnecessarily. In Google’s case, they have gone ahead by providing a very effective mobile app that complements the browser version very smoothly, and ads a few more things to keep the user glued.
3. I like the “Circles” concept, its quite intuitive. Though its not like the first time anyone has done it, we’ve always had the flexibility to filter people’s mail, or create lists in Facebook and Twitter for example. But the way that Google is actually promoting and helping share content through target segmentation is again beyond what others have been doing. So yes, definitely +1 for that.
4. And let’s not forget who taught Facebook to ask us “What’s on your mind?” 🙂 It was Twitter 🙂
5. I love the proximity based approach. However, do check an app called face2face, available on all mobile platforms, which actually focused more proximity of users, which included friends and friends of friends (circles and extended circles).
Thanks.
Nawaz – I never have heard of face2face. Thanks for telling me about it. Downloading it right now.
super post! i’m also most excited about the Google+ hangout feature.
when i read this post, i immediately thought about what good advice this is for some of the young university grads who are flooding into East Africa now with their newly formed 501(c)3s and bringing what they think is the next big thing. if they would take this advice and copy first (like Pete said about selling a competitor’s products) and get to know what’s already working (or not), they’d do even more good. maybe i’ll make buttons or something.
Hey Ashe – What non-profit orgs do you think bright-eyed university grads should try to copy first? I’d love to know which ones you think are doing it right.
well, not that my opinion means anything, but thanks for asking!
1. CREAW (www.creawkenya.org) is working to empower Kenyan women through great projects involving girl’s education (affirmative action), free legal aid, and leadership programs to increase representation of women in the government.
2. IkoToilets (www.ecotact.org) is doing great things for sanitation in Kenya and then collecting methane for cooking gas.
3. My personal favorite is Apopo (www.apopo.org), or Hero Rats, in Tanzania. They have trained rats to not only detect landmines in a safe way, the rats are really good at detecting Tuberculosis positive sputum samples! Cute AND innovative!
Those are really cool non profits. What do you think of http://sevenly.org/ ?
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Exactly what Blizzard did with World of Warcraft 🙂
I had no idea. What game did they copy?
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Embrace and extend.
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Google+ did not only copy from popular social networks but also from innovative and not (yet) so popular social networks such as diaspora: the most central Google+ feature – circles – is nearly identical to the “aspects”-feature of diaspora.
Thanks for pointing that out. I had no idea. I’ve actually never used Diaspora.
interesting post, rishi. while i agree with your point, one thing to consider:
– will this strategy work for a start-up or a smaller company? how much did google benefit from being google. a lot of us are already invested in google products, and the relative inertia to jump on board was low. having said that, if the product itself was bad, we would have jumped off just as quick. interested in what you have to say in terms of a new company trying to get into social networking. then does innovation trump the status quo as you have to do something different to build up capital (users).
Hey Karthik – Really great question.
Google definitely has a huge advantage by having a massive volume of customers already.
I think for a social networking start-up you need to figure out how to attract a massive volume of people like Google did. For example Zynga copied the best viral games and advertised on Facebook to attract a massive volume.
Quora’s UI is also very similar to Facebook’s and the concept is pretty much Yahoo Answers but they did a great job getting tech celebs to start using it first (it also doesn’t hurt to be the previous CTO of Facebook).
A little innovation can go a long way but not when the user has to learn something new.
This strategy is a lot easier for paid products. Just follow Pete’s advice in the comments here:
https://www.gettingmoreawesome.com/2011/07/13/google-plus/#comment-1355
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