Introduction
The method to the madness
Google+ is an odd duck. It looks like a social network. It grew its follower base from zero to 40 million, mostly male techies, in roughly 90 days. It was launched with a lot of missing parts and absent functionality.
Google+ seems to be more like middleware or the connective layer inside a much larger, grander Google technology stack than a pure Facebook killer. Many observers expect a horse race between two digital powerhouses to dominate the social networking space. Each side is amassing vocal advocates, allies, and detractors.
Consider the backstory. Engineers run Google. Their goal is to create, dominate, and monetize the underlying infrastructure of digital communications. They want to be the universal ubiquitous utility. From email to search, video, real-time translation, GPS, storage or analytics, to satellites and telephony, Google wants consumers to rely on it and it alone. Google+ connects the dots between discrete products and places consumers at the center of the Google universe. It's potential seems to be as a hybrid between a software platform and a consumer portal.
So why would such a deliberate and driven organization launch such a half-baked invention?
It's Gmail all over again
In a world of iterative product development, Google+ is the opening salvo in an extended public development and roll-out plan. Like Gmail, which debuted half-baked to less than stellar reviews, Google rushes out a first draft. In so doing, it alerts the market and blunt competitive growth since many consumers, now anticipating more goodness from Google, wait-and-see rather than expand relationships with existing networks. Over time Google tinkers, improves, and ultimately excels at creating the best-in-class platform.
