The new Google+: a success or another failure?

Google+ , a new social platform, which was introduced in early July’11, has finally been released as a public beta two days back.  This means,now joining the network is possible without any invitation.

Google + vs Facebook as a social platform:

Facebook was introduces as a private network which was only available to individuals with .edu email addresses. As it slowly and deliberately expanded, it kept growing from the inside out. Facebook is being making an attempt to integrate with the rest of the Web.

On the other hand, there are many of Google or Google-owned products and services that span across the web. And while Google+ has begun as a social platform that acts a bit like Twitter and a bit like Facebook, it has the ultimate potential: to be able to bring these disparate parts together in a much more integrated fashion.

Some of the Google products:

·         Email (Gmail)

·         Video (YouTube)

·         Photos (Picasa, Panaramio, Picnik)

·         Links (Reader, Bookmarks)

·         Files (Docs)

·         Location based services (Places, Latitude, Maps)

·         Blogging platform (Blogger, Feedburner)

·         Events (Calendar)

·         Mobile solutions (Mobile, Voice)

·         IM (Chat, Messenger)

·         Video chat (Hangouts)

·         Groups (Groups, Circles)

·         Browser & OS (Chrome)

·         Metrics (Analytics, Trends)

·         Revenue (Affiliate Network, Adsense, Checkout)

·         Integration services (App Engine)

·         Forums (Moderator)

·         Connecting the world (Translate)

·         The Search engine

Imagine when the power of all of these being woven into a single social platform, how endless the oppertunities will be .’ Another positive point is Google+ encourage communications, engagements, interactions and is being undergoing changes based on customer feedbacks on a regular basis. For example, Google+ recently announced eight other improvements to the service, including:

·         Hangouts on our phone

·         Hangouts On Air - group video chat had been limited to 9 people; now it will enable us to broadcast conferences  and others can watch and follow along.

·         Extras for Hangouts:

·         Document sharing

·         Screen sharing

·         The ability to sketch/doodle

·         Named Hangouts for public events

·         Availability of the Hangouts API

·         Including the famous google search option

Some interesting features Google+:

Intuitive Circles: we can name the circles whatever we want, put people in more than one, move them around easily and are visually appealing to play with.

Flexibility: When we post on Google+, one of the major benefits it offers is that we can target our updates to certain Circles, individuals or the public - and our post can be of any length. We can attach photos or videos to our post as well. We can write posts as long as we want.

User-friendly: Now we don't have to follow everyone to see their updates - they can’t post on our site; blocking prevents that. The ability to block a person who may not be welcome in your Circles make it user friendly. Also, there are a number of "loud" individuals who not only post frequently, but whose posts are commented on to a high degree; if you've commented, you'll be repeatedly notified of the updates. A way to prevent that is to "Mute" the post which makes it really handy.

A quick look:

Business Aspect:

Google+ has publicly stated that they are working on a version for businesses; the timing hasn't been announced at this point. But they have said that the reason they're waiting is because they'll be able to better understand and serve the business population with a product that is specifically built for business purposes rather than trying to force fit brands into personal profiles. “Ford Motors” is being used as the test account for Google+ to develop the commercial product. For the time being, Google+ has asked every business and website that joined it when it first went live, to revert to using their names rather than their businesses names.

My question is what are the drawbacks that Google+ has which might lead it to a failure once again?