Dear Google, I’m sorry.

Google Circles

It’s fair to say that I haven’t been entirely enamored with Google in the past. At one point I likened them to the relentless consumers of civilisations from Star Trek, The BORG, with their desire to reduce everything to an algorithm. But after just a few days with Google+ it’s time to put the record straight.

G+ seem to come out of nowhere and establish itself as the place to be, certainly the majority of my network turned up within days. From the overly complicated and bloated WAVE, to the messy and noisy BUZZ, Google have clearly been slapped round the face and reminded of what made them great… Simplicity.

That’s not to say that G+ is basic, far from it. But the experience of using it feels intuitive, like something designed by Apple, and without thought you feel free to post quick Twitter like updates, pictures and links to cool shit à la Tumblr or monster Blog like rants. With Picasa and YouTube, Google now OWN the web.

For me Facebook began to wither and die when the brands and marketers turned up. Games and apps muddied the social experience, and a visit to Facebook quickly became more about dodging the sell than catching up with friends. I know that this special breed of scum will turn up in G+ soon, but luckily Google don’t need the money so it can (hopefully) be on there terms. A few adwords here and there don’t bother me in the slightest and when brand pages do turn up, I sincerely hope they look like this.

When I first played with G+ I thought that Twitter was safe and Facebook was history, but now I’m not sure anyone is safe. Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr have all been mashed together to produce one true social network, and with the layer of make-up provided by themes removed it has literally become all about the content shared. Kudos must go to Twitter for creating this real-time, short conversational mentality and to the king of social networks, Facebook, for bringing us all together in the first place. But playtime’s over kids, it’s time to let the grown-ups take control.

And so I finish by saying please accept my apology Google, I’m sorry I doubted you and this one’s for you…



We are Google. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

So Larry has decided that the future of Google is most definitely in social, however I fear once again that the technically obsessed corporation that is Google have completely missed the point by promoting an engineer to SVP of Social.

This relentless desire to attack ‘problems’ and solve them with absolute logistical precision may have been ideal in the search game, but this is social media where SERENDIPITY RULES! Google are not alone though, as many others seek to eliminate the so called ‘noise’ of social.

Continue reading “We are Google. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

You're gonna need a bigger BUZZ!

Google vs. Twitter

So Google have finally dived head-first into the social networking pool and created… well, quite a BUZZ!

Obviously it’s still early days, but that never stopped anyone having an opinion before so here goes. Whatever happened to the Google we all knew and loved? You know, the one that was obsessed with simplicity and clean interfaces. I thought Wave was bad enough, but now along comes Buzz to add even more clutter to my toolbars.

Continue reading “You're gonna need a bigger BUZZ!”

Have Google out-cooled Apple?

Android Mini Collectable

One of my passions in life is toys. Plush. Vinyl. Die-cast. I love them all. And when they cross over into geekdom I can’t help but get my debit card at the ready.

This series of blind-boxed collectables by Andrew Bell are based on the Google Android character and come in 12 different designs. They stand 3 inches tall, feature rotating heads and arms and will be available to buy later this month.

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Hat tip >
Plastic and Plush