Admittedly, most technology blogs and sites I follow have yet to comment on how (un)successful Google+ has been with a notable exception or two but you can feel it in the air, certainly among my friends (most of whom are reasonably technically proficient being on a programming based course.) Yet, I feel they are missing the point... Missing what it is that Google+ is really about.
First off Google+ is not a social network, it was pretty much the very first thing that was officially said about Google+ and it's as true today as it is then, that's where people make their first mistake - they assume that Google+ is in direct competition with Facebook and that the game plan is to take users as fast as possible and get them using Google+ instead by being technically better (which they are) but that's simply not what's going on.
Of course, that doesn't mean to say that Google+ will never become a social network, in fact it really doesn't hurt Google at all for people to think it is just now and as their plan comes to fruition (as I see it) it would be only natural that Google+ would be taken on as a Social Network.
So what is Google+? Simple - it's an extension to Google, it is Google + Social, Google + Interaction it is simply, Google+.
But really... what is Google+? Giving the definition as I see it, Google+ is a series of useful tools... useful social tools that heighten your engagement with Google. It's crafting a Google Profile so that when people search for you they are searching for you... not for the string "Brian Beacom", it's building a page for your company that unifies your presence on the web, so when someone searches for your company or area of business they find you, what you do and what you've been saying recently. it's video conferencing easily with all of your customers... all of your friends... anyone who feels like it. Now that's a plus.
So the key thing for Google is that you do this - that you recognise how creating Google Profiles for yourself and Business will put you on the market in a far greater way, that you realise hanging out with your customers is putting customers at the heart of your business in way that makes it far harder to go wrong and so on... and all for the low, low price of a Google+ account.
All going well eventually you find that all your friends have a Google+ account - not for social networking just for the various odds and ends it adds to the search engine that they undoubtedly use. From there well quite a few will think why not jump ship, just as long as Google+ continues leading the way with novel social network features. Basically, Facebook may seem to have won the battle but Google+ has a strategy for the war.
Obviously, this is all speculation but everything about Google+ backs it up, from the It's not a Social Network start, to the SEO Blogs that rave about getting on to Google+, it's in the name Google PLUS, it's in their modest advertising slogan "That's a plus". Even look at the features that they are bringing out Google+ Local? Making local companies stand out and unifying your reviews in one place? Hangouts On-Air, now even if your customers don't use Google+ they can listen to what you have to say via a simple Youtube link, they want to join the conversation? All they need is a Google account.
What do you think? Is Google+ a clever long term plan to get people on to a new social network by not being a social network or am I reading to much into another failure?
Also see these links:
The Next Web seems to have the same opinion as me...
Larry Page talks about how Plus with interact with Search in the future.
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