Google+ Now Lets You Conference People Into Hangouts With Free Voice Calls
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Another thing is for conference calls, there are already several free and dead easy solutions out there, so its unclear who this is aimed at.
So given:
- "hangouts" is a compelling product with early traction (anecdotal but strong)
- it drives continued engagement to their strategic product
- it accelerates google+ adoption by providing a concrete reason for people to register there, because "that's where the meeting is"
Therefore, the right thing to do is to invest more in hangouts.
I agree that Google may acquire a few new users with this but this cannot help them compete with Facebook. They need to get the core (the critical mass, social sharing dynamics etc.) right where as, I feel, they are investing in building utilities to get users which they are not getting based on the basic social networking product.
This is what I meant when I said "I don't get it".
The reason Google+ is primarily social is that, before Google+, most of Google's services were, at best, poorly integrated from a social perspective (if they were socially integrated at all). That naturally encroaches on Facebook because they provide a number of social services, but the more I look at it, the less I think Google+ is about "beating Facebook". I think it is more about addressing weaknesses in Google's service portfolio that Facebook (and Twitter, etc.) have highlighted. And that can be done without "beating" or "replacing" alternative social services.
For example, one thing Google+ is very good for is for interacting with Google engineers and product teams. That's a part of Google+ that has nothing to do with Facebook (or Twitter, etc.), but is still social and very valuable to Google.
Give Google+ time, everyone wants a legit Facebook competitor right now, but it's going to take years not months for Google+ to go mainstream.
you go do that, i'll grab a beer with my non-imaginary friends.