Millennials and Google +

Much to the dismay of Google, there is a very small chance of the functions of Google + catching on with Millennials. Let’s start with the obvious reasons.

Obvious (and most important) Reason #1

We have spent a majority of our lives finding people on Friendster, then again on Myspace, then quickly after on Facebook- and now we’re currently working on Twitter, so we can’t possibly (and don’t want to)  find the time to find them on Google +.

Obvious Reason #2

Although the functions may be beneficial (which I will touch on later), in order for those functions to actually be beneficial, all of your friends will have to use Google +. Which for us, may take years.

Obvious Reason #3

We’re still working on “cleaning up” our Facebook profiles. By this, I mean we’re trying to erase the permanent mark we left in the cloud and pretend that every employer will want to hire us no matter what. Why would we want to be on another platform that may eventually cause us such apprehensiveness? (So far so good with the privacy, though.)

Functions of Google +

Circles

The functionality of Google + sparked my interest for several reasons. The thought behind “Circles” are great and can be useful. Then again, Millennials aren’t stereotyped to be the most organized, so classifying which friend goes to which group, might be a little much to ask of us.

Hangouts

Hangouts allow people to see when you are “hanging-out virtually” on the web with others in a circle. which is a very cool feature and one that could be used in many ways. You can also ask to join a hang-out when one is active, which has cyber-bullying written all over it when a group doesn’t want a certain person joining (but that’s for another day). Here’s where the problem occurs- next week, Facebook is planning to announce a chat integration with Skype, so that one-up that Google + had for a (very) short while just got steamrollered by Facebook.

Sparks

Sparks is a great feed that Google presents to you as your own customized stumble-upon-like content. That’s all good, except doesn’t Facebook ads already do this? -Just kidding, but Sparks is one feature that Millennials definitely would use, especially now that we utilize customized media.

Huddle

Huddle allows a Circle to text message each other and see the conversation in one stream on their mobile device. Although I can see why Google has added this function to the platform, the exclusivity of the product thus far makes this feature the least appealing. Until Google + functions on all mobile devices (including Symbian platform) this won’t be a deal breaker with us.

I give Google credit to their new Social Platform and commend the commitment they are partaking in to compete with Facebook and Twitter. I see major changes in the product as Google continues to roll out and maybe Google will prove me wrong and Millennials will merge the social presence to Google, but for now I believe that we will prove to be loyal to Facebook.

What do you think?