The Interest Network

I think people are getting Google+ all wrong. It's not a social network in competition with Facebook, it's an interest network in a niche all of it's very own.

When you really look at your day to day interaction with Facebook, you quickly realise that it's full of sympathy fishing cryptic status updates, photos of your friends out getting drunk, their ugly babies and even uglier pets. Then add to that, the dirge of below-par meme's and dodgy videos, and it quickly starts to get very boring and doesn't pique your interest.

Google+ on the other hand is an entirely different beast. The people in your circles are found by (and also organised into) common interests. Whole circles of people with common interests to you can be added to your circles with the click of a button. You might not know any of them, but the chances are, the posts they put up in your feed will be interesting, engaging and inspiring. You might not want to share social connections with these people, or be friends with them, but you will definitely be connected by interest.

Facebook purtains to link people through common interests with their Groups and Pages etc. But how much interaction actually goes on between the members or likers? Probably very little.

But within Google+ communities, there's a genuine feeling of just that, community. People praise other people's posts, offer debate, encourage improvement. It's a much more interesting place to be.

So if you're still a Google+ doubter, I recommend giving it a go. And don't worry about your mates...

P.S. If you're still not sure. Remember that the number one thing that now affects your Google ranking is how many +1's your website has. #justsaying