Thanks for your detailed response, Gabriella. I'm pretty much behind you in all the points you make. Yes, we must stay above the hype. And, as you say, its utterly impossible to assess the success - or even potential success - of new platforms until they've been up and running for a while, and delivered meaningful results. Having said this I think Google has positioned itself very cleverly with Google+ - especially in tying author and business profile pages (damn you, Google, for giving us another "Page" a la Facebook!:) to increased visibility in the SERPs. That is, there's no inherent benefit for many businesses or individuals to set up a Google+ page, but there's a benefit within Google's network - including the search results - to joining Google+. As the saying goes, damned if you do, damned if you don't.
↧
