Back in 2011, Google created its own social network, Google+ (aka Google Plus). Everyone with a Gmail account automatically got a profile whether you wanted one or not. Many just ignored it and kept using Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
You couldn't blame them, the major flaw of Google+ was its lack of a user friendly mobile interface. It worked better on your desktop or laptop than it did on your phone, which made it difficult for people to stay in touch when they were away from their computer, and thus didn't have as many users as they wanted.
For those of us that did though, it was pretty cool. What Google did right was they created communities. Users could create a community, say Nature Photography, and let people join who took or enjoyed nature photography, and share their pictures and joy.
Through the years I was on Google+, I joined many street photography and writing communities and participated in them. Some were better than others, but they all had interesting stuff in them. They let you connect with others without having to Friend or Follow them. Although, Google+ did have a somewhat complicated Circle that you could pick and choose what people in your network saw what you wanted them to see. A direct response to the number one complaint on Facebook, "How do I keep my mom from seeing my posts?" Well, most of our moms weren't on Google+, or never any heard of it, so their was nothing to worry about. There also wasn't a lot of opionated garbage or harassment, or if there was, I never experienced any.
For most of us, especially creative types, it was our own personal salon. A place we could put our work and share it with others who would appreciate it. A place hidden away from the trolls who like to tear your down, and was instead inhabited by people who liked to lift you up.
Yes, you're right, the trolls were probably out there, and any community moderator you talk too probably has a lot of stories about horrible people saying horrible things, but like I said before, this was not my experience as it has been on other social media sites.
One of the best experiences I had was in one of the writing communities. Every week they would post a picture as a writing prompt and have participants write a 600 word flash fiction story based on it. Because of those, I started writing again.
Every week, I looked forward to the new prompt and would write short short stories based on them. Many I reread recently and were almost all written in the present tense. Yet, no one ever badgered or overly criticized me on the matter. They took my story for what it was worth, and moved on. The only person who was embarrassed was me. So I have revised and edited them from their apparent first drafts, which are currently on Blogger.
Speaking of Blogger, another free Google product unless you decided to buy your domain name so you don't have to use the .blogspot in the web address, was synched with Google+. Any time you made a blog entry, all you had to do was hit the share button to have it posted to your Google+ profile. A convenient feature for writers to publish their content for their readers. But according to Google, there are no users, so that means, there are no readers.
On that note, I have to be honest, I haven't used Google+ for the last three years. Although, I don't use any social media for personal use that much. I have accounts on all the popular sites except Snapchat, I use them to stay in touch with people I have met around the world or to promote my creative content, just as I did on Google+.
One of the best communities I was apart of was the street photography community. Seeing pictures from different photographers from places I have never been, seeing how people lived, and sharing my own experiences while living in Japan was a lot of fun. An experience I never had on any other site.
Although Instagram has won the best social media site for photos, you still have to use hashtags to find content that you are looking for inside their app. Communities worked a lot better for people to find others interested in the same things without having to follow every photographer you found interesting. The size of the community also allowed for people to not have to share all the time. When you're building your Instagram profile, you feel pressured to add continuous content to stay at the top of everyone's feed. It is not for the casual user, even though it is the only one I use anymore.
In all, I think it's a shame that Google is getting rid of Google+. People didn't like it as much as their other products, and that's ok. Knowing them, from what I've heard and read, they will work to make something better with desktop and mobile friendly interfaces. They will be patient not to release it until the time is right, which will be right after Facebook destroys itself. Then they will strike with their new platform, something similar to the old, but new and shiny to attract the masses. And hopefully that place will be called: Google Community.
