Have Google Privacy Issues Hurt The Popularity of Google+?

We all know that Google+ has now been around for quite a while, yet at least in my experience, it still feels like it is “hanging in the background“.

I wondered recently whether the publicity of Google’s privacy issues might have hurt the development and growth of Google+.

It’s an interesting concept to think about, as there was such outrage around the time of Google’s privacy policy renewal on March 1, 2012. You may read the new policy here.

You can also find more in-depth articles written about this new policy and its effects below:

• Arstechnica 
• DigitalSpy 

Even without any influence from Google’s privacy issues it does appear that Google+ may have problems integrating itself into the social networking market. Especially since Facebook and Twitter retain such a stronghold over the popularity and market-share.

Jeremiah Owyang makes a few excellent points around Google+ having a perception problem, see his points below and find his full post here.

1. Facebook IPO buzz leaves little room for Google. As analysts, we feel this quite heavily, in fact, we’ve been interviewed by many media about the Facebook IPO. in the last 30 days, I can recount on one hand a conversation with press and media about Google+
2. Google+ doesn’t have the full backing of brands. Google+ Brand pages are substandard, forcing brands to double down on Facebook:  The brand pages lack a platform (although their recent partnerships indicate feature rich apps are coming) and their gaming network is limited.  Brands also are skittish to open yet another conversation area to manage and engage in, when resources are low.
3. Strong growth numbers still dwarfed by Facebook, 16 to 1. Even with 60m members and growing, that’s less than 7% of Facebook’s 845m, despite making these big gains since Oct, this social network is still dwarfed by Facebook’s international spread.

Whatever the future of Google+, it doesn’t appear to be “dying” anytime soon. I say get on it, get involved and start making your presence known on Google+. Whilst Facebook’s popularity and user-base is still overwhelming when compared to Google+, one should never be complacent with these things!

Related posts:

1. So.cl – Microsoft Launches New Social Network
2. Mac App – Social Pro Works Wonders At Managing Your Social Networks!
3. Google Hacks Apple’s Safari Browser