There Can Be Only One! No, Really?

You know, I loved the original Highlander movie. Without having an expectation for it, the story and performances surprised and entertained me.  But it has left our culture with a sensibility that is silly and often destructive. It really stems from that stupid mantra, "There Can Be Only One."

It's endemic here in Silicon Valley, and underscores most of the conversations we hold about technology. We see the evidence in the debate over Google+ and how it will or won't kill [Twitter/Facebook/Free Will] -- pick one or more.

I mean, c'mon...

Plus It's Just Fun

By now, everyone is either talking about Google Plus, or they're talking about why they're not going to use it. When you see articles in the daily paper about a social networking technology, it's reached adoption to the extent that you may want to pay attention.

Readers here will recall that I've been a proponent of most responsible social networking platforms as they've begun to get traction. (Responsible in this case means they prevent abusive behavior by polluters to the extent that they are able to predict it, and they offer privacy options to participants that empower selective sharing.)

So it should be no surprise...

What Matters in the Social Media Fabric

...at last we're starting to have some credible choices in the realm of Social Media. Prior to the release of Google Plus, there were three platforms that merit time and attention. (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn)

Google's attempt at a well-integrated alternative to Twitter (Google Buzz) didn't really catch hold. To put that in perspective, consider that I follow about 2000 accounts on Twitter, and I get new updates roughly every few seconds concerning what's on their mind.  (This leads me to a great deal of my valuable reading each day.)  Probably about 250 of the Twitter accounts I follow generate regular content.

On Facebook, I have about 700 friends and again I get news from that population every minute or so -- probably about 75-100 of those accounts generate content regularly.

On Google Buzz in contrast, I believe that the same three people show up in most of the updates -- and each of those is actually updating Twitter and I'm seeing it in Buzz.

So what's different about Google Plus, and why is it likely to change the game?