Thursday, June 30, 2011

Google are at it again

It’s a clever advertising/marketing ploy, one that Google have used before with great success when they were introducing Gmail. Basically, they made Gmail “exclusive” at the start, with new members having to be “invited” – and for a while they even rationed the number of invites that each new member could issue.
 
It worked tremendously well, you have to admit - especially as Gmail was the first (as far as I’m aware) to offer practically unlimited “storage” as one of the main advantages. And to be fair, it WAS a big draw for me because I’d lost some emails (that I didn’t really want to lose) by not clearing the rubbish emails from my inbox.
 
Anyway, Google is doing it again with Google Plus. I’ve got an invite, but I haven’t checked it out yet – and I might not get the chance to do so as I understand that Google are saying even to invited “members” that there’s no room in the inn at the moment.
 
I won’t feel desperately out of it if I don’t get “admittance”, but I AM curious to see what Google Plus is like, to see if it’s better than Facebook. Even if it is, I might not change over to it if everybody that I want to keep in touch with continues to use FB. If they stop using FB – well, I’ll have to move, too.
 
Random thought: If FB stops being the flavour of the month, will Mark whatsisname become a pauper? Yeah I know... not bloody likely, although FB investors might lose out.
 
Mainly, I'm just tickled at how obvious Google’s marketing is, and yet people are drawn in by it – even those who can see the “exclusivity” for what it is. Me included. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shammi,

I check your blog regularly and have used your food blog for inspiration several times. I can only apologize for not having commented earlier(AFAICR)and for being a silent consumer.

Here's a link to an article about Google+: http://www.slate.com/id/2298080/

-DS
(I think we have a couple of friends in common, will email you separately)

Shammi said...

DS: Thank you for "coming out" :) I do appreciate comments, but I guess I don't do enough to encourage readers to interact more with me! Lazy me.

Madeleine Begun Kane said...

I worry about how powerful Google is getting. It's a great search engine. But sometimes it feels like it's taking over our lives. :)

Kamini said...

I agree completely with Madeleine's comment above. But then, we've allowed this to happen, haven't we? How ironic that a country that frowns upon monopolies has the biggest ones flourishing right now - Google, Apple, Facebook....

Anu said...

Why are we even surprised? But this in nothing - Google has bigger things up its sleeve!!

Madeleine Begun Kane said...

I must confess that I've joined Google+. I felt like I had too. :)
It isn't bad at all. But until there are more people there whom I know, I can't tell for sure.

I never bothered with Google mail because I have my own domain and didn't need it.