Google+ launched a new application sign-in process Feb. 26, pushing the social service ever closer to an actual foothold in the digital space.
Although several years behind their main competitors, Google+ aims to
learn from Facebook and Twitter’s haste, taking more care in preventing
“social spam,” and holding the user experience ever sacred.
David Glazer, engineering director at Google+, calls this “…one of
the most significant launches that has come out of the Google+
platform.”
The new sign-in process embraces simplicity, and it appears to grant
users a lot more control in determining who sees what they post. So
while the feature is long overdue and sounds quiet useful and efficient,
the question that needs to be asked is: will it be enough to propel the
sputtering Google+ forward in the social stratosphere?
Keep it Simple
First and foremost, Google stays true to form and ensures the new
sign-in process is intuitive and simple for end users and developers
alike. Sample sign-in screens released thus far show a process that
looks very similar to Facebook Connect. Since the web world is inundated
with many offerings from the Google
family, account information and passwords are well known. It’s therefore
far easier to login to your Google account than it is to register from
scratch on any given site, so from that perspective, the feature is a
no-brainer.
Adding the functionality to existing sites also looks to be fairly straightforward
(which is far more than Facebook can say when they rolled out their
Connect feature some years ago.) Of course, once the new sign-in is
live, developers can monitor usage stats through Google Analytics as well.
Advanced Mobile Integration and Security Features
Making life easier on your handheld device is also at the forefront
of the rollout. Once you login to your Google+ account via any
participating website, you can immediately launch and install the
relevant Mobile application with a single click (or decline the option
just as easily). It’s important to note that only Android phones offer
this flexibility since Apple’s restrictions prohibit the process for
their iOS devices.
Additionally, any shared activity within a site allows your viewers
to click through and interact with the app themselves. This is an
attempt to make feeds more functional to those who are perusing, and to
give better targeted exposure to featured applications.
As with everything Google tackles, they’ve put a lot of thought into
keeping things secure. Once you add an app to your Google+ sign-in, for
example, you access a permissions screen that delineates the data you’re
willing to share, and the people that will be able to view related
activity. The same 2-step account verification process available in
Gmail is also carried over, providing added security in a world where
passwords are becoming easier and easier to hack. Finally, Google+
offers an apps permission page for users to manage any and all settings.
No More Social Spam!
Google is nothing if not methodical about their rollouts (a great
excuse for why this latest update is so behind the curve), and their
insistence on not littering the digital landscape with more useless
updates, shares, images and feeds (now known as “social spam”) is noble
indeed. Google insists the new sign-in process greatly limits a great
deal of this digital waste. For example, users are now prompted to
indicate who in their Google+ Circles can see various content, and app
activity only appears in feeds when relevant – in other words, when a
user is actually searching for related info.
A Genius Move, or Too Little Too Late?
Google’s main issue with their social network is not the lack of
whiz-bang features or clumsy developer tools, it’s something much more
elusive – eyeballs. While most netizens definitely appreciate Google+’s
war on social spam (the backlash against Facebook’s questionable
policies is ever-increasing), the hard truth is that Google’s social
darling still does not have rich profile content or a gaggle of regular
daily sign-ins. This means that while Circles may be somewhat populated,
in theory, the activity by such users is minimal, especially when
compared to Facebook and Twitter.
The issue of eyeballs, however, may be the very reason the new
sign-in process proves a smashing success, if in fact it helps to
increase Google+ activity. This will all come down to how many
developers and sites actually feature the new process. Currently, there
are a handful of early adopters: FitBit, TheFancy.com, Flixster.com, USA
Today and the UK Guardian newspaper have all launched updated login
screens with Google+ sign-in. Most sites also obviously offer Facebook
and Twitter sign-ins too, so one can’t help but wonder – will users
prefer the Google+ option over the other social giants? The answer is a
very strong maybe, because while Google+ may not have the flurry of
daily users, Google’s suite of offerings most certainly does.
While the verdict is still out regarding the success of the new
sign-in, the truth is, Google has little to lose with this release. The
worst case scenario is that developers don’t add the process to their
sites and apps, and Google+ is left in its current quiet state – a
seriously unlikely scenario. If it does help them gain traction, it’s
game-on with the Facebook showdown.
Google+ already wins the war on security – they have far more respect
in this arena then Twitter and Facebook combined. And while developers
often voice impatience at their slow releases and limited access, there
is an understandable method to their madness. The head of the social
network, Vic Gundotra, wrote last August
that he took responsibility for third-party developers’ limited Google+
write access, expressing, “I’ve repeatedly stated the reason – I’m not
interested in screwing over developers. When we open an API, we want
developers to feel confident that the innovations they build are going
to be long lasting. Releasing an API, and then later changing the rules
of the game, isn’t fun for anyone, especially developers who’ve spent
their life’s energies building on the platform.”
Are they late to the party? Most definitely. But let’s not forget, the turtle won the race, and Google+ is anything but out.
Artikel by Tina Courtney-Brown in SPN
Google+ Lounches New App from Sign-In
