Spectre is haunting the technology industry. It is called "electric wok syndrome" and it mainly afflicts engineers and those who invest in their fantasies. The condition takes its name from the fact that nobody in his or her right mind would want an electric wok. But because it is possible to make such things, they are manufactured, regardless of whether or not there is a need for them. The syndrome is thus characterised by the mantra: "Technology is the answer; now what was that question again?"
The past two weeks have seen a virulent outbreak of the syndrome. It was triggered by Google's limited release of a new "service" called Google+ which was widely interpreted as the search giant's first serious foray into social networking. Initially available by invitation only to a select group of geeks and early adopters (which did not at first include this columnist), it has been the source of frenzied speculation in the blogosphere, not least because it implied that Google was finally getting ready to take on the 800lb gorilla of social networking, Facebook.
Google opened the trial to advertisers last Thursday. In a YouTube video, Google product manager Christian Oestlien said: "We're going to take a small group of brands, businesses and other entities and create profiles for them and see how users interact with them via Circles, through the stream and even how they communicate with them through Hangouts."
Iain McDonald, founder of digital agency Amnesia Razorfish, said advertisers should get involved in Google+ early.
"I would advise every client to get on board and try it," he said.
"If you've been a social laggard in Facebook, it's a great time for a brand to jump into this and benefit from being an early adopter."
According to internal Mindshare analysis, mounting criticism of Facebook over security issues coupled with a decline in users in markets such as the US and Britain "may give Google the opportunity it needs to lead disaffected users to a platform with superior privacy and sharing capabilities".
In Australia, Facebook user numbers dropped 1.7 per cent month on month in June.
Google+ has tight privacy settings and a function allowing users to retrieve and delete their information at any time.
So the question du jour is whether Google+ is an electric wok or not. Initial reactions suggest that it is. First of all, it's engagingly flaky so that even simple tasks such as setting up a user profile are formidably difficult, as my Guardian colleague Charles Arthur reported in his hilarious, and admirably acerbic, review in which he describes his attempts to create a profile and upload a photograph. "If Google were a start-up," he concluded, "it would have lost precisely 99.999% of every would-be joiner. Getting photos uploaded is the most fundamental thing you have to be able to do and every start-up knows it." He's right: geeks and early adopters revel in difficulty; ordinary users abominate it. They like stuff that just works.
Charles Arthur's experience is by no means unique. What it suggests is that Google+ is what software people call a "closed beta" – ie a release that is OK for techies but not suitable for normal people. And that's fine. It will improve over time. But the thing about social networking is that it's now a zero-sum game because it depends on a very scarce resource – its users' time and attention. Facebook's users already spend a lot of time on the site, time that won't be available to Google+, no matter how slick its photo-upload process becomes.
Which is a pity, because Facebook needs some real competition. Last week, it announced some new features that look suspiciously like bits of Google +. And it let slip that it has reached 750 million users. It's beginning to look like the winner that took all. Oh, and if you really want an electric wok, you can get one from Amazon. It even comes with a tempura rack and a spatula.
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