Google Fails at Creating Communities | A Year in Review

Photo © of Danny Sullivan

I have used Blogger for a little over a year now. When I began blogging about a year and a half ago I was interested in finding something simple, and free to use. Blogger caught my attention, mainly because the service was backed by Google.

Initially the service was great! I had no trouble posting, or linking my blog posts to my contacts through Twitter and Facebook. However, after some time I started to realize that Blogger doesn't have "certain" social features that many other sites have. I also began to realize how hard it was to build connections with other bloggers. It wasn't a quick clean process of locating like minded individuals and sharing ideas.                  
Like many people I appreciate Google as a company. I think the company has done a lot to change the way we do and think about things. I'm also a huge fan of Android, and believe that Google helped companies like Samsung, LG and HTC stay competitive in the smartphone market. For anyone who may not be a fan of the Android platform, you should hopefully still appreciate the fact that Google helped stopped one company (Apple) from having a monopoly in the smartphone market.

Google's ability to collaborate and create always impressed me. That being said, I think that Google's attempts at creating various social media services have turned out rather poorly.

Google+

A lot of people were hoping this service would replace, or at least be competitive with Facebook. The design and functionality of the site was lackluster. Most people gave the service a shot, and quit very shortly after. The majority of people I know who have a Google+ account didn't even get as far as uploading a profile picture.

YouTube

Google recently made changes to YouTube, which required users to link their Google+ account to their YouTube accounts. I personally saw this attempt by Google as a little underhanded. I believe they were hoping to leverage the popularity of YouTube to increase Google+'s value. This infuriated the internet. Rightfully so, as people have the right to share certain information with certain people. Those people also have the right to anonymity. As much as this may have made some of the trolls or closet racists more accountable for their words; it also took away people's ability to express themselves freely.

The whole thing reeked of desperation. It's time for Google to realize Google+ failed, and to figure out why it happened and how to move forward on their social media front. I think the first thing they really needed to do when it became apparent that Google+ flopped was to ask themselves, "Did we make a product that made Facebook irrelevant?" followed by someone saying, "If not, we should go back to the drawing board."

I think that is pretty much it. I've made the decision starting 2014 to move my blog to WordPress. I do believe that Blogger has some great writers. I feel as though all Blogger users are islands in an ocean trying to throw life lines to one another. Google failed at creating the necessary infrastructure for most of us to grow, collaborate, and share. Using Blogger for me was a wonderful learning experience. However, I've seen the box and I've grown beyond its constraints.

Why you might not want to purchase Twitter followers

Clout is influence or power in regards to business or politics. When a person goes out and buys Twitter followers, what they're trying to do is buy clout. However, you can't buy real power or influence.

Is buying followers the same as buying advertisement? 

Not exactly, purchasing advertisement seeks to promote a product, idea, or thing. There's a purpose to advertisement. It also hopefully targets a specific group or audience. Buying Twitter followers is a shotgun approach to getting noticed. For those who don't know what I mean by shotgun approach, I mean that if you shoot enough times you'll eventually hit something.

Buying Twitter followers does help promote yourself in some capacity. Sites like TwitterWind or Fiverr sell followers for as little as $5. People put stock in what others do and think. If 100,000 people follow you on Twitter it is likely to assume that others will see this and make assumptions about your status, and popularity. Unfortunately people buy into this and you may temporarily get more followers than you anticipated. I use the number 100,000 arbitrarily, as it could be 5000, 35,000, etcetera. It doesn't really matter.

Having a large Twitter following does not dictate that your thoughts, or opinions are that of substance. Some celebrities and famous people prove this point day in and day out. #verbaldiarrhea

Having 100,000 followers is a double edged sword

For those who have 100,000 followers it is likely that they had to follow each and every person in order for them to follow you back. Do you know what it's like having 100,000 people post Twitter updates? It would likely be unbearable. I don't think a person could legitimately use the service any longer. Twitter to that person would become a one way conversation, where they talk and do not listen. Things would get lost in the shuffle - things you probably care about.

The numbers of followers you have is a diminishing value

The number of followers you have will continually shrink as people start to realize they don't care what you think or say. Lots of companies who sell followers 'promise' that the followers they get for you will be permanent ones. It's a farce, no such claim is real. The only way in which this is possible, is if your followers are fake accounts As a courtesy I will generally follow people who follow me, however I put everyone on probation. I assume most people like myself cut the cord with followers who fill up their feed. Cutting the cord with a complete stranger is 100% easier than cutting the cord with someone you know in real life. It's equatable to deleting a mutual acquittance you met one time ten years ago off your Facebook friend's list. The backlash is going to be minimal, if anything at all.

It's extremely easy to get a follower, and ten times harder to keep them. The legit way to do it is a lot harder. Although, if you do it the right way your influence and power will grow slowly over time. I think it's better to have 50 people give a shit about what you say, as opposed to having 100,000 followers - and maybe ten of them actually care about your thoughts and opinions.

Quality, not quantity.

The 25 Best Songs of 2013

Arcade Fire - Afterlife
Vampire Weekend - Diane Young
Grouplove - Ways To Go
The National - Don't Swallow The Cap
Hollerado - So It Goes
July Talk - Guns And Ammunition
New Politics - Harlem
July Talk - Guns+Ammunition
Fitz And The Tantrums - Out Of My League
Lorde - Royals
Lorde - Team
Vampire Weekend - Unbelievers
Vampire Weekend - Step
The 1975 - Chocolate
Bastille - Pompeii
Frank Turner - Recovery
Drake - Hold On, We're Going Home
Daft Punk - Instant Crush ft. Julian Casablancas
Avicii - Wake Me Up
Ellie Goulding - Burn
Tegan and Sara - I was A Fool
Classified - Inner Ninja ft. David Myles
Classified - 3 Foot Tall
Chvrches - The Mother We Share
Daft Punk - Get Lucky ft. Pharrell Williams

The list above is not in order from best to least, or vice versa. All the songs in my opinion earned a spot on the list. 2013 was a big year for indie music! Arcade Fire released their fourth anticipated album Reflektor. Vampire Weekend also released their third album, Modern Vampires of the City. I thought Reflektor was a good album, but I wasn't in love with it. I was hoping for a lot of hits on this track, and in that regard I felt the album came up short. On the other hand, Modern Vampires of the City delivered. I was expecting one or two tracks I'd love. Surprisingly I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the album from start to finish.

Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor known commonly as Lorde, is a seventeen year old from New Zealand. Lorde established herself as one of the most common household names this year. Her Album Pure Heroine climbed charts and made huge waves. Royals and Team easily earned their spot as two of the best songs of this year. I believe that having a young talented people who do not fall in line with pop culture is something good for the Millennials.

Drake had a great year. He recently received four nominations for the 2014 Grammys. His new album Nothing Was the Same has received world wide acclaim. Hate or love him, he's successful. I like some of Drake's music, even though I'm the first to admit the dude needs to delete his Twitter account, and stop making ridiculous videos of himself. Case in point.

That's a quick wrap-up of the best songs of 2013! Feel free to give your opinions below.

I just published an eBook | The Carpenter's Son

Recently I just finished getting a book I had been working on for several years edited, formatted, and finally published! I started writing this book about six or so years ago. When I began writing this book, I had no illusions that it would ever earn me a dime. It was for the most part an experimental project that allowed me to have a creative outlet. When I began writing this book I had just finished school at Sheridan College for Journalism in 2007. I was lucky enough to find employment in the middle of a Great Recession. Jobs were scarce, and jobs related to Journalism were even scarcer

During this time I worked for a magazine who hired me as an Editorial Coordinator. For the most part what I wrote was dictated not on value or substance, but on what was profitable to sell to advertisers. I was fully aware of the magazine industry's necessity to sell advertisement to advertisers; especially when that is their only form of revenue. Editorial content is different. Yes, you can potentially write articles relative to the products being advertised in the magazine. But, if the advertisement determines the content of your product; the magazine will be limited. Your product is inferior. People don't read magazines to be sold bottles of cologne or cans of cola. The articles have to hold some value.

I had various other personal and professional problems with the job, which lead me to walking away from it. Foolishly I left the job in way too short of a period of time to get a reference out of it. I was limited in options. Through emailing and networking I was able to find something a month later. I had an internship lined up for a popular news company in Toronto. I was told that the internship would last for six months in length. I would be required to complete 25-30 hours a week. The job would start at 12 midnight and end at 7 or 8 in the morning. I had bills to pay. I just went from making almost no money to potentially making no money at at all. I turned the opportunity down, and potentially walked away from the creative arts altogether.

Bitterness is a bitch. It's infectious. I wasn't the only person who got dealt a bad hand of cards. Most people graduating around the same time as me were experiencing the same problems I was. Writing the novel helped. I began to accept two realities;
1) Journalism was not likely going to pan out for me.
2) I could still be involved in creative arts, regardless if I collected a salary from it.

Currently I work in a school supporting students with special needs. Mainly I work with students who require help with academics, social skills, and behaviour. I get up every morning knowing that I'm helping to support the development of another human being. It's tiring, it's fun, and it's never the same.

This blog and creative writing currently meet one of my most basic needs as a human being. The need to express oneself.

The Book 

The book is a series of stories that mainly follow one character, Brian Morrison. Brian was born and raised in Nebraska. He is nearing adulthood and seeks to travel to Alaska. He is seeking opportunity, exposure, and adventure. The book is set in the 1950s, which was filled with optimism, prosperity, and social turmoil. As people in America were adapting to life after WWII; some felt disenfranchised by the various opportunities available to them at that time. The book explores the various themes of war, mass consumption, immigration, increase in personal wealth, and racism to name a few.

The book is currently available on Amazon, The book will be available on Smashwords in a couple of days. Once it's on Smashwords it will be available at almost all places eBooks are bought and sold.

Click here to be redirected to the book.