Quite a few of us in Canada have been on Google+ [1], but we’ve found there are far more American lawyers trying it out. Let’s hope that changes fast.
Vic Gundotra [2] of Google announced [3]today a number of changes. Google claims it made 91 improvements [4] to the platform during the 90 days of operation. Today they add 9 more improvements, largely related to the Hangouts feature (including mobile video chats) [5], as well as a much-needed search function. But the 9th new “feature” is that they are opening it up to the public. It was previously in beta testing and restricted to invites, although the number of invites appeared endless.
Of course everyone will ask (again) why they need yet another social network. The reality is that Google is still the powerhouse of the Internet, and if you trust them enough (it’s not a given considering some of the privacy complaints, for example) it can be the one social network to replace them all – eventually.
And because Google is still best known for its search engine, it’s no surprise that Google+ profiles rank pretty well for searches, based on a number of anecdotal experiments I’ve conducted for the past few months. So if you are at all interested in clients or other lawyers reading your content Google+ is at the very least just one of the platforms you should be considering.
We all suffer from social media fatigue at times, and a centralized hub – something many platforms have attempted but have not yet accomplished – is a benefit to us all. Here’s to Google+ for everyone.