Google scrambles to fix Events after celebs yelp
Despite the “Google+ is a ghost town” mantra, a number of high-profile or widely connected people are active users who promote what they like. They also yelp when they're unhappy and when Google+ Events went live during the week's Google I/O …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google+ entered 2012 with an unresolved credibility gap: coverage in 2011 split between claims that it was a surprisingly active network and criticism that it was worse than a ghost town. That made participation by widely connected users disproportionately important to the service’s public standing.
Events had been signaled alongside Local in May, following an earlier misstep around Google+ brand pages. The backlash turns the launch into a test of whether Google can incorporate feedback from the users most visible on its own network.
First-order effects
- Google must prioritize fixes to Google+ Events after public criticism from high-profile users, rather than treating the feature’s launch behavior as settled.
- Prominent Google+ users gain immediate influence over the product roadmap because their complaints are visible to the audiences Google+ needs to retain.
Second-order effects
- Google+ product teams face a higher bar for social-feature launches: visible dissatisfaction from core participants can undermine adoption before a new feature establishes a habit.
- Competing social networks can frame Google+’s launch problems as evidence that product breadth alone does not secure user trust or participation.
Third-order effects
- If influential users repeatedly determine which Google+ features are corrected, the network’s development model shifts toward managing a small set of highly vocal participants as both customers and public validators.
The trend: Social platforms are learning that highly connected early users can function as an informal product-governance layer, especially when a network is still proving its relevance.