Google Vs. Facebook ::: Don't Be Socially Awkward!
This might be mistake for some. If you are not a well known and recognized name like Matt Cutts or Chris Brogan, you might want to stick with your “default” photo.
It will make people recognize you easier."
I've seen it myself, and I know it's happening. What's wrong with people? I left Brankica a comment:
"I think the lesson here, from your very first paragraph, is “choose your ‘friends’ carefully.” This obsession with racking up huge numbers of twitter followers and facebook friends is ridiculous, unless you are a celebrity.
Every now and again I go through the list of 300 I follow (that’s my personal ‘cap’) on twitter and unfollow those who are mostly re-tweets and adverts. Of the 600 people following me, I calculate that around 400 are “junk” followers, and every single day I pick up three or four followers who are counting on auto-software (which I do not use) to follow them back. they drop off in a week or so.
I’m with you 100% on BRANDING! I see the same thing – alternative photos and logos! People, this is NOT the time or place to make adjustments to your brand."
Having said all that, it is worthwhile to note that GOOGLE SMELLS BLOOD: they think they've found a chink in Facebook's armour and they're trying to exploit it.
But there are TWO paths Google's Social Network could take:
PATH "A" --- Google WAVE or BUZZ --- each was supposed to be the biggest thing since the invention of the wheel. Both fizzled, big time!
PATH "B" --- Gmail --- it wiped the floor with the competition (and you can even point to the way Google itself took over the search engine market, seemingly coming out of nowhere, still #1 today!)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ::: "The biggest hurdle for Google+ is getting users, of course. But it is integrating the service with Gmail, which already has 240 million unique users world-wide, according to comScore. Meanwhile, the user experience on Facebook is a victim of the site's success. Users have accumulated so many online "friends" it can be difficult to organize them. And users often feel assaulted by too much or irrelevant social information, like Zynga game updates. Ultimately, Google+ is a chance for social networkers to start over.
This doesn't mean people will drop out of Facebook overnight. Gmail users didn't necessarily drop their Yahoo email addresses. Indeed, Yahoo Mail still has more unique visitors, but its growth has been stagnant, whereas Gmail continues to expand quickly."
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