Google, Plus-or-Minus 1
Posted July 25, 2011 @ 11:11 am
I think I’m going to have to give Google+ a pass for now. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not a terrible service. But the user experience stinks.
The iPhone App
I’ve already complained about the busted mental model supported by the iPhone app. But there are two other issues that make the app kinda useless for me.
Load Times
Google+ is crazy-fast in a browser. But on the iPhone, using the pull-to-refresh functionality can take upwards of 10 seconds to reload a stream. I’ve tested this over 3G and on my home cable connection, which routinely pulls down 20+ Mbits/sec, so I know my connection isn’t the issue. The app is inexplicably slow.
UI-Blocking Network Operations
To make matters worse, refreshing data appears to be a blocking operation, meaning you can’t interact with the app at all while it’s fetching data. Combined with slow load times, the app sometimes locks up for 10 to 15 seconds.
As an iOS developer, this is utterly baffling. Not to be a fanboy, but this is the kind of behavior I’d expect from an Android app. Every other social networking app I’ve used—Twitter for iPhone, Tweetbot, Facebook, Instagram, etc.—manages to handle network activity without blocking the UI. This is bush league stuff. Given Google’s size and resources, it’s inexcusable.
Spam
Take a look at this. It’s a post from Robert Scoble about the death of a prominent software developer. The highlighted section is a reply from a spammer.
[It’s hard, but try to ignore the fact that this asshole used a post that was written in remembrance of a recently deceased friend to hawk a shitty product. That’s a wholly different problem that falls outside the scope of this article.]
This is the second time in the last two days that I’ve seen a popular Google+ user turned into a megaphone by a spammer. Right now, Scoble has over 92,000 followers on Google+, so he’s an attractive target. With Google planning to lure celebrities to the service, this problem will likely get worse before it gets better.
I understand that spam is a problem for every service, but this is the first service I’ve encountered where you’re penalized by spammers for following popular users. Fixing this will be a big uphill battle waged in public with my streams as a battleground. I’d rather not watch it play out.
Random Account Suspensions
Speaking of the above spammer, why does he/she/it still have an account when other legitimate users are having their accounts suspended? To be clear: these people aren’t just losing access to Google+. They’re losing access to every Google service tied to the account they were using with Google+, including Gmail. It’s a common refrain, but I’m (mostly) convinced that Google still doesn’t grok how to run a social network.
It’s Not All Bad
Users of services like Google+ are less fickle than your average Web user. Once they pick a service, they stick with it because their data is entrenched. Right now, they have a handful of more polished services available to them, and there’s no compelling reason for them to bounce from, say, Facebook to Google+. That’s not to say this couldn’t change.
It’s going to take Google a while to iterate on what they’ve started with, but the foundation is strong and they’ve built a ton of early momentum. That momentum, though, is a double-edged sword. It provides great press, but it also means Google’s going to have to act fast to shore up these issues.
