I’m finding watching the growth of Google+ really interesting.

Each time I login there is something new and it is always something that I understand – I get why they did it.

Obviously it’s a new social network – so new basic features are always going to be useful, but it’s more than that. Google hangouts are not a ‘needed’ feature for the network to work – twitter does great without it as did Facebook for a long time but it’s an amazing feature which could be really useful from a user point of view and a business point of view.

Also, with social networks these days, it’s the broader network – encouraging sharing everywhere on the web. The recent changes to You Tube are one big example of this. Google has integrated G+ deep into Youtube so you can see all your videos of interest together and set up sharing. Couple this with Google Music and you have a massive media sharing network, not to mention the power of Google itself! Google are slowly integrating G+ into every service they run and will hit the billions of people who use them.

My use of social networks has changed dramatically in the past few years. From not worrying about what you share (MySpace) to worrying about what you share and who to (Facebook) back to not worrying about who you share to (twitter). I see Google+ as the next step in feeling in control of our sharing and once people start to see the benefits of Google+ they will join in and the network will get bigger and better.

Some said in the beginning we will have no choice about whether we like Google+ or not we will be forced to use it. And to a certain extent I agree. Google is so huge and so wide spread and used so much by all of us that the big game changers – Companies, Celebs etc. will HAVE to be on Google+ because of all the benefits (recommendations in the google search) that we will follow.

This is how social networks make it big.