Earlier today I read a great article by Robert Hof that tapped into the struggles Google has conveying to its users "why they should care about Google+." And to be honest, there isn't a clean cut answer to this. Google cannot even answer it directly. But, my question is, at least for now, is this a bad thing?
Right now Google has one of the best long term visions compared to any other major company. What is this vision? Well, it's to slowly corral each internet user (so basically, everybody) to think of Google not as only a piece of the internet, but the internet. Facebook has done a great job of building a large social house, but it is still having trouble expanding outside those walls. Now I know it has over 1 billion users, but that number can only be sustained for so long with the correct advancements. Google is taking things from a much more outward to inward approach, thus making it take more time, but in the end it has the potential to be much more of a universal tool than Facebook (who is taking the inward to outward approach).
Google+ was the "social network" that was introduced to not just be a rival to Facebook. No. It was created as a piece of the puzzle that will in years to come make more sense than it does today. How will it "make sense"? Once Google gets comfortable with the development aspects of Google+, users will then be able to really get used to its functionality. After this step, the essential tie between content on Google+ and that same content in Google Search will be a very attractive aspect. But see, these are just two pieces of the pie. The Google real estate that includes Earth, +, Search, Glass, Ads, YouTube, etc. will eventually become its own universe entirely. That is the plan, but the final question that begs to be asked is will it work? The plan is there. The digital real estate is there. But can the execution be done well enough to convince regular users? Time will tell.