[KingNoosh]

Was it really a war? I don't believe anyone thought Google Plus would've actually stood a chance, and now it looks like G+ is splitting to many little micro-services such as spaces, Allo and Duo.

Not the mention the whole YouTube users being constantly harassed to input their real name which gave G+ an even worse taste in their mouths.

[whack]

Yes, it was a war. There were plenty of earlier social networks, like Friendster and Myspace, who probably looked down at upstarts like Facebook, shortly before getting killed by them. Facebook was in a good position, but it certainly wasn't invincible.

And Google isn't just any competitor. This was back in the days when Google could do no wrong. They conquered the world in search. They conquered the world in email. They were starting to conquer the world in mobile. They had some of the best engineering talent in the world. And they were now pointing all their guns at Facebook. I can certainly imagine why Zuck was shitting bricks. Kudos to him for pulling out a win.

[gdulli]

I'm not sure, but my instinct is that Google's decline had started by then. Sure, they bought their way into email by giving away storage when everyone else was charging for it. But the usability had steadily gotten worse over time. When did the new compose experience launch compared to G+, for example?

[dredmorbius]

Google's slide toward doing wrong started earlier, and you can argue over when, but I'd attribute it to Gmail.

It's one thing to have my search history. It's another to have my search history, identity, and email.

I resisted the pull of Gmail for a long time. Yes, I created an account (to forstall others from doing so, and, oddly, a highly distinctive name proved taken in multiple iterations, or at least unavailable, when I tried registering it). I've simply moved to using email very little.

G+ put the stink in though. I really wanted to like the service. I used it early on, and still do. I wanted it to be the anti- Facebook (which I do not use, or trust).

But multiple from the top decisions made, and still make it, exceptionally difficult to like. Sadly, there's little better (and I've looked).

[ProAm]

> Was it really a war? I don't believe anyone thought Google Plus would've actually stood a chance

It absolutely was, but Facebook didn't so much as win the war, whereas it was Google who shot themselves in the foot and lost. All they had to do was not be Facebook and they would have won, but they had a lot of missteps. Real name, and google-wide single sign-on caused immediate hesitation and started the fall.

[zeveb]

> I don't believe anyone thought Google Plus would've actually stood a chance

I know that I certainly did, and in fact for awhile my Facebook image was something along the lines of, 'I've left for G+!' Sadly, not many folks made the transition, and I'm back.

Funny timing on this story — I've recently been reading some of the Indie Web Camp stuff, and discovered that diaspora came out in 2010. It seems like just yesterday! Even back then we were worried about a Facebook monoculture, and hopeful in competitors.

Google's main assault couldn't break Facebook; diaspora couldn't either. I don't know what will, and that worries me.

[vthallam]

At this point, nothing will. I still see people come up with arguments that myspace was in a similar situation,but FB is nothing like MySpace. Users have spent more than 10 years sharing things, sticking to them and there's no way to step them from it. But what other companies can do is to try create services which helps certain kinds of people. Like people typically use FB for news, friend's know how, photos, random viral videos and if a company can take off users from FB by creating a better way to read news or share pics, there might stand a chance.

[natrius]

The way to unseat an established network is to build a network no one controls, which makes it the obvious alternative for anyone dissatisfied with the monopolist. Decentralization yields powerful network effects, and we're all about to watch it unfold. If you want to be a part of it, dive into the decentralized application communities that are forming around Ethereum and IPFS.

[eropple]

> which makes it the obvious alternative for anyone dissatisfied with the monopolist

All twelve of you?

I mean, I respect the effort, but people by and large aren't dissatisfied, while those who are dissatisfied aren't dissatisfied in such a way that makes them receptive to "nobody else is here, but you should be" services.