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Comment by falcor84 | Hacker News Reader

I wonder whether Google+ and its Circles would have seen better success if it was launched now.

Circles was a great idea. But not really good enough. I'd have liked an "ignore" circle, like banning users on other platforms, just quietly, like the shadowbans some implement on a personal feed level.

Also, Circles was the only good thing about Google+. The rest was average to bad, and the forced integration into all kinds of Google services, the forced realnames, and the lack of third-party integrations killed any kind of goodwill/benefit-of-doubt anyone might have had.

I think what people sometimes miss is that circles was a good feature for users, but a bad feature for the platform. They interrupt vitality and outrage, since all messages are potentially more contained.

I think its reputation of killing products would still have been a factor in avoiding using it. Maybe not a factor for everyone but at least in some... uh, circles.

If Gmail was launched today would you bother?

In its current form, it would look pretty pathetic compared to other offerings. But that's because they haven't had to innovate due to their virtual monopoly status. If they launched a new Gmail with modern tech and design, however, it could be pretty attractive.

Absolutely not. It used to be a great email service that didn't let any spam hit my inbox. Now, it's basically only spam.

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