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Comment by cnahr | Hacker News Reader

Journalists love to talk about how "beautiful" Google+ is -- first the mobile apps, now the web interface. But you are posting this link here, on a picture-free text-only website, because that's where we go for discussion. (Or to Reddit or Metafilter.) "Beautiful" does not enable discussion, it enables advertising.

Google+ vs Facebook misses the point. Having lots of random people chatting about random things isn't very profitable, as Facebook discovered. There's no point in emulating that. Instead, Google+ is the universal publishing & commenting platform for the highly profitable Google advertising ecosystem. Here's where Google talks to its actual G+ target audience:

https://www.google.com/+/business/

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You are wrong - there is plenty of discussion on g+.

Not really, no. Most people post a couple of times and get few reactions beyond one-liners, if that. Over time, fewer and fewer people who aren't Google employees (1) bother posting anymore. Picture posts get by far the most +1s and shares. Completely incomparable to the text-based discussion networks.

(1) As well as anyone promoting a business, I should add. I've seen a couple of writers and lots of professional photographers using G+ for self-promotion. That seems to work quite well for them, especially the photographers given how image-heavy G+ is.

That's all true, but try the 'Communities' function for a given topic you are interested in if you haven't already. I use Google+ for that exclusively, after giving it up due to the same observations you made.

yes, really ;-)

Ok, I'm Marcin Lulek, find me on g+ i can share my developer circles with you, maybe then the system will be more valuable to you guys.

Maybe, most of us aren't involved in it. Since day one I never found g+ to be an accessible place to converse with people I know or people who share interests.

I am sure there are some great posts going around limited circles of people, just that is not the common experience.

Btw. did you guys notice the COMMUNITIES functionality of g+? This is a good place to start.

There's plenty of discussion despite Google sabotaging it with every other update. :-/

How so?

"But you are posting this link here, on a picture-free text-only website, because that's where we go for discussion. (Or to Reddit or Metafilter.)"

In a public forum setting - for semi-private discussions among like-minded peers I prefer G+, certain Facebook groups, and most of all the (probably idolated) memory of Google Reader's social features.

Text enables ads too.

Job ads on HN or search ads on Google blend in more naturally , and are easier to make relevant than images.

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