Social isn't a Product

James Whittaker, an ex-Googler:

I couldn’t even get my own teenage daughter to look at Google+ twice, “social isn’t a product,” she told me after I gave her a demo, “social is people and the people are on Facebook.”

It’s frustrating that Google+ is actually a better product; the web app has a better design, Hangouts are a cool addition, and the mobile app is far faster and less buggy than Facebook’s turd. Still, being a better product isn’t enough. Facebook wins, not by being the best, but by simply having everyone already on it.

Competition could exist if social networks could communicate between each other, because then it would be all about who could make the experience better. Yet, as much as everyone knows competition is a good thing, no one ever wants competition against their own product.