David from @latinocellar asks …

Ask a lot of people about Google+ and you’ll hear various snarky remarks like “wasteland”, “yawnfest”, “crickets” etc, and to some degree they are correct. Though I’m no yardstick, my FaceBook feed has 150+ friends and is hard to keep up with. My Google+ feed with 40 odd friends is.. well dormant. Many people, like David are left wondering – “what’s the point?”.

Google is Search, true. Some of their other endeavours have been less fruitful. Let’s never talk of Buzz or Wave again, agreed?  Some other things however, they stuck out until they worked. Like YouTube and Android. So let me put my opinion on record… Google+ plus will be one of those things they stick out until it works. The stakes are very, very high and it’s all about advertising.

Facebook do advertising too, but if you do any advertising on either platform you’ll understand how primitive Facebook’s is by comparison. Even though you can target ads with precision demographics they just don’t sell goods and services as effectively as AdWords (and with fewer impressions). The search “intention” is far more targeted than even the most promiscuous Facebook profile.

But here’s the thing, Google’s intention isn’t to simply pepper you with Ads on Google+. It’s to track you across the web like cookies do now, AND then to track you across devices. The limitation of all ad networks currently is that users are using 2 or even 3 devices to browse with. that makes it harder to analyse the full sales funnel from start to finish. Google’s advertising tapestry is deep with Analytics, remarketing and an array of search and display ad options. Having authenticated web tracking across google properties & advertisers would put it even further ahead as the most effective advertising platform. Not just a good experience for the advertiser, but for the user too. Facebook’s ads are horrendous and largely irrelevant.

So, here’s the thing. Google+ is already the 5th most popular social network in the world. Behind MySpace. (I don’t know which of those two things is more surprising.) But how? Isn’t it a wasteland? Yes, and no. It certainly seems to be devoid of stay at home mums, bored teenagers and stalker ex-boyfriends, but it is brimming with techs and content providers who have recognised one thing – Google+ is already affecting search results.

We know Google uses social signals already, but this is explicit. My mates uglys mugs are showing up in my search results! What’s more, those author rel rich snippets are showing massive profile pics next to original content – that links to a Google+ page. It’s already very important, and this is only going to get deeper.

Get on the ground floor now, because Google+ is here to stay.