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Google+ ran into a brick wall at the outset, being compared to Facebook.
It was competing with Facebook for the same market, or a very similar market. Both firms have impressive pedigrees, which led to numerous stories about how Google+ could be the next Facebook or a “Facebook killer.”
When such expectations are piled on anything, disappointment is usually the only realistic outcome. After a fast start, Google+ has slowed down, and many people have moved on to finding the next “Facebook killer.”
One area where Google+ has Facebook beat, however, is the graphical display of its pages and profile’s metrics. Note: I’m not saying the Google+ metrics are better. I’m saying their graphic display is better.
This is true because of a service called Ripples, which lets you see in a very nifty way everyone who publicly shared your post.
You can access Ripples from any Google+post by clicking the drop down arrow and choosing “View Ripples.”
From there are you treated to an impressive graphical display:
You can zoom in:
And actually see what was said by the person who shared your post:
Only public shares can be tracked, which saves Google+ from a major breach of privacy but also restricts you from seeing all shares of your content.
Ripples is a cool feature for Google+, but is it actually worthwhile? Personally, I think it’s a really cool toy but not much more. In the end we don’t need a really cool way to see who shared our posts, we just need to know if our posts were shared, +1′d, liked, re-tweeted, whatever. Unless you can afford to employ somebody to sift through the share and see who is saying what about your posts, I don’t see a practical application.
