Google receives a large percentage of my online attention. They host my jakeludington.com email as well as my calendar. Google deposits money in my company’s bank account every month thanks to their Adsense product. I collaborate with people using Google Docs. I promote products and services using Google’s Adwords. If I need to map directions, I use the Google Maps-powered navigation feature on my Android phone. And of course, I rely on search results from Google to find all kinds of information. Now I’m exploring (and loving) Google+. But I’m left scratching my head at the idea of pointing my blog at my Google+ profile.
While I did what was essentially blogging for LockerGnome back when we only published newsletters, I created my first personal blog as a place to share my thoughts on things that didn’t really fit with any of the tech themes we wrote about daily. I setup an early version of Movable Type with a fairly ugly design and was off to the races. The type of personal blogging I do remains a largely personal affair. Sure I’m posting my thoughts in a public space and I welcome feedback, but I’m really writing for me.
When Kevin Rose announced on Twitter he was redirecting his kevinrose.com domain to his Google+ profile, my first thought was, WHY? Kevin is correct that the feedback on Google+ is more instantaneous, but I don’t write for instant gratification. I write because I feel like I need to say something.
While my posting here is erratic and I should spend some time developing it out a bit, JakeLudington.com is 100% me. I chose the elements on the page. I can ban commenters if they offend me. I can swap in a new theme if I choose to. The various sidebar and header elements were handpicked by me as things I wanted to draw attention to. Google+ affords me none of that. I can add a few selected fields to my Google+ Profile, but I’m otherwise at the mercy of the Google UX team. Blogger and WordPress.com provide more personalization if you prefer to let someone else deal with hosting issues.
The other reason I won’t be moving my blogging to Google+ is because someday it will be gone. Social communities on the web are nomadic, making the social camps impermanent. Yesterday’s AOL became MySpace became Facebook and Twitter and now Google+. It’s unlikely any of the places we are spending the majority of our time now will still be there ten years. While I may change my focus, I will very likely still be thinking out loud on the JakeLudington.com domain for as long as I’m able to communicate.
Of course, you will also find me on Google+, where I share interesting things I find that I don’t feel the need to write about.
I fully agree with yours and Chris Brogan’s sentiments on this issue, and you have summed up my feelings on the subject.
” I write because I feel like I need to say something.” That is the point of blogging, isn’t?
Thanks
Jelena
I feel the same way… BUT… are we the foolish ones? I can’t predict the internet’s path, but one thing I do know is that we don’t know what we think we know.
So in this moment having your own domain name with a hosted blog is important for you and me, but is it the smartest way to accomplish our goals? I think some people just want to get their message heard and don’t give a flip about the aesthetics or the long term. For those people, it might be a good idea. They need to be where the audience is. I know a guy that wrote his posts everyday on myspace because he wasn’t tech savvy and didn’t have a separate domain. But he got tons of engagement and ultimately landed a book deal from those posts. It’s an interesting experiment.
Valid point and i am anyway not changing my blog 🙂 i love it more than g+ which is end of day a social network. thanks for your thoughts.
I got your point. Anyway, even though your not that in favor of Google+, could you site some more usefulness of Google+? Many people are still wondering what Google+ is.
Amazing write-up! This could aid plenty of people find out more about this particular issue. Are you keen to integrate video clips coupled with these? It would absolutely help out. Your conclusion was spot on and thanks to you; I probably won’t have to describe everything to my pals. I can simply direct them here!