Is Google+ Enthusiasm an Indicator of Demand for a Facebook Alternative?

The early reviews of Google (including mine) have been almost uniformly positive. The "Hangout" and "Circles" features seem to have gotten most of the attention, from me and everyone else, it seems.

Some might argue that, aside from the almost certain enthusiasm of early adopters, there is evidence of end user demand for a real alternative to Facebook.

Being an "underdog" works better for Google in this case. It might be hard for people to root for Google in search or advertising or mobile operating systems and so forth, where Google is a major player or a market leader. Taking on Facebook in an area where it has stumbled in the past (social networks) is a horse of a different color, as the saying goes.

Does Google Rapture Indicate “Pent-Up Demand” For Facebook Alternative?

Apple’s App Store Downloads Top 15 Billion

Apple today announced that over 15 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by the more than 200 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide. There are 425,000 apps available. That works out to around 75 apps per device.

Apple says it has paid developers more than $2.5 billion in commission to date. That means that apps in total have grossed more than $8.3 billion in revenues. That suggests an "average" revenue per app of $1.80.

Apple’s App Store Downloads Top 15 Billion

Conversion Rate Gains Beat Traffic Gains

It’s a lot easier to improve your conversion rate by a percentage point or two than it is to double or treble your traffic, says Neil Shearing. "If you get 1,000 visits per month at a one-percent conversion rate, you make 10 sales," he says. "If you improve the conversion rate to two percent, you’ll double your sales to 20 per month. If you went in search of more traffic instead of improving your conversion rate, you’d have to double that, which means getting 2,000 visits per month instead of 1,000.

The former is arguably easier than the latter.

Sales CSI by Winning Ware Reviewed | Internet Marketing Strategies and Marketing Tips by Neil Shearing:

Businesses Focus on Social Media for Lead Generation

With lead acquisition the top goal of business-to-business companies, marketers are prioritizing investments in social media and digital content marketing in 2011, according to a survey from Focus.

Meanwhile, client understanding and customer retention are top goals for B2C brands with marketers emphasizing social media, digital content, and email as a means to achieve their goals.

Some 55 percent of B2B companies report “acquiring leads” as their top strategic priority in 2011, followed by building brand awareness (49 percent) and lead conversion (45 percent).


Read more.

Mobile Behavior is Similar to Desktop Behavior, it Seems

Peak mobile engagement with Web resources seems to mirror that of desktop PCs, namely that usage peaks in the early evening.

Like PC usage, which occurs nearly all hours when people are awake, mobile Web usage happens all day long.

Google+ Users Prefer it to Facebook

A poll of 1,000 Google+ users suggests Google+ users, at least, are looking for an alternative to Facebook. The poll found that 67 percent of Google+ users prefer it to Facebook.

The results do not necessarily suggest people will stop using Facebook; only that Google+ early adopters do prefer Google+. Read more

That isn't hard to believe. The Google+ interface is clean, simple and uncluttered. But the main thing is that it allows people to create "Circles" of freinds, family, acquaintances and work or hobby associations that actually make sense. It has never made sense to some of us that all Facebook updates are broadcast to all "friends."

A reasonable expectation for Google would be that growing numbers of people start to use Google+ for new social activities, without abandoning Facebook entirely. An application with clear network effects, which is what Facebook is, is tough to abandon once the scale effects kick in.

The other issue is that some users won't want to make drastic changes of habit until they are fairly convinced Google+ will survive. Not all products Google launches succeed, and some users might be wary of investing too much time in Google+ until it is a "survivor." Read more here.

Google+ Push to Affect "Blogger" and "Picasa."

Google will rename Picasa "Google Photos" and rebrand "Blogger" as "Google Blogs," apparently as part of the larger Google+ push.
The transition from Picasa and Blogger to Google Photos and Google Blogs will occur “in a month to a month and a half,” suggesting August 2011.

The date aligns with the likely public launch of Google+ is supposed to happen on or before July 31.

The brand unification effort will be the largest in company history — it’s never renamed a property as large as Blogger, some would note. Other acquired brands have been re-named in the past, so the move is not without precedent. And it makes sense. Blogger and Picasa are social products, where sharing is built into the the basic functionality.

Google To Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google Push: