Google's clean interface was its most attractive feature. Users were becoming irritated by the clutter on MSN and Yahoo! search engines. Oddly, Netscape users were left to die alone and sadly not enough other users had their own butlers at home to really justify Ask Jeeves.com becoming a reality.
The company's clever use of Google Doodles to remind everyone of certain days of celebration or tributes to significant moments in time or people gave the brand another edge over its competitors; it was almost as if Google really cared about us.
When the time came to push Google email out, the invitation-only system gave flight to a flurry of excitement amongst users and those of us who had already tired of a Yahoo address or simply wanted the chance to get the username we really wanted via an alternative provider (and one which sounded cool). Who has an invite? Where can you get one? You know someone? Can you send me one?
Google was really running now. Not a sprinter but a worthy athelete charged full of stamina and ready to reckon with the world as it pounded the path towards the holy grail of our time; our personalities.
You know how this commentary continues so I shan't labour the point. Instead here's a brief look into how Google+ is presenting itself to users.
Summary of key features
Circles: at first glance this appears to be a method of sorting your contacts into pre-defined groups, in a way I used to on my old Nokia 6210i about a 130 years ago. The main difference being it was controlled by me, seen by me alone and my grouping choices never influenced any of my friends lives via spam and 'taylored advertising'. I feel both those elements will result from this idea.
Hangouts: the most curious of all the new features. It appears to provide online users with an opportunity to contact anyone within their 'circles' via any online medium shared between each user. As if we don't all have enough ways to get under each others skin already.
Instant upload: this feature will delight many, particularly those who voted Boris Johnson into office because he's funny on the telly.
I see this as the biggest step towards 'personality aquisition' since Facebook asked us for our holiday photos, children's birthday pictures and videos of some of the best times of our lives.
Sparks: this is the culmination of years of fine tuning AdSense and other such devices. A similar technology on Facebook has now become a point of ridicule - users are deliberately adding keywords to their status updates to see if the advertising software will bounce back a suitably mismatched and insensitive piece of product information, which in turn becomes an ironic follow-up status.
Huddle: Finally there's the 'Huddle' service which appears to be offering group messaging, such as that used in the BBM service by RIM on Blackberry handsets. WhatsApp never had it so good! Interestingly WhatsApp was designed by a couple of chaps from Yahoo! - looks like the old dogs have jumped one step ahead once more with this one. However now Google has become a real brand in its own right I'm curious to see how these two elements will compete. This is where Google's Android platform brings a Gustav to a gun fight.
So there we have it, a peep into the forthcoming world of Google+
Make of it what you will. I think it's a culmination of a great deal of ideas that've been around for some time now packaged together in what seems to be quite a brutal and forceful campaign. I see why the 'invitation only' route was taken for this one. Eddie Izzard once joked on stage that advertising is far more intelligent now, tricking us into asking questions of the advertisement and the product and being reassured that whatever happens the product will make us sexy! This new offering appears to be wielding a large club and appears to have a doped up chain gang wearily following in its wake.
Personally I'm reluctant to give everything away to Google - I particularly don't want to automatically upload every photo and video I create on my phone; there are some things I want to keep to myself. I don't want Google to know how I group my family and friends into categories, if I do at all. As a Google Latitude user I'm not adverse to sharing personal data but I don't like the way companies are expecting us to provide so much personal information as a matter of course.
Our personalities have been earmarked as trading commodities for some time and this latest offering from Google shows how serious they are about putting a price on our heads. The question is how long will it be before you sell out yourself and your loved ones?
[Note: some time after this post was written Google bought Blogspot! Is it irony or just comedy gold?]
