To get me to change social networks, Google will have to convince my friends to switch; especially my close ones, as using Facebook to communicate with many of them has replaced email.
That's really the heart of the issue - no matter how good your social product is, people are only going to make the switch from facebook if a significant number of their "social network" switch as well. I wonder if the next big social site needs to incentivize entire groups to switch rather than just individuals, e.g. promotions that only go into effect after x number of your friends sign up.
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To get me to change social networks, Google will have to convince my friends to switch; especially my close ones, as using Facebook to communicate with many of them has replaced email.
That's really the heart of the issue - no matter how good your social product is, people are only going to make the switch from facebook if a significant number of their "social network" switch as well. I wonder if the next big social site needs to incentivize entire groups to switch rather than just individuals, e.g. promotions that only go into effect after x number of your friends sign up.