For some, Google Minus

Johnny was in the living room, playing the Facebook game Gardens of Time on his netbook, when his cousin-in-law Renee walked in the door. Normally Renee would spend the evening watching HD episodes of the Gilmoor Gang, but tonight she decided to visit Johnny.

"What'cha doing?" asked Renee.

"Playing a Facebook game," replied Johnny.

Renee appeared to get agitated over this. "You make me want to throw up," she retorted. "Why aren't you using Google Plus?"

"Why?" Johnny asked.

"WHY? WHY?" replied Renee. "Don't you know that Google Plus is the most revolutionary achievement in computing history? Once the invites get out, people will leave Facebook in droves!"

"Why?" Johnny asked.

"WHY? WHY?" replied Renee. "Because Facebook is just Facebook, and Google Plus is ALL of Google. A complete integrated experience, with a common toolbar, accessing a breadth of information across all of the Google properties."

Johnny watched Renee wax dramatic. "So what are you doing with Google Plus?"

Renee paused for a moment. "Um, nothing yet. I don't have an invite. But Jesse Stay has access, and wrote about the ramifications. Yeah, Jesse Stay, the Facebook author - and even he's thinking that Facebook has fallen behind."

"And after all," Renee continued, "you're the one who purposely targeted your Empoprises so-called empire to use Google products. You use Blogger, you use Google Reader, you use all of the important Google products."

"Not YouTube," Johnny interjected.

"Well, besides that," Renee acknowledged. "I think that you'd be all over this and ready to quit Facebook in a heartbeat!"

"OK," Johnny replied, "I have put in a request for an invite, and I'll certainly try it out, and I'm definitely not as negative on Google Plus as Dave Winer is. But even if Google Plus turns out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, there are hundreds of millions of Facebook users out there. And I have hundreds of friends who don't care about Google Buzz, and who don't know Jesse Stay from Jesse Ventura, and who don't know Robert Scoble from Alex Scoble. And you're telling me that I'm supposed to go to these people and say, 'Sorry, but if you want to talk to me in the future, you're going to have to quit Facebook and join this Google service that is used by a lot of techie people who think that a byte of Java is NOT a condemnation of rock-hard coffee."

Renee shook her head. "Do you really think that all of those people are going to stay on Facebook? And if you really think that Facebook is so wonderful, why don't you just go and hang out on that $35 million dollar service MySpace?"

Now it was Johnny's turn to be agitated? "MySpace? MYSPACE? Who would want to go on that service? That service is only used by welfare cheats and starving musicians. Or perhaps I'm being redundant here-"

"You see?" trumpeted Renee in triumph. "A few years ago MySpace was the king of the mountain, displacing Friendster, which displaced AOL, and now its user base is relatively miniscule. So don't assume that Facebook will always remain on top. Google has a breadth of services that will take Facebook to the cleaners."

"Just one thing," asked Johnny.

"What?" asked Renee.

"Does Zynga have CafeWorld on Google Plus yet?"

P.S. I wrote this post early Wednesday evening. Within the hour, I had received a Google+ invite courtesy Mark Trapp. Not quite ready for a review yet.