Google+ trying to salvage itself by hooking on teenagers

28 January, 2012

Parents will not be supportive of the current move by Google, which has made teenagers joining the..

MAYBE GOOGLE believes in the mantra that failure is the biggest success but after many flops Google came up with Google+ thinking that it would not only salvage the pride of the company but also make a foothold in the social media. Unfortunately, till date, Google+ is struggling to establish its identity. It did not go well with the users, who would not use another search engine than Google but when it comes to social media, no one can beat Facebook and its worldwide appeal. Thus, in another attempt Google is trying to tap in that portion of the population that is left by all the social networking sites: teenagers. From January 27 onwards, Google+ is open to anyone who is 13 or older.

While this might put more worry lines on the forehead of the parents, Google are making sure that kids do not over share and add to the rate of cyber crimes. They are making strict default settings. As reported in pcworld.com, Bradley Horowitz, the VP Product said that they are keeping in mind the safety of the kids and they want children to make meaningful connections online.

Apart from the default settings, when a teenager is about to make a post public a warning goes off and the user would be asked to think before they share anything online. No outsiders would be allowed to enter their circle and if teens are chatting as soon as a stranger enters their chat room, it will disconnect. Google also wants to go ahead with their policy of having real names. They are urging teenagers to use their real names. These settings have a downside as they can be changed at will and a teen can chat with a total stranger if they want to. The age limit in Spain and South Korea is higher being 14 years and in Netherlands it is 16 years. Only time will tell whether this is a smart move or Google is again looking at failure’s face.