Marcus Michaels: Google+ versus brands

Another social network? What the hell do I need another social network for?

Nothing.

Though I can't help but admire their audacity at such a blatant attempt to take on Facebook.

When I first signed up to Google+, I was dubious of the blank profile sitting in front of me that still knew far too much about my life. So, I filled out my profile while learning of its complexity, which ironically, clarifies the social spectrum in a lot of ways for me, such as talking to people you want to talk to and seeing things from people that you want to see things from. Of course, I'm talking about the filtration system known as Circles; one of the many nice features of Google+.

But, I'm not here to talk about how Google+ works. Truth be told, i'm still not 100% sure...

What I am sure of (subject to change), is that Facebook is like your overcrowded school playground. You hang around with people you don't really want to hang around with. You do things that you don't really want to be doing.

G+ on the other hand, is like that quiet place near the back of the playground by the fence that's away from all the mindless rambling.

But then the brands get wind of it, and like paedophiles to a playground, show up showing you things that you really don't want to be shown.

G+ did something that won a lot of points from me. It flipped the bird to all the brands, deleted their pages and told them to piss off. A bold move, but they're Google. They can do whatever the fuck they like.

People may disagree with me, but as a man in the advertising industry, it makes me happy to know (for now, anyway), that Google+ won't be the main point of discussion from a client's out-of-context, viral manoeuvre of social whispering that they measure in +1s and are coated in and around other buzzwords that they think they should be saying, to be seen as though they know what they're talking about.

Obviously the brands will get in. Good things always come to an end, and when it does, I'll embrace it. I'm even kinda looking forward to playing around with it to see how we can actually use it effectively for a brand. But for now, it's nice to have a social haven without brands showing us their dicks all the time.

Marcus Michaels is currently at RAPP, and is @marcusmichaels on Twitter.