Since the beginning of time -- or at least since the beginning of 1978 when the first dial-up BBS came online -- the digital world has been clamoring for a better place to have conversations.
The so-called BBS, or bulletin board service, the dial-up "online services" of the 1990s, the web 2.0 of the early 2000s and the social web of the last five years have all been attempts to create great places for people to interact, converse, teach, learn, argue and explore.
Each new generation of service has been better than the last. Now Google has taken it to the next level with a new feature called Communities.
How 'Communities' makes Google+ for everyone
New data released by Google this week shows that Google+ is growing as fast as Facebook did at its peak if you compare only "active users" of the service. If you include users of the Plus-one button, and other Google+ related services outside the main social network site, Google+ is growing far faster than Facebook or any other social site ever has.
Still, the actual Google+ user community has been divided. A hard-core minority is very engaged and active. A larger group are casual users. And the vast majority is made up of "lurkers" or occasional users.
In other words, Google+ has been the greatest social network ever for a certain kind of user (including Yours Truly), but something of a non-starter for the majority of users.
Here's the problem: People have turned to Google+ to discuss topics, but it has been fundamentally organized around people (circles).
I believe this structural flaw is largely responsible for the shyness, for lack of a better term, of the majority of Google+ users to get in there and engage actively.
Why most users don't post publicly on Google+
The uber-controversy about Google+ to date is around usage. If you bring up 10 random profiles, you'll discover that most aren't posting publicly.
Many of these users are posting privately, reading streams and even commenting. Why aren't they posting publicly?
I believe the answer is stage fright.
It's easy and comfortable to post anything on Twitter and Facebook.
Posting on Twitter can be a lot like mumbling to yourself. People post irrelevant comments on Twitter like it's a bodily function. "I just ate a sandwich." No big deal.
Posting on Facebook is akin to saying something to a small group of family or friends. "Timmy's T-ball team just won their first game!" Everyone on Facebook is happy to hear about that.
But posting on Google+ feels like you're on TV. The camera is pointed at you, the red light is on, the lights are bright. Everything you say will be broadcast to who-knows-who.
Public Google+ posts feel consequential, and most people are nervous about that.
Everything on Google+ is controversial. You can post that the sky is blue and you'll get an argument.
For those who love to argue, Google+ is ideal. But most people don't love to argue. They want to learn, discuss and explore, but they don't want an intellectual fistfight every time they express a thought, feeling, idea or share an experience.
There's a lot of complaints on Google+ about the topics of posts. For example, I'm lucky enough to be on the Google+ Suggested Users List under the Technology category. That's the best category for me, because most of my posts are about technology.
But I also post about food, health, travel and culture in general. Many people who circled me because they care about tech are unhappy when I post about food or health or other topics deemed to be boring, offensive or annoying.
One person's passion is another person's irritant.
People passionate about software development might hate posts about cupcakes. People passionate about animal welfare may hate posts about someone's hunting trip. People passionate about global human rights may hate posts about reality TV.
And that's why Communities changes everything
The new Communities feature enables people to freely post to a group they know cares about the topic of interest.
In my own case, for example, if I've got some food- or health-related comment I'd like to put out there, I can now do it in the appropriate community. Everyone who gets the post is someone who actively signed up to engage on that topic.
For the people who have circled me, the post doesn't exist in my stream. But for me, it does, along with the comments below the post. And the posts in the communities I signed up for also show up in my stream, as if I had circled the people who post there. So to me, I'm still engaging with a single stream.
The only difference is that topics are much more relevant to me. And the stuff I post is more relevant to the people in those communities.