Google+ – Professional Social Network?

Some people are starting to wonder whether Google+ will continue to grow and become a major social network. Even for Google, it will be quite an achievement to penetrate the already relatively crowded world of social networks and become a major player.

Indeed they have had an excellent start and in my opinion built quite a nice little service. (By the way, do not underestimate how much they must have spent designing, building and now deploying Google+. I call it a 'nice little service' but I know we are talking many millions of dollars.)

Here's what one pundit said as criticism in a recent article:

"In that respect, is it possible that G+, at the moment, is simply a social media step too far? Are there only so many daily destination-and- connection sites a person can invest time and effort overseeing?

As Forbes.com contributor Paul Tassi wrote last month within a column doubling as a eulogy for the service, "The fact is, very few people have room to manage many multiple social networks … since there is only so much time in the day to waste on the Internet. Add in Google+, effectively a duplicate of Facebook, and there just isn't space for it." (from Worse than a Ghosttown)

I am not sure. I use Facebook for personal and family networks, and have relatively few business contacts on it. To date, I've used LinkedIn for my business contacts. But LinkedIn is not a social network in the sense of Facebook.

Maybe that will be Google Plus' niche: the professional social network.