It was just last week that Google’s Bradley Horowitz sent out a tweet asking for Twitter users with 100k followers or more to contact him for a Google+ suggested user list. The list is now out and some are not happy about it.
Tech blogger Robert Scoble made the list and asked to be taken off of it. Why? He gave 13 reasons why. Here are just a few:
1. I don’t need to be on the list. My bosses don’t care. It isn’t needed for my role in the industry or my business model. By being off the list on Twitter I have found my natural audience.
2. Any list that has Paris Hilton but not so many other deserving people on it isn’t a list I want to be on.
3. I don’t want to worry about getting kicked off the list. I want to say what I think of Google without fear of reprisals.
4. Newbies who don’t know who I am make horrid followers. I don’t want to be in a role where I have to welcome new users like my dad to the service. I want my audience to be only people passionate about tech. Users who find me on a suggested user list and who don’t search me out aren’t going to be fun to serve.
His post became quite popular and was picked up by Techmeme and Google’s Horowitz said he was surprised by Scoble’s post.
Some are afraid the list will become a popularity contest.
Craig Kanalley, a senior editor at The Huffington Post, also has concerns about the Google+ Suggested Users list. He said, “I don’t think this is a good idea. It’s going to alienate people and lead to an inevitable followers war that can hurt the health of the social network and inflate people’s egos. As the famous get more followers, the non-featured fall farther behind, and a giant gap is created between the two. This is what happened on Twitter.”
What are your thoughts on the Google+ Suggested Users list? Do you think it’s a bad idea?
For those of you who like the idea and want to find out how you can make it on the list, see Horowitz’s Google+ post here.
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