Plus or Division?

Google Plus has gone through a bit of a makeover.  If you haven't seen it, here's a quick overview:




If you have never tried Google Plus before, this is the perfect time to try it out, but if you are one of those people, this article isn't for you.  No, rather today, I'm going to ask a simple question; Is Google Plus really a plus, or is it more of a division?
I'm not very political, but in years like this, when the mass media just latches on and takes hole of candidates like they are the bar in front of them on a roller coaster ride where no one can let go, well, quite frankly, it's hard not to have an opinion.  Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with this that isn't political.  For a while, I've had the feeling that Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have been dividing their own party.  It seemed for a while, they were neck and neck, with both man pulling the same amount of support as the other.  So a thought entered my head, "Are these two doing good for the Republican party, or are they dividing it?  In other words, wouldn't they be better together?"
Now today, I'm having a similar discussion rolling around in my noggin, which is, are Google Plus and Facebook helping each other, or hurting social media altogether?
A while back I posted an article that included a link to a piece by the Wall Street Journal about the dismal numbers on Google Plus users.  In short, it wasn't good.  Google Plus, with all it's brilliant design and engineering minds behind it, seems to be going the same direction Google Wave did, waving goodbye.  For example, when I started on Google Plus, I had over 200 people in my circles in the matter of days.  Now, I have less than 50.  The conversations soon became blog posts where the author never seemed to comment on them past their initial post, and today, the majority of users are, shockingly, engineers.  
The numbers are always iffy when people say "we have X many milloin users" as they can mean almost anything.  Users may be people who signed in once.  It may be actively using it more than once a month.  The thing is, even at it's highest publicized number, Google touts 170 Million people, whereas Facebook has 480+ million active (signing in once a month or more) and 800+ total users.  It dwarfs Google Plus.  Sure, yes, they had a head start, but when two out of every three searches on the internet are done at Google, we're not talking about a "mom and pops" shop trying to take on the "Walmart" of social.
Now there is a lot happening on Google Plus.  This new makeover is going to make MANY people happy.  I for one think it looks beautiful.  But, it still glaring reminds me that all my friends I interact with are not there.  Why is this?  Simple.  To me, I think the majority of people on Google Plus, are Google Fanboys.  They are people who love Google's philosophy, their attitude, what they stand for, and, in many cases, are like Apple Fanboys.  They love their "product", be it the new Google Plus design or the new iPad, and they love it with great passion!
This does however, cause a divide.  I have friends who consistently use Google Plus WAY more than anything else.  Since I don't, I seem to have lost touch with many of them.  The majority using Facebook though, I'm completely in touch with, and happy mind you.  But... I miss my friends on Google Plus.  So from time to time I go chat with them there.  I'm not alone either.  About 80% of the people I speak to tell me that Google Plus is nothing but a "splinter" social network for them.  They have a small concentration of friends, who they keep in touch with sporadically, but it's not their primary social destination.
Google Plus can, and will, grow.  Where though will that growth come from?  As I say many times, if you want to see the future, look into a child's eyes.  Google Plus's greatest potential lies with the youth of the world.  The youth that aren't already immensely ingrained in Facebook.  No, rather, the youth who are utilizing Google for everything else!  In school doing searches for papers and homework.  At work to look up competitor products (I've seen many Best Buy teens do this in front of customers) and in entertainment looking up their favorite celebrities or movies or songs.  These youth are exposed to every layer of Google, from gmail to their Google play store to their Google Plus network, and they are learning their interfaces as "digital muscle memory".
In the end, those of us in the social world will ultimately be in one "eco-sphere" while meanwhile, the younger generation will be within a completely different one.  Not all of them mind you, but a growing and growing portion will be.  Ultimately making Google Plus, more of long division, than anything else.  So while Google Plus may make itself out to be the best thing since sliced bread, the reality is it's dividing the social landscape.    The final question being, "is it for the better?"