Knowing over 85% who are out on the internet for more than a few hours each day are use Google+ as their main source of quality content and conversation, I would take it they deal with the menacing high volumes of G+ Notification when they +1 or comment on a G+ post. This issue would explain why many people who have used Google+ have left the platform.
Are Dealing with Google+ Notification Overload?
I have written about Google+ Notifications before. There have been others who mention how they deal with Notifications, but none seem to catch the point that Google may need to revisit the Google+ notification situation.
The G+ Notification situation I am referring to has to do with the hundreds of notification a user will receive for making a comment, or clicking on +1 button of a post that gains immediate popularity.
For most of us this means hundreds of notification will be sent to the user’s desktops or phones…or both. This happens each time there is a comment.
Add Mobile to the Mix
Now, when you add into the mix the G+ and Gmail Mobile app the notification buzzers will drive you batty.
This onslaught of emails and notifications happens to me several times a day. It is frustrating since I, like many of you, like to keep my emails and notifications current.
I can only image what a newbie to Google+ is thinking when they make a comment on a compelling post and then start getting bombarded with all the notifications of the other comments being made. Actually, this issue has been discussed a few times at the monthly Dallas Plussers Network Sharing Forum where I hear most people are just turning off notifications.
Certainly, a goal for social networking is to encourage interaction and Google+ certainly has proved to be the place for quality conversations. More so than the other platforms where the interaction is from a questionable source.
In order to know there is a conversation there needs to be notifications. But do there need to be a notification sent each time someone hit’s the +1 or comments?
However, the question now is..when is enough enough?
I asked 25 members of the Dallas Plussers Network what they do when this happens. There are some interesting remarks.
- The most interesting remark came from 18 of the 25 Plussers who use Google+ on average 4 hours each day. Their remark had to do with them setting a number or quantity of notification they will tolerate be generated from a particular post before they MUTE the post. This means is once they hit the MUTE button they will not get any further notifications from that post.
- The number or quantity of notifications ranged from 12 to 25 notifications. Some were as low as 5 and another was around 50, but over all 20 notifications and/or emails from a post was the trigger point for these Plussers to stop the avalanche of comments.
- The remainder of the Plussers I talked to took more severe action and changed their Google+ Notifications settings to cut off receiving notifications. This is a drastic measure to take, however, this is an indication of what many Plussers are doing to manage the high volumes of notifications.
Where is Google?
Not much else has been written on how to manage Google+ Notifications. It would seem Google would want to look to finding a solution or if they have developed one let users know. There is enough to learn about Google+ as it is to have the notifications be something that cannot be controlled could result in more people becoming not interested in using Google+..or only using it as a billboard.
Hope there is something in the works to solve this issue. Until there is, let me know how I can help.
