A metaphor to understand Google+

When a big product is pushed by a big company, it sometimes captures the imagination of tech pundits. And when that happens, we obsess over how to best describe and understand it, mentally playing with new concepts and ideas for days on end, trying to make sense of how they relate to the old ones (until finally the dust settles and we realize we were all wrong).

And with this, I’m posting my third article about Google+ in a week, trying to find an easy way to explain how the service is different from existing social networks.
Here’s what I came up with (in graphical form for your easy consumption):

I think there is some truth to this view. But as always, I could be completely wrong (actually I probably am), and I’d be happy to hear you explain to me why that is in the comments!

July 6th, 2011