Google+ is like a remote tropical island. Glorious white sand, perfect clear waves lapping against the shore… and yet, to ships sailing by, seemingly deserted. While I probably wouldn’t include myself in the tribes of natives that seem to have really embedded themselves at home on the platform, I do feel it’s a tool with some smart design behind it — and an initiative that’s working really hard to create a meaningful role in people’s everyday lives.

But while I’m a firm believer that the success of Google+ (neé Emerald Sea) is about more than just creating a Facebook-like newsstream product, I do believe there’s a factor here shackling the potential growth of this feature. And it’s the factor that causes G+ to be an almost literally separated and isolated entity. Read more »