D-List Celebrities Are Too Good for Google Plus
Google Plus is quickly becoming a hit among early adopters who want to pretend they're too good for Facebook. Now Google wants to go after the holy manna of social networking—celebs, and their wired fans.
Right now, Google Plus' celebrity power users include William Shatner, 50 Cent and Alyssa Milano. Oh, Ashton Kutcher's has joined too, but he'll join practically anything. These are the sorts of folks you'd imagine would show up at a charity golf tournament to benefit a Beverly Hills no-kill animal shelter—not exactly the crown jewels of the internet. (Lady Gaga, who has professed her love of Google, is apparently nowhere to be found.)
Unfortunately for Google, even those celebrities barely worthy of the name can't be bothered to leave the comfortable inanity Twitter for Google Plus. Take Michael Catherwood, who was the first contestant eliminated from this past season of Dancing with the Stars. Catherwood had "little interest in joining Google+," according to CNN, which apparently just inverviewed the first "celebrity" they could find wandering around outside the studios. Hear that, Google? Michael Catherwood is too good for you!
How could Google boost its celeb quotient? The potential tactics are not appealing: They could make it easier for celebrities to make money on the site, perhaps allowing them to charge for access to their spoinks, or whatever Google Plus calls its status updates. Or they could give celebrities super-special treatment—extra features, fancy badges etc.—sequestering them behind a velvet rope from which they could dole out tidbits of themselves to their slavish fans. They'll probably do the latter, since it's free. Get ready for 7 million screaming Beliebers!
Update: whoops, looks like I was wrong: Lady Gaga does have a Google Plus account.