At the recent Google IO Developer conference, in a sessions entitled ” Designing for the Other Half: Sexy Isn’t Always Pink”, a panel of 5 women technologists discussed how sites like picture based site Pinterest and fashion site Polyvore keep female users engaged. The crowd comprised mostly of male programmers didn’t pay much attention until the conversation turned to Google +.
A male attendee asked the panel why Google+ is used predominately by men. Recent surveys back this up, indicating that Google+ is approximately 70 percent males; Google won’d comment on it’s social network’s demographic breakdown. Competitor Facebook is almost evenly split with 51/49.
The female panelists zeroed in on two main problems in Google+: the user interface and the users. According to Margaret Wallace, a videogame entreprenuer, “It probably just needs a [user interface] overhaul. It’s a UI thing.”
As with all Google products, Google+ was developed in its labs, with extended beta testing by Google employees, who are predominately male. This methodology insures that the product is created and polished based on male input within Google. It’s already slanted when it reaches the marketplace. Jess Lee, founder of Polyvore agreed that male Googlers might be the reason Google+ is so male oriented. Lee sites the ideation and seeding of products as being key to their outcome. Her site was seeded on fashion forums with real people providing input. Google+ was seeded from within the Google, male dominate bubble.
The good news is that sites can shift away from their initial seeding, according to Tracy Chou, an engineer at Pinterest. Whether Google is interested in making Google+ more appealing to women is not something they have publicly stated. They have just shifted Google+ to replace Google Places, with an emphasis on adding social to local search. The importance of this to local businesses will make it an necessary platform to use to be found in local searches, so user gender and preference may not matter in this case.
