MySpace Tom offers Google+ advice

Tom Anderson, the guy most of us know as the smiling fella who was automatically your friend on MySpace, has issued some tips for Google on how to make G+ a success.

Anderson, who co-founded MySpace and was the long-time president in the site's glory days, reckons there are five things Google can do now to help its latest Facebook rival along the way.

In a column called "Five things I learned from running MySpace that can help Google+" on the TechCrunch website, default Tom says their are several things the Google+ team can do immediately.

Get the influencers on board

He says Google should "start seriously courting the journalists, tastemakers, and celebrities that are using and/or pontificating about G+... and have a personal relationship with them."

Secondly Anderson says Google needs to be wary of the outstanding privacy issues that has seen Google+ users already share data they did not intend to.

He says Google must "exhaustively think through the privacy issues and tie up any loose/ends that G+ has on this front. I'd make sure that people understand how their posts can be shared/reshared, and how their other Google accounts (profile, Gmail, docs) and content (Youtube, Picasa) are connected to G+."

Analytical minds and project visionaries

Beyond that, Tom says that Google must have its best analytical minds focused on identifying the common user. Google+ currently has 20m users and that user data must be mined like gold, he says.

He also recommends that Google hires the best project visionaries in the world who have a track record in "leading people to internet nirvana" in order to perfect the site and the service that it offers.

One leader to rule them all

Finally he says the site really needs one strong leader that everything goes through, a la Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Steve Jobs at Apple.

"Making a website is similar to making a movie—hundreds of people work on it, one person makes the final decision, and they make them every minute of the day," he adds.

"That person has got to bring it all together and make decisions based on his gut and understanding of the overall company's mission. No that leader won't always get it right, but the clarity achieved and time saved is crucial"

Anderson's TechCrunch column is a fabulous read that is really worth checking out, and hopefully a few folks at Google will take a look too.

Via TechCrunch