Google+ Touchdown August 08, 2012
Looks like Football Season will arrive hand-in-hand with Google+ Season this year...
Google+ is bringing its Hangout video chats to the NFL’s Fantasy Football League, with a new Hangout button integrated onto each page. The Hangout button will launch you into a group video chat mode filled with game-worthy trash-talking in real time with the rest of your Fantasy League. Users will have the option to “hangout” during drafts, when trading players, and also while watching the game, so you never miss your friends’ priceless expressions when you surprise them with your winning play or an opportunity to spit some fighting words.
This is an exciting step for the still struggling Google+, as it is the first time Hangouts will be directly integrated onto a non-Google website. By teaming up with the Fantasy Football League, Google+ is utilizing this new association with the hugely successful NFL as a strategy to break into a large niche market. Google+ can now only hope that loyal NFL fans will ultimately become a foundation of loyal Google+ supporters. If this NFL-Google+ alliance is successful, many more companies may follow suit with a Google+ hangout integration, giving Google+ an even more extensive market and variety of niches to pool for new users and give the struggling social network the take-off it needs. It's hard to say whether encouraging more activity on Google+ via integration with an outside, well-established website will be effective at this point, but there is definitely great potential for Google+ hangout integration on many more platforms. From a broader expanse of sports online to official news sites to cooking blogs, hangouts could be a new trend on the world wide web and Google+’s big break could be right around the corner. It seems like a "Hail Mary" play, which may lead to the touchdown Google+ is looking for, but what happens if they fumble?
Do you think Google+ will come out on top with this new strategy? Would you become a loyal Google+ fan if hangouts were integrated on to your favorite sites?
For more information: http://mashable.com/2012/08/01/google-hangouts-nfl-fantasy-football-leagues/
