I wish both Google and Microsoft would understand that you can't force change down users' throats. It needs to come naturally. They need to want it, and have it grow organically.
Sure, forcing them will definitely bring you bigger "adoption" (for lack of a better word) faster, but it will also build up a lot of resentment, potentially negating any advantage you might have from ramming the change through, in the long run.
A lot of people didn't understand Twitter in the first 3+ years, but it still managed to grow organically, because people wanted to join it over the years. Google tried to push Google+ to its 1 billion users within 2 years, with seemingly very little advantage for the users. What did they expect?
Same for Microsoft when it comes to pushing Metro to PC users who have been perfectly happy with their PC interface, but Microsoft wanted to force them to use a tablet interface on a PC. Why? Because Microsoft said so, and because they would get to flash "bigger numbers" to developers for "Metro users". The actual experience of the user on a desktop was barely a distant concern.
If you're a big corporation, and you can't grow a new business organically, then tough luck. Maybe you shouldn't be in that market then.
I remember reading a lot of Reddit comments initially like "are you surprised they're doing this?", and I agree they are condescending, because people saying that usually want to:
1) show how smart they are, because they already knew that, and perhaps you didn't
2) try to imply that it's "no big deal", since it's been happening for some time, and supposedly because of that you shouldn't be angry about it now.
I disagree with both views, because:
1) most people weren't in fact aware that the NSA was spying on every single person on the planet, guilty of something or not, and also most people (or rather security engineers) weren't aware that NSA is trying to actively attack US companies in order to spy on their users, and even tap the Internet cables to get all plaintext data.
2) most of this stuff has been happening under secrecy (it is a spy agency after all), so just because it's been happening under secrecy for decades, doesn't mean we shouldn't be outraged that we find out about it only now. If anything we should be more outraged, because it's been happening for so long, without the population being aware of it, and giving their consent for it (especially on the part about even innocents being spied upon to "catch the terrorists" - which is already proven to not be the only reason NSA spies on everyone)
Sure, forcing them will definitely bring you bigger "adoption" (for lack of a better word) faster, but it will also build up a lot of resentment, potentially negating any advantage you might have from ramming the change through, in the long run.
A lot of people didn't understand Twitter in the first 3+ years, but it still managed to grow organically, because people wanted to join it over the years. Google tried to push Google+ to its 1 billion users within 2 years, with seemingly very little advantage for the users. What did they expect?
Same for Microsoft when it comes to pushing Metro to PC users who have been perfectly happy with their PC interface, but Microsoft wanted to force them to use a tablet interface on a PC. Why? Because Microsoft said so, and because they would get to flash "bigger numbers" to developers for "Metro users". The actual experience of the user on a desktop was barely a distant concern.
If you're a big corporation, and you can't grow a new business organically, then tough luck. Maybe you shouldn't be in that market then.