One of the more recognizable images in relation to social networking has to be the Twitter Fail Whale. It’s become so commonplace — is that a knock on Twitter? — the image has even been made into a tattoo. The image of the whale being carried away by birds, created by artist Yiying Lu, offers a nice distraction when Twitter chokes on itself. With that in mind, what would a Google + fail whale image look like, especially if it was designed by Lu’s talented hand?
Thanks to Guy Kawasaki’s request, we now know how such an image would look. Over at Lu’s Google Plus account, Kawasaki and Lu have been trading posts that feature Lu’s idea of what a Google + fail whale should look like. The idea for a Google + fail whale came to Kawasaki when trying to post a comment to G+, and so, he requested Lu’s assistance.
The talented artist came up with a few ideas, and while it’s unknown whether Google would use such creations, the results are pretty fantastic.
The responses to Lu’s kick-ass work has been largely positive, which should be even more motivation for Google to incorporate her work. There is a point to be made, however, about her Google Plus Fail work is similar to the Twitter Fail Whale, something the Google Plus comments reflect:
Robert Vartanov – Naah, reminds me too much of twitter. Needs something more googly 🙂 Sharp, clean and simple.
And then there’s there’s the idea that Google Plus will be more stable than Twitter anyway:
Håvard Kvinnesland – Scaled to approx. 10 000 000 users in under 2 weeks WO a fail yet.. won’t be seeing it too often anyways 🙂
Whatever the case, Lu’s talent is impossible to deny. Whether it’s the Google Plus Fail Butterflies or something completely different, incorporating Lu’s work into Google Plus come across as an easy choice — that is, get it done.
Of the four images listed, if you had to pick one to represent a Google Plus failure, which one would it be?