And yet, buzz and wave had dismal uptake, whereas G+ appears to be very successful by any metric.
Also, how does "fair" play into anything?
I missed the part where they promoted buzz and wave with a giant animated arrow on the google homepage
I actually agree that it's not a fair comparison, but they did make Buzz an opt-out component of Gmail. No, it's not an arrow on their front page, but what you seem to be getting at is also not completely correct.
I'm perhaps a perfect example ... I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account at all. But I did sign up for G+ in July and do occasionally use it.