Vic Gundotra, Google's Social Chief, Explains What Google+ Is (But Not Why To Use It)

AUSTIN, Texas -- Google+ has been called a "ghost town," a "little version of Facebook" and "dead" since its launch last year. Users have continually questioned what it is and why they would want to use it.

Google's senior vice president of social business, Vic Gundotra, attempted to rebut critics' claims during a panel at South by Southwest on Friday and defended Google+ against allegations that users are fleeing a stagnant service. Traffic has declined more than 30 percent in the past four months, according to one estimate.

To hear Gundotra tell it, Google+ is a thriving social service that allows Google to better serve its users by personalizing their experiences on its numerous products, from Gmail to YouTube.

Asked to explain what Google+ is exactly, Gundotra answered, "At its simplest level, Google+ is a social layer across all of Google's services."

Gundotra described Google+ as intimately intertwined with the whole of the Google experience, rather than an independent, standalone product. Google+ is Google, according to Gundotra.

"You can think of Google+ as Google 2.0. It's the next generation of Google," Gundotra said. "The old Google was siloed; your identity and how you share with your family was different across each product." He added, "In the new version of Google, we know your name, we understand your circles and we make every service better."

To "make every service better," Google seeks to pull in even more information about its users -- specifically, who they're friends with and whose opinions they trust -- and break down barriers between its products so the company can use data gathered on one service, such as Google+, to customize a user's experience on another site, such as YouTube.

"There are some things Google could have done better," Gundotra said. "While we’ve organized the world’s pages and information, we asked ourselves, What if Google did more than understand pages but understood people? What if we could become an engine not just for information but really understood individuals? It would unlock all sorts of scenarios."

Despite mounting a vigorous defense of Google+, Gundotra failed to answer in any depth why users would want to use Google+ instead of (or even in addition to) competing social sites. So far, users don't seem to find Google+ all that compelling: The Wall Street Journal notes that, according to comScore, "[v]isitors using personal computers spent an average of about three minutes a month on Google+ between September and January, versus six to seven hours on Facebook each month over the same period."

The closest Gundotra came to an explanation was to say that using Google+ would improve an individuals’ experience on Google and deliver more personalized ads. The latter could be seen as benefiting Google more than the user, however. He also briefly noted that the ads on Google+ are less intrusive than those of its competitors and its privacy policies more respectful.

"The idea that Google could know your name and the people that matter in your life is important. It's amazing how much better Google can be if we even know the tiniest bit about you about you," Gundotra said.

Gundotra shared statistics that he argued show Google+ is bustling with activity. Yet a closer look at the numbers reveals some tricky accounting. Gundotra said that Google+ has 100 million users who return to the site monthly and 50 million who return daily. But those users aren't necessarily checking Google+. Those figures include users signed in to a Google+ account who are using any one of Google's socially-enhanced services, such as search or YouTube.

His other message to Google+ critics: You might be using it wrong.

"Make sure you're using it correctly," Gundotra said, when asked what he'd tell columnists who argue Google+ is empty.

CORRECTION: This story was updated to clarify that Google's active user metric measures individuals who are signed in to Google+ and have used any of the company's socially-enhanced sites, which include search and YouTube, among others.

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Comments

[OmniFeeds]

03:08 PM on 03/17/2012

The fundamental strategic error Google made was not clearly answering two essential questions:
1) where do we compete
2) how do we compete

Even the exec doesn't know why people use G+, then perhaps, he and the rest of the management have no idea how to compete. Facebook has provides users both psychological value and functional value. Does Google+ provides the same values? In terms of functional value, Google+ lacks the large user base and therefore can't fulfill the sole purpose of social network: social networking. In terms of psychological values, Facebook is very good at branding itself and yet Google is just not very good at marketing.

Modern enterprises formulate its strategies surrounding its core competencies. Facebook's core competency is its large user base and its first-comer advantage. Google's core competency is its ability to innovate and provide meaningful and productive solutions to users on everyday problems. If Google competes in the wrong field while lacking strengths in that particular area, it merely spells its certain failure.

I agree with one of the former Google director of engineering: Google is no longer an innovation, it is a conglomerate with sole focus on revenue.

[BishopStars]

09:18 PM on 03/12/2012

It's not just online tracking we have to worry about, now Google will be tracking you offline as well.

Prism Skylabs Showcases Integration With Google+, YouTube and Picasa at SXSW
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/prism-skylabs-showcases-integration-with-google-youtube-and-picasa-at-sxsw-2012-03-11

Surveillance Video Becomes a Tool for Studying Customers
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39552/


"We already have an internet that specifically targets users with ads by knowing both who they are and what they are looking at. This would be simply an extension of that into the brick and mortar world of retail."


"It's like Google Analytics for the real world,"

[BurningStarz]

12:08 AM on 03/12/2012

Those who try to use G+ as Facebook didnt get the point. Both are very different. Not the same communities, not the same use and topic.
Actually Facebook looks like more as a playground for kids.
Those who complain about G+ is dead should ask themselve some questions, we all started the same way, knowing nobody there, but some of my FB friends and family came on G+ and I met new interesting people. But some people use social network but don't know how to socialize and get in touch with new people...
Those who says it sux...well most of the idea google brings on the table were integrated to FB...also you have a better control on your privacy and you can video chat with 10 friends at same time without installing a plug...FB clearly failed on that feature. And this is one of the favorite feature on G+.

[OH canada]

12:41 AM on 03/12/2012

mr expert here with his 5 fans, you sure know a lot about socializing online don't ya LOL

[BurningStarz]

12:45 AM on 03/12/2012

I'm new and don't come often to the Huff but I didn't know it's a social network here...so your comment is irrelevant, bye bye!

[DarenTx]

10:35 PM on 03/11/2012

I like my privacy just as much as the next guy. But I am a little baffled why everyone is so concerned that Google wants to know as much about you as Facebook.

So, they take the stuff I willingly posted to the internet and analyze it to deliver more relevant ads. They also take the stuff I posted to the internet and include it in MY search results.. How is that invading my privacy again? I must be missing the part where I get screwed.

[Rendy Bee Mulyono]

10:03 PM on 03/11/2012

Problem is: many don't want this single Google Blanket over everything else. Many don't want customized "search" based on our very private lives, which no doubt is just Google's way of probing our privacy and habits, to later be mined for Ad placement. Why can't google just be google, google doc as google doc, map as map.

[ihavequestions]

02:03 AM on 03/12/2012

You can use google anonymously.

[Pucker]

09:58 PM on 03/11/2012

People say Microsoft is evil, but I'd go back to that old model any day. I'd rather pay $100 for software every few years, rather then hand over all my personal data so I get it for "free".

Remember -- if the product is free then YOU are the product.

With Google WE ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER. Advertisers are the customer. We are the cattle.

[UniqueSense]

01:56 AM on 03/13/2012

I've never heard of it put this way but you nailed what has always irked me about Google. As much as they "seem" to try to be user friendly it can't be farther from it compared to what Microsoft seems to accomplish with its products. Now I clearly understand why that is. The simplest thing they've ever really done to make life easier is the search engine. Other than that it seems like you're jumping through hoops to learn to use their products, like a seal would making you jump out of water. I feel like for a company as huge as Google employed with supposedly one of the most happiest and creative techs, that their products wouldn't feel as if its always in beta mode even after the fact.

[Serguei Popovski]

09:33 PM on 03/11/2012

It works for me, I use it daily. Love it.

[BurningStarz]

11:42 PM on 03/11/2012

same

[Joseph Piazza]

09:06 PM on 03/11/2012

I was a fan of Google for many years, but now it is becoming way too intrusive. It really bugs me how if I search for something naughty late at night, the next day I am getting ads for similar websites or products while reading my local newspaper online. So much for privacy.

I wonder if Google or Facebook already have access to everything on our computers, including private pictures, letters, financial documents, etc. It wouldn't surprise me.

[BurningStarz]

11:42 PM on 03/11/2012

do as everyone else, use adblock

[Damn Strange]

09:01 PM on 03/11/2012

Google+ is Google's platform to set up the Google channel. Facebook, Microsoft Live, Yahoo etc are all passing laws favorable to themselves and destructive to entrepreneurs. They are trying to corner the web, turn it into state regulated & censored channels like TV - their clouds, their conditions that only those who can buy senators can afford to abide by - but the rich get exceptions no one else does, no privacy, no rights, no freedom. Dumb. Wrong.

[saythisword]

08:48 PM on 03/11/2012

1. I LIKED it to be siloed.
2. Since Google decided to gut all the functionality I cared about in Google Reader in the hopes of promoting G+, they guaranteed I will never use G+.

[JBS]

08:36 PM on 03/11/2012

Google+ is no big deal. Just leave the page blank and ignore it.

The big problem is that along with the recent change in privacy policy they've also reinstated google instant & auto-complete with no way to turn them off.

[ihavequestions]

02:06 AM on 03/12/2012

Turn off Google Instant here:
https://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en
You can also turn off personalized search results.

[Jon Blanton]

08:21 PM on 03/11/2012

It's called network effect. If Google+ had come few years before Facebook, then all these people complaining against G+ would have been cribbing against Facebook. Facebook was horrible when it started, people were anyway signing up to see what the big deal was, and that created the network effect. It wasn't its great quality. Now it may be better, but papers on networking effect demonstrate that even inferior products will do better because of the positive feedback.

[Robert Leadley]

08:05 PM on 03/11/2012

I quickly deleted Google+ after my Google enabled samsung smartphone independently asked me to upload ALL photos from my samsung after I had deleted the app from said phone. NOT okay.

[ihavequestions]

02:06 AM on 03/12/2012

You can turn off instant upload in your Android settings.

[LesterH]

08:01 PM on 03/11/2012

I opened a Google+ account several months ago. First off, I couldn't figure it out. Secondly, NOBODY was using it. Then, when I tried to delete it, it was nearly impossible to do so. In fact, I had to write to Google and INSIST that they delete my account since the instructions they sent did not match anything they said. It was a crappy experience. Not. Worth. Your. Time.

[ihavequestions]

02:07 AM on 03/12/2012

Go to https://www.google.com/settings/?ref=home to delete your google account.

[Cheryl Birch]

07:40 PM on 03/11/2012

This explanation just makes me even more irritated with Google+ and essentially all other Google products. They need to stop mining my search history and start delivering the emails I never received on my horrible Gmail account.

[ihavequestions]

02:08 AM on 03/12/2012

You can turn off personalized search.