With Vic Gundotra leaving Google earlier in the year, many thought that
Google+ would die because of his departure. However, it appears that Google is satisfied with the progress that its social media software has made. New Head of Social Media David Besbris, who was a vice president of engineering, says that he thinks Google is in social media for the long haul.
In an interview with
Recode, Besbris touched on several trouble points of the service as well as some of the decisions not to do things like ads on Google+. For Besbris, the priority of Google+ in the the social division is high, right up there with Photos and Hangouts.
"We're actually very happy with the progress of Google+, [CEO Larry Page] said this at the time that Vic transitioned that he's going to continue working on building this stuff, that he's very happy with it," said Besbris. "The company is behind it. I have no idea where these rumors come from, to be honest with you."
However, Besbris acknowledges that people might have the wrong idea about Google+. It isn't that Google is attempting to compete with another social media platform, such as Facebook. Instead, it invested in social media because it "wants to make users happy" since there is software "that's scratching some itches." Adding that it was the way Google has always done things, Besbris says that Google thought they had a different way they could solve core usage issues.
On the topic of ads, Besbris says that one of the reasons that Google+ lacks them is because the company feels it would ruin the experience. If ads were used, they would be done in a beneficial way that is in context to what a user is doing. However, he doesn't rule out adding them in the future. Currently, there isn't any value in them in his opinion, but that could change in the future.
While Besbris didn't say how many users Google+ has, he did say that then Google+ app is "used by hundreds of millions of users." The company is still trying to understand how people are using the social media service, an understanding that it will use to better explain the service to new users coming in. Google has already used some of its knowledge to address some items, such as changing the sign-up procedures.
"I only want people to use the software when they want to use the software," said Besbris.
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