AfterDawn: News

Google+ is here to stay, says new social media boss

New Google head of social media Dave Besbris has denounced rumors that Google+ could be getting downsized in light of the abrupt departure of former boss Vic Gundotra.

"We're the largest we've ever been," Besbris said. "We're actually very happy with the progress of Google+, [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. The company is behind it."



The interview is longer and has some nice tidbits, but mainly, Besbris has made it clear that there are "pre-conceived notions" about the social network that Google is fighting to remove. In the past, Google forced users to sign up for Google+ just to be able to access more important services (like Gmail, Drive, etc) but now "I only want people to use the software when they want to use the software," added Besbris.

Google+ remains a requirement for commenting on YouTube videos, but you no longer need to have your real name attached to the account. Using Hangouts also does not require Google+ anymore.

Source:
Ars

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Oct 2014 18:40

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• 5 comments

• SProdigy

  Google+ is an extortion scheme by Google to get you to sign up for the service. You can barely do anything on YouTube without a Google+ account and if you want your picture next to your blog article on a search, you need to use Google+ for that too.

  14.10.2014 12:35 #1

• adre02

  Originally posted by SProdigy: Google+ is an extortion scheme by Google to get you to sign up for the service. You can barely do anything on YouTube without a Google+ account and if you want your picture next to your blog article on a search, you need to use Google+ for that too. Have you ever truly been extorted? This is far from that.
  

  This is superman

  15.10.2014 00:15 #2

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by adre02: Originally posted by SProdigy: Google+ is an extortion scheme by Google to get you to sign up for the service. You can barely do anything on YouTube without a Google+ account and if you want your picture next to your blog article on a search, you need to use Google+ for that too. Have you ever truly been extorted? This is far from that. LOL it's an expression. You're basically forced to use Google+ in order to benefit from any of Google's other services. It's akin to Microsoft trying to brand everything with Skype now.

  15.10.2014 11:22 #3

• ThePastor

  Or yahoo forcing yahoo mail on me for using messenger... or Microsoft forcing Live mail on me for using a win8 machine... or ... well, you get the picture.
  
  If you don't like Google + don't use it. I'm sure Facebook would love to have you back.
  

  Oh, Im sorry... Did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?

  15.10.2014 13:16 #4

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by ThePastor: Or yahoo forcing yahoo mail on me for using messenger... or Microsoft forcing Live mail on me for using a win8 machine... or ... well, you get the picture.
  
  If you don't like Google + don't use it. I'm sure Facebook would love to have you back. It's not my personal use that's in question. I'm a web developer and in order to practically use YouTube for a client, you have to create a Google+ page for them... but don't confuse that with a Google+ profile which is different. Connect to the wrong one and you're against the Google+ TOS. Connect the wrong one and you end up creating/deleting several times... you have to have a profile first in order to create a page as well. It's a cluster.
  
  For SEO, if you want your name and picture next to a blog article you write, the blogger has to have a Google+ profile and that has to be connected to your blog/website.

  15.10.2014 13:25 #5